Leaderboard

Hi everyone’s, I got home from work tonight to a vm left on my house phone. A women I have bought bird things from who lives a few towns over had given my number to a another woman. This woman left a long message on my answering machine , her elderly parents are ill and are in a nursing home, nd have an approx. 25 year old African grey that is sitting alone in their trailer sits in its cage all day, they’ve had it for 15 years she said, they can’t care for it any longer and she feels sorry for it and has cats dogs and horses so it won’t fit into her household. She wants it to go to someone who has and understands birds. i have cats, dogs and well you know...Nilah...Talon and Rikki. We all know our place in the flock. I do work a lot of hours, some days my birds are in their cages 11 hours..but they get out of their cage time always when I get home until bed, and Sunday is theirs day to have all day out. I’ve aleays felt 3 are enough....but my heart breaks..and I’m torn what to do. He is a male, I have 3 females....I don’t want to disrupt the flock and household...do I just ignore the phone call? I’ve done that once before, but it was just a woman who was looking for a home, not the elderly parents and bird sitting there all day....just looking for feedback from my family here. i tend to make a quick decision based on my heartfelt sympathy for all animals...want to rescue them all...thus my 3 dogs, 2 cats and 3 birds 🙄 Thanks in advance!

We had a little scare this afternoon with Alfie. He freaked out in his cage and when we looked we could see he had a line of poop attached to his leg. It was like he'd somehow managed to poop on himself and it was still attached so there was a long string of it. I enlisted the help of my housemate and let Alfie out of his cage. I got him to fly to me then put him on the floor. I then toweled him gently and held him whilst my housemate gently cleaned him up at best as possible. I then let Alfie go and monitored him. He straightened out his feathers and seemed ok - he flew around the room a few times, played with some toys and whistled at me a few times. He also did a few healthy looking poops whilst he was out and about, which is what I was most concerned with. I wanted to make sure he didn't have some kind of blockage. Goodness knows how he managed to get himself in that pickle in the first place. I can only imagine that he tried to poop whilst he was climbing and gravity interfered. He's now settled down and is having a little afternoon siesta. I'll keep an eye on him but I think/hope he's ok.

I believe they fall off their feed a bit around fledge time.

Oh my goodness she's so cute! I'm afraid I can't help much with the feedings - I got Alfie at 11 weeks and he was mostly weaned by that stage. I was still hand feeding him but he was eating form a spoon not a syringe. I think it was either one or two offerings a day because he was moving on to eating solids by that point.

Thanks everyone for the advice. I sent the info to a woman I work for who owns a pet store, she knew a woman who has had birds until they passed away and wanted an African grey, she passed the info on and said it sounds hopeful, still waiting to hear. I did offer to foster or help in any way, but I ha ent hears anything more..

Pinkish is normal. That's about all I know about babies, that and they're super cute. Keep offering the formula though. They may go off and on it. My GreycieMae would still take it if offered when she came to us at 4mos.

When we brought Huey in, our little Caique, Toby, instantly declared that Huey must die. Therefore Toby's best buddy in the world, Rio, declared that Huey must die. Huey's saving grace was that I can put him with Greycie and they somewhat get along. They're not best buddies but he can handle Greycie's ornery-ness and won't kill her. So I keep my birds in little groups and currently have three little groups that I can move around and place together. Being a strapping male, he weighs less than Greycie by about 50 grams but he can lay the whooping on her when she needs it. She tried bullying him at first but quickly learned Huey has big muscles and can't be bossed around.

What do you think introducing a male to 3 females would do if anything? Should that be a concern? Ideally I would foster him & hopefully find him a forever home, but I don't know whether to offer or just let it go.

I agree also.

I wholeheartedly agree.

I think you would be the best one to find this one a home rather than ending up on CL. I ignored some hints at taking over some birds and one did end up on CL, Huey's lil buddy. When I heard the same was going to happen to Huey we intervened.

Hello All, I am new here with a 16 year old Female Timneh Grey. We rescued her a month ago, and have seen some recent new behavior. Everywhere she sits she fades out or melts or hunches or slouches over after a few mins on a perch or your shoulder or your finger or anywhere she sits. She basically is sitting on her tummy with her feet pulled under her and not upright. Sometimes she hunches so far over her head is lower than her tail. On her perch when she tries to sleep she "melts" forward and then wakes up and catches herself. Sometimes she sleeps with her head turned back in her feathers like normal and and she is fine that way. We look her to the Vet, she did an exam and took a blood test and did a yearly check-up and they said that she had a bacterial yeast infection and gave me an anti fungal and a pain killer to give her. The vet said that she also may have hurt her foot. This was 2 weeks ago, and things have not gotten better. Her balance is terrible, and sometimes she falls off her perch. We moved her into a smaller cage where she is sleeping at night, so that she cannot fall down too far off her perch, and we put a pillow under the perch in her night cage and a towel under her large cage that she is in during the day. Here is a video of her in her day cage : https://streamable.com/2z57k She is eating fine and her poop is fine...She is talking, playing, climbing, taking a bath and acting fine otherwise. I am really stumped and concerned that something is terribly wrong with her. We have a follow up Vet appointment on Friday. Has anyone ever seen this type of posture / behavior? I have attached some photos of her in her smaller night cage. I also have a video I can upload in a little bit that is her in her larger day cage. When I took these photos there were no perches for her to stand on. Just added a couple of pictures of her slouching on her perch in her large day cage.

Lucy has been doing really well for the last couple of weeks being fed 60cc twice per day. A week ago we started introducing mango and pellets. Today she didn't want anymore than 45cc in the morning. We decided to to a second feeding and got 20cc and one more just now with 25cc. Is it usual at 9 weeks of age for a Grey to start not wanting as much formula? I thought this would start at 12 weeks. It was out of nowhere. Otherwise she seems energetic rambunctious. Wondering if I should make another vet appointment. Also just curious from these pics if you think the age I have is correct. I also wasn't sure if the pinkish color around the eyes was any cause for concern. Thanks for the help.

Thanks this morning only 30cc she was jumping trying to get out more interested in exploring. Going to try some corn on the cob today.

Thank you so much! Which light set-up do you use please? Thank you so much! She keeps making good progress :)!

Sunlight isn't possible for us but I do the full spectrum avian light every day. It is important. Sure glad to hear she is better!

Sunlight is critical. It's the reason I built an outdoor aviary for them. Lots of people use the one by Zoomed. Just make sure it's an avian full spectrum light and not a general reptile light. I have also seen where people have ruined their birds eyes even with the avian light by allow exposure to close. Sunlight is best if you can do it.

Well, its 3 days later...She has spent an hour outside everyday...and she is like a new girl once again :)! We are going to continue to keep giving her time outside daily and we are going to get her a UVB light as well! Do any of you use them...If so which do you use? Thank you for all your help and support She has her follow up vet appointment today... Sunlight Seems CRITICAL...To these guys and gals !

Greywings, how did you treat it? I was going to suggest more sun but some people can't do that.

Not being a Vet it does sound like a vitamin D deficiency. We have a Congo Grey that arrived having balance and seizure issues, she was low on both Calcium and Vitamin D. No seizures any more and now she only falls occasionally when playing too hard with her toys.

Yes totally understand that. She spent 1hr this morning in the sun before it got really hot and she came back inside a new girl :) full of energy and even swinging upside down on her stand...she has never done that before!

Yes we are. Our vet is very capable. We got her some flat perches today :), tthank you!

Thank you so much! Yes we have a follow up on Friday will keep you updated.

None of us are vets so can only advise what we would do in that situation. This does seem like very strange behaviour and not something which I have witnessed with my own bird. I would pester the vet again and if I wasn't happy with the treatment plan I would find a second avian vet for a second opinion.

As Greytness said, make sure you are seeing an avian vet. One comment I'd make is you might want to go to flat perches rather than round. Perching low like that can rub their keel and even split it with time. My TAG has a seizure disorder and a neurological condition, and that's the first thing the avian vet told me to do, get him off round perches.

Could you take her to another vet for a second opinion? The fact that she's no better idicates that her previous treatment plan hasn't worked. Fungus is a bear to get rid of, so if she has a fungal infection, she'll need long term medication. She looks like she's feeling badly. My vote is for a second opinion. Do you have a board certified avian vet in your area? Please let us know how she does.