Warning - Harrisons Power Treats

Merlee · Sep 9, 2013

A member on another forum Just lost 2 birds. The owner is convinced the deaths are caused by Harrisons Power Treats that she just received. I am just giving you a heads up just as a precaution.

1 pound bag
Lot 986LC
UPC 086011520010
Use by August 2014

If you have already opened up a bag and nothing has happened then that's awesome and it may just be this particular shipment went sour. Please post up if you have one of these.

Mayden · Sep 9, 2013

Merlee said:
A member on another forum Just lost 2 birds. The owner is convinced the deaths are caused by Harrisons Power Treats that she just received. I am just giving you a heads up just as a precaution.

1 pound bag
Lot 986LC
UPC 086011520010
Use by August 2014

If you have already opened up a bag and nothing has happened then that's awesome and it may just be this particular shipment went sour. Please post up if you have one of these.

Could you please post what the other owner said about their birds deaths and why they are convinced it's the harrissons?

Merlee · Sep 9, 2013

At this point, nothing has been proven so I just posted this as a precaution. As more information is given I will share it. I do not think I can post a link because it is on another forum.

Mayden · Sep 9, 2013

Merlee said:
At this point, nothing has been proven so I just posted this as a precaution. As more information is given I will share it. I do not think I can post a link because it is on another forum.

Quote the post instead?
I'd like to know their reasoning behind why they think it's the birdy bread. I'm all for airing precaution, but I'd like to know why.

Featheredsamurai · Sep 9, 2013

Yes please quote her text, you can copy and past the text without giving away which forum it's from.

Has she contacted Harrison's!? It's important she does incase they need to do a recall.

Also than you for the warning, always better to be safe than sorry. I was actually thinking of buying power treats for Kenji's foraging a toys, I'll stay away until more info is found.

Mayden · Sep 9, 2013

Copperarabian said:
Yes please quote her text, you can copy and past the text without giving away which forum it's from.

Has she contacted Harrison's!? It's important she does incase they need to do a recall.

Also than you for the warning, always better to be safe than sorry. I was actually thinking of buying power treats for Kenji's foraging a toys, I'll stay away until more info is found.

That's what I was thinking, I know Goldenfeast has recently had a recall too. Would like to know more about the ins and outs of what happened.

Merlee · Sep 9, 2013

I would have copied and pasted but I have been having problems with my computer ever since IE was downloaded on my computer or some file is not working properly. I can tell you it is on a macaw forum if you want to read it. You may be able to Google it.

JerseyWendy · Sep 9, 2013

THIS was the original post:

I am not ok, I will never be ok again, but I want to post what happened because I am wondering if I got a bad batch of Harrison's food. I woke up with 4 amazing macaws, and now I go to sleep with 2. SKye started vomitting Harrisons food up, and aspirated and died at the ER hospital. Devastated I came home to find Chloee dead on the floor with Vomit of Harrisons food all around her and on my chair that she likes to perch on and it seems that she as well aspirated and than hit the floor. I couldn't even be here for her because I was at the ER with Skye I just want to die. It hurts so bad to love and lose the way I just did. They ate nothing else other than their Harrisons. It was bad enough to lose Skye, now my other snuggle bird who sleep on my pillow every single day is gone. I just want to wake up from this nightmare and go back. I fed the birds the new batch of food they sent me from the shipment. Skye and Chloee ate the Power treats. I don't know know what the hell happened. Luckily the other 2 birds did not vomit so I am not sure if they ate the power treats and I am not going to take a chance with anything Harrisons anymore. I am so numb and I know that I never want to love ever again. I don't even want to live right now the pain is so bad. Be careful with the products. The tears are coming again, both of Sunny's buddies are gone. I guess I have to try to go on. I will never be the same again.

MonicaMc · Sep 9, 2013

Seems they have tried to contact Harrison's.... also read something about Shea lotion being used on the birds... so it's possible that the Harrison's was not the cause at all.... especially since there were four macaws and now there are only two... sounds like the Shea may have been used on just the two that died.

Could be reading it wrong... also mentioned about only feeding the treats to two of the birds and not the other two.

Hopefully, the owner finds what caused the death of their birds... and if it was Harrison's Power Treats, I hope the company is willing to compensate the owner somehow.

Merlee · Sep 9, 2013

Thanks Wendy. There is another thread the owner started saying she and a friend examined the treats. This friend has allergies to mold and got sick smelling the bag.

I do not know what to believe, but until the cause is found I wanted to warn those who use this product. For me to say nothing and somebody's bird gets ill which I could have prevented, I would have a hard time living with that.

Edit: I was able to copy and paste what the owner posted today:

"Well my friend and I inspected the power treats and she has a mold mildew allergy and she smelled it and it made her sick. We opened the other bag of food and it smells funky. It does not smell like the food that you guys sent me. All I know is that my totally perfectly healthy Chloee ate these treats and died the same way Skye did. I can understand about questioning with Skye as he had issues, but there was NOTHING wrong with Cholee and she vomitted the same food up that Skye did and died by aspirating on it the same way Skye did. My vet said the same thing as my suspicions are. I will never feed this food again. I only came here to share with you what happened. SO feel free to take a chance and feed whatever you want. I lost 2 of my babies who were overall fine. There was nothing else they ingested, my friend can come here here and post and witness to that as she was here all day. The 2 that ate the treats died within hours of each other. The 2 that didn't eat the treats are still here with me. I need to seriously step back from this and try to heal and try to find someway to move on in my life without crying and missing them every second of every day. I tried to do 2 posts to show the food that they ate that they died after separately so everyone would see it. This bad I opened yesterday and it smells funny, here is the lot number. View attachment 3266 Thank you for the concern, I need to seriously go see a grief counselor or something as this is tearing me up inside"

Yes the owner did use some sort of lotion for plucking and fed her bird the treats. BUT until the cause is definitely known, I urge caution anyway.

Mayden · Sep 9, 2013

Can understand that.

However:

Harrissons also does come with a warning on the back of each bag.
"Smell the product for freshness prior to feeding"

as they do not use preservatives; they try their very best to ensure that the food arrives to you in top notch condition, but some bags may be pierced, or wrongly stored, etc causing mould to grow etc.

Sounds to me that the food was bad - either fault with harrissons or the owner, and the birds ingested the mould. I doubt it's a "bad batch" but an accident, it's good for harrissons to be made aware of it anyway.

When in doubt, put it to your snout! Before feeding any food, you should always check the smell/sight of it, is it normal? Fungi, mould, etc, all give off pretty nasty smells that are easy to notice. That and the sight of fungi means bin it.

She must be absolute devestated - but these are things you need to be wary of when feeding. I smacked my partner around the head with a bag once for leaving a bag opened over night, repeatedly. I binned that batch to be safe and ordered more.

I'm sorry for that ladys loss, but I don't appreciate her bashing an entire company for what boils down to her not following feeding instructions - bad batch or not, if she had checked the food prior to feeding, she probably would have realised something was wrong. But hindsight is a wonderful thing.

I just don't want other people being terrified of feeding Harrissons when this is an isolated incident, they are a good company and much healthier than a lot of brands out there but they all have their pros and cons and Harrissons is both with the fact they don't use preservatives.

I hope she manages to heal her heart. Such tragic loss.

Mayden · Sep 9, 2013

Merlee said:
Thanks Wendy. There is another thread the owner started saying she and a friend examined the treats. This friend has allergies to mold and got sick smelling the bag.

I do not know what to believe, but until the cause is found I wanted to warn those who use this product. For me to say nothing and somebody's bird gets ill which I could have prevented, I would have a hard time living with that.

Edit: I was able to copy and paste what the owner posted today:

"Well my friend and I inspected the power treats and she has a mold mildew allergy and she smelled it and it made her sick. We opened the other bag of food and it smells funky. It does not smell like the food that you guys sent me. All I know is that my totally perfectly healthy Chloee ate these treats and died the same way Skye did. I can understand about questioning with Skye as he had issues, but there was NOTHING wrong with Cholee and she vomitted the same food up that Skye did and died by aspirating on it the same way Skye did. My vet said the same thing as my suspicions are. I will never feed this food again. I only came here to share with you what happened. SO feel free to take a chance and feed whatever you want. I lost 2 of my babies who were overall fine. There was nothing else they ingested, my friend can come here here and post and witness to that as she was here all day. The 2 that ate the treats died within hours of each other. The 2 that didn't eat the treats are still here with me. I need to seriously step back from this and try to heal and try to find someway to move on in my life without crying and missing them every second of every day. I tried to do 2 posts to show the food that they ate that they died after separately so everyone would see it. This bad I opened yesterday and it smells funny, here is the lot number. View attachment 3266 Thank you for the concern, I need to seriously go see a grief counselor or something as this is tearing me up inside"

Yes the owner did use some sort of lotion for plucking and fed her bird the treats. BUT until the cause is definitely known, I urge caution anyway.

Can you find out more about the lotion she used? Brand, etc? Can look into that from this end and see if there's reported incidents of that causing issues. With plucking sprays and stuff they obviously should be safe to ingest because of preening themselves/others, so I'd put it down to the bad harrissons at the moment.

Merlee · Sep 9, 2013

I agree with you on all points. I don't use the product myself. Just wanted to warn the public and keep them informed of what has happened and to use caution. Many customers take it for granted that their order is a fresh batch and it's safe.

The lotion she was using was Shea Moisture*Raw Shea Chamomile and Argan Oil Baby Healing Lotion which she purchased at Walgreens to help her bird's plucking. This was not developed for bird use obviously. I do not know anything about this product personally. Ha! I was able to copy and paste the ingredients after messing around with it a bit:

Deionized Water , Raw Butyrospermum Parkii Oil (Shea) , Theobroma Cacao Seed Butter (Cacao) , Mangifera Indica (Mango) Seed Butter , Olus Oil , Argania Spinosa Nut Oil (Argan) , Centhera Biennis Oil (Evening Primrose) , Borage Officinalis Oil , Simmondsia Chinensis Oil (Jojoba) , Rosa Rubiginosa Seed Oil (Rosehip) , Tocopherol (Vitamin E) , Boswellia Serrata Oil (Frankincense) , Chamomilla (Anthemis Nobilis) Flower Extract , Myrrh Extract , Lonicera Caprifolium (Honeysuckle) , Lonicera Japonica (HoneySuckle) Flower Extract , * Certified Organic Ingredient

Mayden · Sep 9, 2013

Merlee said:
I agree with you on all points. I don't use the product myself. Just wanted to warn the public and keep them informed of what has happened and to use caution. Many customers take it for granted that their order is a fresh batch and it's safe.

Definitely, I hope this serves as a (horrific) reminder that you need to store food correctly.

For Harrissons (although, those who feed it should be able to find this on the back of every single bag of food) here is what they say.

-Smell the product for freshness prior to feeding.
-Squeeze all air out of the bag and zip it shut at the top.
-If the zip lock gets removed or damaged, fold the top over several times and close with a clip.
-Keep food in original bag. Do not repackage into plastic bags or containers.
-Use contents within 4-6 weeks of opening bag
-Purchase Harrisson's foods only in their original packaging.
-Refrigeration after opening may help maintain freshness.

I highlighted ones I felt were 'most important' regarding freshness, but in all honesty, they're all important. If it's not bagged and sealed by harrissons (or by you afterwards!) you don't know what it is your getting.

Treat your parrot food as you would your raw meats; sealed away for freshness, cold, dark places out of sunlight, check for signs of rotting/spoilage by looking and smelling it. etc - your birds life may just depend on it, as shown here.

Mayden · Sep 9, 2013

Merlee said:
I agree with you on all points. I don't use the product myself. Just wanted to warn the public and keep them informed of what has happened and to use caution. Many customers take it for granted that their order is a fresh batch and it's safe.

The lotion she was using was Shea Moisture*Raw Shea Chamomile and Argan Oil Baby Healing Lotion which she purchased at Walgreens to help her bird's plucking. I do not know anything about this product personally.

Shea Moisture is a human lotion/product (well, brand, but specifically the product she bought...) is their "healing lotion".

If it's not 100% natural (aka, plucked from your organic plant yourself) or is not dedicated to our avian friends, please don't use anything like that on your birds. You do not know how it was manufactured, you may not know the ingredients (they're often more than just what is listed as the 'main ingredients'), and you don't know how it will affect our fids.

I doubt it was the lotion, as she has two healthy birds who were exposed too, but the point still stands. There are dedicated things out there for pluckers that are deemed safe; the target/walmart human alternative just isn't worth the risk.

Mayden · Sep 9, 2013

Anyway, off to bed I must go, 3am here.

I've been very blunt in my posts, but she does have my sympathies.

I really do hope she manages to find some peace. Losing two fids must be absolutely heartbreaking. Especially if she feels responsibility (lotion/food/whatever) then this is probably going to eat at her for a long time. I really hope she forgives herself and heals.

Goodnight all.

Merlee · Sep 9, 2013

Again, I agree.

We won't know anything until a necropsy is completed. The owner has not said anything about doing one either. We'll just have to wait and see.

SoCalWendy · Sep 9, 2013

Being a Harrison's feeder, I am definitely interested in this one, and would like to know what the cause was. Poor thing, from reading her comments, she is so heartbroken. I know how I felt when I found my canary dead on the bottom of his cage, and I was home the whole time he was dying. Everytime I open a new bag of Harrison's I smell it for freshness. I have never had a problem. I hope she finds out of it was in fact Harrison's or the lotion that could have contributed. Thanks for the heads up.

Echo · Sep 9, 2013

Merlee said:
I agree with you on all points. I don't use the product myself. Just wanted to warn the public and keep them informed of what has happened and to use caution. Many customers take it for granted that their order is a fresh batch and it's safe.

The lotion she was using was Shea Moisture*Raw Shea Chamomile and Argan Oil Baby Healing Lotion which she purchased at Walgreens to help her bird's plucking. This was not developed for bird use obviously. I do not know anything about this product personally. Ha! I was able to copy and paste the ingredients after messing around with it a bit:

Deionized Water , Raw Butyrospermum Parkii Oil (Shea) , Theobroma Cacao Seed Butter (Cacao) , Mangifera Indica (Mango) Seed Butter , Olus Oil , Argania Spinosa Nut Oil (Argan) , Centhera Biennis Oil (Evening Primrose) , Borage Officinalis Oil , Simmondsia Chinensis Oil (Jojoba) , Rosa Rubiginosa Seed Oil (Rosehip) , Tocopherol (Vitamin E) , Boswellia Serrata Oil (Frankincense) , Chamomilla (Anthemis Nobilis) Flower Extract , Myrrh Extract , Lonicera Caprifolium (Honeysuckle) , Lonicera Japonica (HoneySuckle) Flower Extract , * Certified Organic Ingredient

Right off the bat, Honeysuckle is toxic!!!!:11: The lotion has Honeysuckle in it!!!

ShellyBorg · Sep 9, 2013

I am seeing mixed info on whether Honeysuckle is poisonous.And even the sites I am see it listed, it is not listing it as a fatal toxin.

Warning - Harrisons Power Treats

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