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Oh my, what a tragic event for you both! I am amazed & glad he made it through that! Has it occurred to you he has scar tissue from such a sharp item being stuck? It may hurt him to eat anything other than soft foods. Maybe he feels cared he is gonna get something stuck again, thus having you there for comfort while he eats? He may just need very soft foods like baby type foods, mashed potatoes, porridge, super soft pasta? It may hurt him to eat anything that is not super soft, tissue/scar damage can be painful . Just my thoughts. Have you tried leaving applesauce or soft butternut mashed squash for him in his bowls while you are gone to see if he tries to eat by himself. He may just lie the comfort, clearly he is still troubled & traumatized from his life-threatening ordeal. Maybe in time he will gain confidence that he can safely eat by himself , you may just have to be patient. He can't tell you why he is scared of if anything still hurts when he eats.... Please keep us posted

Not quite sure how to break the dependency, but with respect to his food, can you dip his fruit into, say, some quinoa or something blended, present it to him with the new food 'hidden' on the other side of the fruit? You can also purchase freeze dried veggies, pulverize them and dip the fruit into the powdered veggies and offer the fruit pieces in a similar way. I add a combo of flaxseed meal, hemp hearts and chia seeds and sprinkle it onto my flock's banana slices. Super healthy for them. Just a few thoughts as to how to bump up his nutrition. Over time you can hopepfully reintroduce the food as separate very tiny pieces for him to hopefully pick through.

Wow, so glad Jako survived! I wish I had an answer but I don't. I would keep trying to tempt him with things he likes. I might even try feeding him cooked sweet potato or some other thin foods by syringe to whet his appetite. Other than that, no ideas! Good luck

Dear Friends, My companion, a Jako (African Grey Parrot), and I have been together for 15 years. In 2016, we faced an unfortunate incident when a cable tie got stuck in his crop, leading to serious health issues. The first symptoms were lethargy and loss of appetite. After blood, urine, and stool tests, as well as X-rays, we identified the problem and started a treatment plan with medication prescribed by the vet. However, even after the treatment was completed, my parrot still refused to eat on his own. To keep him alive, I had to hand-feed him a mixture of A/D Restorative Care food and baby formula using a syringe every morning and evening. Over time, he lost weight, became weak, and struggled to fly. But with great effort over nearly a year, I managed to nurse him back to health. Now, he is much better, active, and lively. However, the biggest issue remains: he still won’t eat on his own. He no longer eats the Harrison’s Bird Food or sunflower seeds he once loved. He only consumes fruits like apples, pears, and quinces. When I come home from work, he paces in his cage, waiting for me to feed him. He even holds his droppings all day and only relieves himself once I take him out and encourage him. At feeding time, he eagerly flies onto me, desperate to be hand-fed. How can I encourage him to eat on his own? How can I break this dependency? I would greatly appreciate any guidance or expert advice on helping him regain his natural eating habits. I would be truly grateful for your help. Thank you in advance for your time and support.

I'm late too but Happy New Year! GreycieMae actually tanked up on eggnog news years day. What a piggy.

Happy New Year to all our family & our feathers, & fur families! We put our Xmas tree between the bird rom & living room where we have 2 French doors, It is amazing how my parrots squeeze thru to fly to their cages at night!

I'm a bit late to the party but happy new year everyone!

Happy New Year to you, too!

Happy New Year to my friends here on the forum! Hope everyone is well. We are currently in the ice/snow/cold misery of the midwest, but this too shall pass. I miss hearing from many of you, but still appreciate that this forum is still here! God bless you one and all.

Love the pics! He's adorable!

Yes! Look at him standing proud on there. Timber won't step up on anything but my arm (and only in the hoodie). Good for you!

Hmm. I wonder if it's because I did it on my phone... can you see them now?

I can't see the pics, drat! Glad you found a solution though. Those picky, picky, picky birds. Timber has decided he only wants to step up if I'm wearing a certain navy hoodie, so it permanently resides on my snack bar stool.

Just a slight update on this one. I found and purchased a smaller handheld perch as I figured that would be much easier to carry around to different places with me. It came with a plastic 'guard' that I don't think I can detach (although haven't tried to yet in case I break it). I've had it for a good few weeks and have been slowly introducing it to Alfie. He wasn't keen at first because it was something different. So I took it slow and just got him used to touching it with his beak and rewarding him with treats when he did. He hasn't stepped up on it and usually runs away if I ask him to step up on it. I haven't forced the issue. But tonight, he decided now was the time that he would step up and let me walk him round the room. Lots of praise ensued so he knew it was a good thing. So here he is, on his new portable perch! (I just noticed I had it the wrong way round with the plastic guard pointing in the wrong direction haha)

From everything I've read, when I was researching safe cookware, I wouldn't think teflon would offgas at 300 degrees. The problem comes when the temps are high, like 400 to 500 if I recall. I'm not sure what happens if the tape becomes degraded though.

I do understand your concern. I wonder if there's any literature from the teflon tape manufacturer that mentions the maximum heat it can withstand before breaking down. It's unfortunate that we don't have a necropsy report follow-up on Monkey's bird. a

Right but every radiator in the world uses Teflon tape and many people with birds have steam/hot water heat and I can’t find anything about it you would think if it could happen we would know about it like we do the pans , I’m not an expert but I think they get up to about 300 degrees and it’s not direct heat like a flame , wish I could find more , I really need to install a new radiator,

Having lost 2 birds within 30 minutes of each other, I can attest that high heat exposure will release teflon vapors and kill birds. My husband had returned home after living in another state for work and brought back his kitchen pots, etc. Unbeknownst to me, one of the pans contained teflon. My son used that pan to cook bacon over very high heat, suddenly killing 2 of my babies. Luckily our other 11 birds survived the exposure. My thoughts are that if his radiator reached high temperatures, it could have activated the teflon tape. It's quite unusual for such a young bird to quickly die like that, unless he had an undiagnosed medical condition.

I don't think the results were ever posted.

I no this post is years old but has op ever posted the results? Was it the teflon tape ?

All I have is my experience. No matter what I say or how I try to correct the behavior, Timber will still bite me occasionally. It's rare, but it happens and always takes me by surprise. You seem to know the problem (cause) of the bite, so avoiding a repeat of that will surely help. With Timber, I have yet to determine why he seems compelled to take a plug out of me once in awhile. I'm sure he has his reasons, but I can't discern them.

So today was another mistake, as my wife Brenda says, when she took Caesar to his play area ( garden size tub) which already held the remains of many brown paper bags. Instead of allowing Caesar to step down on the side of the tub or allowing him to directly step into the tub, Brenda was first going to move to the side some of the paper rubble so Caesar could have his new paper bag on the bottom of the tub. As Brenda says it was her mistake to touch his paper rubble (his nest). Caesar immediately bit Brenda on the base of the thumb bringing blood. She immediately shouted "NO, bite, NO, hurt Brenda" several times and took him to his sleeping cage in his private room and covered him up repeating again"NO, bite, NO, hurt Brenda"several times. Caesar is very social and wants to be with people. After about 10 minutes, Brenda went to Caesar, uncovered his cage and showed him her thumb saying Caesar hurt Brenda, NO, bite Brenda. Current plan is to clean up the garden tub playground and not return Caesar to it for a period of time. Your thoughts, experiences and suggestions are welcome.

Sorry to hear about the recall scare but hopefully all are safe and well.

Love this! LOL Well, I went thru all the 8 boxes I have in my freezer ( I buy them when they are on sale) Only 2 boxes have a matching lot code, the rest are not on the 18 page recall list, so I think I'm good. I did buy the Eggo's brand yesterday for today's breakfast. I'll see how well they went over when I go home from work today.. It's funny how well they have us trained!

Sorry to hear about the recall. Found it humorous that your birds have you feeding them frozen waffles and only a certain brand. Who's running that show anyway?!? My birds have me trained on Honey Grahams. And we call them 'cookies' around here. They go wild when I ask 'who wants a cookie?'. GreycieMae will hang from the cabinet door where the cookies are stored.