Stinky Poop

[Guest Jocelyn]

Hi guys

Long time! Romeo is doing well, he actually turned into quite the cuddler he loves head scratches, smooches, and beak rubs. He also is extremly talkative and not a screamer (unless he has been jilted for a day ie. we went out after work or something).

But onto the actual point I changed him from Zupreem to Hagen Life Granules and it seems that (two weeks in) his poop smells worse then before? Anyone else notice that with this food? Also it is better then Zupreem right? Because if its not and I can avoid that smell I will lol

[Greywings]

I would call your avian Veterinarian as the smell may indicate a bacterial infection. They may only need a fresh sample of his droppings to determine if that is the case.

Great to hear he is an affectionate guy and you are getting along nicely.

[kins2321@yahoo.com]

Sophie's poop never smells. I am curious though, why did you switch the diet? Zupreems I have heard of, but not the other diet. ( doesn't mean its bad, compare the ingredients). Nancy

[Muse]

Zupreem is high in sugar, the fruit one contains petroleum-based "food colorings" and it contains menadione, a synthetic vitamins proven to cause hemolysis (breaking down of red blood cells), and is cytotoxic (cell-killing) to the liver. I am not familiar with Hagen feeds and cannot find an ingredient list online. It does say on their website that Hagen is higher in fat than other foods.

 

http://www.hagen.com/hari/docu/tropgra1.html

"One of the major differences between Tropican and other products is our significantly higher fat level. When we fed other products to our birds they developed wet, smelly droppings.

 

These products are basically glorified farm pellets and probably are least cost formulated like poultry feed (they actually look like chicken feed). These products have minimal levels of essential fatty acids and amino acids.

 

HARI then decided to increase the caloric density of our formula with more fat, so that the bird would have to eat and drink less. Our guaranteed fat level in the High Performance diet is a minimum 9% but we actually run the fat at 10%. This is about twice the fat found in other pellets. HARI has had no obesity problem but more importantly has no skinny birds either. Other breeders who use diets with the lower fat levels report skinny African Greys and Cockatoos unless they supplement these pellets with oil seeds such as sunflower. Any pellet that has to be supplemented with oil seeds or fruits can hardly be called complete."

 

(My personal take on this is that any company that is saying a pellet is "complete" and disparaging feeding fruits is not making any kind of good impression on me, but YMMV).

 

There are only three pellets I have found that don't have menadione - Harrison's, Goldenfeast Gold'nobles and TOPS (which I have heard may have gone out of business? but this could be just rumor - hard to tell as they are illegal to sell in NC so I don't buy them). I am not overly fond of pellets per se, but we do feed Harrison's in cases of birds needing nutrient dense feeding. We offer Goldn'obles but there is so much fresh food available and they get a varied mix of seeds/nuts/dehydrated fruits & veggies/greens that not much is consumed.

 

I have not yet smelled any bird feces that was foul, however I would recommend a probiotic. We use Benebac here but for birds that like it, we offer Kefir, which is a dairy product however it is 99.8% lactose free (and I am sure of that as I am lactose-intolerant and can drink a huge glass with absolutely no symptoms whatsoever). Megan's lasts stool sample was very high on gram-negative bacteria (not good) so instead of putting her on an antibiotic, our vet recommended Benebac daily. She hated it so I bought some (VERY yummy) 'toddler' yogurt that was low in sugar and mixed it in and she ate it right up. Two weeks later on re-check, her sample was perfect. I always recommend having a fecal checked at the vet whenever there are any significant changes, as bacteria are only one thing than can cause irregularities to fecal samples. It's best to let your vet lay eyes on the sample under a microscope so they can give a definite diagnosis.

[Acappella]

I think to be safe I'd be taking a sample of the droppings to a vets office to check. Dorian has never had stinky poos, until I'm using a steamer to clean them up that is. Then they smell. lol.

[murfchck]

TOPS is still in business. This is the brand that was donated to us and is also the one that caused the sneezing explosion among almost all our birds. I switched them back to the Vegi blend of Zupreem and the sneezing has almost stopped completely. I was very excited to find this totally organic pellet too, lol. Every pellet causes crumbs, but this was more like dust. (and it did not smell nice out of the bag either, not spoiled just nasty)

[Muse]

TOPS is still in business. This is the brand that was donated to us and is also the one that caused the sneezing explosion among almost all our birds. I switched them back to the Vegi blend of Zupreem and the sneezing has almost stopped completely. I was very excited to find this totally organic pellet too, lol. Every pellet causes crumbs, but this was more like dust. (and it did not smell nice out of the bag either, not spoiled just nasty)

 

Thanks for the information. I hope you and your flock are all safe and dry!

[Guest Jocelyn]

Thanks everyone, I switched him back to Zupreme and the smell is gone. I heard the Hagen stuff was better? I am going to look into the premium foods but am having difficulty finding them here in Manitoba.