M2 Depression?.....

[Dee]

Recently, a friend of mine that has had an M2 for about the last year has reported that he has stopped eating properly. Carlos is about 8 years old and his owner has had him to the vet twice for tests and it turns out they can find nothing wrong with him. Is he getting depressed about becoming mature and not having a mate?

My friend runs a rescue and currently has 10 other large companion birds, but all of the 3 2s are male. He spends time with them each individually every night on a schedule so that each bird gets the same amount of attention and time.

I have posed this question to another bird friend of mine who says that it is definitely a physiological problem and that bringing a female 2 into the mix will create problems, which I can also see.

Anyone been through this before or have any advice?

Thanks to all.

 

[BlueToast]

Educate me. What's a M2?

 

[Dee]

A Moluccan or Salmon-Crested Cockatoo

 

[norenekay]

It may be what you feed? If he had foods he could be missing? I know it's difficult if you have many birds. It's a thought. Also, male moluccans are notorious for maiming even killing the female when breeding. Don't go into it w/o expert assistance IMHO

 

[Dee]

Thanks, norenekay. He is currently trying different foods including warm mash but nothing seems to be bringing him around. I'm aware of what meanies M2s can be when with a mate and you're right about the maiming and killing. Very sad.

 

[Beatriz Cazeneuve]

Is your friend using a good quality full spectrum light (5500 K, 92 or higher CRI, UVA and UVB output)? Also, are they kept to a natural daylight schedule with full exposure to dawn and dusk? Because birds need both a good light source and schedule to produce healthy levels of serotonin (the happy hormone). Also, is the bird pooping normally and did the vet take X-Rays to make sure there was no occlusion anywhere in the GI tract?

 

[Dee]

Yes Beatriz, the lighting is fine. He uses an 8000k, 94 CRI with both UBA & UVB (I used to work in a lighting store, so I got some bulbs and fixtures for him). His poop is normal, but I will have to ask about the x-rays on the GI. I know they did extensive bloodwork, but not sure what else.
Thank you for your input! Take care.

 

[Beatriz Cazeneuve]

Yes Beatriz, the lighting is fine. He uses an 8000k, 94 CRI with both UBA & UVB (I used to work in a lighting store, so I got some bulbs and fixtures for him). His poop is normal, but I will have to ask about the x-rays on the GI. I know they did extensive bloodwork, but not sure what else.
Thank you for your input! Take care.

Oh, no, 8000k is not good, anything over 7,000 makes the light too red! It needs to be around 5500 to resemble sunlight. You don't mention if he keeps them to a strict natural daylight schedule with full exposure to dawn and dusk (it doesn't work otherwise).

 

[Dee]

I believe that it depends on the make of the bulb, as these are prescribed for people with SAD syndrome. The brand is Verilux.

 

[Beatriz Cazeneuve]

I believe that it depends on the make of the bulb, as these are prescribed for people with SAD syndrome. The brand is Verilux.

No, brands have nothing to do with it, Kelvin is a scale and everybody uses the same one (I have just finished doing extensive research on light for an article I am writing for my own website). A Kelvin temperature higher than 7,000 will give you bluish light while one lower than 4,000 will give you reddish, 5500 is the whitest and the one that resembles sunlight the most. Birds have developed specific filters to allow them to compensate for different environments so birds that live near or feed in the water (like seagulls or terns, for example) have colored oil droplets in their cones (one of the three types of photoreceptors birds have) that filter out the blue light (reflection from the water and sky) but parrots don't have them because they live in a forest, jungle or sabana environment so I bet you the light is part of the problem.

Verilux is the very best brand (it's the one I use and the only I will recommend on my article) but the best ones for birds are the T12 fluorescent tubes (except for TF32T8VLX4).

 

[Auggie's Dad]

I think they should be 6005.349K, turned on at seven thirty four and 5.9 seconds in the morning - not seven thirty four and 5.8 or 6.0 seconds or you're bird my fall down dead instantly. Then the light should be turned off at 359.86 seconds passed 6pm, again any error in either direction will mean the life of your bird.

Be sure you are feeding precisely 5.967853g/kg food per day, except during a full moon when this should be increased to 5.967854, this is essential, otherwise, once again, your bird will die. Of course full moons that fall on the 5th day of the month should be skipped due to the alignment of the planets and the gravitational pull of Saturn.

Anyone who tells you anything that deviates from these figures in the slightest is clearly a fool and should be shot on sight as they are clearly out to kill your bird.

We must protect our birds from such people! To that end I recommend wrapping your parrot in bubble-wrap and feeding him only through an IV with precisely balanced nutritional supplements while having him on a purified air respirator. And whatever you do don't ever let your bird live as it would if it were not under your anal retentive protections as we all know a bird could never survive in the natural environment.

 

[Beatriz Cazeneuve]

LOL - Yes, it does sound terribly complicated, doesn't it? But, you know, the truth of the matter is that keeping psittacines the right way is INCREDIBLY complicated. Much, much more difficult than most people realize and, unfortunately for pet birds, quite impossible to achieve for the simple reason that most companion bird species live under very specialized conditions in their natural habitat. Conditions we simply cannot reproduce in captivity (one of them been the right kind of light). Another truth is that most pet birds are given up because of behaviors that can be easily taken care of by reproducing more faithfully the environmental conditions of their natural habitat and the most common problems (aggression, too loud or too frequent vocalizations, cage possessiveness, chronic laying, depression, feather destruction, self-mutilation, etc) are a direct result of inadequate light and an unnatural schedule because of the direct relationship between them and their endocrine system (which governs absolutely ALL body functions). We need to remember that all parrots, with the exception of the English budgie, belong to undomesticated species with identical needs to their wild counterparts and that these needs are hardwired into their genes, part of their physical make-up, something that cannot be changed with behavior modification techniques. Their physiology is something that took nature millions of years to fine-tune to match the conditions of their natural habitat so thinking that we can take a wild animal out of their environment, breed it in captivity for a few generations and expect him to do well living under completely unnatural conditions is just plain naive. And light IS terribly important to birds, much more important than most people realize and that you seem to believe, if one goes by your comments, so maybe you need to do a bit more research about it. You will be surprised by how important it is. I know I was.

And I can tell you that a good light and a natural schedule work. They work like magic. Sometimes, they take time because an endocrine system that is screwed up from years of not getting the right cues does not adjust in a matter of a couple of weeks (lovebirds been, IMPE, the hardest to 'switch'). And I have the proof right in my birdroom because the greatest majority of the birds under my care were given up because of the problems I previously mentioned and all of them are doing great. No aggression, no screaming, no chronic layers, no depression, no self-mutilation, no nothing (well, in all honesty, not all the chronic pluckers get completely better, some continue to pluck, less than before but still pluck) and it's all due to the natural daylight schedule and full spectrum lights. Which, by the way, are not my own personal invention. The credit goes to nature.