GCC Seizures?!

[BriGuy]

I have a male, 3 year old greencheek conure that ive had for about a week now. Every now and then, he has like 10-15 seconds worth of a "partial" seizure. He gets down low, twitches one wing and makes squealing noises. I am very worried!

[Pajarita]

It might not be a seizure... I've never seen a 'partial' seizure in any animal, I've seen mild petit mal seizures, stronger petit mal, grand mal, real bad grand mal, and cluster seizures (to the point of death) but never a 'partial' seizure (not that they could not exist, I don't know if they do, I've just never seen one that could be described as 'partial'). I would take that bird to an avian vet and explain what I've seen and, if the vet thinks it is a seizure, I would have a CBC, chem panel, ionized calcium and a bile acids test done on him. The most common causes of seizures in birds are from lack of calcium, kidney or liver failure so, if I were you, I would not wait.

[BriGuy]

How should i provide calcium? Im feeding him ecotrition all-natural pellets. And what cause kidney or liver failure

[Wolf]

How should i provide calcium? Im feeding him ecotrition all-natural pellets. And what cause kidney or liver failure

The first thing is to take your bird to the vet and find out what is going on.

The biggest cause of liver disease in birds is too much protein in their diet, usually from feeding too much pelleted feed or too many seeds.

[Pajarita]

Well, you've only had the bird for a few days so, in reality, it could be suffering from all kinds of problems and you would not know it so you definitely need to have that bird seen by a vet.

Kidney malfunction in birds is usually caused by chronic mild dehydration and/or a high protein diet. The chronic mild dehydration is usually caused by feeding pellets which are way too dry in comparison with parrots natural diets (their diets in the wild have 85 - 95% moisture while pellets are always less than 10). Parrots were meant by nature to derive the greatest majority if not all of their hydration needs from their diets (it's dangerous to go down to ground and drink from the side of a stream) so they are not hard-wired to drink a lot or often (my birds take two or three gulps in the morning and a couple more in the evening). If you use a bottle instead of a bowl, this makes things worse because they can only get a drop at a time so, at most, they would take a few drops when, if they are eating pellets, they need much more than that and, taking into consideration that pellets are so dry and that parrots don't really have any saliva to speak of, the body ends up taking moisture from all tissues in order to digest them - but even this is not enough for the kidneys to perform their filtering function efficiently. If you add high protein to the mix, you have a bomb because it's processed by the liver (which ends up with fatty nodules in it) and the by-product of it (uric acid) ends up in the kidneys.

GCCs are mostly fruit eaters in the wild and that means high water content and low protein so, to them, been free-fed pellets or seeds is worse than it is for other species (not that it's good for any parrot, mind you!).

And you can't give the bird calcium unless you know for a fact the bird needs it (that's why I said he needs an ionized calcium test). Too much calcium kills just as well as too little.

[BriGuy]

So, when and what should I feed him?

[Pajarita]

You should follow nature's guidelines. Birds in the wild eat two main meals: breakfast and dinner. I feed mine the healthiest food in the morning about one hour after sunrise (not only because they are hungriest but because this is the meal that will be out all day long for them to pick on, if they feel like it, and because I save the high protein for the night when they need a meal that will not go right through their system in a matter of less than two hours) which is gloop (a dish made out of cooked whole grains and beans -50%- and cooked, chopped vegetables -the other 50%) and raw produce (GCCs get a larger fruit portion than it would be if one went by body size) which is a one different fruit, veggie and leafy green or cruciform (mine loves raw broccoli) - and a measured portion (one heaping tablespoon) of a good quality budgie mix for dinner at sunset.

[BriGuy]

So whole grains and veggies in the morning, and seed at night?

[Wolf]

Cooked whole grains with some beans (50%) and vegetables and fruit (50%) in the morning and seed mix in evening.