FINCHforum

Hello all!
Things have been going very well with my two female canaries. Over the weekend I mixed up a batch of eggfood for them and the day after noticed runny, yellow urates... Whereas before, their urates / poo looked normal. I wanted to post and get your feedback on what might be causing this... Their urates still look a little off, but not as badly as they did the day after feeding.

The ingredients I put in the eggfood: Quicko regular egg food (mixed as directed)
Sprouted seed (was sprouted, dried, then frozen / thawed before use)
Grated veggies (carrot, bell pepper, kale, squash, frozen in cubes, then thawed).
Cooked rice (a very small amount I had left over from a meal, no salt or other additives)

They have had all of these ingredients before, save the rice. I have also never mixed up a batch of eggfood using water... typically I've just added the dry eggfood to the veggies and stirred.

I was thinking that this could be some sort of colorant in the eggfood, or that it went off very quickly once in the cage and that caused some stomach issues.

If you have experienced anything similar or have any feedback, I'd love to hear it.

Thanks!

artgecko

Sounds like there are too many liquidy things in the mix.

I hard boil the eggs, peel them (saving the shells), and put them through a large garlic press. To this I add some store bought bird egg food, crumbled spray millet, and pulverised freeze dried meal worms.

The end product is more or less dry and crumbly.

The egg shells are dried, crushed, and added to my grit mix.

Vegetables are served seperately.

Thanks! I will try doing the veggies separately and only mix the commercial food, millet, and sprouted seeds (along with egg) for the other part to keep it drier.

artgecko

Good luck

food consumed that has color to it often leeches into the urates... quite normal if giving dried egg food or colored pellets or dark leafy greens.

soft food that is wet mixed with dried food will still spoil at the same rate as will egg food mixed with dried egg food...it should only be left out for a max of two hours then removed. Most birds eat their fill in 30 minutes.

Thanks!
Their urates / feces seems to be close to normal now, without the yellowish tinge. I will definitely use a drier mix next time and do the veggies separately.

it is the color and food matter that leeches into the droppings, you will see this also if using a powdered vitamin supplement in soft foods or a colored pelleted diet or even just plain commercial egg food

I see... What is interesting is that I haven't seen it before when feeding the egg food (commercial quicko) dry crumbled over the seeds, etc. I'm guessing that they just weren't eating enough of it to have an effect with it dry and ate more when I prepared it with water.

The supplements I use don't have coloration, other than the kelp powder, but I only supplement with that once a week. I'm guessing the quicko has yellow color in it to make it look more "eggy".

Thank you for your time and help!

Higgins egg food is all egg with seed and it does the same thing...