Thanks. I can feed rice and soft veggies for breakfast. And maybe leave in soft bread crumbs and softened pellets during the day.

sorry i cant be of more help... all i know is i t should be soft... do you have lettuce or kale.. or sprouts.. even if you start sprouts tonight you should have some in the morning... just make sure they are in a warm place and they will start....... you did say winston did eat some seads. thats a good sign... i just said feed some stuff just in case he has scratched his throat in any way... ohhhhhh i will do some research on soft stuff and post before i go to bed..... i am sure things are ok as he doesnt seem to be very uncomfortable at the moment... good luck............. will send good thought s your way.....

Do your birds eat pellets, Sarah? If so, you could soak some in wam water and give to him. Or how about mixed frozen veggies that you warm up with a little water? You could mash them a bit with a tad of water to make them softer and more mash-like. I wish I could be of more help. Will keep my fingers crossed that you will find Winston his old-self in the morning. Keep us posted!

Edited to add: Oops! I missed where you mentioned leaving soft pellets and veggies for Winston, Sarah. I'm not much help, I'm afraid.

Eve does this all the time with favorite foods, always with pistachios...bites off more than he can chew, than a minute later it comes flying out of his mouth. He's perfectly fine and just continues eating as if he wasn't being a dork, and his eyes weren't bigger than his mouth. I sure your little guy will be fine, but I agree sounds like some mash is in order.

Gosh I'm so sorry that this happened. I know how scared you must be, I know I would be. The only suggestion I have would be to give him some oatmeal mixed with a fruit yogurt if you have any in the morning for breakfast, or you could even give him some fruit yogurt tonight if you want, then like everyone else said, soft foods for the next few days and he should be as right as rain. Keep us posted on how he's doing.

Hug's
Judy

Thanks everyone. I got the birds up already so that I could see if he'll eat breakfast. I gave him their rice and veggie mix that he usually loves, but he hasn't come down to eat any yet. He's preened a little but he's mainly still being quiet and kinda fluffed up. I did see him get a drink of water though. I'm off to shower, maybe he'll eat when I'm not watching him all the time lol.

Good news is that my husband is taking the day off because he doesn't feel well (that sounds mean doesn't it!), so he can easily offer the soft foods all day and I won't have to worry about leaving fresh foods in for too long.

Yes, soft food for the next couple of day is a must. One must always remember that these birds don't really eat hard and/or dry things. They have no real saliva to speak of because, in the wild, they feed mostly on vegetal material which always has a very high water content... even the seeds they eat are mostly green seeds (seeds in fruits) and not dried up like the ones we give them so one needs to be always careful of what they eat. Bread is fine -I would prefer only organic, all natural, 100% whole grain- but toast, as much as they seem to like the crunchiness of them, is not that good and he could have swallowed a piece too big without crunching it thoroughly in his beak.

Watch him carefully for the next couple of days and offer him only mushy food like cooked grains, rices, veggies and/or fruits but nothing that would have a high content of acids like citrus (check out my gloop recipe, all birds love it and it's so very healthy for them!). Get yourself some slippery elm, marshmallow and chamomille and make him a tea of one teaspoon of each steeped in two cups of hot water (let it boil and then wait one minute before pouring it on the herbs -you don't want to burn them- and allow it to steep for three minutes), add some organic wild flower honey to it (just a touch to make it a bit sweet) and give him this instead of water. It is very soothing and used to heal irritated internal tissues.

Thank you Randi. One question - what is slippery elm and where is this usually found?

I drove myself in to work today (I carpool normally) and as soon as I get some stuff finished, I'm heading home. He had brown rice + some soft veggies in his cage for 2 hours and he didn't eat any.

EDIT - I've googled slippery elm and I know it's a good herb to soothe and heal sore throat and internal stuff. I just have to figure out where to get it, I can stop somewhere on my way home.

Slippery elm is a tree and the bark has been used for soothing inflammation or irritation both externally and internally for hundreds and hundreds of years. You get it in any place where they sell herbs. I get my herbs from the internet at Mountain Rose Herbs, mostly (here it's a link for their slippery elm: Mountain Rose Herbs|Search Results) and always keep a fresh supply of the basics but in a pinch, you can always get capsules from the pharmacy and open them up (they will have them where they have all the natural supplements). I don't really like to do that because the capsules are concentrated (making it hard to calculate the dosage for a bird) and they sometimes mix other stuff with the herb but like I said, in a pinch... If you do this, use one capsule for the two cups of water.

If he continues not to eat, take him to the vet asap, crop impaction or injury is a serious thing that needs to be treated immediately. If he eats but still doesn't seem comfortable to you, try putting some of the tea into his beak with a syringe (about .2 cc at a time, three times a day) -do you know how to do that? Hold the bird in your non-dominant hand (the left for me as I am right handed) wrapped in a small towel (not tight, just enough so he doesn't struggle and hurt himself) and hold his head with your index and thumb from the back (again, very gently, these are very small birds you are dealing with) placing them on each side of his head, kind or resting the tips right where the neck joins the head) and open his beak with the tip of the syringe from the left side (the upper beak always has a bit of a curve that allows you to do this), and in one single movement, squirt the liquid into it, remove the syringe and bring the bird to an upright position so he doesn't choke. It sounds very complicated and hard but it's not. It is actually quite easy to do it once you get the knack of it.