Question on mashed potatoes

[roxynoodle]

I know a lot of bird owners give them to their birds. And a lot of birds like them. However I've always been concerned about the milk. Does the fact that they are cooked make the milk ok?

My vet is suggesting I mix Merlin's meds in some, and I know from her former owner that she likes them.

What are your experiences? It might be the easiest way to get her meds in her without having to give her huge amounts of food. She won't take them out of a syringe and toweling her freaks her out pretty badly. I'm trying to bond with her as a new owner and would rather not freak her out every day. She is also kind of hard to hold onto and give meds to her at the same time. I don't have a helper. Last night I had to lay her on my lap to do it because she didn't want to eat her medicated food.

In the morning she will eat the meds on Nutriberries, but she doesn't seem hungry enough in the evening to eat that much. With 3 meds she needs like 5 Nutriberries to get them all soaked in. I got her to eat one med yesterday by putting it on bread and then putting a bit of peanut butter on it to hide the taste. Come dinner time though she didn't want that.

 

[merlinsmom13]

Try a small piece of jelly bread. Merlins hard to medicate, somedays its just easier to bribe him rather than towel & force him.

 

[roxynoodle]

Yeah, putting it on bread without the peanut butter didn't work at all! She tasted one piece and then picked the rest out and threw them all to the bottom of the cage. So I said, hmm, let's put a bit of peanut butter on it and try again. And she ate it. But, the next time around it was a no go. She ate a little, but not enough last night. And so I had to towel her to make sure she got all her meds.

Maybe I also let her eat too much food all day. After her 3 hours of eating her breakfast berries, I gave her some pellets. Maybe I should make her be hungry for at least a couple of hours before giving her a dinner?

 

[lizardsmells]

I wouldn't worry too much about the milk content, it's so small compared to the volume of potato in the mix. But if you're worried about it, how about microwaving a small potato and just mashing it up with some almond milk for her?

Also your antics trying to give meds sounds like me trying to give preventative asthma meds to my cat. He wised up to all my tricks way too fast.

 

[roxynoodle]

I don't even want to think about giving asthma meds to a cat! Giving them pills is bad enough.

We do also have to take into account that Merlin can't see. When the vet tried giving her handfeeding formula from a syringe it was obvious it was going to take all day, lol! We had to tube feed her Friday afternoon because she hadn't eaten since breakfast.

She does spend forever eating. She is the slowest eating bird I've ever seen. I did have to sit here and watch her all of yesterday morning to make sure she was going to eat enough. The vet was on standby in case I had to run her in again for another tube feeding. Let's see, it's almost 9:30 now and she is still eating breakfast that she started at 7.

Well, maybe I'll go with the Nutriberries for breakfast since even if she spends hours eating them, she is at least eating them. And try mashed potatoes for dinner and see how that goes. Since she weighs 470 grams and is on 3 meds, it's a lot of med to get mixed into food. One small Nutriberry could do my conure when she was on 2 meds, but Merlin needs considerably more medication for her size.

 

[roxynoodle]

Yes, maybe I should create my own version of mashed potatoes. I do have lactose free milk here. That would probably be better than the ones I tend to buy for myself, which are Bob Evans brand. Mashed potatoes work well for my digestive disease, but being a single person I don't want to take the time to make my own homemade ones.

 

[lizardsmells]

It was an adventure every day trying to sneak those meds in to him somehow. And we had to do it twice a day. His rescue inhaler is much easier to administer!

Kazi isn't on meds or anything, but he's a slow eater too and a careful one. He eats his favorite stuff over his dish so he can bite off a piece and drop it back in there. Every other parrot I've ever met just lets it fall wherever! But not Kazi, he's very careful with his favorite foods and if he's had something messy to eat he'll spend almost as much time carefully scraping his beak off and eating what he scraped as he does eating to begin with!

Parrots are hilarious people.

 

[Jenlynn]

A few years ago my sun conure needed meds and the vet suggested I put them in a grape but he didn't want them. Finally someone suggested apple juice and he just drank it right up. I'd just check to make sure the juice wouldn't cause any issues with the meds because its acidic.

 

[IcyWolf]

Every time I make mashed potatoes I give all the birds some. I make mine using plain soymilk and non dairy margarine though. They don't get a lot and there is very little soy milk compared to potato. I like lizardsmells' idea too, just pop a potato into the microwave for about six minutes then mash it with a fork and maybe a little water if you are afraid to give them any milk.

 

[IcyWolf]

Roxy, I've noticed you mentioned that Merlin can't see a few times but I can't seem to find a thread where you explain this? Last I read Merlin and Pete we're doing pretty well, now you say that she can't see and is on meds! Did you make a post about this and if so, can you point me in the right direction of it?

 

[roxynoodle]

I don't think I made a specific post but have put stuff into other people's posts.

Merlin became ill on Friday. I rushed her to the vet. When we got there I found out she has severe cataracts. The vet thinks she can see shadows out of one eye, but probably nothing out of the other. I had no idea. But, it explains some things like why I kept scaring her and why she is scared of Pete. She may not even know Pete is a bird. She also kisses the cat and calls her by the name of one of the former owner's dogs. Now that I know she can't see, I talk whenever I'm moving around and she is no longer getting frightened and hiding.

And now whatever she has, Pete has it, too. I'm having a very stressful weekend here! I may even see if the vet will see Pete tonight. He isn't eating, really. He ate breakfast and then stopped. He has also fallen, or nearly fallen a few times. I gave him some of Merlin's meds earlier on toast with peanut butter and he ate that. I'm going to try that again soon. But, if he won't eat, I'm going to have to see if the vet can see him tonight.

I made a bad mistake here bringing a new bird in and not quarantining her. I thought, older bird from one home that was with the same birds for more than 20 years, she would be safe. They have not been on each other's cages, nor shared any play gyms. I handled Merlin last every day. I also wash each food and water bowl separately, and use paper towels so I can toss them after each bowl. But, whatever it is is contagious.

We know she has some kind of bacterial infection and she may also have Bornavirus! This is turning into a nightmare over here.

 

[Remy]

Oh no! I hope they turn out okay! Give them lots of extra love!

 

[IcyWolf]

Oh no! That's terrible, have you tried contacting the previous owners just to let them know that they need to have the other birds treated? Isn't another forum member supposed to be adopting their macaw and amazon? I hope whatever it is it can be treated and everyone makes a full recover. We will keep you and your birdies in our thoughts.

 

[roxynoodle]

Ok, have Pete eating the mashed potatoes, too. At first he was scared to death of them. Let's hope he eats it all, but at least he's getting food. With their high metabolism, when birds won't eat, things go bad fast.

 

[roxynoodle]

Oh no! That's terrible, have you tried contacting the previous owners just to let them know that they need to have the other birds treated? Isn't another forum member supposed to be adopting their macaw and amazon? I hope whatever it is it can be treated and everyone makes a full recover. We will keep you and your birdies in our thoughts.

KBEquine has the other 2 birds as of yesterday. I've made her aware of everything going on and she has my vet's info for her vet to contact mine.

I haven't contacted the previous owners. If they knew she was sick, they didn't share it with us. I don't think they knew Merlin was almost blind either. They did know she had trouble seeing at night. Well, she has trouble seeing everything it turns out!

And even if she has Bornavirus they may not have known. She may have contacted it from her mom when she was an egg or chick. And the stress of moving is what caused it to rear up. Some birds go for decades apparently with no signs of illness. They are very sad about giving up their birds and would rather not have any updates. So I figure why upset 2 more people over this?

Merlin does know my voice/smell though already. She will step up for me and ask for head scratches, but when the vet went to get her out of the carrier, she wouldn't come out. I approached her then and out she came. And wanted kisses of course!

 

[lizardsmells]

Awww, Roxy, what a rough time for you and the fids I hope you'll keep us updated on them. Poor Ms. Merlin, but now that you know I bet her life will be a lot less fearful.

I also had to laugh at Pete being afraid of mashed potatoes. Kazi is fearful of some foods too at first, they're so funny.

 

[IcyWolf]

Oh, ok, I read their posts and they seemed like very loving, caring people, I can't imagine that they knew and just didn't tell you. I understand you not wanting to tell them, I'm sure it was hard enough giving up their babies, they don't need to be worrying about them even more. I thought they still had the other two, that's the only reason I asked if you had told them. I wish you and KBEquine the best of luck and all the birds a quick recovery

 

[roxynoodle]

Well, so far he has eaten about half of his potatoes. He also ate a bite of carrot, but not his green beans. He loves green beans so that surprised me.

He was really scared when I first tried to get him to drink the meds from a syringe. I was sure he would do it because he puts his beak in everything. I think he might be scared that the anti-biotic is pink. Not sure, but that is a thought. This is a bird that will drink out of the nozzle of a spray bottle.

Merlin's vision issues are actually the least of my concern right now! She manages despite that without much problem. I just want all my babies healthy.

 

[lene1949]

When I make mashed potatoes, I always cook without salt... For Max I just mash a bit of the cooked potato with a bit of water, until it's smooth...

I have never had to give medications to a bird, so I can't comment on that..

 

[roxynoodle]

I really don't think the former owners knew. We had several phone conversations and probably 60 emails to one another. And all 3 birds were together more than 20 years. I guess they even hand feed the 2 that are with KBEquine. They knew Merlin seemed to have issues with the dark. And remember, the first night, right after I went to bed she had a night fright. I have this dim lamp that I've had since I was a kid. It has a blue bulb in it as well so it seems like moonlight. I set that up for her and turn it on once it starts getting dark, and only cover her cage halfway. That seems to work for her as she has been good at night since. The vet agreed it was a good idea.

I also should have been tipped off that she gets up 1 to 1.5 hours before dawn. Her little internal clock is set to when it was dawn on the east coast and her brothers woke up.

She may very well have caught the infection at either airport or on the plane. The vet said with the abnormally warm winter this stuff is in the air. Which would explain how Pete caught it, too, without touching her or any of her things. So far Rowdy is fine, but she is on the other side of the room.

Going to give Merlin the meds on Nutriberries this morning as that has been working for her. For Pete I'm going to try toast with the meds and peanut butter on top. He is a recovering seed and peanut junkie so that worked on him the first time yesterday even though he didn't want to eat. I guess peanuts were tempting enough. I do need to see if he will eat Nutriberries other than crumbled up on mashed potatoes. The Nutriberries would be healthier.

Giving meds to a bird can be hard, Lene. At least with the smaller birds you don't need as large a quantity of food to hide them on. And they are easier to towel and give meds to if you have to. I don't think I could towel Pete and give him the meds by myself. He is a big boy! I'm pretty sure if the neighbors saw a large, angry, toweled amazon they would refuse to help. I guess right now I should be glad I don't have a macaw, huh?