Warning Harissons Handfeeding Formula

We recently had a close call with Harissons Handfeeding formula, and I am posting on this site because I don't want someone else to go through the same experience.

Before I start, a little history: we have 6 birds- 2 African greys (2 yrs & 12 weeks), 2 Caiques (2.5 yrs & 2 yrs) and 2 Jenday Conures (1.5 yrs & 8 months).

We got all birds when they were young and hand fed them with Zupreem. All were weened well and are as healthy as can be in all respects. Now the youngest African grey, our newest addition, came to us pretty thin, and he was still unweened. So we proceeded to feed him the same Zupreem hand feeding formula. He was doing well, putting on weight, alert, happy, playing. Not too long ago, around 2 weeks, we noticed that our local store started carrying Harissons Juvenile Handfeeding formula - with it being supposedly organic, and with all the "rave" about this company being amazing, we thought it would be an even better choice.

As per tradition, when adding a new baby bird to our flock, we like to give all our other "adult" birds a small amount of formula after feeding the baby; it helps bring the flock together, and is a comfort and reassurance with our existing birds. We had done this before and never had any problems.

A week after switching to Harissons we started to notice a change in behavior with the African grey. He was not playing as much, started losing weight (500g to 450g) - and although losing weight may be partially explained by the weening process, the amount of weight loss and the lethargic nature was not normal. But this is not were the real problem arose.

One of our conures (the 1.5 yr old one) was also having a bit of this formula after the grey was fed (but the other did not). About 5 days ago, he started to lose energy and we noticed that he was not himself. A day later, he vomitted in the morning an abnormal amount; an amount, with a smell, that could not be attributed to normal regurgitation. He became very sleepy, really had no energy, and mostly all food and water he was given was promptly thrown up. He got progressively worse during the day, only being able to take small amount of food and water- not enough for the long term. He barely survived until our appointment the next day with the vet.

The vet proceeded to give him fluids and vitamins, and washed his crop out with medication. All the results for bacteria, etc. came back negative, and the only reason the vet could suggest was that something must have been wrong with the formula. After searching through the internet, i found one site where a breeder had mentioned that she had similar problems with this formula, stating that its slow to digest for the birds, and unfortunately some of the babies were dying as a result- strangely enough the article has since been removed. It seems hard to find any information about this formula anyway except from the Harissons website.

The good news is that the conure got better and is recovering nicely. We promptly switched the formula back to Zupreem and the African grey has also turned around- doing a lot better too! I'm not an advocate for Zupreem over Harissons, that's for sure, but I really wanted to share my experience. Anyone who has birds surely knows what a tragedy it is to lose one and go through this ordeal (not to mention the expense!!)

Whether it was a bad batch or not, I do not know. But I will never again buy Harissons baby feeding formula- and anyone else thinking about giving it a go - pay close attention to your baby for these symptoms.

Thank you for your reply. I don't see how contacting the company will help- my post was purely for information purposes and to share my experience with other bird owners. I'm not looking to recover money from them or do I want a never ending debate whether they are reponsible or not. I am a nobody no way I can make any impact against such a big company!

I'm not saying DONT buy it- I'm just saying if you do, and notice similar symptoms, go to the vet immediately.

Contacting the company could potentially help other birds. If they find that something was wrong with that particular batch, maybe they would put out a recall on it.

I'm glad your birds are doing better!

Wow, it is so strange to actually see someone else has had problems with Harrison's handfeeding formula. I haven't had personal experience with it, but have to friends that did. One friend was given a bag of harrison's from the manufacturer. She'd been using Harrison's food for 20 years and had developed a relationship with them, so they decided when their new formula became available to send her a free bag. She had a clutch of budgies, tiels and conures at the time and began giving them the harrisons ( previously used Kaytee Exact). She noticed the babies were not gaining weight the way she was used to and the formula actually had a bad smell. The babies, especially the tiels, were not eating as much nor as often. She got worried that maybe her batch of food was bad, so she switched them back to the Kaytee and the babies began to immediately thrive. She did contact Harrison's. Their response was, we will send you another bag as the original bag might have been tainted. When she told them she didn't want another bag, they offered no further action and actually never responded directly to her complaints when she called. They just said they were certain their food was high quality and offered no apology.
Another breeder friend of mine decided to switch from Zupreem to Harrison's since it was supposed to be all organic and much better for her babies. Her experience was the same, the babies failed to thrive and most of the time would regurgitate the food immediately after feeding. Her babies did not eat as often nor as much either. She also complained to Harrison's since she had purchased her food directly from them. The never apologized, never offered to replace the food and stated the same thing to her.....maybe it was a bad batch. When she switched her babies back to Zupreem, her babies began to thrive and feed normally.

It is hard for me to believe that two separate people, in two separate states should experience the same "bad batch" of Harrison's. I am glad to see someone else has posted concerning this problem and hopefully, Harrison's will change their food. I personally have never used it when handfeeding my babies, but know for a fact, I never would.

I think it is wonderful that you have brought this to peoples attention as it appears your experience is not an isolated one.

I would still call the company. You might not be the first "nobody" to call. If you get enough nobodies calling about this issue, they won't ignore it!

Like it was mentioned, call them so they can be aware of the issue. I had to do that once with one of the toys from Kaytee. My macaw got his foot stuck in it and I had to break the toy apart with a plier to get his foot out. I took pictures and send it to them. They took the toy off the market....

I am still preparing Juvenile Harrison's formula for my parrots, they are over 1 year now, 2 macaws and a conure and i didnt had this problems here. I am in Australia and Harrison's and ZuPreem are amongst the best.

Zupreem all the way. IMO, it's the best there is,other than Mazuri, but that is difficult to find.... most breeders use Zupreem over anything else.

I've tried many other formulas and did not care for them much, neither did my chicks.

you should never switch formulas mid-stream, as it can cause intestinal upset.

thanks for the heads-up on the Harrisons formula. glad your birds are doing better!

This thread will be 3 years old in May. :54: :54: :54:

JerseyWendy said:

This thread will be 3 years old in May. :54: :54: :54:

Click to expand...

well, that blows

I seem to recall someone feeding her macaws Harrison's hand feeding formula and two of her macaws died. She blamed it on a bad batch of the Power Treats, but via investigation done by Harrison's and the information gathered, it was concluded that the owner aspirated her own macaws. No one (on the internet) knew she was hand feeding them formula...

http://www.parrotforums.com/parrot-food-recipes-diet/35629-warning-harrisons-power-treats.html



Although yes, this is an old thread, likewise formulas and companies may also change over the years. (I know BirdTricks has!!!!! Still don't trust them! lol)



Just wanted to say that I thought Harrison's handled that case extremely well.