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An old bird

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Re: An old bird

Postby Georges mom » Wed Aug 01, 2018 7:11 pm

I asked her the same thing and her reference was to his age . She sees a lot of birds and the majority of them have barely acceptable labs due to the crap people feed them. The older birds like George usually have very poor labs and many require medications. She's absolutely thrilled that George is in excellent condition and reassures me that I'm responsible for a large percentage of that. She knew from day one my apprehension and inexperience with parrots and says she sees it all the time. Unfortunately many situations like that go south quickly (that is for the bird) and is just so happy to see him thrive. Now a question...... Mostly everyone who comes here goes up toGeorge to say hi. He isin the center of the family room. Should I have them just acknowledge him from afar or not say anything? I watched him closely today and when the babies came over running and crawling he sits in his cage quiet but watching very closely. When adults came in the growls came out. He goes to the bottom of his cage when the babies are here and he definitely wants out. They're playing with toys everywhere and he's excited. I will not ever let him out when they are present. His cage guard prevents them from approaching cage too. Once they leave I open him up and he goes right to outside perches that are by my rocker. Would appreciate your thoughts on this ;)
Georges mom
Conure
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 103
Location: Indiana
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: Yellow naped amazon parrot
Flight: No

Re: An old bird

Postby Pajarita » Thu Aug 02, 2018 9:12 am

OK. his age. Yes, birds of a certain age [and not necessarily very old, either!] that have been fed wrong, do end up with liver, kidney and heart problems [especially zons that require a very low protein diet with lots of produce -pellets being a no-no for them because of the high protein content of ALL of them!] but which value was off and what was the actual level? I would like to know, if you can get the info, because I have old zons myself and have been able to get them to normal blood values -even the ones with severe liver damage- so I might be able to help with this.

As to his growling, yes, it's that he feels threatened. It's up to you but I never allow people to get too close to my birds -whether they are flying around or in their cages. Parrots are not 'explorers' by nature. They don't like change, they don't like strangers, they don't like noises they cannot recognize and, most especially, they do NOT like being stared at! So I always tell the people who come over to look at them from a bit of a distance, not to try to interact with them and never to stare at them [I tell them to look at them out of the corner of their eye and to turn their face a bit sideways so the birds don't feel threatened]. Is it possible that your adult company usually went straight to his cage and stood there, a mere foot or two away, staring at him? Because that would really make the poor bird nervous [afraid?] - and, if this happened often enough, he would expect it and make him react even when it doesn't. There was a study done recently that said that anticipating stress is as harmful as going through it even when the stressor doesn't really materialize so, if he was made to feel that adult company is threatening, he will react to it even when they no longer do anything.
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
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Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes

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