New Member + new Blue Headed Pionus!

[flappybird]

Hemp and sesame, got it. What about sesame oil drizzled over food in small quantities? Would that be the same or not really help? (I ask because I already have some in the house)

I don't know that Luna was really neglected at least in the past three years of her life. Her previous owner was retired and she lived with a bunch of other birds but I'm not really sure what their activities consisted of.

My biggest concern is how sedentary she seems to be. She showed some interest in that toy I gave her earlier but has since ignored it. My boyfriend and I are both getting some work done on the desk in the adjacent room. She can hear us and if I lean back she can see me. We have some music on as well. She's been almost completely still for a couple hours now. I'm trying to figure out if the cage she's been living in caused her to be largely sedentary, or if that is just her natural demeanor. She really likes her current cage and I'm wondering if I should even bother to get a bigger standing cage. I do know that the play top aspect will be awesome because she does like to sit on top but needs somewhere better/more comfortable.

I just measured her current cage.. and I just realized it's not that much smaller than what I would get her. The dome top decreases some of the usable height. The cage is about 15" tall to the base of the dome, and I'd say about 20" total. Sides are 16.5 x 22".
I was going to replace it with a 22x24x37 cage with play top but now I'm wondering if that's worthwhile. Those also look more "jail cell" and darker than something like she has now. And maybe taller isn't necessarily better...?
Thoughts?

[Wolf]

I will have to let Pajarita answer about sesame seed oil, but just so you know, I would not use it.

As to the cage your Pionus has a wingspan of right at 22 inches so the cage sizes that you are speaking of are just barely large enough for her to open her wings. You should always go for the largest cage that you can fit and afford. I tend to use the play top cages.

[flappybird]

So.. getting ready for work this morning and it's going to be her first day totally alone for a while. I'm going to be taking a break to come back and see her 1-2 times. Work is a block away so it's easy.

The screaming is getting worse. It's truly awful. She does it sometimes when I'm in the room, she does it when I leave to do anything and if I take 15 seconds too long it starts. She's started doing it on my shoulder (which is truly harmful and I am worried about my hearing), my head is ringing for a while afterwards. If the screaming was an alarm call she wouldn't do it on my shoulder, right? I don't know how I'm going to teach her to stop but I'm worried that I won't be able to. Other than this call, she is the quietest bird I've EVER met. I asked her previous owner about it, and she said that she did it "sometimes" and that she probably learned it from the cockatoo she lived with. It does sound a whole lot like a cockatoo actually.

Any suggestions on what I should be doing when she starts? I come over to her cage right away (which probably only reinforces it) and try to talk to her but sometimes it takes her forever to quit. I'm trying the whistling.. So far I haven't heard her whistle or talk so I don't know if she's ever learned.

What a strange start with this little bird...

[flappybird]

Uh oh.. Maybe she's trying to call to the cockatoo and wondering where it is...?

[Pajarita]

Parrots can and do learn calls from a different species but the constant screaming is a sign that she was lonely, called for attention and did not get it -thus the habit of screaming all the time. Parrots that are used to having company all day long, don't scream during the day. I have a room full of birds with a cockatoo (the ex-screamer), amazons, grays, conures, jardine, tiels and budgies and you don't hear a peep coming out of it during the day; and I have 7 parrots (2 senegals, 2 amazons, 1 redbelly, 1 peachfront, 1 GCC) on the first floor (the birdroom is on the second floor) and, again, you don't hear a peep out of them during the day.

Pionus do tend to be perch potatoes (they are very similar to amazons) but even amazons move around, climb, fly a bit, chew on stuff, etc (I raised my head to look at the two zons in the dining room -I am in the kitchen right now- and they are both climbing up and down and up again and down again because they have a large cardboard box on the floor of their cage and a SUPER large wooden box on top of their cage and, apparently, the both need chewing at the same time ) so the fact that this bird just sits there doing nothing whatsoever tells you that she was indeed neglected - and the fact that she is SOOOO willing to ride the shoulder of a stranger (you) confirms it (a bird that was deeply bonded and happy with a keeper would not accept another one so easily and quickly). Just because somebody has a lot of birds doesn't mean they are interacting... especially if all the birds are in cages (collectors -not to be confused with hoarders- do that).

[flappybird]

So, Luna did have a box in her cage that she liked to chew at her old place, I took it out because the act of chewing on the box has made all her face and cheek feathers rub off so her cheeks are bare. I replaced it with the chewing toy I mentioned earlier. I was also worried that keeping the box would trigger hormonal and nesting behavior. Maybe I should put it back to give her something to do?

Speaking of hormonal behavior, got home from work a little bit ago and she is excited to see me, but when I took her out she started crouching down really low with her tail in the air, spreading her wings a bit, and clucking excitedly, and acting really docile. I'm pretty sure that means she's super horny. I'm not sure what I should do when that happens.

Will she eventually be okay with me leaving the room for bits at a time without freaking out once she becomes more comfortable with us and what we do? That's a silly question.. the answer is probably yes. she's being super friendly now I guess because she was alone all day.

Thanks everyone for all your input, I really appreciate it. I don't want to become sad and worried on only my 3rd day of having her!

[Wolf]

As we gain more information it becomes more and more clear what is going on in your birds life and behaviors that we could only guess at why they are occurring become easily understood.
A part of Luna's behaviors stem from the fact that she is in a new and strange environment which is potentially dangerous if you are a bird and even more scary if you are a lone bird who depends on a flock for safety.
Another part of her problems is that Luna is hormonal. Exactly how much of a problem this is remains to be seen. If she is just going through a normal breeding cycle, then there is really not a problem and it will soon pass as we are at the very end of the breeding season. If she is experiencing a prolonged breeding cycle then she needs to be put on a solar light schedule with full exposure to the twilight periods that occur just before dawn and at dusk to reset her internal biological clock as well as to be put on a low protein diet as these are the only cure for and overly hormonal bird and are also the only preventative treatment available as well.

[Pajarita]

I doubt that chewing on a cardboard box rubbed off the feathers on her face. I certainly have never seen or hear anything like that happening and I don't see how it could because they don't rub their face on anything when they chew. And, yes, cavity-like things (boxes) do bring on nesting behaviors but only when they are hormonal, not all year round. Having a box in their cage certainly does not make them produce sexual hormones, it's long days and high protein that does that. Whether this will become a medical problem depends on the light schedule that you will have her under... It's not a problem now because the days are long but it will be a problem during the winter if you work full time.

And there is nothing you should or should not do when she is sexually aroused... well, except do anything that will make things worse (like inappropriate touching and/or caressing).

[flappybird]

What you guys are saying about light schedule and protein makes sense. I've noticed some things:

She LOVES scrambled eggs. She can smell/tell when you are cooking them and freaks out. High protein, duh. Her previous owner told me she liked them too. She also loves her seed mix, while I am really lucky that she will eat her chop and other things I give her with gusto, it's obvious that she prefers the seed mix over everything.

I also recently noticed that she picks out the safflower seeds and pretty much leaves everything else. She'll eat the peanuts when they show up, but ignores the pieces of dried fruit, pellets, and flattened, dehydrated beans or whatever they are. When I got her she was on Higgins Vita Seed mix, I switched to Safflower Gold because it had no sunflower seeds which are higher in fat than safflower. I also got her zupreem pellets and roudybush pellets, small ones, to see if she'll eat them, and I keep a very small amount of these three mixed in her familiar food bowl so she doesn't freak out without them. So far I haven't seen her touch the pellets. I really really want to try to get her off the mostly seed diet. Again, that's more protein. She's used to having food in her cage all day which no doubt means "food is plentiful, a lot of them are seeds, let's reproduce!"

So far, feeding schedule goes like this: wake her up, put her on my shoulder if she wants as I walk around getting stuff ready, I prepare her a small amount of chop and whatever else I have so she'll eat that, which she ignores at first because she just woke up and is distracted, then pecks at a little. Have to go to work pretty soon after that (about an hour - hour and a half), so the last two days I've been coming back after a few hours and taking the dish out so it doesn't spoil. She has a few seeds during this time too, which she favors. I let her have those all day for snacking (I haven't gotten into making any foraging toys or birdy bread which I will do soon), and give her another meal like I did in the morning sometime around 730. I don't refill her seeds, but she's good about not totally finishing them.

I've been keeping her near the solar schedule but it's obvious that I'm going to have to wake at dawn and put her to bed much earlier. That's only a bummer because we do like to hang out with her after being away all day. I'm super worried about when the time changes because I have no idea how we're going to keep with that. We usually get home from work around 6:30 and it'll be dark by then. That also means we won't have any time with her after work.

Her screaming is more frequent. I realize she's doing it when she wants anything. Whether that's to be picked up, make us come back in the room, give her a piece of egg, give her seeds, open her cage door, whatever. She'll even do it on my shoulder, which I think I already mentioned and IT IS AWFUL. Sometimes she'll do it while in the same room. Sometimes she'll quit right away sometimes it's really really persistent and I can't really figure out what she's trying to say. I try to give her what she wants within reason, I also go to her and talk to her but try to wait until she quits screaming to pick her up or give her treats. I really don't want to reinforce this and I wish I could teach her a different way to communicate sooner. I haven't heard her imitate any whistles or say any words. She's 10 years old and has been around people, don't know why she hasn't picked up any of those.

Her hormonal displays continues, it's much much more frequent now, and she seems to do it more around my boyfriend. It appeared she was more comfortable with me the first couple of days, but now it seems she really likes him too, possibly a tiny bit more.. haha.

Anyways.. that's the update. She was really nice on Monday, and kind of a brat yesterday and today.

[flappybird]

Oh, and she hasn't touched the box since I put it back in.
Don't know how she lost her cheek feathers then... She cleans her beak a lot and rather unsuccessfully on her dowel perches.. maybe that's how?

I did take out one of her filthy old perches and replaced it with a two pronged branch on one side, and a small sleeping perch high up on the other. She went to that one right away. I'm sure she's glad to finally have a different height to perch on. This was encouraging and I'm thinking maybe when I get her a bigger/taller cage she might really enjoy it and might make her move around more and exercise.