# At My Wits' End - Pellet Poop, Tarry Stools, and Sickness



## ChickWas (May 6, 2021)

So Wasabi is back to being ill again. I'm picking up liquid metronidazole from the vet tomorrow, and will be extremely careful and meticulous when I give her doses to avoid any problems like last time. Vet also recommended sucralfate. Not only is she extremely ill again, her stools are black and tarry. I started her on pellets maybe a week ago, and it did wonders for her stools. They were no longer bulky, runny and yellow. They were more firm and brown. That's all gone and we've gone well past square one, it feels like we're at negative one.

How much seed is safe to give in a day, if I want their diet to mainly consist of pellets (vet said due to Wasabi's enlarged liver, seeds do her no good, so I want to keep it at an absolute minimum)? They were both fine on pellets, but yesterday and today Wasabi has completely reverted and will refuse to eat pellets unless I actively entice her. Chick is fine, she'll happily eat pellets all by herself with minimal input from me. The only difference I've noticed with Chick is her poops are no longer tight coils, but slightly larger and curl gently. They've also gone from a brown to a light olivish green. Is this normal on a pellet diet? Is it normal for them to bulk up slightly and no longer be small and tight? Other than that, she's doing great, her energy levels are super high and she's constantly wrestling with toys and chirping. Wasabi is the complete opposite, constantly ruffled feathers, lethargic, quiet to the point of almost being mute, and just wants to sleep. Now with these black tarry stools, I don't know if it's because of an infection, or if she's not eating enough (supposedly if they're starving, stool is black due to it just being bile?), despite me constantly babysitting her with pellets and seeing her eat a fair amount of them.

I am really frustrated and worried, and it always seems like an uphill battle with Wasabi's health, despite trying everything to get her back on her feet. I had a job interview that went really well, and feel optimistic about soon having full-time employment. I won't be able to babysit Wasabi like I do now, and there's no one I can lean on to look after her in my absence. The vet helping me isn't an avian specialist but is trying their best, and there are no facilities available in this country that will allow me to properly test and diagnose Wasabi. So I've got just under a month to get her sorted before I'm working a full-time job and I want her healthy before then. These past few days have been a living nightmare because Wasabi will constantly try to break out of the cage to get to me, and then when she's out, she just sleeps on my shoulder or hunts for seeds. She'll only eat from the pellet bowl if I hold it, and only in small bursts. When she first got onto pellets, she was happily eating them by herself in the cage. Then she started refusing and would only eat when I held the bowl for her, but she would eat _a lot_. Now, she's barely doing either. I just gave them both a teaspoon of seeds each with pellet powder dusted on top.

I'm just exhausted dealing with this, and my life revolves around these two mainly due to Wasabi. When they were both healthy, I could leave them in the cage and go out for a few hours and would be relaxed knowing they'd be entertaining themselves and having fun, but now I am overwhelmed with guilt if I leave because Wasabi just wants to break out constantly. Any advice on what poop looks like on a pellet diet would be appreciated, and any other advice regarding Wasabi and how much seed I can safely give her in a day without impacting her pellet diet would also be helpful. I've spent $180 on the vet consultations, medication and xray, which is money I don't have. I just want her healthy again. The brief period of time where she was doing great is what keeps me trying to get her better, because I've seen how much she loves life when everything is going well. I miss that bird.


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## Cody (Sep 5, 2013)

Sorry to hear this, you are in a tough situation because of the lack of vet care available. An avian vet is not required in order to run basic tests on the droppings, ask the vet you are dealing with if he can refer you to someone that can run a gram stain test and maybe a fecal occult blood test, both of these are run on a fresh dropping, someone has to be able to do basic microscopic testing. The gram stain will reveal how much bacteria is in the dropping as well as other things that should not be there and the fecal occult will reveal if there is any blood in the dropping. It is important to have an ill bird eat so if Wasabi will eat seed then I would give her seed at this point, I think the teaspoon of seed with the pellet dust is reasonable. I have a bird that I just brought home from a weeks stay in the hospital she was not eating and was being tube fed and she finally started to eat but all she will eat is seeds and the Dr. said give her whatever she will eat because she has lost so much weight. The droppings do change color and consistency when on an all pellet diet.


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## ChickWas (May 6, 2021)

I'll speak with the vet today and ask if she'd be willing to use the microscopes at the clinic to have a crack at doing a gram stain test and a fecal occult blood test. The vet's the one that told me that the facilities aren't available here, so I'm doubtful. 

I took your advice and she seems to be doing better, her tarry and black stools are gone. So now I feel awful thinking I was starving her without realising, despite spending all of yesterday and the day before with a food bowl in my hand encouraging her to eat pellets. Chick hasn't got an issue with pellets at all, I don't know why Wasabi is all of a sudden putting up resistance. I'll give her a teaspoon of seeds in the morning and a teaspoon at night, after I've spent some time trying to get her to eat pellets on an empty stomach. That way I know for sure she's getting enough to eat. I'm also going to try and make a pellet dough stick with seeds inside so they're forced to eat some pellet at the same time as seeds.


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## ChickWas (May 6, 2021)

The system of seeds in the morning (after giving them 30 mins to eat some pellets) and seeds just before bed seems to be working, I'm just worried I'm conditioning Wasabi to expect and wait for this instead of eating pellets. Wasabi is doing okay, her poops haven't reverted back to diarrhea or big yellow bulky messes, nor are they black and tarry. She's a nightmare to stay on top of though. There's maybe two hours in the morning where she is happy and normal after eating her tsp of seeds, but as soon as she starts getting hungry again, she just goes on seed huntdown mode. This is when she's no longer content staying in the cage, and will keep trying to break out to get to me. She'll fly to a bowl, eat a tiny amount of pellets, then get right back to the "Let me out now" dance.

I had them out almost all day today with me. Chick happily flew back into the cage to eat pellets of her own accord. Wasabi will refuse and only eat if I hold the bowl and peck inside it with my finger. Then she loses interest after a few mouthfuls and starts trying to get to where I keep the seeds. Rinse and repeat aaaaall day. Why is she refusing pellets when she clearly doesn't mind eating them? She's just being a picky eater even if it's to her own detriment. As I'm typing this, she's rattling her bowl and squeezing herself against the bars, meanwhile, Chick is happily preening and isn't interested in escape as she has a crop full of pellets that I didn't even have to babysit her for her to eat them.

I'm waiting until 8pm to give her seeds, and seeing if she eats pellets by herself in the next 45 minutes. She isn't starving because I spent the better part of an hour playing the pellet eating game with her and I saw her crunching and swallowing them. I don't want to give seeds too early as she may get hungry through the night and I'd rather she stuffs herself before bed. This seed addiction is really bad and I can't seem to overcome it no matter what I do:


I've turned it into dough with seeds mixed inside. She just spits out the dough and just wants the seed (Chick eats the dough as well as the seeds)
I've mixed pellets in with veggie chop, she'll eat the veggie but mainly go for the few seeds I sprinkle in
I've mixed pellet dust with seeds, I don't know if it makes a difference
I've mixed pellets with seed but this just wastes the pellets as the bowl ends up having a bunch of shelled seed in it and makes her even less likely to eat the pellets as she just roots around for more seeds

I'm trying to order some Tropicana pellets but they ship internationally from another country and I'm waiting for the wholesaler to get back to me with regards to if shipping is possible. I'm just confused because when we first made the swap, she was eating pellets as easily as Chick was for almost four days, and now suddenly she's decided I'd rather starve than eat pellets?



http://imgur.com/EXh3dmE

Chick ate pellets for a solid ten minutes without any fuss. Meanwhile Wasabi was throwing a tantrum.

Edit: 


http://imgur.com/xAjBfD3

Felt bad and Wasabi wasn't giving up, so I figured I may as well let her out and try holding the bowl for her and what do you know, she starts eating. It's so frustrating.


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## FaeryBee (May 9, 2011)

*She's training you!*


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## Cody (Sep 5, 2013)

She must have a good amount of energy spinning around like that, have you tried putting another food cup in the cage, maybe she does not like sharing.


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## FaeryBee (May 9, 2011)

*Positive Reinforcement in Training.*


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## ChickWas (May 6, 2021)

Cody said:


> She must have a good amount of energy spinning around like that, have you tried putting another food cup in the cage, maybe she does not like sharing.


I have 3 spread evenly throughout the cage. She usually eats from the left side, Chick takes the right. She only does the let-me-out loops on the right side as it's where the rope perch is.

Positive reinforcement seems like an avenue I haven't explored. Will reward her with seeds and clicking the clicker when she eats the pellets for 5 seconds or more. And yes, she really has trained me, which isn't good at all. I just love her and hate seeing her upset, and if she only eats if I hold the bowl, I've got no clue what else to do.


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