Greetings from Dallas, TX

[nerdgirl98]

I have whole flock of birds, many recently acquired from one person. One of the birds is an IRN that seems to be bonded to a Sun Conure. They are in the same cage cuddled to each other. The only aggressive birds in the whole flock is a different Sun Conure and the IRN. Those two pick on the Alexandrine parakeet (the sweetest, most gentle bird). I hope to get them all hand tamed before summer. I'm working separately with a sick blue Quaker trying to get her well. Her name is Chilly Willy and I unknowingly bought her as a very sick bird. She is full of metal objects but I don't know what type of metal or how long ago she ingested it. Next step is heavy metal testing to determine correct treatment. She is on antibiotics, anti fungals and metamucil. I get to save all her poop so I can hit it with the metal detector....fun fun.

[MissK]

Dunno if this will be helpful or not, but here's what I know about poop and metal:

Vet told me once you can put the poop in a disposable jar with some water, give a good shake and let it settle. When settled, you should be able to see what the animal ate in strata in the jar.

I tried this and found it to be horribly nasty. I added my own twist on it, put the mess into a strong zip freezer bag, and used a magnet to attract the metal that had been eaten and pooped out.

Of course, this will only be working on a metal that responds to a magnet, so limited utility.

Best wishes.

[nerdgirl98]

Thanks MissK. We had jokingly talked about putting a strong magnet near her rearend.. (I wouldn't put her anywhere near a magnet) I didn't think about examining the poo with magnet. That would narrow down the types of metal if I found any.