monax

Toby (4 1/2 year old TAG) has been going through a long molt this season. This year I'm noticing that he is preening (or plucking?) more pin feathers out, at a rate of 3-4 per week. Visually his looks fine (no glaring patches). Is this a reason for concern? I ask because I have not noticed pin feathers being preened out in the last few years, and I'm hoping that this is not the start of a plucking habit. Toby is fully flighted, and gets to do some flying around the house every day. I've read that flighted parrots tend not to pluck. Thanks.

Hi SterlingSL - yep, that's exactly the same behavior I'm observing with Toby. Ditto on the one track mind. :-)

In the past few weeks, I've noticed that Toby (3 year old TAG) has gotten very interested in sticking his beak between my fingers, rubbing and nibbling (gently, usually). He will do this for 15-20 minutes at a time if I let him. Is this a sign of hormones? He seems a little young for that, but I thought I'd check with others on the forum to see if any of you have had similar experiences. Thanks!

I love hearing about Inara's antics and her flair for words. Thanks for sharing, and as well for all your helpful advice on the forum. I recognize a lot of common behaviors in my TAG Toby, who is turning 3 years old next month, and it's always interesting for me to compare and contrast with Inara as they are very close in age. Happy anniversary!

Congratulations! I have really enjoyed hearing about Inara...she is so charming and smart! Toby, my TAG, is about 3 months away from his third birthday and we could not imagine life without him. He is not quite advanced as Inara, but he is talkative, musical, and seems to be on a roll with new phrases almost every day. We had a rough 6 months or so as he went through his petulant, rebellious "terrible twos", but he seems to have finally settled down. He has also become an excellent flyer and like Inara can execute some precision landings! Unfortunately, putting him to bed as become a 20 minute ritual as he will fly around and up the stairs to evade capture. :-) It's great that quite a few of us have Greys around the same age....good to share experiences.

Thanks everyone for your good wishes. After being on meds for 3 days, he started vocalizing again, singing and talking about "chicken" and "mushrooms". So he is definitely feeling better, and getting his beak into everything again. He loves his grape flavored anti-fungal medication and probably wish that this could be a permanent treat. 7 more days of meds and he should be all clear of his infection.

We did end up taking Toby to the vet on Monday. His behavior was just off and we wanted to have peace of mind. His initial tests didn't turn up anything definitive but the vet observed him for a few hours and noticed the same thing that we did…some lethargy and an extremely voracious appetite. She suspects that he has some GI tract infection and prescribed anti-fungal and antibiotic medication. Today the CBC showed slightly elevated white blood cell count (which confirms some kind of infection), and we're still awaiting some follow up fecal culture tests. He's only been on medication for a couple of days, but is showing some early signs of getting better (more active/playing/flying, although very little vocalization so far). When he starts acting like a jerk again is when we'll know that he's fully recovered. :-)

Thanks Dave...definitely happy about the extra affection. It's just a bit out of character for him! We're used to Toby being a pesky little bugger. :-)

Toby is typically a rambunctious 2 1/2 year old TAG…we can usually depend on him to vocalize constantly in the morning and evening, and insert himself into whatever we are doing in the day. The last couple of days, we've noticed some changes. He is a lot quieter than usual and has hardly vocalized. He is still quite active playing in his cage, preening, etc. but we notice that he is napping more. He is still eating/drinking normally as far as we can tell (if anything the appetite seems to have increased given the rate he guzzles his pellets). He's also *more* affectionate and angles for head rubs at every chance (something he hasn't done as much in the last 6 months), but he has a few remaining pin feathers from his molt and is probably a lithe uncomfortable. He is pretty active still when we let him out of the cage and will fly around and fly to us. Is there anything here that sounds worrying? I could be paranoid, but also aware that even small changes in behavior could indicate signs of illness. The lack of vocalization is very unusual and is the part that has me most concerned. Thanks for your thoughts. We continue to monitor, but will probably pay the vet a visit in the next day or two if this continues.

It's possible for your TAG to have a good, but different relationship with each member of the household. In our case, Toby is far more affectionate with me, but very playful (and less affectionate) with my husband. For example, Toby loves head scratches, but only from me. The relationship can also change over time (parrots can and often do change who they consider their favored person as they mature).

Thanks Inara. Actually, Toby lives in my home office. His main cage is 3 feet away from my desk, and his play stand is also nearby. He's been content to sit on the play top and gibber away. Now though, he takes every opportunity to fly and land on my head. :-) On the whole, he's been a joy to have around and always has useful commentary for my conference calls (e.g., "bite me" and "whatever!" are among two of his favorite words). The one change is that dad isn't around as much due to work schedules, and perhaps he misses having his full flock around. I've been lucky to be the favored person for most of his life, but it's also a possibility that he's decided to change allegiance. Thanks again for all the great advice.

Muse - you're very lucky that your bird actually listens. I've just gotten bitten again, as he was protesting me removing him from my shoulder. I was wondering as well about hormones in Toby's case, but I thought he was too young for that. The other 2 factors are that he's currently molting, and he's recently grown back all flight feathers. We kept him flighted since he clearly loves to fly, but now we're wondering if we've created a monster.

Dan and Dave - thanks for your quick response and insight. It is definitely a frustrating power struggle right now. Dave - Most of his biting happens when he's on my hand or arm. He does try to climb to my shoulder but I remove him immediately. We wanted to make the shoulder off limits, but unfortunately we boarded him at the vet early on and when he came back to us, we found out that the vet techs had essentially trained him to ride around on their shoulders. They are in for a shock next time they try that. :-) My only recourse right now is to incarcerate him every time he attacks. I'd rather reward him for good behavior, but that's few and far between right now.

There have been some startling behavioral changes in Toby, our 2-year old TAG in the last few weeks. He's become especially clingy, and simply won't stay on his play stand. He follows us from room to room, intercepts us at the stairs when he sees that we're going upstairs. For the most part, this is pretty charming, except that he can't sit still and constantly flies to me when I'm working at my desk (landing inconveniently on my head or shoulders). More troubling is that he has gotten very aggressive about biting. He'll fly to me, and chew on my arm. Then he'll flip upside down and attack my arm or hand repeatedly with hard bites. It's hard not to react when he's doing this as it's incredibly painful. I have no idea if he does this because it's fun for him (attacking his toys while hanging upside down is one of his favorite activities), or he's being territorial, or if something else is bothering him. He also employs this "biting while hanging upside down" maneuver when he resists being put back in his cage. Up until now Toby has been allowed out of his cage for most of the day, but lately I've had to keep him in the cage longer than I'd like because 1) I can't work while he's constantly flying to me, and 2) Trying to get him to step up on his perch or putting him in his cage results in another sequence of aggressive biting. Has anyone else experienced this? Is this just a phase, or the beginning of serious behavioral issues that I should be worried about? Thanks for any advice you can give.

Excellent advice as usual Dan - thank you.