Regurgitating on his leg

[JamesC]

Sidney (Senegal) is smack in the middle of hormone season. Last year was a bad one and I was braced for this year's insanity and ready to deflect him from his normal desires. So that has been moderately successful but he developed a new habit as a result. He keeps regurgitating onto his right leg and gets the feathers all matted up. I first noticed him pecking at the leg a few weeks ago. He would lift it up and hit it a few times with his beak. At first I thought that he had injured it somehow, took him to the vet for a check and came back with a clean bill of health. But since then it developed into this almost obsessive regurgitation thing. He is over in his cage right now, just finished up his breakfast, and he is holding his leg up regurgitating on it. I'm concerned that this could lead to a destructive habit where he might start plucking the feathers. Other than that he is a normal, happy seeming bird that is active and gets into lots of trouble. What I would expect from him after adopting him 10 years ago at the age of 5 and seeing his personality. Curious if anyone else has had an issue like this happen and if they have any suggestions.

 

[HeatherG]

I’ve heard of Quaker parrots feeding their foot by regurgitation. Strange, isn’t it? And some humans have a thing for feet and shoes…

Seriously, I would generally cut back on light hours, petting, rich food, boxes or shadowy areas or shreddable nesting materials available to the bird. Lupron (a hormone blocker) is a bit of a drastic solution but if your bird has given himself a sore on his leg, it would most likely stop the regurgitation.

(Maybe you should have a talk with him about where baby birds come from. And that it doesn’t involve FEET.).

 

[Laurasea]

Hello James,

I've only had obsessively regurgitating briefly, when I first rescued my quaker Penny. My vets advice at the time was to let her and ignore it. She stopped on her own and hasn't again..

What deflection steps hsve you taken?

It sounds like you provide a wonderful life and quality care.

While I never stroke the back. I do provide lots of cuddling and attention and head rubs.

 

[JamesC]

When he starts regurgitating onto his leg, I'll tell him "no" and will put a finger on his foot to push it back down. Though he will start trying to regurgitate on my finger which I pull away. Keep repeating this when he is with me. I avoid stroking his back and limit myself to head and beak scratching. And he is in the dark for about 12 hours a day. Gets a good veggie diet with small amounts of fruit every other day. He is a little piggy and eats it all along with his pellets so he stays on the high end of a Sennie's weight range. The one thing I allow him to do is have time inside of my shirt knowing that is a stimulant. Primarily because I want him to have more time out because he can be aggressive towards my two Blue Crowns, one who is elderly and will scream non stop if I put her in another room so for my sanity she stays out most of the time. At the moment I'm out of work so I'm at home most days. (Previous job nearly killed me so I'm taking a much needed time out before starting a new job.) I get Sid out for about 15 minutes at a time several times a day and he spends the last hour or two out after it gets dark and the Blue Crowns both start letting me know they are tired.

I don't know much of his 5 years before I adopted him but he does have a couple of mental scars left from that which makes training him difficult. He is not food motivated even before getting his first food of the day. He is out with me in the kitchen as I prepare chop every morning and he wants nothing to do with it. If I try clicker training with a treat he will totally ignore it and walk away. I can't use a pointer because all objects in a hand that comes close to him MUST be destroyed. He will attack furiously and will redirect to my hand if I hold onto it. If I let go he will tumble to the floor while he battles the object. So out of fear of him hurting himself, I stopped trying. He has been a very tough little nut to crack. At least as he has gotten older he isn't as bad as he used to be.

 

[Laurasea]

Id love too see pictures of him. Thank you for rescues!

Poor guy.

Personally, you had checked by vet, he's not loosing weight. So I wouldn't scold him , just let him. Its his comfort and coping.

Otherwise, you can work with vet and try a brief cycle of mood altering medications.

Increase foraging, you can try playing that hands off for treats. even pellets, sometimes they find it fun, even in not treat motivated. But have tried popcorn? Mine love that. I love tge video I will get and share incase you haven't seen. I have fun doing simple stuff like that with mine

Even though he does this you can try comfort feeds of warm food before bedtime. Even use a small amount of baby burd formula. If that makes things worse stop. I feed warm stuff before bedtime often, a little boiled egg, warm cooked sweet potatoes, or quinoa, or even baby burd formula. Unless my girls are highly hormonal broody. Thankfully not...but I'm careful in spring. Because this can be a combination of how he handles stress as well as hormones you might find useful tips here

Stress Reduction for Companion Parrots – Pet Birds by Lafeber Co.

To put it bluntly, keeping companion parrots is similar to trying to pound a square peg into a round hole. The fact that they do as well as they do is testimony more to their adaptability than it is to our husbandry efforts.

lafeber.com

 

[JamesC]

Thanks for the reply. I'll be looking into that info and see if I can get him to settle down some. Hopefully the hormones won't be at full peak for much longer. And as asked, some photos of him and a video linked at the end.

Sidney defeats the can! https://photos.app.goo.gl/SPuJ3nckhT5N9uF8A

 

[Laurasea]

On your Blue crown screamer...since you are home ( sorry about previous job)

Why not give that a bit of a go? I think you can recondition her to a least 1-2 hour mid day Cage break minus screaming. Aslo a chance to allow out Sidney.

I've had success in breaking screaming patterns. And after having to cage my flock during a sever illness , and nearly going mad. I also condition them to a 1-2 hour mid day cage break.

You can try a couple of things or a bit of a combo. You can try like mentioned in the stress thread, patterning to soft music at bedtime. Then pick you time when she normally naps during the day and play the soft music and cage her start short with a few minutes of her quiet then her her back out.

What I did, was to give mine a misting. Then cage them with one of their highest treat value foods, apple, fresh corn on the cob, or a treat stick. While they were quiet, eating and preening I'd stop by a couple of times telling them what good quiet birds they were. This gave me about 15 minutes at first. I get them back out before any screaming started. We did this over several days about the same time of day. I slowly extended the time as I could. Over time a new pattern was made. I was able to stop pre rest time misting. But I always give them a little something special when I put them up. I don't know for sure how long it took but I'm thinking a month. I really have come to relish this quiet time and it was worth the effort. They seem to have learned to enjoy it as well. When I get one to put them up, the rest start going back to their cages. If st first its just a few minutes while you busy yourself nearby and in sight, its a start. But you definitely want to get them back out before screaming to crest the patterns.

 

[Laurasea]

Sidney is gorgeous!!!@ love his large awesome cage as well!!@

Awesome video! I love him!
Ha should have a warning about the screaming in the background, all 4 of mine hollered back!

 

[Cottonoid]

Oh wow, Sidney is beautiful! Thanks for sharing photos! The video was fun to watch

Ha should have a warning about the screaming in the background, all 4 of mine hollered back!

Hahaha! I happened to have mine muted already or I would have certainly woken up a birdie!

 

[JamesC]

Sidney is gorgeous!!!@ love his large awesome cage as well!!@

Awesome video! I love him!
Ha should have a warning about the screaming in the background, all 4 of mine hollered back!

He is really cute but still sometimes a little stinker. But I love him. He uses every inch of that cage playing. Rosco has an even bigger cage though he only will use the top perches. Tootsie has a smaller cage because she is arthritic and a little bit unsteady sometimes. I have it modified so the bottom grate is an inch below her tail in case she falls and the perches are all at a level so she does not need to climb. She has a padded shelf too though she does not use it. Ahh the fun of having an ancient old bird.

I'll give the set time for Tootsie and Rosco to be inside during the afternoon a chance and see what happens. That was mostly Tootsie screaming in the background of the video. Rosco joined in a couple of times with the two note squawk. It is pretty much a constant with her though she wasn't anxious during that clip so it wasn't bad. She is really only quiet when she is on me, preening, eating, or sleeping. Even then she has to make some noises. Previous to my brother having her for 8 years (I've had her since 2000), I have no information on her past except that she used to wear an open band which I traced to a Miami import station. So I'm pretty sure she was yanked out of a nest and shipped to the U.S. I know she has lost at least 3 homes in her life because of her noise so I think that trauma became a life long thing. And just cause we talked about them, here is a photo. Tootsie in front and Rosco in back enjoying a treat. A video of her in an anxious state follows. Beware, that one has a lot of noise. You can hear Sidney in the background too.

Tootsie making some noise. https://photos.app.goo.gl/CKg4CQ88x5NFEXvdA

 

[Laurasea]

Couple more gorgeous birds @ glad you shared!
Tootsie...gosh darn those nest robbery.....sadly I'm sure you are spot on.

Blessings for taking this girl..and obviously you are a Saint!!

I sure hope you can have some success.

I took on a young quaker that was round the clock screaming...I regret now not recording it, one so others wouldn't think I exaggerated, 2nd as a public service on quakers also often rehomed for screaming . It was difficult, and I measured success in minutes.

 

[JamesC]

Little update on Sid. The regurgitation is on going still. He has come over to me a couple of times with his leg and foot completely covered in regurgitated food. I just looked over at him and he was doing it again. But what is concerning me is that he must be eating more to make up for the feeling of give up food because he started gaining weight. My jaw about hit the floor when he checked in at 140g this morning. I had to reset the scale and try again to make sure. My scale does read high so I was comfortable with him being in the lower 130s on the scale though I would like him a bit slimmer. So I'm going to start tapering off on the amount of chop I give him and will be more stringent about him stealing the not quite as good of food for him off my dinner plate. I usually set aside a small amount of veggies for him but of course he wants to sample everything on the plate. It'll be so nice when hormonal season passes!

 

[HeatherG]

Little update on Sid. The regurgitation is on going still. He has come over to me a couple of times with his leg and foot completely covered in regurgitated food. I just looked over at him and he was doing it again. But what is concerning me is that he must be eating more to make up for the feeling of give up food because he started gaining weight. My jaw about hit the floor when he checked in at 140g this morning. I had to reset the scale and try again to make sure. My scale does read high so I was comfortable with him being in the lower 130s on the scale though I would like him a bit slimmer. So I'm going to start tapering off on the amount of chop I give him and will be more stringent about him stealing the not quite as good of food for him off my dinner plate. I usually set aside a small amount of veggies for him but of course he wants to sample everything on the plate. It'll be so nice when hormonal season passes!

Have you asked his vet if Lupron would help with his male sexual behaviors?

By any chance, have you tried cutting back his daylight hours and making sure his cage is VERY DARK during the nighttime?

I hope this resolves but you’ve got a lot of Spring remaining to get through. When my little conure was barfing on anything fuzzy in his cage I took the fuzzy toys away. You can’t do that with a foot as focus of affection.

 

[JamesC]

Have you asked his vet if Lupron would help with his male sexual behaviors?

By any chance, have you tried cutting back his daylight hours and making sure his cage is VERY DARK during the nighttime?

I hope this resolves but you’ve got a lot of Spring remaining to get through. When my little conure was barfing on anything fuzzy in his cage I took the fuzzy toys away. You can’t do that with a foot as focus of affection.

I'd like to keep the Lupron as a measure of last resort. I don't want to medicate if we can get past this other ways. Plus I've never had to give this bird medicine before and with the way he violently reacts to anything in a hand pointing in his general direction I'm sure I would come away bloody. I think he suffered some trauma in his past and his first reaction is to attack with extreme prejudice.

I'll try cutting down on his daylight hours some and see if that has an effect. I also rearranged his home today, put in new toys, and tossed a box in the bottom that he could destroy as distractions. No real effect yet though he is turning that box into confetti in short order.

 

[HeatherG]

I would cut Sid’s daylight hours back and maybe feed him less rich food? High protein food helps set off the hormonal cascade that brings a bird into breeding condition. If there’s some way you can cut a bit of that out of his diet, like less egg food, I’d try that.

Also, think about things you do with your parrot that could be misconstrued as romantic. For example, hand feeding can be misinterpreted as “romantic” by a parrot. Being in your shirt is dark (like a nest) and stimulating—lots of body contact. Honestly, you kind of need to “ground” your parrot. Put him to bed earlier, cut back on rich treats, and give less attention. (This is what I was told when Lucy kept coming into breeding condition and got very sick from egg yolk peritonitis.). Yes, you love your bird. But, he’s confused and is doing something that may be harmful to him. So you need to be kind of ‘mean’ to him until he gets over this.

(FYI: Lupron is a hormonal injection (it’s depo-provera, used as injectable birth control by women). The vet would give that injection, not you, if you went that route, and it lasts for a few months.)

 

[Henderbird]

I know it must be frustrating and you're doing everything you can!
Hope Sid feels better and can decrease the amount of sexual behaviors that he exhibits!
Definitely continue following all mentioned advice though!

 

[Laurasea]

Is Sid for sure a boy?

So sorry to hear this has really gotten OCD...

Have you gotten him doing any foraging? Or a way to increase his physical activity?

 

[JamesC]

I don't know for certain that he is a "he". Never was enough concerned about it to get a check done. Though not a reliable method, there are some differences between male and female Senegal feather colors and his line up perfectly with male. So that is what I went with.

He has a few puzzle toys that I rotate in and out. And when he is out he is an explorer poking into anything he can get into. He flies about a fair amount as well. Until hormones set in, he is usually more of an independent bird except when he is tired and wants a snuggle.

 

[Laurasea]

Well the weight gain makes me think female....even if not carring eggs the follicles really enlarge...

Its possible there is a reproductive tumor causing this....

Its bizarre....pretty prolonged...Definitely in excess..

I sent you the burd trick link to foraging? It lots of fun to do together...

 

[HeatherG]

You’re right. Senegals are sexually dimorphic and you can quite safely assume he’s male if his feather colors are appropriate to a male. But as laurasea writes, quick weight gain usually indicates a female getting ready to lay eggs. Maybe you just have a really chunky boy? One developed testis can’t weigh very much.

The bonded male birds that I’ve had have been much more into regurgitation than the bonded females. As your Sid is as well.

I’m sorry you’re having such a time.