I have recently been hand rearing a clutch of African Grey chicks that
were between 10 and 14 days old when they were removed from the nest
because one of the parents was causing scabs to appear on their heads,
(possibly from over-zealous preening).
The chicks were being fed on Versele Laga’s Nutribird A19 hand rearing formula as there has been a problem obtaining the usual KayTee hand rearing food. Quite quickly the faeces started showing pink stains that looked suspiciously like blood. The chicks all seemed well and were gaining weight normally, but were taken to an avian veterinarian as the staining continued. Sometimes it was worse than others and was really quite unpredictable. The vet felt that the staining might be due to pigments in the rearing food as he also thought that the chicks seemed to be quite healthy.
I decided to write to Versele Laga describing the problem and
their reply was reassuring:
“The problem that you wrote to us about is well known. Some baby parrots have red coloured stains on the bedding. Breeders often confuse this colouring with blood in the faeces but this is not the case. In a differential diagnostic table Dr. Susan Chubb gives the possible causes for red coloured stains on the bedding:
1. Normal metabolite in urine of some species,
as Pionus, Amazons, Psittacus
2. Natural betacarotines in foods such as yellow corn
3. Supplemental betacarotines
4. Reaction of unknown substances (perhaps iodine based) with starches
in paper towelling
5. Possible photoreactive pigments
6. Possible reaction to oxygen (rusting of iron metabolites)
I believe the first cause happens in your case.”
I hope this reassures those of you who may be experiencing the same
worries that I was. The chicks have all weaned successfully now and
gone off to their new homes and I was impressed by the quality of the
Versele Laga rearing food and intend to use it again.
