Seeking Advice about Huffing Conure

[zeusconure]

Our green cheek conure is one year old. 10 days ago he started sporadically huffing out of his mouth, a few times per day. We took him to the vet, and he has been on Baytril for a week, but his condition is exactly the same. He acts 100% normal otherwise--playing, eating, and continuing to be extremely active. He is not alone for much of the day, so we have the chance to observe his behavior. I have a re-check appointment with the vet next week, and the vet will likely do a blood test and an x-ray, but I am wondering if anyone else has had this problem. We think that perhaps he swallowed something? We did not change his food (he eats Harrison's) and have not done anything else differently.

Thanks very much for your time!

 

[Auggie's Dad]

Welcome to the forums,

Unfortunately I can do little more than welcome you, I don't have any experience with such a thing. Do keep us informed on what the vet determines.

The only thing that comes to my mind is a curiosity as to whether he could be mimicking something or someone he has heard.

 

[zeusconure]

Thank you for the welcome and the suggestion! I hope he is just imitating a noise he heard and that he doesn't have a real problem. I will definitely keep you posted.

 

[zeusconure]

We ended up taking Zeus to a medical center for birds some distance away from us. They did several tests, the results of which we should have back this week. So far, unless the test results tell us differently, it looks like you are right on about the behavioral issue! $500 dollars later and it appears he just wanted some more attention, even though he gets attention almost 24 hours per day! Will report back with the rest of the results this week. It still has us a bit worried.

 

[Auggie's Dad]

Good to here that he's healthy (so far).

Even if he is perfectly fine it was not money wasted. When birds actually are sick they are very good at hiding symptoms so it is a good idea to get them in for a thorough check up every so often. Many recommend even full yearly work-ups from an avian vet. I don't go in yearly.... Anyhow a clean check-up is a great way to put your mind at ease.

 

[zeusconure]

Definitely...we already took him in earlier this year for a once over, and the cost was very reasonable. This place is just extra pricey because the vet is renowned and they have a lot of high-tech equipment. Zeus is a member of the family, so we don't mind spending all of our money on him hahaha

 

[zeusconure]

We got the blood test results back, and everything is normal with Zeus. So, it looks like he is a great actor. Meanwhile, I had been wanting to get another green cheek from a nearby store. He was missing a claw, had his feathers improperly trimmed, and was not looking good at all. They told us he had been bought and returned four times. My husband surprised me with him today, so now Zeus has a buddy. We named the new guy Claude (for the missing claw) and he likes to hop. He also took right to a Harrison's pellet, which was pretty shocking, considering that Zeus resisted for days. Will have to post a pic.

 

[MonaRaeHill]

This is probably not very helpful at this point (since you already spent a bunch of money), but our conure huffs and chuffs, quite a lot, especially when he/she is very happy. He/She used to live with a person with Asthma, and a dog that chuffed (we noticed when we got the bird home that it sounded just like the dog), so we had a feeling that it was just mimicry and not anything else, as the bird was otherwise active and interactive. gosh, they sure do have characters, don't they?

 

[Tumbala's Girl]

Tumbala (a sun cunure) also huffs a lot but he always seems to be happy when he's making the noises so I never worried about it. He also came from a house with dogs. He also barks like a dog at my cats.