New here and wondering if my sweet bird is retarded?

[Singthing]

I have 2 very sweet lovebirds newly acquired (about 1 week). One "Herb" is very smart, can maneuver well through it's cage, find new toys and food but stays a bit distant from us. The other, "Peaches", doesn't seem as smart, has a neck issue which makes him look up a lot, stays more on the low part of the cage, and couldn't find his water container until I finally changed it to a different one. Yet, he/she always tries to come out of the cage to us. Other than occasionally trying to bite us, it is such a cutie. My 5 yr old son plays with it and it seems to enjoy it. I'm curious though if birds can be retarded? It wouldn't matter as we won't give him up, but I was just curious?

[Ark]

It sounds like he may be a "stargazer", they don't know exactly what causes it but there are some ideas. Throwing the head back, having trouble finding food and loss of coodination/balance (which may be why he prefers the bottom of the cage) are some signs.

Here is a link: http://www.avianweb.com/stargazing.html.

Do you have an avian vet? I would try to get him in to have him assessed and see about some possible treatments for whatever may be causing the symptoms.

[rebeccaturpeinen]

"stargazer" sounds way better than "retarded" anyway

welcome to the forum!!

[entrancedbymyGCC]

I hadn't heard of this syndrome before, so I've done a bit of research. It's really a symptom more than a condition in and of itself. If this is really what is going on with your bird, an avian vet visit is definitely called for, and you may want to separate the two in the interim since some causes are infectious. If these came from a store or breeder, you may want to approach them about a refund especially if they were sold with any kind of health guarantee. I understand you are attached (I probably would be, too) but treatment could get expensive and if the condition proves intractable it could be heartbreaking. It could also turn out to be easily treatable or no big deal. I hope the latter is the case!

[Singthing]

Thank you both. I bought them from a woman that has had them for quite some time. She was in the military and was being re-stationed. She had told me about his "condition" but I wanted to see him anyway. So, "stargazer" does sound better. He is a really cute bird and very affectionate. They both love each other very much too. He stays on the bottom, but also does climb quite a bit...just not to the very top of the cage. He has no problem finding his food now and I did replace the water with a bigger container as the other one really wasn't appropriate anyway. It seemed like it was more for a hamster cage. It had come with a new cage I bought them so he it wasn't the one they were both used to. Anyway, I will keep an eye on him, but truly, I don't feel it is going to be a harmful situation. I will read up on it as well. Thank you very much.