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My conure seems to go from lovelovelove let me cuddle underneath your collar (or your chin[s]) or "you are worse than Hitler." Or he tried mating with me.
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Oct 26, 2012 20:38
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| # ¿ Apr 18, 2024 02:20 |
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Ugh, I'm so sorry Noodles. Just reading that made me decide that my conure will spend today on my shoulder and no where else. Well, until he bites me and flies away.
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Dec 4, 2012 20:55
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I was on skype with someone earlier today and Zapp would basically mug for the camera the entire time, pacing behind me (backlit by the setting sun for a more dramatic affect, naturally), peeking up from the edge of the couch so the person I was talking to could see him but I couldn't, and then sitting next to me and catching some Z's. This. Bird.
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Apr 18, 2013 04:53
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Amaya posted:BUT. BUT. MY...M-MY BABIESSSSS I know, right? If my wife and I are away from the house for more than 48 hours I feel... I wouldn't say anxious, but a tiny bit not happy with the idea of Bird quietly warking away in an empty apartment, even if we have someone to poke their head in and change water/food and so on. Usually within 24 hours I'm looking up videos of conures on youtube.
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May 16, 2013 02:47
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My bird (GCC) is puzzling me, he's been taking to burrowing under my blanket when I take a nap with him out. It's not a bad thing, exactly, but I'm wondering if this is part of some mating habits that these guys have, since it IS springtime and he's being especially "let me share my food with you, I love you" lately. I'd get a picture of it, but the camera is a death-device, but good lord is it cute how he brute-forces his way underneath a fairly heavy (for him) blanket and then spends a few minutes tapping me in the dark with his beak to keep me honest.
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May 17, 2013 07:25
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Not sure if this has been covered, but has anyone had any experience with owning a dog alongside a green-cheek conure? Our last ferret died recently, and the wife has been wanting to get a dog for years, and it seems like now might be an opportune time. We were looking for something (obviously) with a low prey drive, like a pug, french bulldog, chihuahua, something smallish along those lines. But, at the end of the day, I'm absolutely terrified that the dog (or bird) might just decide "you know what? gently caress this fool" and go after Bird before we have a chance to react. Can they at least be trained to a point where they'd just ignore one another? I'm not expecting that the Bird will ride around on the dog or anything silly like that, just a minimum of bird-death, since the other alternative is to keep them separated in our tiny one-bedroom apartment, a situation that is unfair to both animals in my opinion.
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Jun 19, 2013 08:16
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Potentially very dumb question: I took our GCC to the vet to get his nails cut and his beak trimmed back a little bit, but now it seems like he can't really eat much in the way of pellets or seeds. I gave him one of his usual pellets and it looked like he was trying to crack it but couldn't get enough leverage with his trimmed down beak. This doesn't explain why he's not too interested in the millet I gave him as well. My quick-thinking wife made up an oatmeal/apple slurry and he wolfs that down without hesitation, so I was thinking, did his beak get trimmed improperly or is it just sore from the trimming?
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Mar 6, 2014 15:42
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He just tends to ignore stuff like cuttlebones for his own inscrutable reasons. What we generally have done (and this is about twice in the past three or so years) is have the little bit of his top beak that grows over and gets flakey but still won't quite wear down naturally taken off. It doesn't amount to much more than an eighth to a sixteenth of an inch, I think. He was at the vet on Monday, and an hour or so ago I watched him try to eat one of his pellets but it was like he couldn't get enough force on it, it's puzzling. BlueDiablo fucked around with this message at 17:30 on Mar 6, 2014 |
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Mar 6, 2014 16:59
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 so I'm a bit concerned about my bird's beak. The top especially seems to be wearing strangely, and if you view it straight on it looks like the tip is tipped a few degrees off from the restObviously he's not pleased at the camera, so his mouth is a tiny bit open, but that's pretty close to where it's at. We got him a textured perch and ladder, and he'll rub his beak on it, and will happily attack his cuttle bones. Is there anything else I should do?
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Feb 24, 2015 03:24
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 this is it as close as a straight on picture I could get of it. Other than this, he's a lovely happy little man
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Feb 24, 2015 03:26
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That's what I was thinking, but I'm skittish because when he got his beak dremelled by our vet about nine months ago, he stopped eating solid pellets for about a week or two, so I'm not sure if the vet ground it down too far and he couldn't get a purchase, or if it was sore, and if it was better to just let him wear it down himself with cuttle bones. Edit: No, it doesn't close cleanly all the way (tongue is still visible). I haven't done anything pro-active about it super recently (eg. since he got it dremelled) because it hasn't effected his eating at all, and I was leery about taking him to the vet about something that as it was is more an aesthetic. The new-ish vet (we moved in January) basically just said to keep an eye on it. BlueDiablo fucked around with this message at 03:38 on Feb 24, 2015 |
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Feb 24, 2015 03:33
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It wouldn't surprise me, I was unsure if it was soreness or just adjusting, but it did give me a scare. Are beak trimmings that common?
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Feb 24, 2015 03:43
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Grraarrgghh posted:Also worth asking, was it a specialized avian vet, or a routine vet? Only ask because avian vets can be a pain in the rear end to find (there are a total 2 in my entire city of 1.2 million people). The old one who did the dremelling was a routine (if very good) vet, while the one that basically said "eh, keep an eye on it and check back in a few months" is in the association of avian vets, so I'm assuming he's legit. When I brought up the previous experience to the bird vet, he basically said that he probably trimmed it a bit too far. When he was giving him his wellness check, he didn't seem to be concerned about his weight (I've never weighed him and I don't think he's been weighed), saying that he has a well muscled keel and all that. I'll get a scale in any case. But on the whole, his beak does seem to be getting a bit more under control since we replaced his rope-perch with some kind of gritty one (can't find the packaging, but it was edible and possibly flavored). Would it be advisable to schedule a trimming sooner than later?
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Feb 24, 2015 05:02
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1) He has three perches, four if you count the little ladder I put in the corner of his cage where he likes to hang out when I'm on the couch. One's hard wood, one's calcium (that one's mostly smooth, just knobbly, but it's at the top of his cage so I'll switch that around), and the other and the ladder are made of a gritty material that I'm not sure is calcium but it's marketed as flavored, so it probably is. 2) There's two cuttle-bones in his cage, one he sort of ignores, the other is wedged juuuuuust right between the bars for him to attack fairly regularly. We have an arrangement of cardboard, straw/wicker, some kind of dried sponge concoction, and some rope toys. But the next time I'm out I'll get him one of those wooden bird-kabobs because he loves killing the poo poo out of those. 3) I'll look into getting tests and whatnot. His diet is: Harrison's lifetime coarse, zupreems natural, and a higgen's conure mix that's basically seeds and dried vegetables/fruit that I mix in every couple of days. We also give him a bit of avi-cake when he's been a good little monster.
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Feb 24, 2015 16:37
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Battle Pigeon posted:Is he getting food other than that, like fresh fruit and vegetables, or sprouts, or whatever? Not that often. I assumed that pellets covered most of their nutritional needs, so what should we add in?
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Feb 24, 2015 17:00
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Pip pip pip posted:I hope I don't sound like I'm harping on you too much, because you are being really awesome about taking advice: the bird-kabob wood is awesome and birds love it but it's also very soft. Definitely get them for your birb if he likes them but also get some toys that have wood blocks or wood shapes too! Nah, you're hardly harping. We do have piles of blocks/harder wood toys for him, he's just been ignoring them since we moved in January. That reminds me, does stress like moving effect beak growth?
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Feb 25, 2015 22:44
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LITERALLY A BIRD posted:
I think the photos do make it look worse than it is (also he's semi-posturing at the oh-so-hated-phone-of-doom), but I'm scheduling an appointment next week to be sure, since it seems like there's some uneven wear and I'd prefer his opinion on it even if it's just "no, seriously dude, relax and give him his cuttle-bone". Thanks to (mostly) everyone for their advice!
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Feb 28, 2015 05:01
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Okay, so I have a Zapp update: finally had an opportunity to take the little man to get his beak trimmed, and the vet said that he didn't want to shorten the lower one more than he did on account of the older part of the lower beak was thin and kind of translucent if you held him up to the sun. I'm not entirely sure if the resulting trim was sufficient, but we have gotten him plenty of softer food mixes (worldly cuisines? Something like that) for him while he's adjusting to the new beak You can see the part on the bottom that's particularly thin/weak, and while he's had a small portion of that lower beak be kind of translucent as long as I can remember, it's usually not so prominent. We're seeing what we can change with his diet to see if he's deficient in anything, but for the next week or two he's probably going to be on soft-ish foods. And, to be honest, I'm not entirely pleased with the trim job itself, so I might try to find a different avian vet in the future. BlueDiablo fucked around with this message at 15:47 on Mar 23, 2015 |
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Mar 23, 2015 15:37
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Oh, he's a great little bird (despite being a surly conure), so everything about him is 100% fine except for his beak situation. His plumage is good, his weight checks out, he gets plenty of exercise, and he's a tiny cuddle monster most of the time, it's just his beak isn't how it should be.
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Mar 23, 2015 16:53
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So Zapp's over grown beak of great concern has finally seemed to resolve itself. The over grown section on his lower beak that the vet didn't want to trim out of concern of causing damage has seemed to have chipped away over night. It's still a little uneven, but I'm thinking his normal cuttlebone and perch usage will even it out. How relieving. Edit: The schmutz on his beak is from the Worldly Delights I made up for him this morning. BlueDiablo fucked around with this message at 21:50 on Apr 30, 2015 |
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Apr 30, 2015 21:43
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Zapp's beak saga continues, it's looking like he might be having the beginning of a scissor-beak, but I wanted to run this all passed you guys to see if I'm just seeing things. He has a little notch that's longer than the rest of his lower beak, and it might be moving his jaw to the side a bit. Head on picture, it's on the left side of the picture  Little more of a profile  His opposite side 
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May 29, 2015 21:34
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Pile of Kittens posted:So, you said you got his beak trimmed by the vet. Did this vet have anything at all to say about his lower beak and the fact that he can't really close his beak entirely? He basically said to just keep an eye on it. His beak has made huge leaps and bounds in improvement over the past few months, but it's still concerning me. As for not closing his beak entirely, I'm thinking it's equal parts having his lower beak still a touch too long, and him mean-mugging the camera.
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May 31, 2015 05:45
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Battle Pigeon posted:Agreeing with the others, it's still definitely overgrown, though way better than it was. If he's able to eat fine maybe that's why the vet isn't too bothered about how it looks and that it doesn't close properly, lots of birds have hosed up beaks but manage okay. I wouldn't have shared the photos if I was 100% sure you guys were wrong and that the vet was 100% right. He did say his lower beak was too long, but when he was trimming it, he said that since it was so over grown, in some spots it seemed like it was really weak and he wasn't going to chance it. Since then, it has shortened itself by about a fraction of an inch (1/6th? It's hard to get a ruler by the little bastard), so there IS progress being made, I'm just double checking to see if it isn't just me that something seems unusual. Diet-wise he's still a fussy jerk, but since my wife joined a farm share, we have a steady diet of mysterious greens for him to throw around his cage and berries to devour. Pellets are still the majority of his diet in any case. I'm debating going to a second vet for another opinion, but the trick is that where I am around DC, the options are slim unless I want to drive 40+ minutes (assuming no traffic). That and I really want to like this current vet because he was part of a "gently caress you, racist imperialists!" veterinary exchange program between a number of African countries and the Soviet Union
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May 31, 2015 15:43
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Fairly dumb/basic question here: I have a conure (Zapp) who's about 15 years old or so, and he's been either my care or my ex's since like 2009, but it seems like last year and this year he has gotten SUPER into mating season. Like, regurgitating his food on everything in his cage/the cage itself, occasionally humping toys (even new ones that I've cycled in/out), trying to burrow under my dresser to make himself a nest, the whole nine yards. This seems to coincide with daylight savings, and I'm trying my best to make sure he gets 12 hours of day/dark (I uncover him when I leave for work at 5am with the apartment dark until sunrise at like 6:30am, and cover him at around 6:30pm) but I'm stumped as to how to cool his ardor aside from holding on until daylight savings in the fall which was when he settled down last year. Do I cover him earlier? Do I strip every toy from his cage? Is he in a midlife crisis and I need to get him a little convertible? Aside from all that regurgitating, he seems fat and happy if not terribly interested in socializing with me beyond sitting on my monitor and watching me. Last year I took him to a vet to double check and they swabbed him to make sure it wasn't a yeast infection causing the regurgitating, and nope, he's just a horny horny bird.
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Apr 10, 2022 12:55
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mediaphage posted:i don’t have anything to add except whether you can’t light proof his area any further? i’m privileged in that we can basically lock the birds in a separate room but i know not everyone can I'm in a studio so I don't really have TOO much leeway as to where to put him. I put him in front of the window so he can yell at the passers-by, but I could probably get a heavier/thicker cage cover now that I think about it.
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Apr 10, 2022 19:28
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| # ¿ Apr 18, 2024 02:20 |
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Hug in a Can posted:Definitely try a darker cover- maybe a blackout curtain or some dark fleece from the fabric store. (And trying 12 hour days may not be a bad idea!) Got him the ~*darkest cover*~ yesterday, so we'll see.
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Apr 14, 2022 09:42
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