Pistaschio Recall

[spensergirl]

Is anyone a bit worried that this pistaschio recall might effect birds? It is quite a large recall and I know people give birds nuts.

In fact, Chilli ate half pellets and half mixed food and the mixed food had pistaschio nuts in it. I had changed her food a few weeks before she died, ironically to make sure no PEANUTS were in it.

I am not saying this is what made her sick and why she died, I will never probably know that, but I am wondering for those who still have birds if anyone should be giving their birds nuts now?

Has anyone wondered about this yet for their birds? I am actually wondering if anything but pellets is safe for birds anymore. Certainly, you can not plan or protect them from everything on earth, but these recalls of nuts are getting pretty frequent now.

If there is such a lack of concern in the human food chain, I am sure there is even less in the pet grade food products they use.

[Mango27]

My grey gets pistachios for a treat. I am gonna trash them just in case. Thanks for posting this cause I hadnt heard about it.

[redwing13]

We trashed all of our peanuts earlier, but I also had not heard of this recall....they're going in the trash, too! Thank you!

[NotEnoughTime]

Originally Posted by spensergirl

I am not saying this is what made her sick and why she died, I will never probably know that, but I am wondering for those who still have birds if anyone should be giving their birds nuts now?

If it was Salmonella that was the sickness - then the bird should show symptoms within a few hours of eating the new food and would be very sick within a couple of days.

For those that suspect there may be an issue it is very important to get to a vet ASAP for appropriate antibiotic treatment (there are many different types of salmonella so you need to collect droppings and take them with you for testing so the appropriate antibiotic can be determined).

Salmonella
The parrotlet handbook - Google Book Search
Salmonella Infection in Birds: Maintain a Bird Feeder that Won?t Spread Salmonellosis

[spensergirl]

This really is not about Chlili in particular, I just wanted to warn others just in case. But I will say in regard to Chilli that I did rush her right to the vet but she was very, very sick even with that, vomiting and full of bacteria, which could have been from the pistachios. We won't ever know. There is over a million pounds recalled dating back to September 1st, 2008 and from the 2nd largest manufacturer of them (Setton). So be careful.

The thing I did notice is I did not let her have food with peanuts in it, even if I picked them out as I was afraid if they were in the mix they could contaminate other food...so that is why I had gotten the mix with only pistaschios in it a few weeks before she died. She never ate any of them, but the morning I opened her cage and she was so ill, there were about 3 or 4 empty shells in her bowl (she had eaten the nuts) and I thought "I did not know she even liked pistachios, I guess she does", then I turned and saw how sick she was and rushed her in.

Anyway, I don't know if that is what happened to her, but if anyone has birds now, I hope this helps someone to not give them to them right now (or maybe ever). You can read about the recall on MSN homepage or any major news site.

[NotEnoughTime]

That is soooo hard... With peanuts the concern is about a fungus which is very hard to treat while Salmonella can be treated with antibiotics if caught early enough - but it is VERY serious.

[spensergirl]

I know. It is suspect to me as she was not only FINE the day before she was better then she had been in years, talking and carrying on, then the next day she is on death door? If the vet felt we could have had a good chance she would have told me, but when I asked her she said it was very dire and when I asked if it was time to let her go she said "it is something you need to think about".

Either way, I am mainly wanting to caution people, just in case as if the human food chain is constantly being hit with this (regarding nuts) then we can pretty well be sure they check the pet grade nuts even less. I did give her organic (human grade) walnuts as treats but her mix had the pistachios in it. She would never totally covert over to pellets enough to eat them only, so she had half pellets and half mix.

Either way, even if this had not happened to Chilli, which may or may not have anything to do with it, I would not give a bird any pistachios right now, if I still had ones that ate them.