Akimi (and some GCC behaviour questions)

[Pajarita]

Handfed GCCs that have not been abused or severely neglected are the sweetest, most affectionate little things. And yes, they do love to give AND receive kisses! Mine does the kiss sound while she puts her beak to my cheek which she does as soon as she climbs on my shoulder or every time I either kiss her or tell her "I love you" -hard to resist little love sponges, they are!

[Saerphe]

We drove out to visit my parents today. Akimi did very well in her new travel cage. We got home a couple hours ago and now she's asleep cuddled under my hand. She's got her beak tucked under my fingers and everything. She usually goes to sleep in her cage around 9:00 PM, but having her sleep in my hands is so precious and special I haven't had the heart to put her to bed yet. <3

[Pajarita]

Awwww, I would have stayed like that for hours, too And, yes, they are special and very precious, you hit the nail right on the head with that description!

[Saerphe]

So, having had Akimi for a little over a month (it feels so much longer) I've noticed something rather odd that I thought I should ask about.

Akimi seems to have very poor balance. If she pulls up one foot and decides to have a snooze while perched on me, she weeble-wobbles around quite a bit. When she goes to sleep in her cage, she sleeps in a happy hut, (I'm thinking I'll get something made out of a different material at some point, but she doesn't chew on it and it's in good condition so I think it's fine for now). The deepest I've ever seen her sleep while perched on me is when she's securely cradled against my chest. She's also prone to tripping and slipping, though she is able to catch herself before she falls (she is fully flighted). If she's perched on me or standing on a flat surface she prefers to either lean on something or lay down fully when stretching.

I've also never seen Akimi hang upside down of her own volition, despite the reports of most conures being acrobats. When I've tried to work with her to do 'upside down bird' (hanging upside down from my finger) she almost always lets go with one foot and hangs there until I give her my other hand to drop down on. She climbs around vertically just fine, but most conures I've met love to climb around and play upside down.

Her previous owner only had dowel perches in Akimi's cage, and they were pretty large for the size of her feet. When she came to me, I made sure to get natural perches of appropriate sizes as soon as I could (and she loves them). She does seem to have improved a little bit since I got the natural perches into her cage a few weeks ago, but I figured that could be as much from having something with more grip than smooth, straight wood as it does with giving her feet better exercise.

What do you guys think? Is this more likely a result of poor foot exercise, or could there have been factors that led her develop poor balance as a baby? Is it just her? She certainly doesn't seem unhappy, and has been in good health since I got her - especially since I made improvements to her diet and environment. Is there anything else I could do to either help improve her balance or to make her life easier?

[Wolf]

I would keep watch on this and keep a record of it as well as any changes in it either improvement or lack of improvement. I would include any changes in what you do that may affect this as well. This would be changes in the perches, diet and so on. Malnutrition is often a cause of this type of behavior, but this could also be your first indications of a neurological disorder that may be passed on genetically.

[Pajarita]

The fact that she had real bad perches is, of course, a big factor and might be the reason for her lack of balance but I agree with Wolf that you need to keep an eye on her and keep track of these things because, if she doesn't improve with the better perches, you will need to take her to an avian vet to see what is going on there. In the meantime, remind me of details like her age and what kind of diet she was on before because it could also be a mineral imbalance for which you would need to buy a special supplement.

[Saerphe]

She's two years. The diet she was on before was Kaytee Fiesta Small Parrot Food. It was kind of like this:
http://www.kaytee.com/products/fiesta-max-parrot.php

I had her swapped to gloop and budgie mix within a week of her getting here. I kept her on her old food for that first week after she got here, but picked out as many of the sunflower seeds and peanuts as I could find. She's now on a mix of about half cooked whole grains (buckwheat groats, quinoa, whole rolled oats, brown and wild rice, red lentils, white navy beans, and sesame seeds) and half cooked veggies (a frozen mix of corn, peas, lima beans, green beans, and carrots, and will attempt to add broccoli soon), with budgie seed mix in the evenings. She also gets little tastes of some kinds of table food (usually rice noodles, cooked potato, banana, etc.), and sunflower seeds as treats. She mostly eats the corn, peas, grains, and carrot out of her gloop and leaves the green beans, lima beans, and lentils. Sometimes it's tricky to tell how much of her veggies she's eating because she eats the insides out of the peas and corn and drops the skins back in the bowl.

Thanks for the timely responses. I was wondering because she seems to have pretty good grip strength in her feet, but poor balance.

[Wolf]

Does she have a cuttlebone or other source of calcium?

[Saerphe]

I have provided her with a cuttle bone, but she hasn't even touched it. I'm not sure she knows what to do with it, to be honest.

[Saerphe]

Also, anyone have any tips on cooling down? It's been very hot where I am recently and though living in a basement apartment helps stave off the worst of it (we don't have AC) it does still get quite warm. I had to put the butter in the fridge because it actually started melting from the heat. My dog and my bird both have access to water all day every day (especially in this weather), but that doesn't stop them from getting cranky and uncomfortable. I wasn't even able to take my dog out for our usual walk around the block the last few days because it was just too hot.

I offered Akimi a pan of water to bathe in today as the heat was really bad, but she wasn't having any of it and bit me. Apparently she's against bathing more than once a week (she had a good soak yesterday). Even though she was offered basically unlimited chances to cool down today, she was stubborn about it and was unusually cranky all day. I can't say I blame her either - my brother and I even went so far as to go out for ice cream in lieu of dinner.

Would offering frozen veggies or frozen fruit juice be a good alternative? Or maybe even veggies frozen in fruit juice?