Preventing Larva In Parrot Food
There are few things that are more frustrating than to purchase what one believes to be a quality dry base Parrot food only to find it is filled with larva webs and larva crawling around inside the bag! Which is commonly followed by a call to the Manufacturer and getting a quick lesson in reading Date Codes and/or knowing the differences between original packaging and some ones repackaging. Yes, you can always feed it to the Wild Birds, but that wasn’t why you purchased that Parrot food to begin with, correct?
As part of this Segment, we look at different methods of manufacturer packaging, storage at our homes and hopefully no longer having to deal with those ‘bugs.’ As with another Segment, I will reframe from using enjoy and just say: Ponder!
Continued from the Post above!
Preventing Larva In Parrot Food
By: Steven Frasier, December 2016
The majority of Name Brand manufacturers’ package their products in a sealed container; lined paper, plastic bags, and plastic jars. Commonly, the packaging is vacuum packed or nitrogen-purged. Nitrogen-purged (like what they do with potato chips) packaging is the best choice since pure nitrogen is food safe, but displays oxygen – this eliminates (kills) all known larva, etc. Until opened, Nitrogen-purged manufactures’ original package is the best way to buy and store the product until needed.
Once opened, the glass jar is a great storage vessel. For washing, very hot water is the key - commonly dishwashers are better than hand washing - higher temperature being the key. Prior to starting a dishwasher, run the hot water in the supporting sink until it is hot, at that point, turn on the dishwasher. Ensure that your hot water heater is set at a safe level. There are all kinds of energy saving discussions regarding lowering the hot water temperature, however ‘warm water’ is an invitation to bacteria. If there are no small children in the house, the setting should be to a level that is uncomfortable to hold your hand under. Most hot water heaters will have a recommended operating zone, stay just to high side of the center of that zone.
Once cleaned, Glass Jars will protect their contents far better than any other storage vessel. The weak point of a Glass Jar is the lid. Far too often, the lid is either not washed or gets a quick splash, they require the same high temperature as the glass jar itself. Unless the lid had larva under the seal, it’s hard to believe that either the glass jar or its lid would be the source of larva. Note: The most common source of bacteria in a glass jar is the lid seal!
It is very possible that the source of a larva infestation is the food or pellets themselves or their original container. When buying anything today – search out the ‘sell by’ date code and stay away from product that have past its date code.
If you encounter an infestation, contact the manufacturer and inform them of what you found. If you still have the original packaging, it will have a manufacturers’ product /production /batch code number on it that will define its batch, its production date and manufacturing location, the manufacturer needs this information to determine if there was a problem during processing. If the product is beyond its sell by code, well they will still be interested, but do not except a replacement.
We have experienced like occurrences in the past (larva webbing in Parrot food), but once we had switched to using only nitrogen-purged products, we have not had problems. The other thing to keep in mind is to select only ‘Human Grade food sources’ for your Parrot.
“Always make sure that no webbing is in the bag /packaging when you are purchasing your food. The good folks at Parrot Island recommend that their customers keep their foods refrigerated (keep it frozen) to keep it fresh.”
“Anything that is fresh and doesn't contain rubber tires as a preservative has the possibility of 'hatching'. I used to believe that 48 hours was long enough to freeze foods to kill any possible eggs, but have since discovered that a week or longer is much better. At present, we freeze for a minimum of 30 days! Also, when removing from the manufacturers’ packaging, place it in containers that will last you about one week. Place everything else in sealed containers and back in the Freezer.”
At Feathered Follies, they recommend using Tupperware, or something similar that seals well, with about a single week’s supply of food near the cage and store the remainder of their supply in the freezer. Not only will this prevent bugs, but also it will prolong the life of the food should it past the expiration date. Also, be sure to clean the container that is kept out often.
Some foods such as Goldenfeast, recommend keeping their containers in the refrigerator after opening.
It seems that there are many variables that will affect the storage of animal and human food: humidity, method of storage, when packaged, purged or not-purged with nitrogen, type of preservatives, expiration dates, and attempting to store foods for too long before use, etc.
Buy fresh (date code), target nitrogen-purged products, buy only product that is in the manufacturers’ original packaging. Freeze until ready to break into small (one weeks use) packaging, Freeze what will not be used that week. Date code anything you repackage!
Follow the simply tools provided above and the likelihood of having to deal with larva and/or larva webs will be greatly reduced.
Sources: Shari Beaudoin, Parrot Island and Laurie Baker, Feathered Follies
