Meme,  I waited til now to answer this because Diana ekkie was already asleep when you posted.  Gave her a good sniff this morning.  Absolutely NO body odor. Her breath smells very lightly of garlic.  Not foul at all.  Maybe be a garlic flavor in her pelletted food, but garlic is not listed on the label.  I know that your ekkie is new to you, so if you haven't taken it for a vet check-up, you really should.  Is it a very young bird?  Please give us more info.  How old? Still being hand-fed?  If not a baby, is it from a pet store or breeder or was it someone's pet?  What types of food is he eating, pellets, seed, human meals, fresh raw veggies, fruits, bean mixes? What spices or herbs are you giving him? 

Will watch for more info from you.

Annie

Thank you for your reply. My husband smelled him and it is coming from his head/beak area. My ekkie is named Emerald and he is 7 months old. (We have been with him since he was 5 months old.) We purchased him from a breeder. He took a long time to wean and when we thought he was weaned he went back to his feedings. His diet is pellets,friuts, veggies (peppers, onions, corn,  lima beans, peas, etc..)  and whatever I cook (breakfast, lunch, and dinner). We were thinking that it is just the items he eats, but wasn't really sure and all the info we have found on an eclectus never said anything about a smell. He eats like he has never eaten before, lol. He is a great talker. He says: such a pretty bird ( adds pretty numerous times, lol), what a good boy, hi, hello, Emerald and dozen of other words.

Hi Meme,  Does your husband agree that the odor is "foul"?  His diet sounds good but I wonder if maybe he is getting more protein than his body needs.  I think a call or visit to a vet is needed.  If this is a yeast in his mouth, the vet can identify it with a simple swab test.

Emerald sounds wonderful.  My Diana is my best talker, too, and has a sweet little girl sounding voice. She was very slow in weaning, too, almost a year old, but we both had such fun that we weren't in a big rush.

Please let us know what you find out.  This is very interesting because I have never heard of an ekkie having a bad odor.  Hope it turns out to be only the foods he has been eating.

I will do a search thru some of the ekkie sites I have saved and see if I can find anything.  Will write again if I find anything.

Annie

Thanks everyone for all your replies. With your help we were able to find out what the problem is. It is in his diet!  We adjusted his veggies and gave him different things to eat and he has no smell at all! When we give him onions or peppers we offered him a treat and that has taken the smell away. When we purchased Emerald we took him to the vet and had tests done on him and everything came back fine.

So glad to see your reply and happy you found the cause.   I don't know of any nutritional benefit in feeding him onions so you may be able to prevent any odor at all by not giving them to him.  They won't hurt him in small amounts but I absolutely hate "onion breath".  I remember we had members who said garlic is very good for them and they give their birds garlic quite often.  Oooh, not me.  Maybe someone will see this and tell us the benefit of garlic in their diet.

Are you aware of the foods that are not safe?  Avocados, chocolate, alcohol, caffeine, several fruit pits--plum, peach, apricot-- and several fruit's seeds including apple and pear seeds and salty foods.

Hope you will continue to pop in here and share stories about Emerald.

Annie

 

 

okay - i have onions listed on my "no feed" list - i will look to see if i can find more info on this....                -jen

well, of course i found lots of conflicting info.  some sites listed onions as toxic -  "absolutely do not feed" right along with avocados and chocolate.  one site stated that onions in small amounts is fine.one site casually mentions a list of produce fed to their birds - onions being one of many..... so, what have we learned here?.......not much.

Jens--this is the rule I use for myself if lists are contradictory--If I see something on two no no lists I don't touch it--If I only see it on one I probably won't touch it--If I see it on 3 safe lists--I figure its okay.        Katz

Not only have I seen onions on the no-no list, I have also seen garlic listed on it too. I used to add garlic to many dishes I made, but now if I know that Tico will be eating it, I do not add garlic anymore.                         Lorain

Here's what I found but it's only one opinion.  According to Carolyn Swicegood, a breeder of Eclectus parrots and writer of many avian articles.

I am paraphrasing to avoid copyright violations.

Garlic has anti-oxidant properties and anti-parasitic properties. It protects the liver from the damage of the contaminants in the air, food and water.

She says it should be used sparingly and in the fresh form, not the concentrated powdered form. It belongs in the family of plants that can cause anemia in animals if given for long periods of time.

You can see her complete article by typing "parrots and garlic" in your browser. It's one of the Winged Wisdom magazine series.

 

The allium family includes garlic and onion plus many flowering bulbs.  And in thinking about this, I have seen some flowering bulbs on the unsafe plants lists, although not garlic and onion that I can recall.

 

Also, in the BB sidebar is an article entitled Onion Toxicity by Gillian Willis.

 

IMO, if there is any question about safety, don't feed it to birds.

Annie

 

 

I'm glad that the information about onions has been put on here.  I read this very early in the discussion and was going to mention onions--that they are commonly found on *do not feed* lists, but I wanted to find the REASON behind it first.  Got busy and....well, you know the rest of the story

 

I was going to say that the foods sounded like the culprit to me.  Nothing much worse than broccoli breath. 

Yeah...Onion breath!  ewwwww...Hi!, I'm Hewey from Hawaii...How Are ya...Hunh?

Hello everyone. Emerald is doing fine. He is calling the kitty right now (we don't have a cat, ha ha.). He has not had a smell to him since I have stopped feeding him onions. I have also cut back the amount of peppers he is getting, I usually give him a very small amount once a week. I have been searching and have found nothing on onions and peppers. I notice that every once in awhile he has a faint smell from what he is eating, but not the strong foul smell anymore. Thanks again for all the help and info!

Bump for Herbfolkes.

Annie