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I bought a huge bag of the higgin's premium snack attack (25lbs) a while back. My birds go through alot of food (and alot of it is wasted because I change their food twice a day)
Anyways, I divid the food up by putting it in individual 5lb containers. Yesterday, as I was scooping the food out I found what looked like a rice ball the size of a golf ball. I tasted it and it tasted really sugary and numbed my throat (??????) I have no idea what this 'thing" was but I stopped feeding the food to my birds. I emailed the company what it could possibly be (maybe dried fruit that stuck to together???? hopefully not rat poisoning or something toxic) Hopefully I will hear from the company at some point. I wished I had saved it and sent it to the company but it fell in the sink and down the drain before i could retreive it.

BB,

That "something" you found could possibly be a ball of calcium or minerals that somehow got moist and everything bonded together. The part about it numbing your throat is what bothers me. I know of no ingredient used in cockatiel foods or seed mixes that would have any anesthetic properties. Have you checked the other containers for contamination? Might want to spread the seed out on a table and scrutinize the contents.

Sam

The containers were clean. i just got an email from the higgin's company and they said it was most likely pineapple bits that did not get separated in the processor. (It makes sense)
they said they send me a free 20lb bag of the food if i just paid for the shipping.

*another thing..it makes sense that it was a clump of pineapple bits. because it made my throat numb. Most dried friut (and wine) have sulfur. I am sensitive to sulfur.

Hmmm.... I'm a bit surprised they put pineapple in a seed mix. I've never heard of sulphur sensitivity, but I am kinda in the dark about food sensitivities since I don't have any that I'm aware of.

Sam

Chibi, just fyi , red wines has sulfites in it so people who get migraines are urged not to drink red wine because they are ususally sensitive to the sulfites. The same goes with dried fruits.
I do not know how this affects birds. like people, there may some birds that are sensitive to dried fruit products (?) The budgies like this seed mix (and it smells yummy)but since I know there is dried friut in the mix I will not let Button eat it since she is so sensitive to everything. Thank God she likes Harrison's mash

Just out of curiosity I took a look at the Higgins seed products.
I don't know what mix you are using but I couldn't see any pineapple listed in the ingredients.

Oops, now I see...Snack attack does have pineapple.

You know its love when you taste your bird's food not knowing what's in it and what you could be allergic to. Smart-self sacrifice for your birdie for the win!

Its so very "testing the bottle" for baby

Yes the things I do for my birds!
I no longer eat muffins (at home) because the birds try to eat it. It is too sugary & fatty for them (and me). I have to make brown rice and pasta for them (mixed with veggies). We ALL eat it!
As much as I love dogs & cats. I would not "test" their food (I'm a vegetarian and their food literally looks and smells like $h*^.I wear gloves to handle their food when caring for a customer. Meat and meat byproducts really gross me out)

BB,

Your comment about the sulfites brought back a memory. When we lived in CA, I had met a fella who was a command pilot for TWA. He and I hit it off pretty good, so we made plans to meet in San Francisco for lunch one weekend. Perry (the friend) and myself and Emi went to some hotel restaurant in town, and of course, we all had a garden salad. Perry had to fly back to MCI that evening and after he got airborne, we conversed a bit more on ham radio. Not long after we said our goodbye's Perry got extremely sick and had give command to the co-pilot. We came to find out the restaurant had "spiked" the salad vegetables with sulfites to preserve them. Perry did not know at the time what had occurred, but later he found out the salad had made him very sick. IIRC, there is now a law against using sulfites in vegetables, or it has to be made public that some or all the vegetables have been treated with sulfites. Can you imagine the outcome if he were the only pilot on board and what would have happened if an L-1011 jet fully loaded came crashing out of the sky? Kind of scary, but stuff does happen. Yes, I'm aware of wine containing sulfites, and it's listed on the label of the bottle.

Sam

HEY! We're vegitarian too! We try to go to Whole Foods or some place like that because you can get dried fruit without sulfites. Would these sulfites be damaging to birds? We've wondered about that but so far they seem to be fine... They like the fruit in Jet's birdie mix better because it has sulfites and is therefore more colorful. Dried fruit without sulfites turnes darker in color so they don't like it as much.

Pure foods are the way to go
Last weekend, I was at a party at my cousins. I imbibed for the first time in YEARS with a rum & coke beverage.I was deathly ill i mean deathly ill (emergency room). At first I thought since I have not had an adult beverage in so long it had to be the rum.
No.
It was the coke. the DIET coke. I react severely from artifical sweetners.
So...I have been ingesting milk thistle now to get the toxins out of my system. It taste awful but I feel better...

IMO Aspartame is THE worst additive around!
Do not drink or eat anything "diet", just have the full sugar version but less of it!