She stinks!

[Anita]

I have two parrotlets and they're great! I noticed a couple days ago that one my cuties stinks. Her face smells like garbage. My thought was that it was their food (they're trying out a flavour of Beak Appetite that they've never had before - Nuts for Alfredo) but only one bird stinks. Any thoughts???

[Rosekeet]

I actually have no idea. I'd say it's the food, but if only one bird is smelly, I'm not sure. You might want to consider taking the smelly one to a vet.

[jodeg]

I can't imagine either! About a year ago, I gave my 3 Zupreem Fruity Pellets instead of their regular Roudybush Crumbles pellets. Someone had told me their bird stopped plucking after they were on the fruity pellets, and of course I'll try ANYTHING to stop Kiwi's plucking!

Her plucking didn't stop, but I noticed right away that Kermit's (my male) feathers started smelling really funky, not fruity but very strange. The other two were fine. I switched them back to the Roudybush and the smell went away really quickly.

Good luck and hope you figure out what's causing the problem!

[chapala]

What they eat can affect how they smell, but if she stinks, I would be concerned that it might be a symptom of illness. Does she have a messy beak after eating that doesn't get cleaned off? That would smell bad after awhile. Most birds clean their beaks on perches and things though.

Re the fruity pellets, the artificial flavorings actually do make the bird smell. We had a foster Greenwing Macaw for 14 months, and she was fed only rainbow pellets (kaytee) when we got her - her feathers had a weird, sickly, artificial fruit smell. The smell went away quickly as I changed her diet, and she smelled like nice, fresh Macaw very soon.

[wishingbee]

Poor bird! This may sound odd, but my mom's body metabolizes garlic weirdly. A teeny tiny amount in her food and she will smell REALLY strongly. She'd use it to get back at my father on various occasions, all in good fun of course. :)

I hope her birdie b.o. is not a sign of anything serious. I did google nuts for alfredo, and another person had their bird smell a little funky on that diet.

By EAJ (Oak Park, IL) - See all my reviews (http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A3W0N6QLUA1GUK/ref=cm_cr_dp_auth_rev?ie=UTF8&sort_by=MostRecentReview) I've been happy with the high-quality ingredients in Beak Appetit's "cookable" varieties, and so has my parrot. He now gets excited when I turn on the microwave to heat it up in the morning. I do recommend, as the manufacturer does also, serving a layer of nutritious "back up" dry food under the cooked food, since after the cooked food cools it's not as appetizing to the bird (think cold bowl of oatmeal). One quirky thing about the "Nuts for Alfredo" variety, though, is that after a couple of days my parrot started to smell, um, *spicy*, like he'd really been eating a pile of pasta alfredo. And while that sort of thing smells wonderful while it's cooking, it's not terribly becoming to bird breath. I switched to the sweeter varieties instead -- like the Carribean Crunch or Calypso Spice. Now my bird smells nice and cinnamony, and I can deal with that. :)

Review found here: http://www.amazon.com/Beak-Appetit-Nuts-Alfredo-Birds/dp/B0002FP30U
(http://www.amazon.com/Beak-Appetit-Nuts-Alfredo-Birds/dp/B0002FP30U)