Parakeet on the Floor?

[christobal]

Hello,

I'm glad I found you.

My 3 year old female (only bird) has developed a habit of flying directly to the floor when she is let out of her cage. In fact, she has been spending a lot of time on the floor of her cage lately, even napping there. When I took her to the vet for an illness last month, the vet said that she was probably looking for "some nutrient" on the floor. I have since gradually changed her diet to something the vet recommended, but she still zooms to the floor pecking for something on the ground, both on the carpet and on the kitchen floor.

Is there anything I should know?

Thanks!!

C

[kerryandgoofy]

Your bird could very well be looking for minerals. You might want to try giving your bird a bit of Pickstone. This come in a 1.5 block. I break some off and put it in a small cup on the bottom of the flight pen. My birds have a great time eating this mineral dirt.

You can get this though Foy's Pigeon Supplies.
Here is the link www.foyspigeonsupplies.com/catalog/natural/index.html

Oh and glad you found us too. Tell us more about your bird. Do you have any photos to share?

[henryswife]

Hi 'C'
Welcome to the board. Love to see some pics. of your birdie.
I give our birds the 'Berry Flavored 2-in-1 mineral block cuttlebone' by Penn Plax. You can get them at most pet stores. Maybe you can hang it low in the cage.
Kerry knows a lot more about birds, being a breeder. Just my 2-cents.
Let us know how she's doing.
Pics. Clickable to enlarge

[Michael B]

I remember my former (only bird) budgie would develop these temporary fixations. One week she'd be interested in chewing up a box on top of the kitchen cabinets, another week she'd repeatedly fly to my son's monster drawing on the wall (eventually she chewed off the head), then another time she'd be repeatedly flying to, and hovering in front of a cabinet when it was open to check out the cans. When she became fixated on the gaps under the kitchen cabinets I had to stuff all the empty space with rags because she would squeeze through a crack and disappear under there (or under the dishwasher), until tempted out. I was wondering if it could be some temporary mania like that? Perhaps not if it's been going on long enough to change her diet.

Congratulations, by the way. It can be a difficult thing to change an adult budgie's diet. It took several attempts to change my budgie's diet from primarily seed to mainly pellets.

I don't suppose you'd considered the possibility of buried treasure, or an ancient graveyard under the house that the bird is tuned in to or possessed by?

[christobal]

Thanks for all the kind words and advice.

She's not crazy about the new pellets, I still mix it with her old seed. She seems to eat pellets more when it's in her treat cup. She is an oat groat fiend. She still picks the oats out of her regular mixture and, sometimes, will not eat anything else out of her food cup. Once the oats are gone, she still begs for more.

We have been concerned about her lately. As I mentioned before, she seemed ill and I took her to a bird vet. After a shot and some antibiotic and apple cider vinegar for a week or so, she seemed fine again. Actually, she seemed fine after a just the first few days of treatment.

Then, two weeks later, we thought she was about to die. She couldn't fly and could barely walk. She LOVES to sit on our shoulders and talk with us, but HATES to be touched by our hands. My wife cupped her in her hands to try to keep her warm as she thought it was because it was the first cold day of the season (45 degrees outside although it was 68 degrees in the house). She did not have the strength to protest the handling.

We put a crumpled towel in the bottom of here cage, covered it, and put a heating pad underneath which brought the temperature in the cage up to 75 degrees.

She sat on the floor all day. It was a Sunday morning, so no vet. We were SURE she wasn't going to make it through the day/night.

The next morning, she was in her bed (the swing at the top of the cage). We kept her cage semi-covered and resumed the antibiotics. After a day or two, she was chirping again. Now, the only things that concern me is the pecking on the bottom of the cage, that she seems to sleep more often than I have noticed before (That could be that I'm simply paying more attention.), and the vomiting.

One of the reasons she went to the vet in the first place was because she vomited on me while I was trying to clean of some sticky substance on her head. It was not "happy" vomit as she HATES being held and screams the whole time. I now believe that the sticky stuff was actually vomit she had rubbed on her head that was on her perch. I saw her do it shortly after she vomited on me. Well, after she got better, I cleaned it off. Well, it's back. Her head is sticky brown as if she was rubbing her head in it again. ?

Like Michael B's bird, Trixie gets temporary fascinations. Maybe this "floor" thing is one of those as she hasn't been doing the OTHER annoying things she did before she got sick.

She has NEVER been interested AT ALL in cuttle bones, but she will annihilate an orange or grape mineral block in one day after it sits in her cage for a long time. She is has been ignoring the one currently in her cage that's been there for several weeks.

Whew!!! That was a LONG post for a $19.99 bird!!

I will try to post a picture when I get home. I'm working in Cape Canaveral now on travel.

ANY other insights are most welcome.

Thanks again.

C

[henryswife]

Another thought. Is she in a 'breeding mood?' One of ours loves to play on the floor of her cage. She had laid eggs in the past, about 2-3yrs. old. All duds of course. Her favorite toys are those plain wooden cut-outs from a craft store. She keeps busy chewing on them and putting them down the grate of the cage. It's like a game for her, and some old fashion clothes pins without the wire springs. And Large carrots chunks that she shreds to pieces.
As far as the mineral 2-in 1 things I mentioned, They will not touch any other color but 'Pink!' LOL
$19.99 keets? Wouldn't give them up for anything? You just gotta love them!!

Keep us posted. Alice

[Michael B]

Woops, my response got wiped out.
My budgie always made her "dying bird' cry when held by hand, but liked to be touched by my nose. My current cockatiel likes to be scratched on the head and around the neck, but doesn't like to ride around on my shoulder like the budgie.
I think it's supposed to be bad to stop a course of antibiotic before it's complete, even if she appears all beter (I wasn't sure it that's what happened). A small number of surviving bacteria can then multiply, and this encourages drug resistant mutant bacteria to proliferate, so in the future she's more likely to be antibiotic-resistant, and the infection can possibly regenerate from the few survivors.

[Sheila]

Hi C and welcome to the forum! I'm sort of curious about the cage your $19.99 birdie is in. HA! ;D Do you have a grate in the bottom? I would suggest you do, so he won't be eating some of the droppings, which can create a health problem.

BTW, years ago my hubby bought a bird from a lady for $5 and years later when she became ill, she cost me 100's of $$$$... But I don't regret the money I spent trying to get her well. She (Jimmie) was actually how I found this forum.

Hope you can figure out the mystery.