Ate bit of almond shell- help!

So, this morning I gave Noodles an almond in its shell and she took it from me readily). Then, she took a few nibbles of the shell and swallowed them (2 tiny pieces, probably the equivalent of 2-3 balls of millet in size...smaller than the seeds she gets mixed in with her pellets). I took it away from her because I was worried.


Just in case she didn't remember how nuts worked, I cracked it open in front of her and handed her the almond (which she spat out). Then she tried to take the shell again. I didn't give it to her.


She won't become impacted from such a small amount of almond shell, will she? I have scared myself now and it is Sunday so the vet is closed.

Noodles is fine....

I'll eat my words if I'm wrong of course, but they sell almonds in a shell as petfood....

I wouldn't worry. Besides a lot of times birds "cheek" or hide in their beak stuff they are munching on and kind of spit it out later...

Even if noodles ate it, it's completely safe. At least as far as parrot food sellers say.

I mean I wouldn't encourage it...but its not harmful and if he thought the bite was to big for his butt, he wouldn't have ate it.

I just read a bunch of horror stories about birds getting sick (some even died) from eating shells. Most stories appear to be related to walnut shells though....One article was like, your bird can become impacted and die without showing any symptoms. GRRRRREAT.......
ugh...why are things always so complicated???



I am guessing that the bits she ate were small enough that they will pass without issue, but I am not certain.


Thanks for your reassurance...I am still worried....blah

I think is safe too, my GCC eats the shell, I never thought to worry, she had done many times..

Here Noodles, I'll be "that guy", only because you need to know what to look for if there is going to be an issue...

No, he's not going to become impacted from 2 tiny pieces of shell, he'd have to eat a good amount to become impacted...That being said, they cannot digest the shells of an Almond (although they can digest some seed shells), but again, he'd have to eat quite a bit of shell to become impacted. It will most-likely pass in his droppings without you even knowing about it.

****The usual complications that happen when a parrot eats a nut shell are #1) Crop blockage/becoming lodged in the Crop due to the sharp edges of the shell pieces, and #2) GI bleeding due to the shell pieces either cutting the GI Tract, OR becoming lodged in the lining of the GI Tract due to the sharp edges.

The only time I myself have ever seen a complication from a bird eating shell pieces was a blockage in the Crop, which required an Endoscopy with a flush...We had no idea what was wrong with the bird (a Moustache Parakeet), he started trying to "regurgitate", as I was told, but when I went to check on him he was actively regurgitating over and over and over again, and he was bringing stuff up, but he kept doing it at different times throughout the day, and then into the next day, and it obviously wasn't normal regurgitating. Otherwise he seemed totally fine, he kept eating and drinking and playing, was friendly and not at all stressed. After 2 days of him just continually trying to regurgitate what I thought was way too often, I called our CAV and he stopped over to take a look at him, and agreed that something wasn't quite right...So the next day we took him into the office, they used Iso-gas to sedate him, used the Endoscope to look inside of his Crop, and did a flush where everything in the crop was flushed into a white-colored towel...Got a bunch of stuff actually, little bits of fabric, some gooey food stuff that wouldn't leave the Crop, and they had seen the piece of shell with the Endoscope and pulled it out, as it wouldn't come out with the flush and was the only thing left behind after the flush...It wasn't a large piece of shell, it was tiny, but it was sharp!!! After they took it out he was completely fine, no issues at all, and the CAV put him on an Anti-Fungal because they found a bit of yeast that came out with the flush...that was it, no big deal.

So I would try not to worry too much about a couple tiny little pieces of nut shell, but just keep an eye on him...You know what to look for, and if you see anything off then you know what to do...Obviously any blood in his droppings is a red-flag for GI bleeding, or any blood from his mouth or nostrils, or any chronic/constant, or let's say "more than typical/normal" Crop adjustment or regurgitating...And of course any typical signs of pain and/or illness, specifically a loss of appetite or complete anorexia is the big one with something like this, due to the GI pain that a piece of lodged shell would cause...

It will probably pass right out of him without any issue at all. Just keep a close eye on him, his appetite, and his droppings.

THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH! That helps me feel less anxious. I tried looking up the information you just provided and it was all very nebulous, so I really appreciate your input! That is what I was looking for---along with reassurance that she will probably be okay lol.

EllenD, you are all kinds of awesome.

Well, I appreciate that Noodles and most other members here actually care about things like this in the first place, lol...Unfortunately most people wouldn't give it a second thought if their birds ate a nut shell, and that's why they end-up getting sick or dying and then the owners are like "I don't know what happened!"...Drives me crazy...Tip: Don't EVER go over to Yahoo Pets and read any of the questions people are asking, because you'll start literally punching holes in your wall or pulling your hair out...it's awful. Literally questions like "My dog is bleeding badly from her eyeballs, but I can't afford to take her to the vet. What are the home remedies for this?"...Sadly I'm not exaggerating...not at all..

On a side note, something I have found absolutely intriguing and yet horrifying at the same time when watching/doing Crop Endoscopy on pet parrots is all of the, well, "junk" that comes out of their Crops, sometimes being lodged in there for years. It's amazing. I can tell you that every single Crop Endoscopy and flush that I've seen has resulted with bits of different fabric/thread. Every single one. And also an awful lot of tiny pieces of plastic bits. Pretty much every single time they find bits of fabric and plastic from toys and those damn "Snuggle Huts" and similar...Also amazing is I've NEVER ONCE seen even a tiny piece of wood come out. I asked the CAV about not ever finding bits of wood, and he didn't know for certain but thinks it's because they actually digest/break-down the wood...