by Pajarita » Mon Jan 18, 2016 2:29 pm
In my personal experience, Pois are VERY affectionate birds but they are also not the most patient of birds, either, and, if they feel slighted in any way, they will let you know it with a good hard nip or even a bite. I think your bird is going through an early puberty and is full of pep and hormones. I often wonder if the ages given to us in reference books for the different species puberty stage are correct and can be applied to captive-bred birds kept as pets. I remember a male macaw breeding at 1.5 years of age when all the books say that they don't start breeding until they are 4. And we are often asked about a young bird, one which should not be overly hormonal or even fully sexually mature yet -going by its age, becoming very aggressive or showing other aberrant breeding behaviors (masturbating, frequent regurgitation, etc).
I think that it is very possible that baby birds that are fed soy-based formula (and ALL the handfeeding formulas are soy-based), fed high protein consistently and kept at a human light schedule do develop much sooner and might show behaviors that are not 'age appropriate'. I think this is what is happening to your bird. Now, the problem is relatively easy to solve if one goes by the number of things one needs to change - which are only three:
- diet (total lower protein; feeding the high protein food at night; decreasing it for the resting season and increasing it during the breeding and molt ones)
- solar light schedule (to allow the endocrine system to go into the normal annual cycles)
- eliminate nest-like cavities and improper caresses
But, although there points are only three, they do require a complete re-evaluation of the schedules, routines, diet, etc so it's not as easy as it might appear but, on the other hand, it's entirely doable if one puts a bit of thinking and planning into it.
What does concern me is your losing your sight -and I am deeply, deeply sorry for it, my dear! I really do not know how you will manage with a parrot without it... I visually check all my birds twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening. I look at their plumage, their eyes, their feet, their beaks, their poop (both quantity and quality), the level of activity, their movement (as it pertains to balance when perching, flight, etc), their appetite, etc. I have learned the hard way that one single symptom missed can mean a very serious problem. I had a bird, a female Senegal as a matter of fact, that had one single symptom: she went back to sleep after eating breakfast. At the time, I thought it was strange and made a mental note to look in on her in the evening but she flew down from her perch to eat her dinner as usual and I just dismissed the whole thing as my imagination playing tricks on me. The next morning, I found her dead. Birds are tricky when it comes to disease, they hide their symptoms so well you don't notice anything until they are very, very sick and, sometimes, if you don't act right away, you can lose them. And I keep on thinking who will check on her twice a day when you can no longer see? You can't even ask somebody who has no experience on birds because they will miss half the stuff they are supposed to notice so I really don't know what to tell you... I want to say, both for your and her sake, that there is a solution but I have been thinking and thinking about your case since I first read your posting and, if there is one, I really don't know what it is.