New G.C.C. acting odd

ckbente

New member
Jun 25, 2012
9
0
Seattle, Wa
Parrots
Green Cheek Conure
Hello everyone,
My name is Cory, and I recently added a G.C.C. to my family. His name is Ace. Ace is a four month old male. We bought him from a local breeder who hand raises all of their parrots. They recommended Ace as a first time parrot. Plus my girlfriend Tanya and I were looking for a low volume, loving bird. So we brought Ace home. For the first week he has been great. He has learned how to step up/down, he loves to cuddle, and even goes potty when we say "go poop". Its been so much fun. Then June 25th happened.
I woke up for work and walked over to Ace's cage, where I found him sleeping in his tissue box (long story, not animal cruility). Anyways... I took his cage to the living area (we all sleep together in the warmest room). I made some coffee and let him out. At first all was well.. He stepped up, I pet him (he's sometimes cranky when first touched in the morning). As I continued to pet him, he flapped his wings a lot. I finally put him back and went to work.
At lunch I called my G.F. and she said Ace was acting weird. I shrugged it off and told her shes just being neurotic like she always is about our new baby bird. Well six comes around and we get home. There was Ace happy to see us. I let him out of his cage and he started flapping his wings like he wanted to fly, but he held onto his cage. I went to have him step up and he started bobbin and weavin all fast and furious like and then did the flappin thing again. We would have him come to the couch and he would try beakN all fast and crazy like. He keeps doing the wing flappin, wont cuddle like usual, and wont hang out with us. He just keeps going back to his cage, where he bites stuff non stop. We did just buy him some new cage features, but thats not what he's interested in. He's on top of the cage biting the bars. Any ideas?
 
Well him biting things and bobbing really fast is a feeding responce, normal. Him just holding on to a perch and flapping really fast is just him exercising, also normal.
Welcome to the forum, we would love to see pics of your new fid.
 
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what is a feeding response? and thanks for the reply. Ill post some pics here shortly
 
Mom and dad birds feed their babies, and how they do that is they regurgitate the food, grab the babies beak and bob the food into their mouth. The babies have to match the partents' rhythm by bobbing up and down too, well they keep that responce their whole lives so one day when they have babies of their own, they can feed them properly.
Hope that helps.
 
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So I added some photos to the conure group and my profile. I am still getting use to this forum and how to navigate it, so bear with me.
 
Hmm, he seems a little overweight. Did you take him to a vet yet, if so what did they say about his weight. If not you need to do so, one because you should take a bird to the AVIAN vet as soon as you get them, and two because I am curious as to what they would say about his weight.
When you take him make sure you are taking him to a board certified avian vet, anyone can call themselves avian vets but you can only take your fid to a board certified one. Too many birds have died from people not taking them to actuall avian vets.
 
My GCC bobs a lot, generally when he's excited; I never associated it with feeding?

He nips if I've not cleaned his cage and replaced his food at the normal time.
 
Grenage, do you mean yours dances? Like, does yours just go up and down with his head? If so that is just excitement but what I am talking about is when a bird grabs your finger with its beak and then bobs its head up and down really fast. That is a feeding response, it's what they do when they are babies begging for food and while receiving food from their parents' mouth. Some young birds, right after weaning, will do it just sitting on a perch if they are hungry, they also flap their wings while doing it(wing flapping is also part of the feeding response).
 
Hi, cdog!

Thank you kindly for the elaboration, the dancing bob is exactly what he's doing. I had a moment of worry, thinking that I was starving my poor chap. ;)
 
Your baby is definitely exhibiting a feeding response. I bet he was force weaned. I recommend you purchase some handfeeding formula or plan natural oatmeal and add a bit of peanut butter and offer to him off a spoon. He obviously is feeling a bit insecure being away from his old home and this has caused some regression. It is important to allow him some warm mushy food to help with his insecurities.
 
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So we were about to take him to the vet, but decided at the last moment decided to wait for payday. It was hard to justify a 100 dollar bill just for them to look at him and not do any actual blood work or anything. So you think he's overweight. Ok, I have been putting some food in his dish, and he just goes and eats when he wants, that how it was being done at the breeders store. She just had dishes out, and they would snack when they want. this is the pellet diet that would be out all day. Now he loves carrots, and I use carrot for training. We have 30 mins training sessions where Ace eats a lot of carrot. His poop will get pretty orange after a training. I was more concerned with the carrot then the pellet. What would you recommend for a decent diet regime. thanks for all your help, my girlfriend seems to think that you are wrong, and that he is just fluffed up a bit in the photo. what do you think
 
Could you take more photos, both fluffed and unfluffed? From the picture he does seem a little rounded but it could be from fluffing. They should not be constantly fluffed up though because that it a sign of illness.

I think he is cute though!
 
I think he is just fluffed. My green cheek can look huge and then unfluffed he looks skinny.
YOU could get a digital scale and weigh him. That would be the best way to get a handle on his weight.
 
When you take a new bird to the vet you are supposed to get blood work and fecal samples not just the vet looking at him. The average cost for all of this seems to be about 250. He does seem puffed but he also seems to be thick, can you feel his breast bone, if so is there a lot of meat around it?
The vet can also give you a diet plan for him.
 

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