Strange actions and sounds african grey parrot

[bradzee]

Hi guys,

I have an afircan grey parrot, and its been a while that she do strange voices and act in a strange way.
8 month ago she was doing the same voices and i posted in here, and someone told me to change her diet and she will be fine.
I changed her diet but she still doing the same and sometimes, she throws up.
This is her video https://youtu.be/8ypDads2nZM

Thanks
Brad

[Pajarita]

That bird is super hormonal and that's why she is acting that way. Do you keep her to a solar schedule with exposure to dawn and dusk or a human light schedule (lights on after the sun begins to set)?

[Wolf]

Actually you were advised to change her diet, quit clipping her wings and to put her on a solar light schedule. I just went back over your previous postings to find out what was said. The diet change was to reduce the amount of protein in her diet as this is one of the triggers for the reproductive cycle and excess protein can keep them from going out of breeding condition because the hormones are made from proteins. Parrots are photoperiodic, which means that their reproductive cycle is primarily controlled by the type and amount of light that they receive, the reason for not clipping her wings is so that she can fly which is the only form of exercise that can reduce the level of hormones in her blood. Another thing is to not pet or scratch her anywhere other than on her head, neck, beak and toes, this is because everywhere else is an erogenous zone and petting or scratching them in these other places stimulates the bird sexually.

[GreenWing]

Your parrot is in love!

That you are now in the know, is a good thing. You want to make changes, because hormonal parrots, especially female, is not good. A hormonal female parrot can get health problems. So...

The whining, the wing wiggling, and the vomit, these are mating behaviors and something you want to discourage NOW.

The first step is to take your bird to an avian vet for a check-up.
Second, actively make changes. Get your parrot on a solar schedule. This means, exposing your bird to a window where they see the sun set and see dusk and twilight. This is nature's way of telling the bird it's bedtime. Put her to bed.
If your bird has clipped wings, I strongly advise you to stop. Any avian vet will inform you that not clipping will prolong your parrot's life and prevent health problems.
Get some good food. I don't mean any parrot food you can buy. Some "parronts" use gloop, others roudybush, others use a mix. I feed my Grey a healthy mix of good quality parrot food, mixed with healthy human food parrots can have. Parrots, like us, need a healthy varied diet. Avoid soy, soy has phytoestrogens. Think of feeding some organic pomegranate and some carrots to shred and eat.
As Wolf mentions, do not touch your bird's tail.

I noticed your bird doesn't have a lot of shredding toys in the cage. Greys like to shred toys apart, it's part of foraging which is natural. Get some toys the bird can tear up. Avoid cloth.

If your bird starts acting hormonal, encourage play with a lot of toys, put on music, distract the bird.

If your bird gets hormonal with you while handling, place the bird back to the cage for a time out.

Let us know if you have more questions.

[bradzee]

Thanks for ur quick replies,

I dont clip her wings, and everyday i take her outside for at least have a day, and i dont put her in direct sunlight.

I feed her a lot of fruits, and less amount of seeds.

So what should be done

Thanks

[bradzee]

Your parrot is in love!

That you are now in the know, is a good thing. You want to make changes, because hormonal parrots, especially female, is not good. A hormonal female parrot can get health problems. So...

The whining, the wing wiggling, and the vomit, these are mating behaviors and something you want to discourage NOW.

The first step is to take your bird to an avian vet for a check-up.
Second, actively make changes. Get your parrot on a solar schedule. This means, exposing your bird to a window where they see the sun set and see dusk and twilight. This is nature's way of telling the bird it's bedtime. Put her to bed.
If your bird has clipped wings, I strongly advise you to stop. Any avian vet will inform you that not clipping will prolong your parrot's life and prevent health problems.
Get some good food. I don't mean any parrot food you can buy. Some "parronts" use gloop, others roudybush, others use a mix. I feed my Grey a healthy mix of good quality parrot food, mixed with healthy human food parrots can have. Parrots, like us, need a healthy varied diet. Avoid soy, soy has phytoestrogens. Think of feeding some organic pomegranate and some carrots to shred and eat.
As Wolf mentions, do not touch your bird's tail.

I noticed your bird doesn't have a lot of shredding toys in the cage. Greys like to shred toys apart, it's part of foraging which is natural. Get some toys the bird can tear up. Avoid cloth.

If your bird starts acting hormonal, encourage play with a lot of toys, put on music, distract the bird.

If your bird gets hormonal with you while handling, place the bird back to the cage for a time out.

Let us know if you have more questions.

Thank u greenwing, i dont touch her tail, and i try to feed her organic and varied healthy food as possible. She get solar sunlight daily, and her cage is placed next to a window, so she can see the sunrise and the sunset.
I did never clip her wings, and i try to get it out of the cage everyday for at least an hour. I sometimes touch her in a lot of places like her back, her tail to play with her, so i will stop this now

Let me know what u think

[Wolf]

Check the labels on any commercial foods that you feed your bird, And see what the ingredients are as well as what it claims for the protein and fat content. Also provide your grey with a cuttle bone or some other form of calcium that it can use on its own, Grey's tend to not get enough calcium in their diet, but we have to remember that too much is as bad for them as not enough.
Not placing your grey in direct sunlight is a very wise and prudent decision as direct sunlight is not good for our birds. Much of what you are doing is very good and I want to let you know this as it can sometimes get discouraging when all that you hear is what you may be doing wrong or only the improvement that we need to make.

Greys are short day breeders so it is very likely that she will cycle into breeding condition twice a year, the first in the early spring and then again as the days begin to grow shorter in the fall. I know that my Grey cycles into breeding condition twice each year.

While I do not encourage any mating behaviors in my Grey, I also do not put her in her cage over her behavior, it is normal and just like us she needs the release from the excess hormones in her system. I do not pet her when she is in a mating mood, but I let her remain with me and spend the time just talking with her. I don't know about the relationship that you have with your Grey , but mine gets highly stressed if she can't be out of her cage and near me, and I do not want to add to her stress, rampant hormones are stressful enough, ask any female that you know.

It depends on the age of your bird as well as how long it has been hormonal as to how long it takes to bring this under control so that they go into breeding condition and cycle back out in a normal manner.

[Pajarita]

I think you are misunderstanding what we mean by 'solar schedule'. It doesn't mean exposing the bird to sunlight, putting it near a window or taking it outside, it means not turning on any artificial lights where the bird is kept until the sun is out in the morning and turning them off when the sun is halfway down to the horizon in the afternoon -and keeping ALL lights off until the following morning when the sun is out. Your bird's cage seems to be in a human living area so, unless nobody uses this room at night and no light is coming in through the window (lamp on the street?) or from an opening to the rest of the house (light in another room?), she is been exposed to light when she should not. I have birds in my living and dining room but neither room is used when it turns dark (we just walk through them in silence and darkness ) and this is the reason why we eat our dinners in our rooms and why I don't have company in the winter unless it's for lunch. I even have a black-out curtain in the opening to the kitchen so the light in there doesn't reach the birds at night...

Also, on diet, giving them produce daily is great but you also need not to free-feed any source of high protein so, if what you are doing is putting high protein food (seeds, nuts, pellets, etc) in a bowl in the morning and leaving it there all day, the bird is eating too much protein.

It's not only not touching the tail, it's not touching the bird ANYWHERE except her head, neck and cheeks (just like you did on the video).

Also, her cage is waaaayyyyy too small (it's only good as a sleeping cage), she has only one dowel in it (real bad for her toes, feet and legs, you need to use tree branches) and virtually no 'chewing' toys or anything for her to climb (all you need is a nice tree branch tied to the side of her cage so she can climb up and sideways - and you can hang things for her to chew from the smaller branches that should grow out of the bigger branch you are tying, kind of like a tree trunk with branches growing out of it - just make sure the wood is not toxic and that it has been washed well and baked in the oven at 300 degrees for 20 minutes).

My Congo gray is now hormonal because this is the time of the year for it but she doesn't act that way because as I keep her at a strict solar schedule and do not free-feed high protein, she never gets overly hormonal.

[GreenWing]

Yes, the others are right, cuttle bone is a great mention. Also the mention of too small of a cage.

For my CAG, I have a swing orb hanging from the ceiling, placed next to her cage. Whenever I am home, she is out of her cage. I think it's probable that a bird will be less hormonal (and more happy) being out of the cage as much as possible. Greys like stability, they're intelligent minds and like a status quo. So, my computer is near her cage and orb, so she watches me a lot as she perches and plays on her orb and we spend a lot of time together without me necessarily handling her.

I'm digressing but hoping this is all helping.

Thanks for ur quick replies,

I dont clip her wings, and everyday i take her outside for at least have a day, and i dont put her in direct sunlight.

I feed her a lot of fruits, and less amount of seeds.

So what should be done

Thanks

What do you mean you take her outside, do you mean in a crate/cage or wearing a harness?

Fruit is good, always make sure it's organic, vegetables are important, too. Grains like quinoa are very healthy. Do NOT feed peanuts for the risk of mold and health problems.

Once in a blue moon I will have some salmon, my Grey gets a bit and she gobbles it up. That said you don't want to give a bird too much protein and avoid fatty foods.

[Pajarita]

Yes, GreenWing, you are correct that seeds, grains and quinoa are all very nutritional but they are also quite high in protein (and the seeds are high in fat, too) and that is something this bird does not need at this point in time -not that this means she should not get any! It's more than one needs to be careful with them when they are overly hormonal.