No joke: Parrot in Bangkok swallows 21 diamonds after raiding owner's jewellery box

A diamond is forever but what happens if you throw a parrot into the mix?

On Tuesday (June 22), Frosty, a pet parrot in Bangkok, Thailand, raided its owner's jewellery box and appeared to be enamoured of what it had found inside.

A diamond necklace caught the bird's eye and that spelt trouble — Frosty decided to gobble the sparkly jewels up for breakfast.

By lunchtime, the eight-month-old sun parakeet looked weak and had lost its appetite.

Noticing something was off, the bird's owner quickly brought it to the nearby Animal Space Hospital for an X-ray. 

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Chances are she (and the vets) did not expect to see tiny bead-like objects in the bird's belly. Frosty then had to be swooped away for surgery. 

The operation took over two hours and vets recovered 21 diamonds, each around 0.2 carats, that the bird pecked from the woman's necklace.

Dr Kuntita Paveenasakorn from the hospital told Sanook: "This kind of bird is attracted to things that glitter.

"We see this kind of situation a lot but this case was strange because the parrot ate lots of valuable diamonds."

The diamonds, with their sharp edges, gave the bird stomach aches and would have wounded its organs if the owner did not take it to the vets, he added.

According to Thairath, Frosty is recovering well in hospital and is expected to be discharged by the end of the month.

If your pet bird ate a foreign object, take it to a nearby vet and observe for the following symptoms: abnormal faeces, loss of appetite, lethargy.

The glitter of diamonds is hard to resist, we totally get it.

It might be a good time to check your jewellery box and see if your own pet decided to pull a similar stunt.

ALSO READ: No joke: Cat eats owner's degree, but internet is on its side

amierul@asiaone.com