[Birdy-Momma]

I have talked to a couple people that used to feed their birds 100% pellets and they both said they lost their birds to gout. The birds were 10 years and older. Does anyone have any research on how to prevent gout in birds?

[Lisa Barnes]

I don't think I know anyone that feeds there birds 100% pellet.
They need fruit vegs a little seed etc.....
It says so right on the bags of pellets.

[Birdy-Momma]

I don't think I know anyone that feeds there birds 100% pellet.
They need fruit vegs a little seed etc.....
It says so right on the bags of pellets.

I personally never feed my Quakers 100% pellets either. I guess I should have said that if you feed mostly pellets. Although when I got the bird from the breeder he said he did feed them 100% pellets. I read the bag of Zupreem and it said to feed at LEAST 80% pellets. Not ONLY 80% pellets. I plan on feeding a few nuts, seeds, pasta, bread, fruit,and vegetables. I just wanted to know if, as the bird gets older, there is a problem with gout because of the protein content in the pellets. Zupreem is about 14% protein. Does that make sense?

[Frankie's Mom]

In my experience very few bird species actually experience gout, though most are able to. Most birds will regulate their diet so as not to overeat. Then, you have the odd ones like our Dwight. Though Dwight is a BFA and not a Q, he will eat and eat and eat until there is no more food. In order to control this, Dwight first had to be switched to a healthy diet, and then have his portions regulated; which we still must do to maintain his 151 gram weight loss and new svelte figure. We were told that Dwight had gout, when in fact, he was simply obese.

Gout in birds is amazingly excruciatingly painful. A bird with gout will not be able to move their wings for exercise, or bear weight on their feet. This being said, the main instances of deaths of birds with gout are caused, believe it or not, from malnutrition because the birds starve themselves to death due to the pain of moving to eat. **All of this information was researched by my avian vet.**

Further, if a bird is found to have the beginning signs of gout, Allopurinol is quite often prescribed to control the gout, however, this drug destroys the liver. Then you have a fat bird with gout with a failing liver, so the toxins build up in the body and begin to effect the operation of the other organs. Our vet that quite often gout in avians is misdiagnosed, and that when a bird is thought to have gout, a full panel of tests including testing liver enzymes and doing xrays to discover arthritis is in order. Many times one will find that the swelling of joints may be caused by arthritis, which is treated very differently than gout would be.

I hope this is helpful to you. I agree with the others in that we DO NOT feed a 100% pelleted diet, either. Variety for our birds is just as important as making sure the variety we feed them is healthy. Very truly stated, they are what they eat.