Can anyone help please?

[listercat]

Hi

Sorry that his will be a little long and involved but I hope you will stick with me while I explain. Archie is a Jardines Parrot and has been with me for over a year now, he is about 5 years old. He lives is a huge cage and as I am at home all day he gets almost constant attention and we have become best friends. Now he and I know each other fairly well there are three questions about him that I hope someone on the forum will be able to help me with.

As I understand it Archie has has had 3 previous homes each with a woman and so his preference for women is probably understandable. However, that isn't, the problem, Archie just doesn't play with his toys, to be accurate they seem to frighten him, no matter what they are or what size. I have tried everything I can think of to encourage him. We sit together with the toys and I try to get him to at least pick them up, I show him what they do, shake them, move them, roll them etc. but he just doesn't want to know. I have put them in his cage, suspended them from the bars, left them all over the place to see if he wants to play on his own but he doesn't. Archie seems very happy and loves to sit with me for a cuddle and a chat and we have various little rituals we do for feeding time and bed time and he has got the hang of them very well. So should I just accept that Archie is not a playing parrot and concentrate on other things or can anyone suggest anything I can do to encourage him?

My second query is about Archie's physical well being. The vet (not an avian specialist) says that Archie seems very healthy and there is nothing wrong with him. However his feet don't seem to work well. He has real trouble holding onto a perch because he doesn't seem to be able to open his feet enough to get a good grip. He has large, medium and small diameter perches and he has the same trouble on each. When he succeeds in getting his feet open wide enough to grasp a perch he has no trouble at all, it just seems that he lacks the muscle strength to open his toes out properly (his left foot is a little worse than his right). As you can imagine this problem causes lots of falling off and I have put an old quilt on the floor of the cage so that he never hurts himself. He gets lots of exercise keep climbing back up to his perches and he seems to be able to grab hold of the bars to do this with no problem (the bars are less than a centimetre in diameter). Walking on the floor is a great effort for him. He actually seems to walk on his (knees/elbows) rather than his feet and when he aims for something he ends up having several goes at it because he cannot keep in a straight line. The vet says he can't see any physical problem with his feet so I am at a loss to work out why he can't walk.

Finally, Archie cannot fly. He flaps his wings like mad tries hopping about and gets nowhere. This means that getting down from my lap or from the back of the sofa he just sort of throws himself and crash lands on the floor.

So if anyone can tell me:-

1. If other parrots don't play and it is just something some do and some don't.

2. If anyone else has a bird with feet like this and if there is anything they think I can do. Is it a birth defect problem, lack of muscle development, arthritis or something else.

3. Any suggestions to help Archie learn to fly would be gratefully received along with any suggestions at to why he can't.

Thank you so much for sticking with this long post and I really do hope someone will be able to help Archie and I sort this out.


Jenni & Archie

 

[Jtbirds]

Ok I may have some answers for you. Firstly with my experience in the parrot rescue world we have many birds come through our doors I find that some are horrible at playing with toys. Keep offering all types of toys and maybe one day he will learn to play properly. Type forgaging toys as it is like playing but with a reward. Another thing you could try is a play gym instead of always on you attention. He would teach himself how to be more independent and play by figuring out what entertains him.

As for the perching issue he may have a vitamin issue which can easily be solved by giving plenty of fresh fruits and veggies. Try apples, broccoli, sweet potatoes they all have the most helpful amount of vitamins. As well as other kind because just like humans they get tired of eating the same things. If you want to properly diagnosis the problem blood work would have to be drawn and sent to a lab to truly find out which an cost between $200-$400.

As for the finally question I find free flight to be unsafe and risky soo I can't really help you there.

 

[Kiwibird]

IMO (on the not playing), so long as you have provided him the opportunity to play, it's really up to him whether or not he does. My moms 40 y/o green cheek amazon (she's had since an unweaned baby), has rightfully earned his nickname of "boring Barney". He has never in his life had a particular interest in toys, his feathered companions or his human companions. He likes to chill on top of his cage and be left alone, that's just his personality. There's nothing "wrong" with him, he's just boring lol. By all means, keep providing Archie toys, but don't worry if he's content not playing with them. Not every bird is a ball of energy.

As for the perching issue, I would really consult with an avian vet. There are a number of potential causes, and expert diagnosis and treatment is really the only way to go. Best of luck!

 

[BillsBirds]

As forementioned, many birds are "perch potatoes", and don't actively play much. That's not really a problem. Keep offering him things to play with, shred, and chew. Whether he uses them or not. He may sometime. As for the feet, an avian vet would be his best diagnostician. The not flying & not walking & perching could be results of poor management when younger. If he never learned to fly, he may not know how. You could foster that by building his confidence with short heights, and build up to higher elevations, and longer distances. Try to get him looked at by an Avian Vet. Regular vets know a lot about animals. But, birds are very different, and only someone trained in Avian Specialties would know what to look for, and how to treat.

 

[MonicaMc]

1. If other parrots don't play and it is just something some do and some don't.
Yes, there are plenty of other parrots who don't know how to play with toys. This blog may be of some help in that regard.

Good Bird Inc Parrot Training Talk: Get Your Parrot to Play with Toys

Also, look into foraging toys and easily destroyed toys. Some birds love to play, some love to chew. Those who enjoy chewing may enjoy hard woods or soft woods/materials. In short, provide a variety of toys!

2. If anyone else has a bird with feet like this and if there is anything they think I can do. Is it a birth defect problem, lack of muscle development, arthritis or something else.
First thought that comes to mind is kidney failure, but not something to be expected in most young parrots. I agree, blood work needs to be done here to determine the cause, if any, can be found.

My cherry head (RIP), Noel, had some health problems, and gripping was one of them. He had no problem walking, but he if slept on a smooth perch, there was a good chance he'd fall. He only fell while sleeping, too. When he slept, he had the bad habit of leaning forward. If on a rope perch, he'd lean so far forward that his head would be at the same level as his feet, if not below the perch. When he'd wake up, he'd snap back to a proper sitting position. I'm pretty sure he had bad kidneys, even though blood work didn't say he was in kidney failure. Anti-inflammatory medications did seem to help.

3. Any suggestions to help Archie learn to fly would be gratefully received along with any suggestions at to why he can't.

Noel couldn't fly either, but I did encourage him to try by hopping to me from a stable position (i.e. a bed or his cage). He never did learn to fly, but he did become brave enough to taking a flying leap off his cage and onto my sister. And my sister, not being a bird person, was pretty freaked out about the experience! I equate Noel's attempts at flight to a ragdoll being tossed or falling. Neither have control of how they land, as they tumble through the air. It didn't matter how furiously he flapped his wings, he couldn't keep himself upright to save his life!

You should consider getting an x-ray done to check the joints for any problems. If you want to try to teach her to fly, start with a step up, and slowly increase it to a long step up, step up with beak, step up with hop, step up with a flap, step up with two flaps, etc. However, instead of using the step up command, use a different cue like "come here" or a whistle.

 

[listercat]

Thank you so much for your help. I am going to try Archie with your suggestions and see what happens. I do feel reassured by your comments and feel much better about his odd behaviour now. Thank you once again for your help.

Jenni & Archie

 

[MonicaMc]

If his problems are health related (as Noel's were), it's best to confirm it with an avian specialist. If one isn't available, you can always see if an avian vet would be willing to do consultation work with your vet. Just something to keep in mind.

Best of luck with Archie!

 

[KevinT]

I agree with the previous posters about providing a variety of toys, but not worring too much if Archie doesn't seem too interested in them. There's a good chance that he'll develop more of an interest in toys in the future, or that you'll eventually discover a type of toy that he really likes.

Our Senegal seems much more interested in socilaizing than with playing with toys. Our Grey, on the other hand, is a wood and paper shredding machine, but still enjoys people--especially my wife.

The fact that Archie enjoys and participates in interactiions with you is reassuring and seems to show that he is mentally alert (not that I am any kind of expert)

I am subscribing to this thread because I am very interested in what you learn about Archie's foot trouble. Our African Grey seems sometimes to have a similar problem. He doesn't seem to grab on tightly enough when perching on a hand or finger. It doesn't seem to be a foot strength issue, because he frequently hangs upside down while playing vigorously with a toy, but then sometimes he's fallen off of a hand while being carried from one place to another. He has also fallen off of a perch on a couple of occasions.

I wonder if he has poor balance?

We mentioned this instability issue to our avian vet when we took Zeus in for a checkup. She could find nothing wrong with his feet, physically, but she didn't mention the possibility of some sort of internal health (kidney?) problem.

One thought the vet had was that Zeus may not have had the chance to perch on a variety of sizes or shapes of perches before he came ot us. Maybe his feet just need strenghening, which may develop over time.

Zeus also seems to have small feet for his size, which somewhat short toes.. He's a fairly large Grey, but his feet seem to be about the same size as our friends' much smaller Grey.

I am eager to learn what more experienced owners have to say on the subject.

Good luck with Archie!

 

[Parrotdise]

You got lots of great advice. As for the toys Sam my pio is not super playful as some birds, he will always choose me over toys or food. I think the play stand was a good idea, i would put together some foraging toys for out on the stand and in the cage. This could encourage playing with toys. I would seek an avian vet for the foot problem.

 

[bkparrot]

I have a five year old Jardine and a 10 month old Jardine. They both rarely play with toys. I have few toys of different varieties in their cages anyway. Every now and then they will play with one for few minutes. One day they both destroyed couple of their toys and played with others regularly. They stopped again - just keep trying and keep a couple of them that are always there and rotate some of them. I had more like with small foot toys and toys for budgies for some reason