possibly sick conure??

[ailourn]

Hello all, sorry for posting a lot randomly this week.

(sorry for the long post)

My parents are, for the lack of a better word, pissing me off. When we first got my bird Fish (Jan 1st 2020), i wanted to take him to the vet to see if the place where we got him from kept him healthy or if there was anything we needed to worry about, since they never disclosed that information to us when we got him.

There was one time a month or so ago where he was acting very lethargic, and off, (hence a post i made a while ago), now there is another strong concern. He is getting extremely angry at the slightest thing and biting when we get near him, hes also eating a scary amount of food. I go check on him every hour or so and he's always eating, which is concerning since he used to eat way less than this a couple weeks ago. Now he's not stepping up as often.

I told this to my mom and she blew it off like it was nothing, saying to the bird that I wanted to put him on a diet and for him to stop eating. Im extremely concerned about him, and if something happens to my bird they are most likely going to blame it on me.

(He's only nine months old, which is too young to be getting hormonal i believe) What do you all think?

 

[Ekkyparrotlet125]

Could he be molting ? My parrotlet gets very cranky/hungry when she goes through a molt!

 

[Laurasea]

He is old enough to be hormonal, GCC mature quick.

It's also easy to have done somey in the birds mind that made him upset. Lots of bribes watching body language and going slow

 

[Jen5200]

There’s no reason to apologize for asking questions....you are concerned and should ask . It is great that you are tuned into what is normal behavior and what is not for him - this means that you will probably pick up on issues when they come up. I definitely recommend a checkup with an avian vet when you get a new bird (if you can arrange it).

At 9 months he could be starting to go through puberty - the rough guidelines are between 1 and 2 years old for most conures, but like people the age can vary between individuals. Has he lost many feathers lately? If he has - he may be a bit grouchy if he’s got a bunch of new ones coming in (they can be uncomfortable).

Do you have a scale for weighing him? Tracking his weight is a great way to figure out if he’s gaining/losing grams, which is often the first indicator of a health issue. I weigh my birds regularly (generally weekly), usually first thing in the morning so I’m getting comparable data. I use this one ZIEIS Digital Bird Scale https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0040HQ5EO/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_3auIEbHTK5VDT but most kitchen scales that you can rig something up for him to stand on will work fine. Growing new feathers takes some extra calories, so molting could be a possible reason for eating more.

 

[Flboy]

Bingo! He’s about 8 months old! Your little one is going through a growth spurt! At that age, he will also challenge your definition of brat!