Sleep deprivation signs and symptoms?

[Trillium]

As my blue crowned conure, Oscar, goes through the dietary changes to help correct his nutrition issue and is molting, he's still getting the muscle spasms (as the vet called them) when trying to sleep.

Does anyone know what are signs of sleep deprivation in parrots? I'm just wondering if Oscar is getting any real rest and if any of his symptoms are sleep deprivation or just signs of his moult. I can't imagine that a parrot can live without 6 nights of sleep, so I'm hoping/wondering if he's sneaking it in when I finally nod off at night. His sleeping habits (or lack of) are what is worrying me more than the muscle tics themselves.

 

[suebee]

what is your bird doing??

 

[Spiritbird]

How much sleep does your parrot need?

 

[Auggie's Dad]

Have you considered looking for a second opinion?

One can quibble over the relative merits of the various foods - but unless there is an underlying medical condition leading to a significantly different metabolism of some nutrients I can't imagine that it'd be a deficiency when using Zupreem as him food.

 

[Trillium]

Yea. I'm fed up with the anxiety of it all. I'm going to get Oscar in with a second opinion. Problem is now that its labor day weekend.

 

[Pedro]

Yea. I'm fed up with the anxiety of it all. I'm going to get Oscar in with a second opinion. Problem is now that its labor day weekend.

I have reread all your posts & i am wondering if your bird gets fresh fruits & veg included in his daily diet. Also how much pellets does he consume a day. My logic is if Oscar is only on a pelleted diet & nutri-berry i wonder if he is actually overloaded on some of the vitamins from these foods. It may not be a deficiency at all.

Thinking outloud here, if he is only twitching at night & not in the day time i wonder would it be because of what he has eaten through the day, something in his food could be triggering this condition. I do know that pellets can cause wing flipping & toe tapping in eclectus parrots. If this is the case with Oscar maybe you could start to eliminate some foods that's maybe the cause & replacing with fresh foods.

I don't like feeding my parrots pellets because i have read so many negative reports. I do however use pellets but find that my birds waste more than they eat so i do rely on fresh veggie & fruit, sprouted seed & bean mix. That would make up of about 80% of all my parrots diet. The 20% left would consist of dry seed, nuts, pellets as treats & various other foods.

The only way you could really find out is to have a full blood panel done.

 

[kerry]

The man who own the parrot supply store who sells me a 4 pellet mix that I feed to my 2 Yellow Napes (along with some seeds for treats & fresh fruit & vegetables, & some table food) says that they can't absorb a lot of the nutrients in the pellets. I don't know if that is true or not. But the Avain vets here all recommend having the parrots on pellets as their base food & then adding what I listed above.

 

[henpecked]

If you are feeding no added vit/min supplements then diet should be good and not a cause of your problems.That said i might try Bananas for potassium boost. Could draft from a/c vent be an issue ?