Need advice on my GCC.

[flash_oesc]

hmmm. Juice could work. OJ is his favorite, he goes batty when we pore a glass if he's locked in his cage. Otherwise, he is all over us. We call it his 'crack'.

 

[tokensmom]

I know what you mean. Token's crack is Special K honey oat cereal, no one has cereal without Token getting a little piece. That is something else you could try...a small,small piece of cereal that is sweet.

 

[flash_oesc]

He generally runs away from food, so sadly, I don't think that would work. Although...funny enough, I poured myself a bowl of fruitloops (no comments please), and he was watching. I walked away from the bowl to get the milk, and he flew over and started pulling all the fruit loops out of the bowl. It was really funny. We think it's because it was shortly after we changed his Zupreem food, which looks and smells like fruitloops, that he wanted it back! We still get squaked at sometimes when we eat fruitloops. He also goes nuts for raisin bran (since raisins are his favorite), but I won't give him any, because the raisins are sugar coated. He gets his own raisin at breakfast sometimes. Has no interest in my Special K red berries, corn pops, frosted flakes or my honey bunches of oats. When I eat the 'boring cereal' he goes back to his cage to eat his own breakfast instead of staring at mine from a safe distance. (I'm a cereal nut, I have 4-5 boxes on the go at a time...once again, no comments please.lol)

 

[MonicaMc]

Just be careful feeding cereal. Some of it may have high contents of iron which is not good for birds.

 

[flash_oesc]

Thank you, I appreciate that. He hasn't actually eaten any of my cereal, just actively watching me eat the cereal. Not sure why. He doesn't care about lunch or dinner, just cereal he watches intently.

 

[flash_oesc]

So I just spoke with my vet. She thinks the smell and the feather damage are unrelated. She thinks that the smell might be his 'natural odor', that he's using to attract a mate. The feather damage she's unsure of. When we take him in for his next nail clipping, she's going to cut one a little short and take a blood smear to check his white/red cell counts. She doesn't feel comfortable doing a 'jugular poke' on him to take a full sample. She thinks that because his non damaged feathers are clean, and coloured nicely that he doesn't have mites/parasites/disease, and that the feather damage might just be a character flaw per se. I'm going to take him in to have his nail clipped and preening gland examined, but I don't expect to get anything much more informative then I already have.

 

[tokensmom]

I know nothing about mating and breeding, but I would think that some of the breeders on here could comment on that. I would imagine if that wa sa natural scent, more people would complain about their smelly birds....especially since you mention smelling him across a room.
Also...if he likes then fruitloops, and u can train him with a few crumbs...I saw go for it. The place where I get a lot of my bird supplies and board my bird is a small shop and has been around for 30 yrs...and some of their pet birds get fruit loops as snacks.

 

[SandyBee]

Natural odors of birds can occur but they usually smell musky or sweet.
I noticed in your first post that you said his cage lining has been changed, I'm not sure what your using but plain newspaper or kraft paper is recommended.
Bathing is important even if he doesn't like it, even taking him into the bathroom while your showering, the steam will help his feathers and skin a bit.

 

[flash_oesc]

It is a 'sweet' smell sort of, but it's not pleasant. I refer it to bad fruit? I wish there were better ways to describe smells...haha
I was using Yesterdays News cat litter (the rolled up newspaper) as a liner, and leaving it for quite awhile, only changing the 'poop piles'. I've changed to newspaper only, and it's changed nightly.
I take him in the shower daily/every other day where he sits on the shower rod, or the door.I have been holding him (not happily) under the tap a couple times a week. Once he resists, I let him out...I was trying to gently rub the feathers in water to try and de-smell him.

 

[flash_oesc]

my wife says he smells like dirty cheese...if that helps.

 

[flash_oesc]

It's expensive, but do you have Harrison's available to you? Both Zupreem and Hagen have sugar as ingredients, Harrison's does not. There's also TOP's pellets, although I would suspect that they might be harder to find in Canada. Another idea might be Roudybush?

If you want to take it a step further (if you haven't already), use stainless steel dishes. Bacteria and fungi can easily get into the pores of plastic dishes and build up, especially if you don't clean them out well. Stainless steel does not have this issue.


Let us know what you find out!

Something weird. Online, http://ca-en.hagen.com/Bird/Nutrition/Extruded/80520 Sugar is included as an ingredient, but on the bag of food I have, it doesn't say sugar anywhere? Doesn't list Tomato Powder on my bag either?

 

[MonicaMc]

That's odd... I would question the company about that then.

 

[flash_oesc]

I just thought I'd showcase some of his behavior. If you have 5-6 minutes to spare, these are a couple videos of him. It shows his spastic preening, and the second vid has a good look at his 'wick' over his preening gland.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-9YngkTD3Y]VID-20130312-00000 - YouTube[/ame]
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTj0gEQqPVg]VID-20130312-00001 - YouTube[/ame]

I was trying to get him to do his 'hold his shoulder feather while destroying wings' pose, but he wouldn't. He is the most camera shy bird I've seen. In 5 years, I think we've caught him whistling once, and talking once.

 

[Echo]

I don't know if it's the video quality, but do I see stress bar on his feathers(black lines)? His preening doesn't seem odd to me, just a bit long, maybe nervous/bored behavior like? What sort of activity/play does he engage in when out of his cage? Does he have a play gym, foot toys, nets or else to keep busy out of his cage?

 

[flash_oesc]

I was wondering about the black marks on some of his feathers, but my vet said they weren't stress bars. She said those run horizontally across feathers, his don't seem to do that. She said this colouring was naturally occuring in birds. hmmm.
Sadly, I couldn't catch his true preening behavior, but he doesn't run his beak along from base to tip, he just nips at parts of his feather, causing "barbing" (I think that's what it's called).
When he's out of his cage he is generally on us. He's always had a phobia of toys, food, etc...so it's hard to engage him. We sing and chat. He likes to watch us do water changes on the fish tanks (he loves watching the fish). We have toys that are hung in our house, partly trying to get him used to them, and partly for him to play with, but he has never touched one of them. We've tried playing with it in front of him, rubbing it on us...etc...to no avail.
He doesn't have a play gym, and I'm not sure what you mean by foot toys or nets, but he doesn't have them either way. I've tried giving him papertowel tubes but he thinks they are evil. When he's out, and we're sitting on the couch he pretty much runs around on us, flys from one to the other and back to his cage. He talks alot, and whistles with us. If we're watching sports he cheers along with the crowd and screams during scary movies. I'd LOVE to have more things to engage him with, but we just keep wasting money. We buy toys and end up giving them away because he wont use them.

 

[MonicaMc]

The black marks is feather bronzing. The following website mentions it.

https://www.wellvet.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=ART_BIRDGROOMING

• They can rub off the outer pigment coat, causing what is called "bronzing". This looks like brown spots or a large swath of color change to a brown to gray appearance the surface on the feather. What you are seeing is a lack of the original color, since it is worn off by the excessive preening.
  
  • One theory about feather bronzing is that it is caused by liver disease. This is not true. There are a large number of causes of bronzing, including over-preening, nutritional, hormonal, behavioral (birds can play in such a way that they rub off the normal pigment of the feather that resides out the outer layer of the feather), and internal diseases. Liver disease can be a cause, but is only one of many reasons your bird might have feather disorders)

I really think clicker training would be beneficial. You could teach him to play with toys that way as well as teach him other behaviors rather than his spastic preening behavior.

Foot toys are anything a bird could possibly pick up with their feet. In other words, small toys. Beads, leather strips, popsicle sticks, craft sticks, etc are all great toys.

 

[flash_oesc]

Exciting enough, I tried clicker training him before Christmas, but was having issues with the rewards (as mentioned before). I bought a bag of Kaytee dried fruit (Papaya) at the pet store yesterday and brought it home. I pulled out the clicked in the kitchen and clicked it, and he started tweeting in the living room. I was able to click and treat with these about 4 times before he bailed on training. I got him to come within a foot of chopstick...which, for him, it really impressive. My wife was like "he didn't do anything?", yet I was so proud of my boy for walking across the table towards the stick! More tonight when I get home. I'm going to Rona at lunch to buy PVC to make a training perch (don't have any at the local pet store).

 

[flash_oesc]

From the article you posted:

What TO Do:

• First, understand that a bird with feather grooming problems is just fine as they are. This is vital to understand. This is not a severe mental problem, simply a mild compulsion. The bird, in all likelihood is quite happy as they are and all they need is for you to love them as they are. The only exception to this is those birds that cause their skin to bleed and develop infections.

Really?

 

[MonicaMc]

I feel as if that's in regards to if a bird appears abnormal. Once a bird starts having FDB (Feather Destructive Behaviors), it can be difficult to get them to stop, so it's better to accept them as they are rather than dislike there appearance. FDB can be like people chewing their nails, picking scabs, biting their lip, etc. A bad habit, in other words. That's not to say that you shouldn't try to do what you can for them, just don't expect them to appear 'normal' ever again... as the next two say.

• Don't blame yourself; you are not the cause of the problem. You did not take the bird from the wild and you can't create a jungle in your home.
• This does not mean that there are not plenty of things you can do to help your bird be less compulsive and live a fuller, happier life. There are many things you can do. -----

I don't exactly agree with the entire article, but it still has good advice. One of the other comments is that you can't train them like dogs. I disagree. No, they aren't dogs, but you can still teach them the same basic behaviors! Well, maybe not sit... but you can teach come, stay, go to cage, fetch, "play ball", turn around, roll over, shake, etc. No, you shouldn't dominate birds like many do with dogs (heck, I don't think dogs should be dominated!), but it's still the basic principles of what clicker training is about! Teaching preferred behaviors through positive reinforcement.

 

[flash_oesc]

I don't ever plan on ever becoming complacent with him. I look forward to learning more about him and teaching him more things. Our boy knows his step up, step down, and 'do poop'. He's pretty good with those. I'm dying for him to touch this chop stick so I can enrich both of our lives moving forward in training...patience...patience...haha