Please read, many birds dead at rehab

[eliholtman]

Re: Please read, many birds dead at rehab, food to blame?

I got on here after seeing this on Instagram to warn everyone but glad you guys already got to it before me


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[bill_e]

Re: Please read, many birds dead at rehab, food to blame?

So I recently switched from Zupreem to Harriosn's for other reason but after looking at the Zupreem responses I have to to say that no matter what comes of this, I will not buy their products again.

Being involved in high tech manufacturing for 45 years, I've seen thousands of test reports that were not truly representative of the product, be it from a mistake, laziness, incompetence or down right fraud. Any company which just cuts and pastes the same response "We test every batch and it's safe to feed" is both foolhardy and in my opinion incompetent.

 

[texsize]

Re: Please read, many birds dead at rehab, food to blame?

After reading the response for Zupreem I to will not be using there brand.
There response was more like a concern that they would loose market share that anything else.

Something like this comes up you HAVE TO err on the side of caution until all the facts are known.

 

[Skittys_Daddy]

Re: Please check your Foods, possible poisomings

Glad someone posted this. I saw it in my Facebook feed too.

Sadly, I've heard a LOT of illness stories related to nutriberries. Several from my vet. They told me NOT to feed Skittles ANY of the 'pre-made' treats in bags or on sticks because they are full of processed chemicals and have been known to cause problems with birds, especially Nutriberries. They've seen quite a few dietary problems that are traced back to them.

 

[Terry57]

Re: Please read, many birds dead at rehab, food to blame?

I agree that we must err on the side of caution. However, I don't think their reply means that their food is automatically off limits. I am anxious to find out the official results of testing, but my birds have done well on Zupreem and I have no plans on changing brands.

 

[Meikasbirdhouse]

Re: Please read, many birds dead at rehab, food to blame?

I am responsible for over 50 parrots...I would say about 1/3 eat zupreem pellets (fruit blend macaw sized) and 90 % eat nutriberries...and I haven't had any health issues with any of those birds. I also own a parrot store and sell zupreem to many people and I have not had any complaints about birds dying. If this was a REAL food issue, I would expect a lot more people coming forward with this accusation....I honestly feel like there were other factors in place that caused her tragic aviary losses.

 

[GaleriaGila]

Re: Please read, many birds dead at rehab, food to blame?

I think my reply is probably a little late and lame, but...
it took me a while to get brave enough to read the thread. I have little expertise, but I want to add... BLESS you all who rescue and care for and reach out and research these things.

 

[Allee]

Re: Please read, many birds dead at rehab, food to blame?

The loss of eleven birds is tragic and heart wrenching, I am so sorry this happened. The deaths are shocking and every parront who hears of this horrific event wants to know why it happened and if it could have been prevented. We don't have those answers yet.

By all means, be cautious when caring for your birds, in fact, take every precaution as most of us do on a regular basis. Please keep in mind, hysteria is contagious, jumping to conclusions will help no one, rumors spread like wild fire, especially on some of the more popular social websites. If you never want to use the three foods accused, that's entirely up to you but I think we should wait for trustworthy results first, just my opinion.

I use products from all three companies, I will do research but until I have conclusive evidence, I'll try to make decisions based on fact.

 

[JohnH]

Re: Please read, many birds dead at rehab, food to blame?

I couldn't agree more, wtf kind of pr is that.

 

[Kentuckienne]

Re: Please read, many birds dead at rehab, food to blame?

Update: some good news about the three birds that were at Death's door. It looks like they may pull off a ding-dong-ditch with the grim reaper. From the rescue's FB page:

Update 3:53PM ET 1/4/18 - I am happy to report that all three of the birds that just 24 hours ago were at a less than 40% chance of survival have been upgraded to a 75% chance of survival. All three are still wobbly and tired-ish, but are up, around, eating, drinking and getting back to their old feisty selves. <3. Thank you for your amazing support of the decision to be open and transparent with all this. As soon as we learned of another mass die off at another MI rescue with the same foods, we knew this was much, much larger than us. We are a rescue. Our objective is to save lives. And that is our sole intent. I have responded in comments to the companies posts. I am asking that we don't trash these companies. They are trying their best to do what is right for us, the birds, and their company. I would however, use caution if you read that the foods are safe to eat without test results being back. They cannot know that definitively without those results. It could be at a distribution warehouse level even - and they can't test for that until we know what. So - just use caution.

 

[Kentuckienne]

Re: Please read, many birds dead at rehab, food to blame?

I'm trying to have restraint ... it seems better to be safe than sorry, at least until we know why these birds died. It could have been something unrelated to the food. Maybe the birds had irritated stomachs from one cause, and the sudden deaths had a different cause. We don't know what information is important here. Maybe there was a monoxide buildup, that got cleared by the time it was tested, because they were opening doors to move the birds. But until we know, if it saves the life of one parrot, it's worth being careful.

I also posted a comment on the Zupreme FaceBook page, in response to their comment. They stated "We do have retained samples of the batch codes and date codes of the food in question and we have again reviewed the analytical testing and are confident that the food is safe to feed." I read this as meaning that they pulled up the test results (from computer or paper) and reviewed them, and all looked OK. So I asked them which it was - did they review the test results, or did they repeat the testing on the retained batches of product. When they answer, I'll post it here.

It's been five hours, and my comment asking for clarification about whether they repeated the tests or just reviewed the previous results has not been answered. And there are no more comments, either. I think ZuPreem must have closed off comments for the thread. If anyone else learns about the test status, let us know.

 

[bill_e]

Re: Please read, many birds dead at rehab, food to blame?

It's been five hours, and my comment asking for clarification about whether they repeated the tests or just reviewed the previous results has not been answered. And there are no more comments, either. I think ZuPreem must have closed off comments for the thread. If anyone else learns about the test status, let us know.

You weren't the only one who asked that either....no response.

 

[reeb]

Re: Please read, many birds dead at rehab, food to blame?

Goodness, Zupreem and Higgins posted such unsympathetic responses. Particularly Zupreem, it came across as pretty condescending.

Ugh, I hope we get answers soon.


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[Skittys_Daddy]

Re: Please read, many birds dead at rehab, food to blame?

I was more upset with Higgins response than any of the others. I actually had to go back and edit/delete several of my FB posts cause I used profanity towards the company.

I don't have a very appropriate response to anything related to harming of animals (birds ESPECIALLY) and I have a 'trigger' reaction to anything involving Skittles or that could involve him. It's like I immediately react and often not in a good way. It's not my finest quality.

 

[ParrotLover2001]

Re: Please read, many birds dead at rehab, food to blame?

I have read this on Instagram, and other websites, it is heartbreaking. I was going to open a new bag of Zupreen pellets yesterday, but after hearing about this, I decided against it. I'm holding off the pellets for now, hoping that Zupreem isn't the cause.


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[LordTriggs]

Re: Please read, many birds dead at rehab, food to blame?

haven't actually seen the higgins response. Like I said before Zupreem's initial response seemed copy and paste which is to be honest what I would expect of a large company experiencing a "complaint" and the second response once again being a near copy paste to quell the masses. Even if found not to be the culprit it would still damage their sales which is what they worry about. I don't know why my gut says the zupreem food especially as they were the pellets I gave to Rio but it just does. but like I say that's just a gut reaction based on nothing, hopefully the tests provide some insight into what happened.

Until there's a culprit I say we stay our Torches and pitchforks (don't want to burn the torches out prematurely) until a culprit is identified as to what truly happened. Remember we don't even know it was the food that's just where the suspicion currently lies

 

[texsize]

Re: Please read, many birds dead at rehab, food to blame?

I now have a small bag of Tops on order. Will see if they take to or not.
Name of pellets I got from petsmart is Brown's tropical carnival.

The 2 birds that would eat Zupreems like this new pelet mix. Not sure if Bingp will take to it.

 

[Scott]

Re: Please read, many birds dead at rehab, food to blame?

I have no idea how large the three companies are, and whether there is much coordination between the production and marketing sides. Of course all we see is the public relations face, in some cases less than stellar. We can only hope the manufacturing process is rigorous and ethical. Hopefully we'll learn more from the pending tests.

 

[bug_n_flock]

Re: Please read, many birds dead at rehab, food to blame?

Terrifying, heartbreaking, awful beyond belief. Those poor birds and people who are hurting missing their feathered fronds.. </3

Thank you for posting and updating on this. My household is not on Facebook so would not have heard. Will act accordingly. Sad day.

 

[Kentuckienne]

Re: Please read, many birds dead at rehab, food to blame?

For those without Facebook, here is today's update from Birds and Beaks.
===============================1/5/18-7:35PM

Another family experienced this today. Same symptoms. Same food. Different batch numbers, but also in MI on the other side of the state. 1 bird gone, another on their way out. If you have questions, contact Beth Moody. Heartbroken.

Our Nanday has been downgraded again to less than 50%. I think between the whatever this is lingering with damage, along with the loss of her mate, I think it's just going to be too much for her. It would help if we knew what it is.

I've been getting around to reading some of the things out there. For the most part 99.9% of people are thankful to have the information to make their own decisions for their birds. That's all we wanted with this post.

TV, Radio, Newspaper reporters have been trying to get ahold of us. I don't want to talk until I know what I'm talking about.

Have remained in close contact with Higgins, and they continue to be great. Haven't heard from Zupreem or LeFeber's in a few days - but like us I'm assuming they're waiting for results before we go further.

The other two birds are doing awesome. Practically back to their old selves. Their appetites today have been voracious.

I'm working on getting the house back to normal. We're not putting any birds in the aviary for a while. I can't stand to walk in there. It guts me. Every time. I just can't even look at it.