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 recently joined this forum and posted in the Memorial section after losing a 6 month old Grey. I am awaiting his necropsy results.

I did SO much research on Greys before I bought one, months and months of reading articles, lists, forums, books I was super careful. I threw out my smellies, stopped wearing perfume, stopped using air fresheners, even the tumble drier. I knew how dangerous Teflon is to birds, and I thought I knew every appliance Teflon was hidden in, until today.

My sweet bird Elwood passed away. I won't go into it again as I've posted in the Memorials, but I have been racking my brain as to what I did wrong.

I live in the UK, and it's just turned cold enough to warrant using my heating. My place is heated using radiators. Last year I had a new radiator installed, and my desk is situated right next to this radiator. Elwood was out, he'd had breakfast, he flew to me, played, had headrubs then died. No warning. It was very fast and I am devastated.

The radiator had been on prior to him being out, so it was in the cooldown stage.

At 1st I wondered if radiators were covered in a paint that could be toxic to birds, but after some research I've found they're powder coated, much like bird cages.

Then I found out after lots of searching, that plumbers primarily use PTFE Tape (aka Teflon Tape) on valves, pipes, and connectors.

I understand Teflon is only apparently a danger when it's heated to a very high level, OR if it's damaged in any way but as it's invisible and impossible for us to detect, how will I ever know?

Has anyone else had any experience with this? Could this tape be to blame?

They use the tape much like a putty, to seal pipes.

Any insight on this would be appreciated, thanks.

Is there anything I can do about this? He doesn't appear to be traumatized. Still just as noisy and knows how to get this food and water

The reason I am posting now is that she is having a harder time walking and perching.  Normally, Greys have two toes forward and two toes behind.  Recently the smaller, rear toe on her left foot rotated to the front of her foot.  This new development worried me a lot.  I think this is because her twisted spine has caused her left foot to twist so that it is rotated away from being parallel with her other foot.  See photos.   

We took her to see the same avian vet who saw her many years ago.   He did a physical exam on her left leg and determined that the joint right above her foot was “lax” but he did not think that ligament on that leg was out of position and there was no sign of a broken bone.  I am sure that this is a result of the amount of pressure her twisted spine/hip has exerted over the years on this joint.  He did not seem overly concerned about the back toe rotating to the front of her left foot.  He said she might have injured in her left leg recently [we haven’t seen any serious falls for quite some time].  We really didn’t want to have her admitted to his clinic for imaging tests because I didn’t want to leave her there AND I just don’t think it would have told us anything his exam didn’t reveal.  He gave us some pain meds [meloxicam/tramadol] and told us to keep an eye on whether she seems more mobile and comfortable. I was wondering if [when our vet saw the rotated toe] he would recommend removing the toe but that topic never came up.

So here is my question:  has anyone else dealt with this type of problem and was there anything you can recommend?   For years we have tried to remove the perches in her sleeping cage so she can sleep on top of towels but she is just frantic/miserable when we have done that.  We do have a “play box” we put her in for some time during the day that has soft fabric to stand on but she doesn’t want to sleep in this box.  As I am sure everybody understands, I really don’t want to stress her out any more.  Thank you for any ideas. 

Thank you for any advice or insight you may have.  Terry

I thought I ask to err on the side of caution, Rosie is a recovering plucker.  Since she adopted us about 2 months ago it appears some of her feathers are starting to grow back in.  When I give her scritches I can feel pin feathers however she does not let me help her with them, she very politely grabs my finger and pushes it away.  About a week ago I started to notice what appeared to be some baby feathers and some larger feathers at the bottom of her cage and her play stand.  The first time I wrote it off as molting, but I have begun to see more.  I have not noticed any blood at the base of the feathers, but I thought I would ask the group to see if anyone has any ideas.  She is out of her cage about 8-10 hours out of the day with me in my office.  She gets chop in the morning that my wife and I make and pellets in the afternoon.  She has a playstand with toys and in her cage has several toys she can shred/chew although she is not much of a toy bird.  I attached a picture of a few of the feathers I found at the bottom of her playstand.  Is she going through a molt as her feathers start regrowing or is she back on the plucking train?  Any advice would be welcome.  Thanks in advance.

Jeremy. 

My guys (or gal, not sure of the sex) has been acting a little on the hormonal side with a heavy emphasis on the regurgitation, theyve been playing and chatting as normal but the last day or so hasn't been eating much. They'll eat some blue berries but has gone completely off their kibble (ZUPREEM fruit blend). Could the appetite change be related to hormones? We went to the vet 2 months ago for this and my guy came up clean.  But I noticed the last time seemed to coincide with more hormonal kinds of behavior. Putting them to be a little earlier seemed to be the fix weirdly enough. 

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

          So the thread title says it all. I know it's a common problem. I I have not taken her to the vet yet. I live in Japan and there are no local vets and the nearest one was 3 hours away, but we did find one an hour and half a way and we have set an appointment for this coming Monday.  

So I think she is plucking because of nesting behavior. It started a few years ago when she started laying eggs. We try our hardest to discourage this. She has a separate sleeping cage and that could be the issue, as she usually only does it when she goes to bed. I've noticed that when I clean her cage out she starts plucking pretty bad again. how can I keep her cage clean?

I know I should try keeping her in her main cage for bed time, but my house is really small and her cage is in the main living room where we can spend most of our time with her. It would be too loud for her if we kept her in there at night. Plus winter time is pretty harsh and old Japanese houses aren't insolated so warming up a smaller area (her sleep cage) is easier than keeping her in the main cage which uses a oil radiator. It's pretty expensive keeping it running through out winter as it is now. 

We still aren't sure if that's the main cause, so we're going to see what the vet says. Hopefully he can be helpful as local vets in general, even the ones that were trained in avian medicine, have been horrifying. He has a youtube channel and does talk a lot about bird issues. I'm hoping it's not stress. We have her out a few hours a day including walks outside when the weather is warm enough, try and feed her a good diet, and try and interact with her as much as possible. 

I hate showing this video, but you can see the size of my house and a little bit of where her cage is located. Any help will be appreciated! 

Edit: I would also love to try products that would help, but they do not exist in Japan. Maybe home remedies?? 

About three weeks ago we rescued a 20 yr old female CAG, her name is Boomer and she is such a sweet girl! The people that surrendered her to us had inherited her, and were not able to provide the necessary care and attention she requires. Boomer has been in a travel cage for about three years now, a cat sized metal cage.  I was told she came out and sat on a perch most days, however it is small and provides no room for exercise. She is a lil’ chunky, and I have vet records from about a year ago declaring she is overweight but otherwise quite healthy. When they brought her over they brought over her “big” cage, it is about 2/3rds larger than her travel cage, and has a little rust on it. Not at all large enough for her, the spacing between the bars is at about a 1/2” and her toes get stuck between them when she climbs around on it!  The perch that they had for her is Macaw sized and a little too large for her sweet little feet, so I went out and got her a Manzanita perch and a rope perch at our local pet store. She indicated by day 2 that she would like the stick perch in her cage, she calmly let me put in there and within 10 mins she was making sweet noises sitting on it! This bird is fearless, it’s pretty astonishing sometimes! I attached the rope perch to the outside of her cage so she has a spot to come out and socialize, she loves this one too! Best chewing spot for sure! 
She definitely seems to have some muscle atrophy in her feet and legs, the first week she had a lot of inflammation in her feet and a hard time climbing vertically in her cage. After a couple days the inflammation diminished but flares up occasionally to this day. She could barely hold her weight up without the assistance of her beak, and had a pretty hard time getting around her cage as her toes were getting stuck in the bars as she tried to move her feet around. 
By week two she was doing much better and getting comfy coming out and socializing on her rope perch, we love to dance and sing… and tear up cardboard! She still loses her balance sometimes, and doesn’t get very restful sleep because of it unless she is on the bottom of her cage. In her travel cage she could rest her butt on the bottom while she slept so she has had a hard time adjusting back to perch sleeping.  I have not seen, but heard her fall from her perches a couple of times.
By week three she is much more stable on her perches, climbs all over her cage and the pvc gym next to it. We dance and she shows me her pretty wings, she is getting much more comfortable with stretching them out again and shows them off all the time!  She has lost a little weight, though not too much! And we have been making leaps and bounds in the bonding department! We do target training daily where I have her move all over to exercise and she is very comfortable taking treats from my hand. She has gotten accustomed to our routine around here and enjoys her place in the house! She is much more of a talker than our Buddy, when we put her to bed she tells us “I love you, goodnight!” In my voice and it is the sweetest thing. The two parrots are in separate rooms, and get along so beautifully across the house. We have had some jealousy from Buddy, but nothing we were not already anticipating from him, he makes sure to let us all know that he likes Boomer but is jealous of the attention she’s getting.

I had bought a macaw sized cage with 1” spacing between the bars for Buddy a couple years ago but surprise he hated it 🤣, I pulled it out of storage a week and a half ago with the intention of putting Boomer in there. It has been sitting in the hallway in view of her cage, she is very curious and has played on top of it. My question is do you think it’s safe to go ahead and move her into the new cage while she is still adjusting? She is still getting her toes stuck between bars, and I suspect this is the cause of the inflammation flare ups so I would like to move her as soon as possible! My fear is a fall from a higher perch, but I can always put her perches lower in there until she adjusts more fully. Also if anyone has had similar experience with rehabbing some muscles I would love to hear about the things that worked well for you! 

If it’s helpful I can post pics of the cages.
thank you all so much!

Buddy & Boomers’ Mom

Did not expect a 3rd egg, but here it is.  Been advised to let her be for a few days, then remove it.  Obviously, it will not hatch and will spoil at some point.

She is being very "maternal" an attentive to it, but not "possessive" in the sense that her behavior toward me has changed.  More that willing to accept hand held food, but seems to be favoring "treats" much more than her normal diet.

Question is, how long should I wait to remove it and how should I go about it?  Overtly, or covertly?  Distract her with a treat while removing the egg, or just attempt to do it in "plain sight"?   Or remove it when she leaves it to feed or something, if able to catch the moment?

So, Alfie's beak grows out wonky. The lower half always seems to grow out quicker than Alfie can maintain it, and it starts to curve out to one side when it gets too long.
With covid and lockdowns it grew out quite long over the last year or so and whilst Alfie can still eat, drink, climb, chew, shred, bite etc etc it was getting out of hand and needed to be seen to. 

Unfortunately, his normal vet decided to retire in February this year- how dare he. This was unfortunately because he was a really great vet and I'd been taking Alfie to see him for years. He handled Alfie really well, didn't use gas on him and Alfie always seemed pretty calm once he was returned to me. A little pink in the face where he'd gotten angry, sure, but he was always fine afterwards and calmed down (and returned to his usual colour) quickly enough. And the vet always did a really good job on his beak too. Oh, and there was the added bonus that the price was always really reasonable (around £25). So, yeah... How dare he retire!

I now had the fun job of finding a new vet. And there aren't many avian vets in my area. I asked for recommendations on an african grey facebook group and got pointed in the direction of an avian vet who was about an hour away. So I contacted them and got an appointment booked. It was £125 just for them to see him and file his beak back. I thought it was a bit steep but they said it was because they've never seen him before, they'd like to check him over etc etc... the next appointment would be cheaper. I understood that and figured I didn't have many other options as all other vets in the area either weren't taking on new animals or were a LOT further away. Plus this one had come recommended by a few people. The biggest problem I had though was the fact they insisted on using gas to file his beak. I know Alfie is super boisterous and is a handful when being towelled/handled. But they didn't know that. They just said straight out that he will be gassed to avoid any possible injuries (e.g if he sticks his tongue in the way). I wasn't happy with it but I didn't have a whole lot of options. So I booked an appointment, talked it through with the vet when I got there- & they still insisted on gas. He was ok when they brought him back to me... but they hadn't take much off his beak. So within two months it was back to where it was and I had to take him back again... to be gassed again just to have his beak filed.
It was a different vet this time but she seemed to know her stuff. I again explained that I don't like having him gassed, she insisted it's for his safety and they use a different gas these days which is kinder to them etc etc. So off he went... and when he came back they hadn't taken much off at all again. And I was £111 lighter for it.

Now- money isn't a major problem but I can't justify it if they don't do a good job and I have to keep taking him back there every couple of months because they're taking so little off that it keeps growing back quickly and it doesn't do anything to correct the problem. I know there's a risk of making him bleed if they go back too far but I know they can go further than what they did on both occasions.

Whilst I was there second time though, there were two ladies from a parrot rescue organisation. They had rushed there with a VERY poorly african grey who had been surrendered to them that morning. Unfortunately the poor little guy didn't make it as he had been so severely neglected. They came over when they saw Alfie being brought back out to me and said hello. They were lovely and we had a long conversation about their work/organisation, the poor bird they had just lost and Alfie. Then they said that they have all the kit (dremmel with all the attachments) to manage beaks and claws and offered to help me out by visiting Alfie and filing it back some more. They said they'd happily do it in return for a small donation to their organisation.

They visited on Saturday and got set up. They use thick welders gloves to hold the birds. Unfortunately Alfie wasn't willing to come out of his cage on his own whilst strangers were in the house so one of them reached in to pick him up. He managed to get past her and out of the cage and gave us the fly around for a bit until one of the ladies managed to scoop him up. He obviously wasn't happy about being scooped up by strangers in gloves so screamed a fair bit and did his best to gnaw their fingers off. The second lady held him (also with gloves on) but she commented that this was the first grey she had held- she was more used to macaws. The first lady who seemed more knowledgeable was the one using the dremmel. I think the second lady wasn't holding/supporting Alfie's head well enough as he was able to move/rotate a fair bit (and was out for blood by that point). So although they took a fair bit back on his beak, he now has some red marks left on his face and either side of his beak looks a bit worn/sore too. It was difficult to notice this straight away as his face was flushed pink with rage. I didn't quite pick up on the fact he was bruised/scraped until the next day. Part way through the first lady with the dremmel asked me to grab a glove and support his head a bit as he kept wriggling- so I can only assume he must have been rubbing his face against the gloves whilst wriggling around. Once I put the glove on and got my hand near him he just grabbed a finger and was mostly still because he couldn't see a way to get out of it at that point. I was watching the whole time and I didn't spot the dremmel slipping or getting anywhere near his face (other than his beak) - and I think if she had caught him on the skin with it then he would have bled anyway.

I now feel like the worst bird owner ever. Alfie is fine- he's eating, drinking, climbing and making as much noise and mess as he usually makes. And he doesn't seem to be overly angry at me either- he's happy to step up and follow me around as usual. I can give him head scritches in the morning and at night as usual. Plus we've done some training over the last few days too and he hasn't once tried to bite or lash out at me. His face is healing ok- it still looks a bit sore but it is getting better. I just feel terrible because he obviously got quite stressed throughout the whole thing and has some sore looking marks on his face. The ladies said they were happy to come back again either later this week or next week as it still needs some more work to straighten it out. I know this will be good for him in the long run as hopefully once it's short enough and straightened out he will be able to manage it himself and it'll be a while before he has to have it filed back again. I'm trying to plan out the best way to minimise the stress for him and to try and avoid him flying around in a panic when they turn up. I'm thinking that I may pop him in his travel cage before they get there, as it will be easier to wrap him up in a towel if he's in a smaller space where he can't fly or run away. Also, if I get him in a towel then it's going to be softer than gloves so he's less likely to scrape himself on a towel. And I'm thinking that I should hold him next time - or at least support his head like I ended up having to do halfway through so he doesn't have the option of wriggling so much.

I don't want to keep taking him back to the vet to be gassed. Although that obviously means he won't be trying to get away/wriggle- I'm scared of what the gas is going to do to him if he keeps having to have it done regularly. I'm still looking around for alternate vets but most aren't even responding to my queries at the moment. Or they are a lot further away- which is problematic if I need an emergency appointment for any reason. I'm waiting to hear back from the two ladies to see when they are next in the area- but I'm probably going to suggest that I let him heal up properly first before trying again. And like I said above, I'll try and put a plan in place to minimise the stress/wriggling as much as possible. It's fair to say that Alfie isn't a pushover- he'll go down fighting, for sure.

So sorry for the essay and thank you for reading all this, if you managed to get through it all. I just needed to explain the situation to like minded people as I don't know anyone who has/understands parrots!

Photos to show the issue:
These first three are from June- before the first visit to the new vet. You can see it curves round and you can also see it poking up from the other side.

This was after the two ladies visited on Saturday and filed his beak back- they are all from the day after- the first batch in the evening and the last two show how sore he looked the morning after. (although Alfie didn't seem that bothered by it). Like I say, the redness is easing up slowly, but I was really concerned by it.

She began by making it clear she wanted "up" and we spent some time, but she became a bit agitated and kept going for my glasses and making short "eh-eh" sounds, almost frantic.  Nothing seemed to calm her and she would nibble at my finger trying to keep it above her head, as if trying to "nurse" from it.   I did not encourage that and tried to put her on cage and present treats.  Did not go for that.

Back sitting down, she began began keeping her wings and bottom end down, as if ready for flight, while making the "eh-eh" noises again.

There was a thunderstorm brewing, but there have been worse with no such behavior.

I thought to ask here for advice.

Thank you so much! 

Her behavior changed only slightly a few days before the egg came. She went back to normal pretty quickly too.

My worry is the blood. She hasn't continued to bleed. After I found the egg, I checked her for injury and she seemed to be fine. She has had very small amounts of blood in her feces, so small I couldn't tell until I got a kleenex to clean one up. Her feces are also very loose. Yesterday (4/24) she was sitting with me and had small amounts of clear fluid leaking from her vent. 

I just don't want to miss anything and lose her. Does anyone have experience with egg laying that could shed some light on how she is doing? 

Anyone seen anything like this before? Should I be worried? It just seems to be in that one spot. Underneath all looks ok from what I can see. Unfortunately I can't touch his feet unless I want to lose a finger!

He's acting normally, eating, drinking, playing with toys and being vocal. He doesn't seem to mind using the foot so doesn't seem to be in pain.

cheers, Steve 🦜😃

My gray, Toby, had stayed at my sister's house for the weekend. It was a lucky decision. But my pionus, Max, was dead. 

I don't know what went wrong; the heater had functioned normally for a few years without incident. There had been no warning that this might happen. I only left it on because I might be late coming home, and I didn't want it to get too cold for him. I'm just posting, so others know it's not a good type heater to use. We all believe that electric is safer than gas, oil, kerosene, or propane. Well, apparently, not always. Be safe. Don't let what happened to us, happen to you. I will miss my Max. He was only 28, in good health, playful, and friendly. RIP Max. 

Here's the link for the offending heater:  https://www.amazon.com/STANLEY-ST-221A-120-Profile-Electric-Heater/dp/B07L36CXJB/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=STANLEY+ST-221A-120+Electric+Heater&qid=1606507570&sr=8-5

And a pic