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.

Now that Toby's turned 2, I decided to check this post for the description of the terrible two's. Toby is very sweet, but I've noticed a definite change in behavior recently. Toby was clipped when we got him, and it's taken a while to have his feathers grow out. In the last couple of months, he has really perfected his flying technique. He will now fly upstairs, make tight turns around corners, and stopped crashing into windows (for the most part). I read on this forum that keeping a parrot flighted is critical to their self esteem. Well, this is not a bird with self esteem problems...his behaviors include: 1) Resisting being put on his perch or in his cage (by biting *hard* and scratching, hanging off my sleeve) 2) Flying around the room and landing on my head (happens 4-5 times a day) and chewing my hair, headset, or whatever he can get his beak on 3) Screaming or whistling whenever he loses sight of me 4) Climbing down from his cage, coming to my desk and biting my ankles until I pick him up 5) Getting in the middle of everything during meals - tries to steal food, put his head in the water glass, running off with a fork It has gotten to the point that I have to keep him in the cage more than I want to, because I can no longer leave him on a play top and trust him to stay put. He demands attention on his terms, and while it is cute, it's also very distracting. Is this normal "terrible twos" behavior? Any tips on how to cope?

It's fascinating to read all the stories. Toby is our 16-month old Timneh. The first thing we noticed about him is his beautiful singing - always tuneful, and very inventive. He sings along to music, and improvises little tunes, even riffing off sounds coming our computer. He has become quite a talker as well, starting to speak in complete phrases. We notice that he is selective about what words he learns, and even though we scold him for naughty behavior, he only gravitates towards self-praise - e.g., "what a pretty bird", "what a good boy", "sweet Toby", and stranger still, "what a pretty poultry". We've never taught him the word "poultry", so it's not clear how he picked that up! We can't tell if he really understands what he is saying. There are some words that I think appeal to him as sounds and he learns them really quickly - for instance, "stretch", "what", and "whatever" seem to be favorites. His longest phrase so far is "do you want some water?" , which we'll often say to him when we take him back to his cage for some water. But he's not using that phrase to ask for water, as far as we can tell, so he hasn't made the association with the action. He's still very young, so we hope that one day he'll be able to express his wants and desires and have a dialogue with us, like many of the greys I've read about on this thread.

Jayd - thanks. I've heard that styptic power is safe for claws, but can cause chemical burns on the skin. Is that true? I have cornstarch on hand but have not used it yet. aw64 - an annual physical would be a good idea. Here's a link that might be helpful: http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww10eii.htm Toby has been a pretty healthy bird in the 11 months that we've had him. We did have one emergency situation early on where he apparently got some food stuck in his crop and was vomiting. That was an expensive emergency room visit, but we were so grateful that we didn't lose him right then and there. This blood feather incident is the second time we've taken him in for medical treatment.

Jayd, thanks for sharing your thoughts. I had also read the very same link you referenced and that got me a bit concerned. Toby usually handles broken feathers on his own, but I saw a lot of blood yesterday, and wasn't sure if it was going to stop on its own. I wouldn't hesitate to use medication when necessary, but he really doesn't seem to be in any distress so I think I will discontinue after today. He vocalized for hours today and was playing as usual, which I take as good signs. I am using aloe vera juice on him regularly as he is molting and will continue to do so. Thanks again.

Yesterday, I had to take Toby to the vet after finding a broken blood feather. The vet extracted the feather to prevent re-injury. She mentioned that this was a painful procedure and prescribed carprofen (an anti-inflammatory and pain medication) to be given for 5 days. Toby was quiet and dozed much of yesterday after the vet, which is understandable given the stress. However, by evening he seemed better and today was back to his normal active self. He does not seem to be in pain, and I'm wondering whether I should continue with the meds. I don't want him to be uncomfortable, but also would rather not over-medicate if I can help it. Thoughts?

If you haven't already seen this - Shauna Roberts has a nice mash recipe: http://parrot-chow.livejournal.com/24403.html Also very flexible, but she does give some guidelines on proportions which I find helpful. You can take some cooked items like rice or quinoa and mix it in the chop/mash for freezing, but it might change the texture after you defrost it. I haven't been overly successful with chop, as my parrot is a pellet fiend, but I keep trying different combinations of frozen and fresh vegetables, cooked and uncooked, cut into different sizes. Have not found the perfect formula yet - but from what I've read, it takes time and trial and error., so be patient!

I did the call the vet and their advice was to let Toby work it out and not to worry unless I see blood. So, that's exactly in line with Jay's advice. Thanks!

Thanks Jay. I'm going to call the vet first thing Saturday just to make sure.

We took Toby to the vet today to get his nails trimmed. While in the process of toweling him, we think that a feather might have been broken. There is a long feather now sticking out of his wing where it shouldn't be (we only noticed this after we got home). He seems relaxed standing on one foot on his perch, and his appetite seems fine. But, anytime we come anywhere near his wing, he goes nuts, which is unusual for him - so it must be sensitive, if not painful. Is this something that requires vet attention? Or should we wait it out to see what happens and see if it falls out on its own? It doesn't appear to be a blood feather, but is clearly causing him discomfort. Anything we can do for him at home? Thanks in advance for any advice.

My 10 month old grey is on Harrison's High Potency for the last 5 months, and that has worked well. Previously he was on a seed diet, and I have definitely seen improvement with his overall condition. I don't have experience with other brands of pellets though. Could it be that your grey is going through his first molt? Mine has been molting for the last couple of months, and he has done some chewing on his feathers just out of discomfort.