Parrot always sitting with a drooped head

[LeoTheQuaker]

Hi so i posted a few days ago about me getting an 11 week old quaker Vinny to join my family.

However he is constantly sitting with his head drooped over (see photo attached) and i am just wondering if this is normal or not as none of my previous or current birds do this.

He is still eating and drinking and was flying around his cage going from perch to perch and playing with his toys so is fine in that aspect.

I am not sure if it is just his way of sleeping as he will do this when his eyes are both closed and open. I just want to know if this is normal or if i should be taking a visit to the vet sooner instead of on Tuesday for his check up.

I am probably just being stupid but i guess you can never be too careful.

 

[Laurasea]

You are right to be concerned, because a drooping head can mean weakness or illness.

But I think this might be a sign of submission to your other Quaker. Are they sharing the same cage?

The reason I say this might be what’s going on.. Neptune would lower his head and kind of make himself smaller around Pikachu my other Quaker. Pikachu is larger than Neptune and when I brought him home he just became the dominant one. They didn’t fight or anything, somehow they just decided that. So if Neptune was Side by side or near Pikachu he would always lower his head.....

On the other hand when my Green Cheek conure did this, she was sick. She was only very subtly sick, it ended up she had a yeast infection. But all of her symptoms were very very subtle, head hanging sometimes, one nap during the day when she never did before, stopped taking daily baths ( baths take a lot of energy fir the bird to warm back up) and the sge seemed in good weight ate and played . Once I realized she was sick and started weighing her with a gram scale. When she recovered she gained back 6 grams and had never weighed that lower weight again.... so I now know the importantance of weight tracking.

So??? Either???? BTW a Quaker that young does need extra daily naps

 

[LeoTheQuaker]

You are right to be concerned, because a drooping head can mean weakness or illness.

But I think this might be a sign of submission to your other Quaker. Are they sharing the same cage?

The reason I say this might be what’s going on.. Neptune would lower his head and kind of make himself smaller around Pikachu my other Quaker. Pikachu is larger than Neptune and when I brought him home he just became the dominant one. They didn’t fight or anything, somehow they just decided that. So if Neptune was Side by side or near Pikachu he would always lower his head.....

On the other hand when my Green Cheek conure did this, she was sick. She was only very subtly sick, it ended up she had a yeast infection. But all of her symptoms were very very subtle, head hanging sometimes, one nap during the day when she never did before, stopped taking daily baths ( baths take a lot of energy fir the bird to warm back up) and the sge seemed in good weight ate and played . Once I realized she was sick and started weighing her with a gram scale. When she recovered she gained back 6 grams and had never weighed that lower weight again.... so I now know the importantance of weight tracking.

So??? Either???? BTW a Quaker that young does need extra daily naps

Hi, thanks for your reply. No they are not in the same cage and not even in the same room as Vinny is only new so I’m in quarantine for a while from my other birds.

Do you think I should try and bring the vet appointment closer....it’s with an Avian specialist vet.?

Thanks

 

[Laurasea]

I don’t know. I probably wouldn’t do a weekend thing .
How does the poop look?
Have you weighed her/him
Birds can fake eat, that’s why I ask how poop looks and weight. You can get a digital kitchen scale that will do grams at Walmart, or grocery stores, it’s a great thing to have to help us detect issues with our burds

It’s nit a true head droop, but it is a different kind of body position, if she is always. Doing it... I dint know if it’s a young bird or behavior thing, or a past injury to the neck???? Or a sign of something nit being right I just don’t know

My rescue Penny is crouched 89% of the time, because she was kept in such a tiny cage she couldn’t stand up fir an unknown amount of time before I got her. It wa the terrible condition I found her in that I had to rescue her...

Most lutino Quaker’s are female , did you have DNA done ?
A male lutino bred with a green female, all the females will be lutino and the males will be green split to yellow. I don’t know the rest on how you get to male lutino

 

[Rozalka]

I don’t know. I probably wouldn’t do a weekend thing .
How does the poop look?
Most lutino Quaker’s are female , did you have DNA done ?
A make lutino bred with a green female, all the females will be lutino and the males will be green split to yellow. I don’t know the rest on how you get to male lutino

I'll tell you the rest: In your example the babie males are green but are spilt to lutino. One of these males has to be bred with lutino female and then part of babies will be green and part will be lutino (both - males and females, here DNA test is needed)

 

[Laurasea]

You’ve can talk to the vet about the leg band. If you feel it really bothers him/ her yiu can have it removed. I had leg band removed from two of mine

Quaker’s are prone to picking st their feet, so breeders don’t put leg bands on them fir that reason. Tho most are fine, and I don’t really know the leg band rules for captive burds, or if their are any??

 

[LeoTheQuaker]

I don’t know. I probably wouldn’t do a weekend thing .
How does the poop look?
Have you weighed her/him
Birds can fake eat, that’s why I ask how poop looks and weight. You can get a digital kitchen scale that will do grams at Walmart, or grocery stores, it’s a great thing to have to help us detect issues with our burds

It’s nit a true head droop, but it is a different kind of body position, if she is always. Doing it... I dint know if it’s a young bird or behavior thing, or a past injury to the neck???? Or a sign of something nit being right I just don’t know

My rescue Penny is crouched 89% of the time, because she was kept in such a tiny cage she couldn’t stand up fir an unknown amount of time before I got her. It wa the terrible condition I found her in that I had to rescue her...

Most lutino Quaker’s are female , did you have DNA done ?
A male lutino bred with a green female, all the females will be lutino and the males will be green split to yellow. I don’t know the rest on how you get to male lutino

Ah ok, I have not weighed him/her yet as I have no scales but I have an appointment on Tuesday and he has a set of scales put aside for me to buy when I arrive along with him/her getting weighed when I am up there.

Vinnys poop is 100% normal that I can see and is just like everyone else’s ��

I am not sure if there was a previous neck issue or a small cage but from what I seen the breeder had a massive aviary all with custom avairys with all his breeding birds. All is extremely good condition with loads of toys and actually most were really people friendly but I guess you can never really know.

Also regarding the sex I had no idea that most were female. I have a whole list of things to ask the vet on Tuesday and a dna test is deffo on the cards before he/she gets too used to the name Vinny lol I have a habit of nameing everything male.

 

[Laurasea]

Keep u updated! Hopefully a clean bill of health

 

[LeoTheQuaker]

Hi everyone, just a wee update on Vinny. He had his vet appointment yesterday and everything went pretty well. Was a little suck up to the vet....like butter would t melt lol.

The vet did a panel of bloods and everything was grand...the only thing he was deficient in was calcium which caused the irratic flying and banging into walls. Soo we have been sent home with a calcium supplement to get it back up.

If he carry’s on chewing his band 24/7 then he will have to go under a small amount of anaesthetic but I am trying to let him get used to if and if not then this will happen but I would prefer it not to.

We also go a DNA test done so Vinny might not be Vinny for much longer as we are probably female from what use have been saying lol.

Once again thanks for everyone’s help ��

 

[Laurasea]

Good news.
Low calcium linked with muscle weakness , might be the issue with the posture???
Anyway glad to hear , can’t wait for gender reveal!

 

[Laurasea]

Hi everyone, just a wee update on Vinny. He had his vet appointment yesterday and everything went pretty well. Was a little suck up to the vet....like butter would t melt lol.

The vet did a panel of bloods and everything was grand...the only thing he was deficient in was calcium which caused the irratic flying and banging into walls. Soo we have been sent home with a calcium supplement to get it back up.

If he carry’s on chewing his band 24/7 then he will have to go under a small amount of anaesthetic but I am trying to let him get used to if and if not then this will happen but I would prefer it not to.

We also go a DNA test done so Vinny might not be Vinny for much longer as we are probably female from what use have been saying lol.

Once again thanks for everyone’s help ��

This was an excellent catch by you! A low calcium can cause muscle weakness! And now that treated she has normal posture! A really great job by you and your vet!!! Really important fir our members to see how subtle signs and symptoms of a problem can be.

 

[LeoTheQuaker]

Hi so i have left it quite a few days before replying back on this thread. Vinny has been on calcium now (a small, very small pinch of nutrobal on his/her food 3 times a week) for a good few days and he/she has now went back to a normal quaker posture.

He/she also has stopped banging into the walls as much and only does it maybe once in a blue moon now. It is amazing that something so small can be the cause of a few small things that i just so happened to pick up on. Im glad i went to the vet as it could have been a lot worse, had i left it.

I may think i over worry too much about Vinny but on this occasion it was for the best. He has a follow up appointment in another month to get another panel of bloods done and to make sure his/her calcium levels have went back to normal levels.

Once again thats for everyones support and comments as they really did help

I will keep use updated on the next vet visit and will do a post when i find out weather my wee boy is a boy or a girl lol.