Akimi (and some GCC behaviour questions)

[Pajarita]

Diet is good but eliminate the lima beans (I know they come in some of the mixed vegetables you buy but there are brands that have only corn, peas, carrots and green beans so get one of thee instead) and offer a different piece of fresh fruit every morning (GCC's love their fruit).

The instability problem might be a mineral imbalance because she hasn't gotten any vit D 3 which she needs in order to be able to absorb the calcium (you need to add broccoli to her gloop because it's rich in calcium and vit C) and the previous diet was pretty bad. Get yourself liquid calcium with D3, magnesium and phosphorus (like this one: http://www.amazon.com/Calcium-Magnesium ... phosphorus) and, if the dosage is 2 tablespoons a day (it usually is), put a teaspoonful in about 3 to 4 oz of water for five days - stop for 2 days - do another 5 days. And, from then on, get yourself a good avian multivitamin/mineral powder supplement and mix a 1.5 daily dosage once a week in his gloop.

[Saerphe]

Thanks, Pajarita! Do you have recommendations for an avian multivitamin powder? I'll be sure to order some soon.

In the meantime I'll also try and get her out in the sun a bit more often - it's been difficult lately because it's been too hot out to safely take the animals outside for more than a few minutes at a time. We're supposed to have some rain this week, so hopefully that'll help break this crazy heat wave we've been having. I'd like to take her in her travel cage across the road to the park - there's a picnic table mostly in the shade and it'd be a good time for her to be exposed to new people in a controlled environment (her owner doesn't seem to have socialized her particularly well either, despite having some understanding of parrot behaviour).

[Saerphe]

So it's been a little while since my last post, and I started adding broccoli, cauliflower, and a couple berries (from a frozen mix) to Akimi's gloop, and she seems to be improving a bit. She seems to wobble less when standing on one foot to snooze. When she first got here, the wobble was very noticeable, but it's harder to see now. I've even seen her lose her balance on her perches, but not need to flap around crazily to get it back - she just holds on to the perch as she falls and lets her body swing upside down, and drops down to the next perch without fuss.

I also discovered the kinds of toys she prefers - noisemakers and bells - and added a toy to her cage that she absolutely loves. She reaches up to ring it from a variety of spaces in her cage - perched on her happy hut, hanging from the sides of the cage, reaching up from the perch just below it - so I imagine that in addition to having natural perches, her feet get more exercise from her playing with this toy. It's a bit like a wiffle ball, but made out of sturdy, bird-safe rubber, and it has a bell inside. Even my brother has mentioned that she screams less often during the day when I'm gone (he only works weekends right now, so he's home on weekdays) and jingles more.

The last few days she also hasn't screamed at me when I go out the door for work. She does still scream a bit (which is to be expected), but I've been working on replacing her contact scream with a microwave beep and she's been doing that more often lately. Once the door closes behind me, she mostly just beeps a little bit, and she doesn't make as much noise for as long when I come back in the door. She was a much more incessant screamer when she first got here, but that's starting to ease up noticeably as well.

[Pajarita]

Sorry I did not reply before. I use two different kinds of multivitamin/mineral supplements: ABBA's 2003 (a powder that dissolves in water) and ABBA Vita-Powder (a powder that you mix in soft food). I use the one you put in the water for the finches, canaries, quails and cardinals passerines (they don't eat soft food except during breeding season) and the new birds that are not yet converted to gloop but I use the one that goes in the gloop with all the other parrots (and the new birds once they start eating the gloop).

Vitamins and mineral supplements start degrading as soon as they dissolve in water so the one that mixes with the soft food is actually better but, sometimes, you have no choice but to use the one in the water...

Sunshine is great and it will help greatly with any type of calcium deficiency she might have but you still need to supplement other stuff like magnesium and phosphorus which need to be balanced with calcium in order for all of them to work.

[Saerphe]

Thanks Pajarita! I'll be sure to look it up and order some to add to her food ASAP.

[Saerphe]

Here are some cute photos I just wanted to share.

Messy Face



My brother and I went to the farmer's market today, where I got strawberries, raspberries, and broccoli. She had her own bowl of produce of course (particularly broccoli), but wanted to eat out of mine.



Wearing a bell for a hat.



She's been pretty good today. She played quietly for quite a while on her basket stand - playing with bells, chewing the wicker, climbing on and off it to run around on my keyboard and to run up to my shoulder and back down again. She did also eventually eat out of her own bowl, and actually ate quite a bit of broccoli. I figured she'd only be interested in the florets, but interestingly enough she also seems to like eating the stalks. She got a little nippy a while ago, so now she's having some quiet time in her cage (she was probably ready for a drink and a nap).

[Wolf]

Probably was ready for a nap, we all get tired and cranky every now and then. Looks like she really enjoyed the raspberries. We didn't get any this year as we had too much going on when they ripened so we failed to pick them.

[Pajarita]

Yes, parrots all like the crunchy stalks (try bokchoy and Swiss Chard, too) but mine like the floret part, too. My birds don't like raspberries. I don't know why but very few of them actually eat them while, on the other hand, they all love blueberries and blackberries. Make sure the strawberries are organic, they are on the 'list'.

[marie83]

My GCC likes raspberries but wont touch blackberries lol. All my pets aren't normal I swear....... Blueberries and strawberries are his favourites though.

Are you still having issue with clinginess? I found foraging toys on a play stand or scattered round the room excellent for teaching a little independence. I had to play with the toys at first but eventually he started going over to investigate by himself, giving me a little breathing space. I do think its healthier for both of us that way, he gets to be out more, he gets company and I get to do what I need to do too. Even when I don't put food in the toys for ages he will still amuse himself for a bit now off of his own free will. He has been clingier this past week and a half but I think that's down to losing our 'tiel.

[Saerphe]

That's interesting. It's funny how different each bird's tastes can be, even among the same species. I can see how birds might not like raspberries as much, as they're quite tart and the other kinds are more sweet. Or maybe it's the texture? Blackberries and blueberries are very smooth and more firm, but raspberries are almost kind of fuzzy (like an apricot), and squishier. Akimi does also love blueberries and blackberries, and we've both been enjoying cherries recently as well. I don't like bananas at all, but whenever my brother eats one, she begs him to share.

She's been much less clingy recently. She doesn't ask for scratches or cuddles as often, but she does like to play more these days, especially since I discovered she prefers bells and noisemakers over the destructibles I was providing her before (she still gets those, she just doesn't really play with them very much). She has a rubber ball with a bell inside that she loves, and I ended up getting her a second one specifically for her basket stand (there are better pictures of it in the Toys and DIY forums). I also found some vine balls with jingle bells inside, which she often plays with as foot toys, though they're easy to put on a string to hang as well. I'll sometimes get out a bed sheet for her to 'snarfle' around in on my lap too - she likes to burrow around under it and chatter to herself, and I can pet her and play with her in ways that she doesn't otherwise like me to do. It's pretty freakin' cute.

I also got her a little foraging ball-cage-thing with a bell on it. I've put fruit in it before, and tomorrow I'm going to try putting broccoli, carrots, and lettuce in, which I think will be less likely to fall out, and therefore more interesting to chew on.

Akimi still screams at me a bit if I leave the apartment or if I go to the kitchen or bathroom, but I've been working at changing her contact call from a shriek to her microwave beep, and she's getting much more consistent at using it instead of screaming. She doesn't usually scream if I go into my bedroom (her cage is near my door), and opts for beeping instead. There were even a couple days last week where I was able to leave the apartment for work without her screaming at all - once she realizes I'm leaving she usually screams until I get out the door, and then after it closes behind me she starts beeping. She gets uncovered and gets breakfast right before I leave, so sometimes her mouth is too full for her to kick up too much of a fuss.

She does still do her alarm scream when my brother enters the room (she doesn't really like him... we have to work on that), and she does the same 'don't leave me here' screech as she does for me when he leaves the living room to go to the kitchen/bathroom/his room. Overall though, she doesn't scream nearly as incessantly as she did after I first got her, and it's much easier to deal with now.