itchy senegal...

[Pajarita]

I seriously doubt this is the problem. For one thing, fruits are part of their natural diet and, for another, we are talking fructose and not sucrose and, last but not least, if his blood sugar had been high, the vet would have told you.

[stevesjk]

So its looking like a bad habit then pajarita?

[Pajarita]

As much as I would love to be able to pinpoint a reason why, I can't. Not being there I can't tell whether the conditions are exactly as they should be so I don't know if it's purely behavioral or if it's a behavior caused by something in the environment or even in his daily routine - mind you, it's not that I don't believe you, it's that it's super hard to be really objective about our husbandry and, even when we are, it might be something you did not notice. I'll give you an example: I've never had any bird with night frights (not a single one, not ever) but the tiels were having them when I first moved back to Jersey. I looked and looked for a reason and couldn't find it UNTIL, out of sheer frustration and desperation, I slept in the birdroom and noticed the small sliver of light that was shining into their cage at night. It was the smallest thing and not bright at all (it was coming from a lamp accross the street and in the corner which shone through the side window in a small slanted ray) but it was enough to disturb them. I put black out curtains in the window and they never had another night fright.

Aberrant behaviors are really difficult to 'diagnose'... People and vets (who really should know better!) talk about a problem being 'behavioral' but, in my personal experience, although the 'symptom' is a weird and even harmful behavior, the problem is not, it's always physical or emotional (which I also believe has physical roots as in not producing enough of the happy and reward hormones, for example). It's not as if the bird suddenly developed some sort of mental problem, some psychosis or neurosis, it's that it has a problem he/she cannot solve and it doesn't have any other way of showing it... Another thing I have learned is that parrots are very patient and owners with birds that suddenly developed bad behaviors often say that nothing had changed when the bird started it but what they don't take into consideration is that parrots are not little feathered automatons that start 'malfunctioning' when a piece becomes loose or rusted or something so, although a problem can manifest itself today, it could have started years ago - only the bird waited and waited and waited for things to get better and, when it couldn't wait any longer, it started 'acting up'. This is always the case with hormonal behavior, they are fine for years and, one day, all hell breaks loose and the parrot starts screaming or biting or plucking or whatever.

Senegals are not easy birds - they are little but they think they are big, they are very affectionate but they can give you a real bad bite if you are not paying attention to what they want, they are independent and love flying around and chilling with other birds but they will also demand a lot of attention from their chosen human and they are super intelligent - which we all love but, in truth, dumb animals are easier to keep happy than smart ones!

My point is that aberrant behaviors are never something that shows up out of the blue, there is always a reason for them... the trick is to figure out what that reason is!

[stevesjk]

Thanks pajarita, that was interesting. i would like to ask one more thing if i may, would the fact that due to his white blood sell count being normal and not elevated, does that 100% rule out an allergy in your opinion?