My parrot Basil

[chris7399]

Hi, I have had my quaker parrot since 2016 and in January i got a dog. My bird has gone from usually 2hrs of out of cage time to 1. He has been acting fine but for the past week he has been acting strange at night. He usually sleeps on his perch with his cozy corner. But lately he has has been sleeping in his food dish and other parts of his cage that he has never slept in before.

-Chris

[Pajarita]

Hi, Chris, welcome to the forum. I don't really know what it is that you are asking... is it that the change in his behavior concerns you? If this is the case, parrots do change as they get older but it is rare that they would give up a good roosting perch for something as uncomfortable to its feet as the rim of a feeding bowl. Is it possible that his feet have an incipient bumblefoot from bad perches and that he is trying to relieve the pain it would cause him to use his regular perch? I don't know if you are aware of this but, although all cages bring them, dowels are not good for birds feet. Has he had any other symptoms? Diarrhea? Fluffiness? Lethargy? Sleeps a lot during the day? Vocalizations? Labored breathing? Because, sometimes, when birds are not feeling well, they perch closer or on the bottom of the cage. You don't say what his diet or his light schedule are and that might have something to do with the whole thing. What you do say is that he went from only two hours of out of cage to one and, well, I don't mean to make you feel bad but parrots need, at the very least (and this is the mere MINIMUM, mind you!) four hours of out-of-cage time to fly and two hours of one-on-one so another possibility is that the bird is severely depressed. Parrots evolved to live with close company all their lives and to fly for both their emotional and physical wellbeing. This is not my personal opinion, it's a scientific fact. Their respiratory system atrophies if they don't fly and the stress and anxiety of being alone depresses their immune system creating a fertile ground for diseases. Doesn't he have other 'bad' behaviors like screaming, plucking, biting, etc? Because quakers are not known for resigning themselves gracefully to being confined and alone all the time... I know you say that you now have a dog but I have ten right now (and cats!) and my birds are out from 6 am to 2:30 or 3:00 pm every single day... it's just a matter of planning and executing.

[chris7399]

I've getting concerned these past few days about hum. He does get about 3 hrs on the weekwnds of out of cage time. In the day he says on the perch but he still sleeps in his food dish a random places recently, do you have any advice.

[Pajarita]

I might be able to give you a few pointers but I need to determine what the possible cause of his change in behavior is (can't fix a problem that has not been identified) and I can't do that unless you answer my questions: what is his diet? light schedule? flighted or clipped? does he have only dowels for perches and, if so, have you looked at the bottom of his feet? how big is his cage? does he have any other symptoms or 'bad' behaviors?

[chris7399]

He eats a seed and fruit mix with pellets 60% pellets and 40% mix. His wings are not clipped. He has one dowel that connects his food dish to his water dish on the other side of the cage, ON perch in the corner that he sleeps on and one plastic spiral perch that he plays on. His feet look fine. His cage height is 81cm the width is 52 cm and the depth is 41 cm. no symptoms or bad behavior.

[Pajarita]

You did not say what his light schedule is but, for one thing, you need to get him a MUCH bigger cage (my quaker's cage was 91 cm high, 86 cm wide and 56 cm deep but the cage is on a stand and the total height is of 125 cm) and change his perches. He needs a sweetfeet for roosting (this is the perch they use for sleeping which needs to be placed as high as possible in the cage -leaving room enough so the bird doesn't have to hunch over) and in a corner -if at all possible, a corner that has a blind side) and natural tree branches (with the bark on them) for the other perches. You also need to change his diet, you are free-feeding protein food and quakers (or any other parrot) don't do well on it. It needs lots of fresh fruits and veggies as well as cooked grains. Quakers are excellent eaters so it's easy to convert them to a healthy diet. They are also birds that come from a temperate climate (and I know because I was born and raised in one of the South American countries where they originate) so it's essential they are kept at a strict solar schedule with full exposure (meaning two hours without artificial lights on) to dawn and dusk. He also needs much more flying and one-on-one time because I suspect the problem is that he is severely depressed. Think about it this way: what do jails use as punishment for the worst criminals? Isolation. And there are people now that say that juveniles should not be punished this way because it does things to their brains. Well, your bird has lived in isolation since it was a baby...

[chris7399]

His perch is in the top left with a cozy corner. He has a window perch that he sits on after he does like 10 laps around the house. I am switching his diet to just tropican natural pellets. yesterday he was out for 5 hrs and today almost 4 hrs. He is now sleeping in the same place as usual. He has a smaller cage the he sits in on the balcony when its hot out but it is still cold here in Canada.

[Pajarita]

Ahhhh, he is feeling better now that he is out more and flying around! Thank you so much for caring about him and making the change for his benefit - and thank you for coming back and letting us know. I know it sounds extreme but, believe it or not, I worry terribly about other people's birds that I read or hear are having a hard time of it and I was thinking of your Basil last night... I love all animals but birds are my passion and quakers are my very favorite species of all the parrots! I was born and raised in one of the South American countries where they come from and my very first baby bird was a quaker I hand-raised over 50 years ago under my grandmother's supervision when I was only ten - her name was Pelusa ( it means 'lint' or 'fluff') because she only had a bit of grey down when we got her.

Now, as to his diet... I do not recommend pellets for any bird except chickens (several reasons that I can elaborate on) but, if you are going to go that way, please make sure they are moist (dry food is unheard of in the wild and parrots natural diets have a 85 - 95% water content so pellets, with only 10% max moisture are super dry for them and not good for their kidneys and liver). Try giving it corn on the cob (they ADORE it!) and fruits like apples, oranges, grapes, cantaloupe, mango, blackberries, blueberries, etc. They are GREAT eaters and love all fruits (we used to have to fight them for the figs on the tree at the end of the summer) but they also eat veggies without a problem - carrots, cooked sweet potato, cherry or grape tomatoes, peppers of all colors, raw broccoli (they love it), pumpkins and squashes, and lots and lots of leafy greens - they particularly like the ones with crunchy stalks like the heart of the romaine, Swiss chard, bok choy, etc (mine used to eat tons of leafy greens every day).

[chris7399]

Thank you i will give him some corn but he usually brings his pellets from his food dish to dunk them in his water dish and then eats them.

[Pajarita]

And that should tell you how VERY smart they are (I am convinced that they are one of the most intelligent parrot species)! It knows that the food is too dry and it's wetting it before eating it - people are not that smart when it comes to their diets!