i have 3 birds, an african grey, an indian ringneck, and a cockatiel. Ollie my ringneck seems a bit down, and his feathers are a bit dull, he has a mix of parakeet and parrot food as well as fresh food, looking at him i'd say he needs a vitamin supplement, ive tried the bogena vitamin that can go in either the food or water but he will neither eat or drink when i use it, can anybody suggest any other vitamins that theyve either used themselves or know someone who has that the birds dont seem to mind. Ollie is 4 years old, and recently the african grey Billy managed to peck his head through the cage, as skin wasnt broken was advised by vet not to put anything on it. Ollie is still eating and drinking just looks abit run down.

tanya

I give my guys Avimix and they don`t seem to have a problem with it.
The problem with birds is that they hide ill health for as long as possible, so there could well be an underlying disease.

Hope he`ll feel beter soon!

Hi Tanya,
I use Vita-sol liquid multi-vitamin.  My boy (Amazon) drinks his water no problem with this added.  Worth a try.

Sarah.

Have you recently introduced anything new to his diet? We had an African Grey once who we genuinely thought suffered from bouts of depression as he would appear very down and lifeless for periods of time. We tried all sorts of vitamins and tonics but nothing really helped. Eventually we figured out that his 'down' periods were coinciding with the times when he was regularly being fed lychees (as they were available in the supermarket and he loved them so Mum would always buy them for him as a treat) and he was perky at the times when lychees weren't readily available. Our Amazon regularly ate the lychees too and never suffered any ill effects.

nope no new food, he had to be put back in with the cockateil about 3 months ago, as the bottom of his cage (plastic bit) shattered, they were separated last year after ollie got his foot caught on the blinds and severed his toe, as he had stitches they needed to be separated. his food hasnt changed, other than he is having a bit more dried fruit, how much of it he is eating i dont know as he has a habit of throwing it all on the floor. ill give the vita sol drops a try see if that makes any difference. Im in the process of building an avairy so hell be able to get a bit more exercise, cant let them out as much in the summer gets too hot, and i dont fancy any accidents with fans

tanya

I add Hartz Multi-vitamins into their water and they drink it just fine - 2 male cockatiels and a male budgie all in one cage. I also have a dish of bird gravel for them as well which I see them at sometimes.

Have you tried adding in and taking out old toys, rotating them it helps with boredom. If so then just ignore that :D

they havent had any new toys for a while so ill try that as well

thanks
tanya