Can birds choke?

I have to ask, because Warbeak gave me a scare earlier today. He was eating food as I was changing water dishes, and as I came back into the room, as per usual, he got overly excited at my presence. He got so overly excited, that I worry it caused him to choke on what he was eating. He started bobbing his head around all crazy-like. Almost like regurgitation, which is what I thought it was at first but it seemed almost too violent. He repeated doing this motion until I got his water dish set in place, which he beelined for immediately. After gulping water, he started making this horrible squawking sound over and over nonstop. It wasn’t his fear call, but it was very similar in sound to it, just more panicked and fast repeating. Of course I knew at this point this is no regurgitation sequence, something is dead wrong. But I honestly didn’t know what to do. If birds choke, you can’t do a heimlich maneuver on them. I can’t smack his back because he’s so small and fragile. What do you even do if birds really do choke? 5 seconds in and I’m just baffled on how to help him, I’m basically just staring at him in horror afraid for his life but unable to do anything. 10 seconds in, if he was choking on something, he managed to get it down or something because he made a really funny noise then started doing his little bird cough. But the poor guy was audibly wheezing for air after that, so I really think he was choking on something. But I never thought birds can choke. They just basically swallow things whole, they don’t have to chew their food. His actions tell me he was choking, but was he really? If he was, how do you even help your bird in a situation like that? One thing I learned is I have absolutely no experience in that, he easily could’ve died and there would’ve been nothing I could’ve done to save him in this situation. I’ve never been so scared before.

Because birds have a crop, they experience a like, but different effect when something becomes lodged in their crop. The reaction is much the same fear that we feel.

The physical action (movement) was an effort to get that mass to move and break-up. Like us, the need to breath only adds to the intensity and can result in odd sounds.

Can they be helped. Yes, but it required both equipment and detailed knowledge of tube feeding. An error can result in serious damage and/or breaking though the crop wall.

SailBoat said:

Can they be helped. Yes, but it required both equipment and detailed knowledge of tube feeding. An error can result in serious damage and/or breaking though the crop wall.

Click to expand...

This poses a new question: do they NEED to be helped? Or will they always be able to get whatever is lodged in their throats out unlike us, provided it’s a common thing like food, and not a random plastic chunk of whatever? Essentially what I’m asking here, is if I should consider learning the method to help him in case this happens again, or if I’m overreacting and he was actually ok and was going to get his food out no matter what? I don’t want to overreact if this happens again and think I have to help him and accidentally damage him. I don’t have enough bird anatomy knowledge and I have 0 tube feeding experience to trust myself to be able to help him should this happen again. But I fear him dying a heck of a lot more. Is it necessary for me to be learning this method to help him, or am I just overreacting and he’ll be ok and get the food out just fine?

AkridChaos said:

SailBoat said:

Can they be helped. Yes, but it required both equipment and detailed knowledge of tube feeding. An error can result in serious damage and/or breaking though the crop wall.

Click to expand...

This poses a new question: do they NEED to be helped? Or will they always be able to get whatever is lodged in their throats out unlike us, provided it’s a common thing like food, and not a random plastic chunk of whatever? Essentially what I’m asking here, is if I should consider learning the method to help him in case this happens again, or if I’m overreacting and he was actually ok and was going to get his food out no matter what? I don’t want to overreact if this happens again and think I have to help him and accidentally damage him. I don’t have enough bird anatomy knowledge and I have 0 tube feeding experience to trust myself to be able to help him should this happen again. But I fear him dying a heck of a lot more. Is it necessary for me to be learning this method to help him, or am I just overreacting and he’ll be ok and get the food out just fine?

Click to expand...

Very understandable!

Statistics would indicate it is a very rare condition right-up to the moment that something gets stuck in your Parrots crop. Over the many years I have been owned by Amazons, I have not experienced anything near to what you have. That said, my Amazons have all been older.

Assuring your Parrot has a very well-rounded /varied diet, defined by like foods found in their natural habitat (region).

As part of the Amazon Forum and included in the second Sticky Thread (light blue) near the top of the listed Threads is a very larger Thread Titled: I Love Amazons - ... That huge Thread has a vast amount of information for the care and love of Parrots. The vast majority can simply be switched from 'Amazon' to 'Parrot.' Either the last of near last 'Segment' is titled something like: Emergency (First) Aid Kit. This Segment defines a Kit for an individual with extensive knowledge in Parrot Emergency Care or support for those very far from Avian Vet Care. I do not recommend that you go out and buy everything all at one time. But, it makes a perfect list to choose from anytime someone asks what you need or a present you would like.

It is not uncommon for Avian Vets' to offer a 'First Aid Course' from time to time.

Hope that this helps!

I know this is a bit of a late response to my own post here, but to those who read this and were curious, I’ve found a helpful video explaining emergency situations and what to do to help your bird. She happens to go over choking in this. It was about 5 minutes or more into the video (been a few days since I watched it, don’t quote me). To those who don’t care for the video, she mentions having a syringe for your bird and filling it with oil and putting some down their beak to help them break up whatever is in their throat. Obviously if it’s lodged in there really good, this might not actually help. I’d have to watch again the further steps to do, vet is indeed an emergency call you need to make of course. But here is the video. She goes over a few other emergency situations that might be helpful information to others. Was worth the watch in my opinion. But at the very least, related to this post, I think I’ll invest in a syringe for the birds as a preventative measure in case I ever experience one choking again. Hopefully I don’t.

[ame="http://youtu.be/xMSwg5bDDaI"]http://youtu.be/xMSwg5bDDaI[/ame]