)
charmedbyekkie
New member
Understand that your partner doesn't want a bird pooping everywhere. I know some people who do use flight suits on occasion when going outside. Just a thought though, have you tried potty-training Chocky? We've members with conures who are potty-trained. My ekkie picked up potty-training within a day.
I don't use flight suits, but Cairo does wear a harness and, for the rare seasonal photo, a little outfit. With the harness, he's learned that he can still do his normal thing. He forgets that it's on most of the time. With his holiday outfits, he thinks that he can't do most things anymore. I had to remind him that he can walk. He is more reluctant to fly when wearing the outfits, and he doesn't play while wearing it at all unless I coax him. And even then, his play is very stilted.
One of my suggestions might be to negotiate with your partner for a few days, and try to see if you can potty-train Chocky within those few days. If potty-training doesn't work, then you can go back to the flight suit. At least both sides have tried to compromise and it either did or did not work. That's ok both ways, but at least the effort was there.
Another suggestion is about his cage. I don't know what kind of space he has in there - is it enough for him to hop/fly around? And I don't know what kind of toys he has - a variety is always good (wood for chewing, paper for shredding, noise for sound stimulation, etc). You could also try playing with him inside his cage (if he is not territorial over it).
Another point is perhaps Chocky is still uncertain of his environment, maybe because of your young child or other changes from his default environment. It's no fault of anyone's - Chocky's style might just be a bit more reserved about little ones. I know our Cairo is quiet if 'strangers' are trying to interact with him and he's nervous around fast moving things that don't make sounds. But it's ok - we work with it, and I try to make him comfortable (for strangers, I have them give him treats, and for fast, silent things, I point them out to him before they come near us).
A penultimate thought, have you brought Chocky to an avian vet recently? One of our members found out his bird was actually overweight, and after they started a different diet with good exercises, the bird became more playful like a kid again.
A final thing would be - maybe Chocky is just a quiet personality. What you see in a baby parrot isn't always the same character as an adult parrot.
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- Thread starter
- #23
Hi Charmedbyekkie
I did try potty training unsuccessfully. After the 20th poop on the carpet my hubby refused to let me continue.
Perhaps I did it wrong? Maybe i can get some instruction from the board.
with the suit, he moves around fine, he flies with no problems.
He has a big cage, lots of natural toys, gum tree perches, leather thongs, and a puzzle toy that opens up with treats when he works out how to open it.
You can play with him in his cage, that's no prob. But his cage is in a room, and I want him out in the living room with us.
Being potty trained would be a great solution. But it would definitely have to work or it's straight back into the suit.
I think i should stop worrying about his quietness. He's clearly just a quiet bird. The main noise he makes is just a soft content quacking in my ear. That's about it.
He loves my kid, so it's not that. He gets excited when he's around and when he's doing a noody run - actually i fogot about this - Chocky does pipe up and do a loud chirp - the whole house goes crazy. That's the ONLY time he makes that noise.
I did try potty training unsuccessfully. After the 20th poop on the carpet my hubby refused to let me continue.
Perhaps I did it wrong? Maybe i can get some instruction from the board.
with the suit, he moves around fine, he flies with no problems.
He has a big cage, lots of natural toys, gum tree perches, leather thongs, and a puzzle toy that opens up with treats when he works out how to open it.
You can play with him in his cage, that's no prob. But his cage is in a room, and I want him out in the living room with us.
Being potty trained would be a great solution. But it would definitely have to work or it's straight back into the suit.
I think i should stop worrying about his quietness. He's clearly just a quiet bird. The main noise he makes is just a soft content quacking in my ear. That's about it.
He loves my kid, so it's not that. He gets excited when he's around and when he's doing a noody run - actually i fogot about this - Chocky does pipe up and do a loud chirp - the whole house goes crazy. That's the ONLY time he makes that noise.
charmedbyekkie
New member
Sounds like you do have a sweet, quiet little guy on your hands 
I know a lot of conure parronts would be jealous haha
If you do want to try potty-training again (I do understand poop on carpet is absolutely terrible and might be too risky to try again!), I can only offer how we did it (I'm sure Desi/Sunnyclover might pop in with some conure-specific advice).
I made sure his poop perch was available in the room with us. And for the next few hours, I kept a close watch on him. Anytime his body language showed that he was going to poop, I quickly scooped him up and put him on the poop perch. As he went, I said our cue word (a Chinese baby term), then gave him a treat when he was done.
The big trick is the humans recognising the body language. Most of the time, Cairo raises his feathers and does a little shake. If not that, then he'll go straight into his squat. He'll also go if he's just woken up from a nap or if he stops in the middle of playing. If he's sitting on you, you can feel that their feet actually get a lot warmer right before they need to go.
Now Cairo flies to his poop perch, or if we're out of sight of his poop perch and he's on me, he'll typically climb off my shoulder onto my arm and talk to me (he's not comfortable with saying the cue phrase yet), then I know to quickly bring him back to the poop perch.
But Chocky does sound like an absolute sweetheart (regardless of whether he wants to learn potty-training) Hope to hear more stories about him!
I know a lot of conure parronts would be jealous hahaIf you do want to try potty-training again (I do understand poop on carpet is absolutely terrible and might be too risky to try again!), I can only offer how we did it (I'm sure Desi/Sunnyclover might pop in with some conure-specific advice).
I made sure his poop perch was available in the room with us. And for the next few hours, I kept a close watch on him. Anytime his body language showed that he was going to poop, I quickly scooped him up and put him on the poop perch. As he went, I said our cue word (a Chinese baby term), then gave him a treat when he was done.
The big trick is the humans recognising the body language. Most of the time, Cairo raises his feathers and does a little shake. If not that, then he'll go straight into his squat. He'll also go if he's just woken up from a nap or if he stops in the middle of playing. If he's sitting on you, you can feel that their feet actually get a lot warmer right before they need to go.
Now Cairo flies to his poop perch, or if we're out of sight of his poop perch and he's on me, he'll typically climb off my shoulder onto my arm and talk to me (he's not comfortable with saying the cue phrase yet), then I know to quickly bring him back to the poop perch.
But Chocky does sound like an absolute sweetheart (regardless of whether he wants to learn potty-training)
Hope to hear more stories about him!- Thread starter
- #25
Hi Charmedbyekkie
I did try potty training unsuccessfully. After the 20th poop on the carpet my hubby refused to let me continue.
Perhaps I did it wrong? Maybe i can get some instruction from the board.
with the suit, he moves around fine, he flies with no problems.
He has a big cage, lots of natural toys, gum tree perches, leather thongs, and a puzzle toy that opens up with treats when he works out how to open it.
You can play with him in his cage, that's no prob. But his cage is in a room, and I want him out in the living room with us.
Being potty trained would be a great solution. But it would definitely have to work or it's straight back into the suit.
I think i should stop worrying about his quietness. He's clearly just a quiet bird. The main noise he makes is just a soft content quacking in my ear. That's about it.
He loves my kid, so it's not that. He gets excited when he's around and when he's doing a noody run - actually i fogot about this - Chocky does pipe up and do a loud chirp - the whole house goes crazy. That's the ONLY time he makes that noise.
I did try potty training unsuccessfully. After the 20th poop on the carpet my hubby refused to let me continue.
Perhaps I did it wrong? Maybe i can get some instruction from the board.
with the suit, he moves around fine, he flies with no problems.
He has a big cage, lots of natural toys, gum tree perches, leather thongs, and a puzzle toy that opens up with treats when he works out how to open it.
You can play with him in his cage, that's no prob. But his cage is in a room, and I want him out in the living room with us.
Being potty trained would be a great solution. But it would definitely have to work or it's straight back into the suit.
I think i should stop worrying about his quietness. He's clearly just a quiet bird. The main noise he makes is just a soft content quacking in my ear. That's about it.
He loves my kid, so it's not that. He gets excited when he's around and when he's doing a noody run - actually i fogot about this - Chocky does pipe up and do a loud chirp - the whole house goes crazy. That's the ONLY time he makes that noise.
EllenD
New member
- Aug 20, 2016
- 3,979
- 68
- Parrots
- Senegal Parrot named "Kane"; Yellow-Sided Green Cheek Conure named "Bowie"; Blue Quaker Parrot named "Lita Ford"; Cockatiel named "Duff"; 8 American/English Budgie Hybrids; Ringneck Dove named "Dylan"
Well, quite honestly then, and I mean this with total concern for your bird and no disrespect to you, but I have to ask you a question then.... What if I'm correct and Chicky is miserable and depressed, and feels horribly out of place and constricted because of that fight suit? Do you actually think it's fair to your bird to make him wear something that is totally unnatural for a bird to wear? Do you think this could be a very unhealthy situation for him to be in? Birds are the most free animals in the world, and you're forcing him to not only wear clothing whenever he's allowed to be free and during his only free times in his life (or else he's locked inside a cage), but you are also messing with his GI Tract and his ability to have bowel movements normally, as already mentioned by other people...Think about that for a minute...You say that "You have to respect the other people in your house" and you cannot ever let him out of his cage without a fight suit on him, which could very well be the cause of his apathetic personality, but where is your respect and concern for HIS WELL-BEING? Again, I'm not saying this to disrespect you, but what you describe is a depressed, apathetic Green With no lust for life at all, and you're not even willing to even TRY to see if the flight suit is causing him issues, both psychological/behavioral and possibly physical/medical? That isn't fair to your bird at all; maybe it's not his issue, but again I would bet everything I own that it is and that if you gave him a week out of his cage with no flight suit at all even in his sight, you'd have a completely different bird at the end of that week...
***And just so you know where I'm coming from and why I think that the flight suit is causing him to be depressed and subdued, I'm basing this on over 8 years of being the Medical Liaison at a large, private Avian/Reptile Rescue, and I have seen many tame, pet parrots who were surrendered to us and who were suffering from an array of different physical and psychological issues just completely open-up and become different birds once we removed flight-suits, sweaters, sweatshirts/hoodies, harnesses, diaper-harnesses, fabric neck-collars, and many other forms of clothing/diapers/harnesses that their prior owners made them wear either whenever they were out of their cages or 24/7...I've actually seen pluckers who were put into sweaters or flight-suits to prevent them from plucking stop plucking completely once the suits or sweaters were removed. I've seen birds who were put onto antidepressants such as Prozac or Paxil, or sedatives like Haldol, due to apathy/depression/lack of energy etc. turn into totally different, happy, active, vocal birds as soon as we removed their flight-suits, sweaters, hoodies, harnesses, etc., and who I tapered off the medications after removing the clothing they were forced to wear, and they went on to be some of the happiest, healthiest, most vocal and energetic birds you've ever seen, instead of the quiet, morose, apathetic cage furniture that they were turned into...So as soon as I read your initial post and saw that he always has to be in a flight suit when he's not locked inside a cage, I immediately knew what is most likely going on...And keep in-mind that I have no stake in your situation, I don't know you and don't have any reason to even say anything about this at all, and I wouldn't if I had nothing to offer, and years and years of experience and education to back-up what I'm telling you...
Chocky is your bird and you're going to do what you're going to do, but I gotta say that if you at the very least don't take that flight suit off of him for at least a week and let him out of his cage, and actually allow him to be a bird and see if at the end of the week or two, after he has been let out of his cage every day without the flight suit, if his personality, attitude, energy level, vocality, etc. changes for the better, well, then honestly you're not respecting your bird...What if you did actually try letting him out of his cage every day for a week or two without the flight suit at all and Chocky did in fact turn into a totally different, happy, energetic, vocal bird??? Then what would you do, knowing for certain that the flight suit has been causing him depression for all this time? That's what you have to ask yourself because you're the one who is responsible for the health and well-being of your bird... That's what you sign up for when you bring any pet into your life.
I've had this exact discussion with numerous people/couples/families about everything from flight-suits to sweaters to medications to simply taking their bird to an Avian Vet once a year for a complete wellness-exam... sometimes they listen, sometimes they don't, but I have to say it because then I've done what I'm able to do to try to help their birds, reptiles, etc. I just think you'd not be really trying to make sure that Chocky is a happy, healthy bird if you didn't find out if that flight suit is causing him/has been causing him psychological and/or physical health issues...
***And just so you know where I'm coming from and why I think that the flight suit is causing him to be depressed and subdued, I'm basing this on over 8 years of being the Medical Liaison at a large, private Avian/Reptile Rescue, and I have seen many tame, pet parrots who were surrendered to us and who were suffering from an array of different physical and psychological issues just completely open-up and become different birds once we removed flight-suits, sweaters, sweatshirts/hoodies, harnesses, diaper-harnesses, fabric neck-collars, and many other forms of clothing/diapers/harnesses that their prior owners made them wear either whenever they were out of their cages or 24/7...I've actually seen pluckers who were put into sweaters or flight-suits to prevent them from plucking stop plucking completely once the suits or sweaters were removed. I've seen birds who were put onto antidepressants such as Prozac or Paxil, or sedatives like Haldol, due to apathy/depression/lack of energy etc. turn into totally different, happy, active, vocal birds as soon as we removed their flight-suits, sweaters, hoodies, harnesses, etc., and who I tapered off the medications after removing the clothing they were forced to wear, and they went on to be some of the happiest, healthiest, most vocal and energetic birds you've ever seen, instead of the quiet, morose, apathetic cage furniture that they were turned into...So as soon as I read your initial post and saw that he always has to be in a flight suit when he's not locked inside a cage, I immediately knew what is most likely going on...And keep in-mind that I have no stake in your situation, I don't know you and don't have any reason to even say anything about this at all, and I wouldn't if I had nothing to offer, and years and years of experience and education to back-up what I'm telling you...
Chocky is your bird and you're going to do what you're going to do, but I gotta say that if you at the very least don't take that flight suit off of him for at least a week and let him out of his cage, and actually allow him to be a bird and see if at the end of the week or two, after he has been let out of his cage every day without the flight suit, if his personality, attitude, energy level, vocality, etc. changes for the better, well, then honestly you're not respecting your bird...What if you did actually try letting him out of his cage every day for a week or two without the flight suit at all and Chocky did in fact turn into a totally different, happy, energetic, vocal bird??? Then what would you do, knowing for certain that the flight suit has been causing him depression for all this time? That's what you have to ask yourself because you're the one who is responsible for the health and well-being of your bird... That's what you sign up for when you bring any pet into your life.
I've had this exact discussion with numerous people/couples/families about everything from flight-suits to sweaters to medications to simply taking their bird to an Avian Vet once a year for a complete wellness-exam... sometimes they listen, sometimes they don't, but I have to say it because then I've done what I'm able to do to try to help their birds, reptiles, etc. I just think you'd not be really trying to make sure that Chocky is a happy, healthy bird if you didn't find out if that flight suit is causing him/has been causing him psychological and/or physical health issues...
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sweetpeamusic
Member
My Nico wears a flightsuit most of the time he’s out of his cage, but I did run the “check” to see if the flightsuit changes his personality - I went through a trial where he was without his flightsuit for the most part for a couple of weeks. Turns out he is much the same bird, maybe even a bit more cranky without his diaper because he’s interrupted more often to go potty. Nico seems to be pretty rare in that he acts the same with or without the diaper, he’s been wearing them since he was just weaned and doesn’t seem to notice he’s wearing one until it’s time for a diaper change. But on the other hand he’s a very rambunctious boy who has no qualms about being emotionally expressive and playful... I would recommend running the “no-flightsuit” test just in case, but right now to me it sounds like your Chocky is just a naturally quiet bird. I’m sure the experts will disagree with me though lol, to Nico and I flightsuits are not that huge of a deal, he can fly and do whatever he wants to do in them, and he knows that he’s allowed into more places if he has one on.
- Thread starter
- #28
EllenD,
Chocky was out of his cage (climbing around on top) without a suit for months until my significant other because extremely bothered by the droppings on his sheet on the floor. I let him loose on top of his cage because I really didn't want to use a suit all the time.
Chocky's behaviour during this time was no different to how he is in the suit. Except that with the suit he feels confident to venture further around the house. When he was out of the cage without the suit, he didn't go anywhere, he only flew the occasional lap around the house and back again.
Like Nico, Chocky was taught to wear his suit from weaning, and when he sees the suit he starts bobbing and gets excited because he knows what it means. He's not suffering in the suit.
I understand everything you're saying, and given the choice I would not have Chocky in a suit at all, but in this home, it's either the suit, or no time outside at all. Or it's his home and family and his flock with the suit, or losing all of that for the sake of taking the suit off somehwere else.
Since I know that he is no different with or without the suit, I think it's safe to conclude that he is just a quiet bird.
He quacks quietly and happily in my ear, he is not lashing out, biting, vicious, he'll fly to my shoulder to be with me and burrow into my hair. He's not an unhappy bird.
Chocky was out of his cage (climbing around on top) without a suit for months until my significant other because extremely bothered by the droppings on his sheet on the floor. I let him loose on top of his cage because I really didn't want to use a suit all the time.
Chocky's behaviour during this time was no different to how he is in the suit. Except that with the suit he feels confident to venture further around the house. When he was out of the cage without the suit, he didn't go anywhere, he only flew the occasional lap around the house and back again.
Like Nico, Chocky was taught to wear his suit from weaning, and when he sees the suit he starts bobbing and gets excited because he knows what it means. He's not suffering in the suit.
I understand everything you're saying, and given the choice I would not have Chocky in a suit at all, but in this home, it's either the suit, or no time outside at all. Or it's his home and family and his flock with the suit, or losing all of that for the sake of taking the suit off somehwere else.
Since I know that he is no different with or without the suit, I think it's safe to conclude that he is just a quiet bird.
He quacks quietly and happily in my ear, he is not lashing out, biting, vicious, he'll fly to my shoulder to be with me and burrow into my hair. He's not an unhappy bird.
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