Can an unweaned baby choke on pellets?

[ProphesizeWithYourPen]

Yoshi will be 6 weeks old in a few days, and he's been eating crushed up pellets for almost a week now. I crushed them with a rolling pin so they were mostly dust. I just crushed up a new batch tonight, but I left the pellets a little larger, and I'm just paranoid he might choke on one. He hasn't had any issues before, as there were larger/normal sized pellets in the previous batch that he would eat just fine. I just get so nervous, seeing him roll it around in his mouth, in between grinding it with his beak. Have you guys ever had anything happen? Or am I just being paranoid?

 

[Ladyhawk]

Yoshi will be 6 weeks old in a few days, and he's been eating crushed up pellets for almost a week now. I crushed them with a rolling pin so they were mostly dust. I just crushed up a new batch tonight, but I left the pellets a little larger, and I'm just paranoid he might choke on one. He hasn't had any issues before, as there were larger/normal sized pellets in the previous batch that he would eat just fine. I just get so nervous, seeing him roll it around in his mouth, in between grinding it with his beak. Have you guys ever had anything happen? Or am I just being paranoid?

I've never seen a parrot choke. I suppose it's possible, but I've never seen it. I've seen babies aspirate a tiny bit of formula. Usually, they need to cough and it amounts to nothing as long as it isn't a large amount. That's the closest thing to choking I've ever seen in a parrot.

I've also seen babies do the feeding response while holding solid food in their beaks and then seem to wonder why the food didn't magically travel into their crops. XD

You're doing the same thing I am: crushing pellets. It's working well for Kizzy. Her beak isn't strong enough to crush the pellets, so I'm crumbling them up. I'd keep Yoshi's small, anyway, just to be safe. Why not? As an aside, make sure he knows how to drink water. I used chicken starter crumbles as part of Kizzy's hand-feeding formula and I was shocked at how much they expanded in water. A bird eating dry pellets / crumbles will be a thirsty bird. I've seen Kizzy drink, but I remind her where the water is by picking it up and showing it to her and saying clearly, "Water." It's one of the words I've heard her say.

She isn't talking a lot, but she is throwing in an occasional "hello," "up," "fill-in-the-blank." When she goes to sleep, she starts mumbling. I'm hearing the things I say to her, only the syllables aren't clear: "Up, up! Good girl, Kizzy! You're a good girl. Be an eagle!" Every baby Amazon I've been around has done that when the vacuum cleaner is on, when music is playing or while drifting off to sleep. It's an endearing trait of baby Amazons.

P.S. Kizzy's breeder recommended cooking chicken starter crumbles in water so they would expand and using them as part of a hand-feeding formula. He recommended mixing it with Kaytee Exact and Pretty Bird Handrearing Formula. I followed his recommendations, but went one better and added Roudybush as well. That way, if there was a bad batch of formula, it would be mitigated by the other three formulas. Kizzy's breeder likes to include chicken starter because forty years of research went into finding the best formula to grow chickens to egg-laying size in a very short amount of time. Parrots aren't chickens, so he uses it as a supplement to two different hand-feeding formulas for parrots. Kizzy seemed to do well on it. She is a small blue front, but I'm positive that's due to genes. She grew really super fast, passed her final weight and started losing weight for fledging. As a light-boned, petite blue front, she is an aerodynamic wonder, fledging before she turned eight weeks old. Yeah, I'm proud of the job I've done so far. I'm sure Yoshi's mom will be very proud, too.

 

[plumsmum2005]

@ Ladyhawk - I think I would want to run the chicken starter past a CAV for an expert opinion. Some foods can be too rich and be the cause of problems down the line. A breeder would want their babies to grow and be gone ultimately. Have a real good look at the ingredients to be sure you are OK with it.

 

[plumsmum2005]

@ Ladyhawk and to the OP:

FYI TOPs do a crumbled pellet if that is any help? I started Plum on these and he has progressed to big boy pellets now LOL.

Totally Organics now TOP'S Organic Small Bird Crumplets

 

[OutlawedSpirit]

Roudybush also does small crumbles, I order those for my parrotlets.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

[Ladyhawk]

@ Ladyhawk - I think I would want to run the chicken starter past an CAV for an expert opinion. Some foods can be too rich and be the cause of problems down the line. A breeder would want their babies to grow and be gone ultimately. Have a real good look at the ingredients to be sure you are OK with it.

I would say it's fine due to all the healthy babies he manages to produce, but on second thought, who knows about the long run? I did read the ingredients to make sure it didn't contain antibiotics or anything else that would bad for a parrot in large quantities, but that has been some time ago.
I am about finished with it anyway, but I will give it another look and perhaps talk to a CAV. I want to pick one hand-feeding product, slowly phase out everything else and stick with it, occasionally hand-feeding her even after she's weaned. Why? 1) Warm food is yummy! 2) It will remind her of being babied, which should strengthen our bond 3) I need something in which to hide antibiotics and other medications when needed.

I would give you a spiel about her seeming very healthy, but just before he fell ill, Gabby seemed completely fine, too. The illness seemed to come on very suddenly, but there's a chance he could have been hiding it for some time, too. I'll probably never know for sure. I've always tried to be observant, but...finding the right words for how I feel are difficult.

Thanks for expressing your concerns. I'm running on fumes because I'm trying to raise a well-adjusted, healthy baby and it is both emotionally and physically demanding. I might miss something important.

 

[plumsmum2005]

FYI ORGANIC BIRD FOOD-Harrison's Bird Foods

Plum I think was given egg food which is very rich and have my suspicions whether this has any input on his medical problems that became apparent years later.

Maybe your CAV can help?

There is never any info about how the breeders babies have done ultimately. When you think about what they are fed in the wild, nothing as rich as we give them.

 

[Ladyhawk]

FYI ORGANIC BIRD FOOD-Harrison's Bird Foods

Plum I think was given egg food which is very rich and have my suspicions whether this has any input on his medical problems that became apparent years later.

Maybe your CAV can help?

There is never any info about how the breeders babies have done ultimately. When you think about what they are fed in the wild, nothing as rich as we give them.

Yeah, I've wondered about my babies throughout the years. I just happened to run into someone whose mother bought a CAG from me over twenty years ago. I remembered him as a very small boy. Now he's in his mid-to-late twenties working at a local pet supply store. The female CAG from my small aviary was doing very well until the Butte Fire burned down the family home. She started feather-picking after she was uprooted...yet another victim of that horrible fire. I recommended the owner take the grey to see Dr. Brian Speer in Oakley. That's the best place to start troubleshooting the problem. Yes, it had a psychological trigger, but there could be physical issues, too.

I'm trying to get Kizzy to eat Harrison's by modeling it for her. Yes, I've eaten bird pellets. XD The crazy things is they weren't bad. Kizzy has eaten some, too, but not in large amounts. I guess that's good for now.