any idea??

hi
we own an african grey congo who is about 4 years old. about a year ago or possibly longer he started having breathing difficulties every now and then, where he would be wheezing, tail bobbing and not himself. it took us a while to realize that every time we gave him seeds it was happening. we always got a high quality seed so it couldnt be that. so we didnt give him seeds in at least 6 months just to be sure. today we gave him some again he is wheezing heavily and vomited up some seeds also. Is it possible that he has developed an allergic reaction to them?? or could it be that he pigs out and eats them all at once because he loves them so much and is really full?
I obviously wont give him seeds again but just wanted to see what ye thought. thanks for your help.
emma

What seeds are you feeding? Are there any nuts or corn in the seeds he might be allergic to? Are the seeds dusty? How much do you give at a time?

I feed him a branded bagged mix of seed, cereal and few monkey nuts. Brand name is bucktons. He rarely gets seeds and I would fill up bowl half way maybe. The seeds are definitely not dusty. I will just have to cut them out altogether to be safe because Its not nice seeing him like that. :-(

I am not familiar with Bucktons, but looking at the ingredients I do see peanuts and maize. It also has an abnormally high content of sunflower seeds.

Are there any other seed blends there without those ingredients?


Cereal can be a concern because of sugar and iron content.


Have you always fed the monkey nuts?

Have you had the grey checked for allergies or possible aspergillosis?

Rather than just stopping, you need to eliminate the ingredients of the mix you have been feeding and feed just a particular item for one or two days...since you have noticed the problem when feeding a particular mix, it shouldn't be too hard to isolate the problem item(s). The wheezing could be from an allergic reaction or it could be exacerbating an aspergilliosis condition.....think we humans who may wheeze in cold weather or under exertion...doesn't show up except under certain circumstances.

Some people may think dust when talking about mold spores, but it is possible that these culprits are not a dust that you can see or feel, so looking for dust in/on a product may be a misconception.....mold spores are all around us & our animals & without extraordinary measures & expensive equipment, we cannot eliminate it from our lives.....unless we plan on living in a bubble.

Based on your description & the information you've provided, it does sound like an allergy, but then we are not veterinary specialists.....

Good luck

Thanks for all the help on this, it's much apreciiated. We have tried a few different blends with the same problems occurring. He leaves the cereal out, loves monkey nuts but there would only ever be one or two. His favorite are definetly the sunflower seeds. I might just try to eliminate which ones are causing the problem by giving him a selection of the same. He is on a pellet diet mostly, I just like to treat him to seeds but we'll have to see I suppose thanks again

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