Blue Quaker. Open sore

[ParrotsForLife]

It doesn't matter if you know or not lol I know he wasn't hormonal so just leave it at that and its pretty obvious too if he went back to his happy self after he left.

[Pajarita]

No, actually, it's not obvious at all. Nobody can tell if a bird is in pain or not. Not even an avian vet. And you have had no problems YET and that is the operative word here. Your birds are very young but they will mature and then you will know. Besides, you do realize that your birds cannot be the exception to ALL the birds in the world, right?

[ParrotsForLife]

No, actually, it's not obvious at all. Nobody can tell if a bird is in pain or not. Not even an avian vet. And you have had no problems YET and that is the operative word here. Your birds are very young but they will mature and then you will know. Besides, you do realize that your birds cannot be the exception to ALL the birds in the world, right?

I know he wasn't in pain but thats not what im talking about im saying he was never hormonal in the first place and the reason I know this is because he was mine.You only reply based on the information I give so If I gave you information that makes u think he was hormonal then I gave you wrong information.What Rio was doing was attacking the other birds which is normal lovebird behaviour and then attacking me and that could be territorial and he was never fully tame to begin with.

[ParrotsForLife]

I know my birds are young but they are not babies Rocko and Mango are almost 2 years old they reached sexual maturity and im sure Loki has and she is around 7 months younger than Rocko.

[Pajarita]

I do the beak and nail trim. I've been doing it since he was little. Not something they recommended during the visit. I asked.

As of the schedule, it probably is because they have all been on the human type schedule and not covered anymore with a blanket.

Please reconsider the beak and nail trim. Take these things into consideration:

1. Healthy birds NEVER need a beak trim - not ever. And I am not exaggerating on this, it's God's truth! I am actually quite upset with your vet for not telling you this! It was terribly irresponsible of them and completely mercenary to take advantage of your not knowing!

2. Even if you have been doing it since he was little, it's still terribly stressful to him and you have a mutilator in your hands, my dear, so what you would want to do is avoid ALL stress as much as possible, not add to it.

3. By giving the bird a beak trim periodically, you are effectively eliminating the very first thing you would notice (symptom) of fatty liver: an overgrown beak. And that's a dangerous thing to do because, by the time the bird's beak becomes overgrown, the liver is already in a lot of trouble so, if you miss it, the bird will be doomed.

Now, please understand that I am not scolding you. I can see why you would think that this grooming was necessary - good owners have their dogs groomed all the time so one would think that a good parrot owner would need to do the same. But it's not so. Even dogs are stressed out when they get groomed and they have been domesticated for over 30,000 years and have been bred to be people-oriented for thousands of generations so imagine what it does to an undomesticated species just a few generations removed from the wild? The nail trim is stressful enough (and that's why most owners do it themselves or provide perches especially made to prevent sharp/long claws) but the beak is terribly upsetting to them! It needs to be immobilized by a stranger and a grinding stone applied to a VERY sensitive area of their anatomy. Beaks are not like nails, they have a live 'core' inside and parrots use their beak to 'feel' textures so grinding them down is terrifying to them. I've had birds that needed it because of medical issues and I think I got as upset as they did when I had to do it just thinking of the stress I was putting them under - and I did not even use a grinder, I have a special kind of cutting pliers for things like that because it's faster and it doesn't give them the feeling of 'grinding down'.

Please, think about it and do a bit more of research about beak trims.

[Pajarita]

No, actually, it's not obvious at all. Nobody can tell if a bird is in pain or not. Not even an avian vet. And you have had no problems YET and that is the operative word here. Your birds are very young but they will mature and then you will know. Besides, you do realize that your birds cannot be the exception to ALL the birds in the world, right?

I know he wasn't in pain but thats not what im talking about im saying he was never hormonal in the first place and the reason I know this is because he was mine.You only reply based on the information I give so If I gave you information that makes u think he was hormonal then I gave you wrong information.What Rio was doing was attacking the other birds which is normal lovebird behaviour and then attacking me and that could be territorial and he was never fully tame to begin with.

How do you know he wasn't hormonal? Did you have blood work done to measure the amount of sexual hormones in his blood? Because that's the only sure way one could say that the bird is NOT hormonal when we know the bird is aggressive, has a high protein diet and is kept at a human light schedule (all things that would make a bird hormonal). Attacking other birds is NOT lovebirds 'normal' behavior, Brandon. Think about it. If this was normal behavior, they would not be able to share their territory with any other species of birds or the species would have died a long time ago. We know they do share their territory in the wild (yours was an Agapornis personatus which comes originally from Northeast Tanzania and shares this territory with hundreds and hundreds of species), there are no reports from wildlife biologists that they spend their entire life fighting with other species, no videos, no pictures, no nothing - so how could it be 'normal' behavior?

[ParrotsForLife]

Im not saying its normal behaviour like that its normal for them not to get along with other species and your not in the right position to say that because when I said before about getting a lovebird you said and a few others said they might fight and lovebirds this and that are known for biting toes off so what does that tell you that they are indeed an aggressive species.And no he didn't have a high protein diet in fact I don't think he was getting enough protein and he was not on a human light schedule he was put to bed when the sun went down and like I already said Lovebirds are an aggressive species so no he didn't show any hormonal symptoms.

[Liv3laughlov3608]

Although it seems that people have another agenda on my thread. I wanted to post some updates on Levi. Still doing good. <3. His wound is not swollen anymore and it starting to show signs of healing. He has stopped his cage aggressiveness again too because we are taking him out more frequently then he is used to and I'm saying no no to biting instead of retracting my hand after he goes for it. Here are some pics.

[JessiMuse]

It's starting to look a little better, swelling wise! Not sure about the yellow in the middle though... I'll leave that to someone who knows more about this kind of stuff, though.

[Chantilly]

He is a cutie! It is great that it is starting to heal and that is is becoming less agressive! Congratulations with him and I am very happy that he is healing well.