SnowMan Posted June 5, 2007 Author Share Posted June 5, 2007 The idea with the x ray was to see if his crop or abdomen looked dark or abnormal from a build up of wood. The xray was negative, but as you say wood doesn't show up to well. The vet didn't think there would be any vitamin or mineral in a toothpick that the bird needed to balance his diet. The wood if treated could be toxic though. I am still wondering if the bird is needing it to aid in digestion. Funny thing about this bird though, He will ask for a grape and ask for a peanut and an apple, but he has never even tried to say toothpick. He knows the word well, if you say toothpick, he will drop down off his top perch which hangs from the ceiling and run around the top of his cage all excited and beg. He also tells me now when he has to go pottie. If he does have an accident, he says uh!Oh! Poo Poo! He is learning something new to say everyday now. I love this little guy as you can tell, and am so worried about this eating wood thing, and now the shell of this nut. I have never seen him eat any of the other shells, just this one. I saw him eat it twice now. I took it away from him and examined it, and I have no idea what kind of nut it is. I will have to get a close up of it and post it. That is if I can find another one in his bag. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnowMan Posted June 6, 2007 Author Share Posted June 6, 2007 It is called a pine nut likely from the pinyon pine. I don't know if the shell of this nut is better than giving him toothpicks, but it sure has become a favorite of his since I took away the wood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talon Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 Snowman, I bought Talon a small basket of fruit wood branches online a while back. She loves to chew the bark off and chew them up. She has an obsession with pencils, so I sharpen them with my pencil sharpener, and she grabs them and runs away. Maybe that would substitute for toothpicks? Just a thought...:huh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnowMan Posted June 7, 2007 Author Share Posted June 7, 2007 I have sad news. He has become so depressed that I will not give him a toothpick, that he is begining to become self destructive. Last night he pulled a big long feather out, turned it on end and held it just like he holds the toothpick and started chewing on the end of the barb. Today I come home early from work to check on him, and there are several feathers around his cage. I don't know what is worse, letting him have his daily toothpick and risk health problems down the road, or having a plucked chicken for a pet. I brought him home some of his favorite grapes and he seems much happier at the moment. He likes the green seedless grapes, he doesn't care for the red grapes that i bought last time. I sure hope he doesn't keep this feather plucking up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talon Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 Oooh! That doesn't sound good. Fruit sticks instead maybe? Or a basket to chew on? Keep us informed of how he is doing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caspersmum Posted June 8, 2007 Share Posted June 8, 2007 Hey Snowman, wood definitely wouldn't show up on x-ray and I'm not sure what would show it up - so it'd just be a waste of money! Thinking about it, I doubt it'd do him a lot of damage - I think it would all be broken up in his crop, but I'm not sure, and I'd go along the 'better safe than sorry' route. But hey, it could be worse - when I first got Casper, his previous owners informed me that he liked eating cigarettes - who on earth would be stupid enough to let their bird EAT cigarettes. Needless to say, I didn't carry on with this once I got him home...{Characters-0002007C}. Thankfully, he seems perfectly healthy, although I worry about the long term effects. Julia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnowMan Posted June 8, 2007 Author Share Posted June 8, 2007 I guess that is better than letting him smoke them! It is just raining feathers around here right now, and I finally said enough is enough. He got a toothpick today, I will have to see if that stops his feather plucking. I gave him a bath yesterday the aloe kind, and he looks all pretty today, but the bottom and all around his cage is just littered with feathers. I am going to keep up the bath treatment, it is supposed to be a deterrent to feather plucking, but so far it hasn't worked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CeasarsDad Posted June 8, 2007 Share Posted June 8, 2007 Yikes.. what a nightmare... :ohmy: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Lidia Posted June 8, 2007 Share Posted June 8, 2007 I agree with dblhelix that it sounds like he is shredding the wood and not eating it. You would know by his droppings if he was eating the wood, as he would not be able to fully digest it. I imagine the wood that he drops is in teeny tiny pieces that look like crumbs, but really you'd know if he was actually eating it because he'd be ill. It really sounds like a minor fetish and if you can get him a safe wood to chew, shred and/or destroy, not a particularly harmful one. Perhaps if you go the exact opposite route to the one you've tried: ie, give him lots of wood to play with so that he doesn't feel he has to gnaw it down to the very last morsel. Mix it up with paper rolls, too. You know the sort that go into cash registers?-they're good. Or just give him his own private stash of toothpicks until he's bored with them, which he probably eventually will be! The only other thing I can think of is that perhaps it's a beak issue and the gnawing is a response to some minor beak flaw that he's aware of but you're not. But if the vet can't find anything wrong, and there's no wood in his crop or droppings, and he's otherwise in good health, I would indulge this little fetish of his, and just make sure the wood you do give him is healthy. It just sounds like one of those mad habits that parrots can develop, and I am not sure why it is bothering you to the extent it seems to be. Lidia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talon Posted June 9, 2007 Share Posted June 9, 2007 Well, Lidia, I think most of us are a little concerned about the safety in eating wood over the long term. I, for one, am curious if it is something to be concerned about. It's interesting that no one really has the answer to that. And you must admit, it is unusual behavior! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Lidia Posted June 9, 2007 Share Posted June 9, 2007 Talon, It certainly is unusual, and I'd be very worried if I thought he was eating wood, but it doesn't sound like he is, it would show up in his droppings and I am certain it would damage his crop and he'd probably bloat because he couldn't digest it if he did swallow it. Since he seems healthy, on balance, it sounds like some sort of neurosis. I don't mean that to sound dismissive, it just doesn't seem like, if chewing and spitting out is what he's doing, that it's intrinsically harmful. I would genuinely give him as much wood (toothpicks) as possible and see how long it took him to get bored with it. Furthermore, since he seems to have a frustration response (plucking himself) when deprived of the toothpicks, it would seem that he has an emotional dependency, which suggests neurosis to me. Tell you what, I'd be very curious to know how he developed this taste for wood. What kicked it off? When did it start? Lidia Snowman, I was editing this when you posted, I'd LOVE to see a video of what he's actually doing. I just can't believe that he's actually ingesting the wood.<br><br>Post edited by: Lidia, at: 2007/06/08 21:29 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnowMan Posted June 9, 2007 Author Share Posted June 9, 2007 Yes if he were only chewing the wood, there would be no problem. He eats the toothpick, as stated earlier. He doesn't strip it off, but rather snaps off each little piece starting from the end. It use to take him about 5 minutes to eat one toothpick, but now it takes him only 2 minutes to eat it. I serve him the round kind, not the flat ones. Nothing but the best for my baby! I guess I will have to make a small video clip of him, so everyone can see that he is indeed eating them. It may take a while to figure out how to video and upload, as I haven't done that before. I think i can figure it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
judygram Posted June 9, 2007 Share Posted June 9, 2007 I hope you are successful in videoing him eating that toothpick and uploading it to the forum, that is something I want to see.:ohmy: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talon Posted June 9, 2007 Share Posted June 9, 2007 This will be very interesting to see. Kind of like Riply's Believe or Not!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CeasarsDad Posted June 9, 2007 Share Posted June 9, 2007 It's a shame because if he is eating it there is a serious problem that might be very difficult to deal with.. Makes you wish you had a feather plucker instead.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnowMan Posted June 9, 2007 Author Share Posted June 9, 2007 Well right now, I have both. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CeasarsDad Posted June 9, 2007 Share Posted June 9, 2007 OMG.. So sorry to hear about this... I hope it's just a phase that will pass... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnowMan Posted June 10, 2007 Author Share Posted June 10, 2007 Here is a short clip of him eating a toothpick. My first attempt at making a movie so tell me if it is too big or too small. It is a 10 meg file for download. Here is the link. http://dawsontree.com/rian/jesse.wmv Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Lidia Posted June 10, 2007 Share Posted June 10, 2007 Pretty bird, and healthy looking. He doesn't actually seem to be swallowing what he's chewing, and he's biting fairly large pieces off the toothpick. Can you do another film and try to get a close up of his lower beak and under his chin? He could be holding the chewed pieces under his tongue or at the front of his lower beak, which sounds odd I know, but sometimes my parrot chews stuff like paper and balls or wads it up into pellets and keeps it in his beak and then pushes it out later. Snowman, I've just looked at it again and what I do notice is that his eyes aren't flashing, you know, the pupils dilating, which is what usually happens when a grey is enjoying eating something. Can anyone else comment on the fact that his eyes aren't dilating?<br><br>Post edited by: Lidia, at: 2007/06/09 23:49 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Monique Posted June 10, 2007 Share Posted June 10, 2007 I posted this on another list to see if I could get any help. I had a few responses. One - let him eat it it obviously isn't hurting him. And here is two which is from Julia on the Grey Parrot Talk list: Hi Guys, I've been out of town for the week but now I'm back. Eating wood. Ok the bird likes to eat wood. Lets give him safe woody things to eat. I would hang carrots, and other root veggies in his cage- Great Big ones! and lots of them. Cable tie then to perches and cage sides. I would find a recipe for pilot biscuits (really hard digestive biscuits). I would give him whole heads of celery, rice cakes, hard baby teething biscuits. if you need recipes I can look some up. I would not give him cardboard because that too is not a geat thing to be eating. I would never give this bird flavored wood toys like you see in some pet stores. I might try green apple branches if you have some. maybe sugar cane or coconuts. Cinnimon sticks I would see if we can get him shredding instead of eating but if he is gonna eat it then lets have him eating good stuff. Sweet potatos, squash, heads of kale Does that help? Julia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caspersmum Posted June 11, 2007 Share Posted June 11, 2007 I have to point out this isn't me Julia! I'm not nearly that knowledgeable! Julia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LunaBaby Posted June 25, 2007 Share Posted June 25, 2007 Are your wood perches store bought? Or do you find your own and sterilize them? Being that he is ingesting the wood he could be ingesting some harmful properties like resin or sap.. because they are so gummy, they can cause blockage. Make sure to avoid resinous wood like maple, fir or birch atleast until we figure this out.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest islandgirltexas Posted June 25, 2007 Share Posted June 25, 2007 IT LOOKS LIKE HE IS INJESTING IT..BUT KEEP IN MIND..THEY PEEL BARK OFF TREES IN THE WILD..THEY DESTROY THEIR WOODEN TOYS...AND I BELIEVE THE GIZZARD WOULD FILTER ANYTHING THAT SMALL..I THINK WE ARE THROWN BY THE POINTED SHAPE OF THE TOOTHPICK..BUT THEY EAT MORE WOOD THAN WE REALIZE. I THINK TO AVOID PLUCKING..IF IT MAKES HIM HAPPY..LET HIM HAVE IT. I REALLY DON'T SEE THE HAZARD. HE IS OLD ENOUGH HE WILL INJEST THE RIGHT SIZE FOR HIM. DOES HE HAVE PLENTY OF WOOD TOYS THAT MAY EVENTUALLY DISTRACT HIM? GOOD LUCK..KEEP US POSTED. GREAT VIDEO TOO! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miltie Posted June 25, 2007 Share Posted June 25, 2007 Looks like he is eating it and enjoying it. And after 6months of doing so you would this if it was bad for him it would of shown up in his dropping or slowed down his eating and drinking... any and thought from from a newbie to greys Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnowMan Posted June 25, 2007 Author Share Posted June 25, 2007 Everyone's comments and suggestions have helped me tremendously through this crisis. What I have been doing that seems to be curbing his appetite for wood somewhat, is to give him something else when he is asking for the toothpick. Today he devoured a quarter ear of corn and the cob. There was nothing left of the cob at all. I don't know just how much of the corn or the cob for that matter he ingested, but it did satisfy his need temporarily for the wood. He has stopped the feather plucking for now, and is starting to improve his appearance. He never did pluck himself bald, but he was looking a bit tattered. Someone on this forum suggested that he was eating the wood to get my attention, and I think there was a lot of truth to that. Sometimes it is his way of acting out to get my attention. If I don't give him the toothpick, but rather just take him for a walk or in some other way spend some time with him, then he seems to forget that he wanted a toothpick. Thats not to say, that he has stopped eating wood altogether, He still is grabbing a nibble hear and there from the perches or trim on my wall:( , but things seem to be improving, and he has not shown any signs of illness. I will have to make another video of him, just being him. He is so entertaining! He is saying something new everyday. I asked him if he wanted an apple today, and he said "No thank you!" That just floored me! I guess he learned that from me, since he has been saying " Do you want an apple", and I guess I must have been saying No Thank You to him, without even thinking about it.<br><br>Post edited by: SnowMan, at: 2007/06/24 23:03 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now