Yuck! I'm so glad you caught that- makes me sort of ill just thinking about it!

I get my macs from Gold Crown and get the high quality. They ran out of the high quality once and I had to get the regular and they did not look fresh to me. The high quality have a large fresh appearance. There are always a few that I throw away and do not give my Hys, but shelling is a sure thing. Hys are very picky about foods, so you just have to keep offering new foods. I give their less favorite foods in the morning when they are the most hungry and their favorites at night.

Emily...we don't give mac nuts normally. Just as a treat and they are always the shelled kind simply because I've never even seen them in shell in our area. As for the rest tho...we serve everything in shell for the birds to crack (the LOVE IT). That would include mainly walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts and pecans. I have never had a problem with mold or anything. BUT I have noticed Maple on occasion throw one away without even opening and will have nothing to do with it (and she is a nut-a-holic) so I figure too there must be something wrong with it and chuck it in the garbage. Don't beat yourself up..these things happen. You could not have known. A lot of people feed nuts in the shell.

It seems to me that the bird would be smart enough to not eat a rotten nut. Especially of there were bugs in it. My Grey is very observant and if something doesn't look right, she won't have anything to do with it. It seems like a necessary survival skill.

i think it might be learned behavior, though. ivy is still really young. she was ready to eat that nut and tried to take it back from me when i took it out of her mouth. even if she just licked it and dropped it, she could get very sick.

Poor little Ivy!