He ate the COB!

[darth_mint]

We gave Nicky corn on the cob for the first time today. Oh gosh, his reaction...

 

1) What's that strange thing in my food dish? PANIC!!

(runs up side of cage into upper right corner, flattens himself against bars and stares wild-eyed at the corn over one shoulder)

 

2) Hmm, it's not moving. Not so scary after all. Looks like it might be good to play with? (starts plucking out the corn kernels at high speed and throwing them all over the place)

 

3) Oops, I bit into one. Hey, this tastes good! (eats up EVERY SINGLE SHRED of corn plus fibres plus cob! then goes around collecting all the kernels he threw away earlier and eating those too :blink: )

 

I have never heard of birds eating the fibres and the COB before! Is it even digestible? Should I be rushing him to a vet to get his crop pumped out?

[lovemyGreys]

Did he eat much of the cob ? They tend to use the cob more as a shredding toy than really eat it.He will be fine,just try & encourage him to eat the actual corn first next time

[darth_mint]

He ate the whole thing right down to the core - gobbled up all the actual corn kernels first, then ate the cob up like it was a piece of apple. I was shocked! He didn't even drop a scrap. Going to have to look at his poop really closely in the morning :sick:

[judygram]

Oh my what a thing to have to do but somebody has to and you are elected since its your bird, Darth, you can tell us about it but no pics please:sick: :laugh:

[Dave007]

Many parrots of all species will eat things that have absolutely no nutritional value at all. Corn is one of them. The kernals have no value and the cob has no value but to a parrot, they taste great. There's no harm when they eat those things and other things that have no value. In the future they'll be items that have no value at all which a parrot will latch onto. The only way to stop that is by not giving it and in my opinion that's a waste of time. I often give my greys and quakers corn on the cob knowing ahead of time that nothing will be left. The quakers are the true artists in the method of eating corn. There's never anything left because they have the ability to hold on to every bit without dropping anything that they bite into. They look forward to and I'm glad to give it to them. I givr them Zuccini knowing that there's no value but I do know that they'll consider it a special time when I give it to them.

As far as a vet *pumping out* a crop--that's only done when something is actually stuck in the crop. More than likely, it has nothing to do with food. The crop is simply the temporary holding area. The bird eats--the food goes to the crop--the food continues down to the stomach --the digestive juices take over and eventually, the fnal remains gets pushed out of the a*ss to make it's final trip to the bottom of the cage. That's the life cycle of corn on the cob.

I buy large loose chunks of millet spray that have no nutritional value but the birds look forward to those chunks. People say * Oh Godd, millet spray has no value*. Well, next time you go to a pet store and buy honey sticks, look carefully--you'll see the millet embedded in that stick.

 

Post edited by: Dave007, at: 2008/09/02 17:28<br><br>Post edited by: Dave007, at: 2008/09/02 17:32

[Laurie]

Funny story!

I like the way you told it...

[BMustee]

Hahaha, I love the way Dave explains things. He's like Bill Nye but crud!:laugh: