Bird Crazies: this is what beak performance looks like.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Pet Island > Bird Crazies: this is what beak performance looks like.

bee: Dec 17, 2008; Do you often sing or whistle just for fun?

My Alexandrine is making weird noises. She is still eating, drinking etc normally and her poo looks a little runny but otherwise ok. She extends her neck out and opens her beak and makes a odd sound, it's hard to describe. It sounds a little like someone trying to blow their nose or clear their throat. This has been going on a few days now. She's also moulting at the moment so she looks scruffier than normal. Her behaviour seems normal otherwise. Should I be taking her to a vet? I can't seem to find any info online as to what this noise might be and I can't see any discharge from her nose/mouth either.

I made a video where you can hear the noise: http://youtu.be/Iv_sqvf0jo4

bee fucked around with this message at 05:26 on Nov 6, 2012

# ¿ Nov 6, 2012 04:50

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 5, 2024 17:17

bee: Dec 17, 2008; Do you often sing or whistle just for fun?

What are people's suggestions for easy, cheap things you can use to keep your parrot amused? Now that Saffy's wings have grown back she is flying all over the house and finding things to destroy. First it was my bonsai plant, then a bag of grapes I left on the bench.

I am going to get her some driftwood to chew up tomorrow, but in the meantime I'd love to hear people's suggestions on what toys they have made, or things they've gotten for their bird to help keep them stimulated! I can't justify spending a heap of money on toys that she is just going to chew to pieces, I'd rather have a crack at making my own if it's safe for me to do so.

And to contribute to the thread, here's a tiel singing dubstep: http://youtu.be/AXQSFZIQFnA

bee fucked around with this message at 11:50 on Jan 17, 2013

# ¿ Jan 17, 2013 11:46

bee: Dec 17, 2008; Do you often sing or whistle just for fun?

^^^^ We have a small pillow on the lounge that is a golden colour. Saffy HATES this pillow, so we use it to encourage her up onto our shoulders when it's time for bed and she refuses to leave her play stand. We're at the point where just reaching towards it causes her to stop being stubborn and scurry right up my arm onto my shoulder to be put in her cage.

Percy hates the steam mop that my Mum uses to clean bird poop off the floor. He has a very particular noise he makes when he doesn't like something, and when he sees that mop the "I HATE THAT THING" noise gets made loudly and excessively.

Thanks everyone for your toy suggestions! Saffy loves chewing the lids off things so the next time I go to the shops I'll pick up some leather strips, and start collecting plastic bottle caps and other goodies to thread onto them.

# ¿ Jan 19, 2013 13:09

bee: Dec 17, 2008; Do you often sing or whistle just for fun?

Pip pip pip posted:

So other cockatiel owners, does your 'tiel ever appear to forget that they like being pet? Half the time when I take Nugget out, she acts all weird and scuttles away from me until I give her some head scratches and then she is like OH YEAH I LOVE THIS poo poo PLEASE PET ME FOR 2 HOURS STRAIGHT. I get confused with the first 2 minutes of hand dodging that she does sometimes.

My last pet tiel Tre used to do this exact thing. I never understood it, just figured she was a little crazy

# ¿ Jan 20, 2013 02:32

bee: Dec 17, 2008; Do you often sing or whistle just for fun?

Hello everyone, I am hoping that the bird loving goons in this thread might be able to give me some advice about parrot safety.

Today, we had a near-miss with Saffy (Alexandrine parrot, about 3 years old). While I was distracted, she flew into the laundry and chewed through the power cable where the washing machine connects to the wall. This is unusual behaviour for her, as she's never been interested in the power sockets before now. Luckily, she didn't get zapped but now I am very worried that she is going to injure herself somehow. I only had my attention off her for a minute and something near disastrous has happened.

We've had her for about a year, and her wings were clipped when we got her. They grew back in about two months ago, and since then she's started really exploring the house. I was pretty happy about this originally because I want her to be stimulated and not stuck in her cage or on her stand just feeling bored. But she is quickly becoming quite destructive, but that's not what worries me. I'm really concerned that she might get into something that injures or kills her.

Is it possible to parrot-proof cables? If so, how would I go about doing this? Mr bee is an engineer and computer programmer so there is quite a lot of tech in our house. I don't really want to clip her wings unless it's a last resort option for keeping her safe. She just seems so much more animated and cheerful now that she can fly around I would feel awful taking that away from her

# ¿ Feb 17, 2013 10:14

bee: Dec 17, 2008; Do you often sing or whistle just for fun?

Hello bird people, I'm worried about my Alexandrine parrot (Saffy) and hoping that someone here might have some useful advice.

In a nutshell, my 1.5 year old has developed a really strong fear of Saffy's shriek/call. This has only been happening for the last two months, prior to that she was completely unafraid of Saffy and when Saffy was out of her cage and on her stand, kiddo would crawl over to the stand and giggle and wave at the bird. Up until recently, Saffy spent most of the day outside of her cage on a T-stand or hanging out on mr bee's shoulder. Saffy is strongly bonded with mr bee, and she somewhat tolerates me. However, mr bee had to go into hospital for a month and during this time I wasn't able to get Saffy out of the cage as often. Sometimes when I'd try to get her out she'd bite me but that's pretty typical behaviour for her if mr bee is not around. Even after mr bee came home, he wasn't able to spend as much time with Saffy either due to his health issues and involvement in physical therapy etc.

Now whenever Saffy calls out, baby bee is absolutely terrified. Saffy usually isn't overly noisy but her cage is kept in the garage at the back of our townhouse simply because there is no room for it in our unit itself. This has never been a problem because Saffy likes to be left alone at night, and is usually out of her cage for most of the day anyway. But now after this big routine change her behaviour has gotten really erratic. We are trying to get her out of the cage more often now that mr bee is finished his rehab and is home as often as he used to be, but Saffy backs into her cage and won't come out a lot of the time. She's also gotten really nippy with me to the point where I am hesitant to try and handle her. When we do get her out, she is content for a little while but then she starts shrieking non stop, the baby gets super scared and Saffy goes back in the cage. Because she's in the cage a lot more, she's gotten a lot noisier and the more she shrieks the more upset babybee seems to get. However, if she is out of the cage and doesn't shriek the baby is fine, she only gets upset once Saffy makes the loud call. Her whistles and chatter don't bother her.

We've tried holding kiddo and reassuring her whenever Saffy calls out, which works if Saffy only calls out once but if she calls out a few times in a row the baby just loses it. We don't think the baby is upset by the volume of the noise because she doesn't seem to be bothered by other loud noises and it's only recently that the shrieking is bothering her at all. She used to hang out in the garage with me in the jolly jumper while I lifted weights (our gym is in there too) and Saffy would make heaps of noise with no problems.

I'm worried that Saffy's increasing shriekiness and reluctance to come out of the cage is a sign that she's gone a bit bonkers from being stuck in the cage all day plus the sudden change in routine that happened when mr bee was in hospital. Does anyone have any ideas on what we can do? I feel like it's totally unfair to Saffy for her to be caged for extended periods of time but I can't deal with my kid being scared shitless every time the bird shrieks either. Thanks in advance for your help

# ¿ Apr 14, 2015 04:34

bee: Dec 17, 2008; Do you often sing or whistle just for fun?

Hi bird people, I have a problem that I hope someone can help me with.

I have two budgies. Originally we thought they were both boys but one is definitely a girl. 95% of the time they are preening and singing to each other, or the boy is regurgitating food to the girl, and they seem to enjoy each other's company.

The other 5% of the time, the boy is chasing the girl around the cage, and since he's bigger than her he'll catch her and pin her down on the floor of the cage and not let her up. There's a lot of flapping and screeching while this happens. Sometimes the girl will get away from the boy, but then she'll go back down to him and start pecking at him and they'll start rolling around flapping and screeching at each other again.

A few weeks ago, the boy pecked the girl on the cere and drew blood during one of these scuffles. So I put the boy in time out alone for a week in another cage placed next to the main cage. While the birds were separated, they would try to sit as close as possible to each other in their separate cages and seemed to miss each other. Once the boy was put back in the main cage, he seemed more chill for a few days then he started chasing the girl around again with increasing frequency.

Should the boy be separated from the girl permanently? I have no idea whether this is normal budgie behaviour or not. I'd appreciate any advice!

# ¿ Aug 5, 2020 05:44

bee: Dec 17, 2008; Do you often sing or whistle just for fun?

There's nothing nest-like in there. I don't think they're mating because, well, I've seen them mate while perched and it looks like everyone is having a good time... maybe my birds are just into rough sex :shrug:

# ¿ Aug 5, 2020 11:48

bee: Dec 17, 2008; Do you often sing or whistle just for fun?

I am sad to update that Tinky (boy budgie) pecked the gently caress out of Rainbow (girl budgie) this afternoon before I had a chance to break them up. Tinky is now permanently in another cage and Rainbow is awaiting veterinary treatment for a couple of gashes on her nose

# ¿ Aug 6, 2020 07:12

bee: Dec 17, 2008; Do you often sing or whistle just for fun?

Rainbow looks like she's shaken up

she has been moving about her cage a little to eat and drink, she has hopped on and off her swing a few times. We've left her cage where it usually lives in a quiet corner of the house near the back window so she can chill out somewhere familiar.

Tinky is in a different cage in another part of the house and he is not happy about that but he can :dealwithit:

# ¿ Aug 6, 2020 10:59

bee: Dec 17, 2008; Do you often sing or whistle just for fun?

RoboRodent posted:

Oh, yikes. I hope that gets figured out. Poor Rainbow.

Thanks. The vet said it looks worse than it is and she should be ok with some medicine and a close eye on her.

bee fucked around with this message at 04:44 on Aug 8, 2020

# ¿ Aug 8, 2020 04:33

bee: Dec 17, 2008; Do you often sing or whistle just for fun?

Actually, the vet did say that given Tinky's age (he's roughly 2) his hormones are probably to blame.

My five year old daughter named both budgies :3 Tinky was originally Tinkerbell, until it became apparent that he wasn't a she and Tinky became a better fit, according to my kid.

Here they are in happier times:

# ¿ Aug 8, 2020 13:53

bee: Dec 17, 2008; Do you often sing or whistle just for fun?

Is it just me or does it appear those maccaws have beaks that could crack open a human skull like a big ol nut?

:parrot:

# ¿ Aug 10, 2020 03:22

bee: Dec 17, 2008; Do you often sing or whistle just for fun?

Big parrots are hella strong. When I was a kid I was giving a cockatoo a scritch and it suddenly decided to latch onto my finger. It busted my fingernail in two and wouldn't let go until my Dad sprayed it with the hose

# ¿ Aug 10, 2020 09:38

bee: Dec 17, 2008; Do you often sing or whistle just for fun?

Gosh that's so sweet :3 I hope that Yellow is feeling better!

# ¿ Aug 11, 2020 08:25

bee: Dec 17, 2008; Do you often sing or whistle just for fun?

I just busted Rainbow having a grind on the corner of her seed bowl. I guess she must be feeling better :smugndar:

# ¿ Aug 17, 2020 07:08

bee: Dec 17, 2008; Do you often sing or whistle just for fun?

I've always thought that budgies smelt like popcorn.

Speaking of which, Rainbow had her check up at the vet this morning. Despite being a lot more energetic and appearing to have her mojo back, she's lost weight and seems to have a crook sounding lung so she's on another course of antibiotics and I'm putting some egg biscuit into her food to try and get more calories into her

# ¿ Aug 19, 2020 02:05

bee: Dec 17, 2008; Do you often sing or whistle just for fun?

mediaphage posted:

my guy’s clean and demands nose scritches so who am i to say no. most of the time he smells like honey. :3

lol speaking of clean

What an absolute cutie :3

# ¿ Aug 20, 2020 01:49

bee: Dec 17, 2008; Do you often sing or whistle just for fun?

rear end cobra posted:

Hello Bird Thread

This beautiful little thing came flying through my balcony door two weeks ago and she was disheveled and hungry. I've tried to find the owner, but no luck so it seems like she'll be staying with me. I'm working from home, so I think it will work out for the both of us, and I'm open to the idea of getting her a friend down the road.

She's been gradually warming up to her new situation and now eats well and flies around the apartment most of the day, between her cage and a little play area I've set up behind my monitor, and she'll get on my hand. Only thing I'm worried about is her cere, it's not smooth and doesn't bulge out like I see on other budgies? Is this something I should be worried about?

She's lovely :3:

What will you name her?

Her cere might not be smooth if she's gotten into a scuffle with another bird then the wound hasn't healed neatly. This is what's happened to my budgie Rainbow. The vet said that she might be more prone to respiratory issues but as long as I watch out for any kind of build-up of muck in her nostrils she should be ok. I'm not a vet though, so I'd recommend taking your little lady there to one who is able to check her over and make sure she's ok

# ¿ Aug 27, 2020 13:33

bee: Dec 17, 2008; Do you often sing or whistle just for fun?

Some good news for the thread: Rainbow had her check up this morning and her lungs sound clear, her respiratory infection has cleared up and she's gained back some weight. I'm very pleased she's feeling better.

# ¿ Aug 29, 2020 07:37

bee: Dec 17, 2008; Do you often sing or whistle just for fun?

Captain Log posted:

I would never get a single thing done, ever again, if I lived near wild parrots.

It's a struggle, I can assure you. This lovely lady has been hanging out on my back deck until I appear and give her a snack.

https://youtu.be/mJhTKk_aSkA

# ¿ Sep 1, 2020 09:56

bee: Dec 17, 2008; Do you often sing or whistle just for fun?

Did you know there's an implanon for birds? The vet suggested it for Tinky last week when I took Rainbow for her check up. Apparently, it's a dose of hormones in an implant, once it's in the bird it just turns off their horniness and any associated aggression.

It only lasts for a year though, and it costs about $800! For that much money I think I'll just keep Tinky and Rainbow in separate cages.

# ¿ Sep 3, 2020 11:10

bee: Dec 17, 2008; Do you often sing or whistle just for fun?

mediaphage posted:

man she's still gorgeous and i can't tell you how much joy i get out of reading about her and how she came into your life

Both of these :3:

# ¿ Sep 12, 2020 03:50

bee: Dec 17, 2008; Do you often sing or whistle just for fun?

Suntan Boy posted:

I very briefly flirted with the idea of getting a kookaburra yesterday. After a couple hours of youtubing, I decided I need a friend with a kookaburra, instead. One that lives well out of earshot.

I made friends with this one when I was a kid. It'd sit on the pool fence and wait for me to come home from school to give it a worm out of the compost bin.

One day I came home and it was floating in the pool

It wasn't dead, although at first it sure looked like it was, it'd just gotten too wet and couldn't get out of the water. So I fished it out and in the process it chomped onto my finger and it was really, really hard to get my finger back. But after I finished shrieking about my busted finger and gave kooka a few blasts with the hair dryer to warm it back up again, it perked back up again and flew off

# ¿ Sep 12, 2020 04:02

bee: Dec 17, 2008; Do you often sing or whistle just for fun?

Pookah posted:

She's gorgeous!

And her brother has such a ROUND face

BORB

# ¿ Oct 15, 2020 11:03

bee: Dec 17, 2008; Do you often sing or whistle just for fun?

I'm feeling the call of the birb... I think my household needs another one. At the moment we have two adorable budgies that are loved and are very much a part of the family, but they're former aviary birds and have just never become tame. Both will take food out of your hand but rarely step up. They're more into each other than anything else and that's fine.

I'd like to get another bird that will be more affectionate and tolerate sitting on a shoulder. I work from home so spending a lot of time with it won't be an issue. My 8 year old daughter would also have time and love for another pet.

I'm thinking maybe a cockatiel as I've kept them before and they're lovable little derps and easy to look after. But the other day I went past a pet shop and they had a Hahn's maccaw that I instantly got heart eyes over. Can anyone tell me what owning one is like? The biggest parrot I've kept before has been an Alexandrine and she ended up getting fiercely and aggressively protective of my male partner to the point where she needed to be rehomed, which I was horribly sad over. Is this something that I need to consider? I would love to hear everyone's experiences and thoughts!

# ¿ Jan 20, 2022 12:38

bee: Dec 17, 2008; Do you often sing or whistle just for fun?

mediaphage posted:

can't remember if i or someone else posted this and i don't care

Is that a Bourke's parrot? How cute :3:

# ¿ Jan 24, 2022 03:49

bee: Dec 17, 2008; Do you often sing or whistle just for fun?

Youth Decay posted:

Yes, and I am very sad that they aren't widely available in the US. I want a big pink budgie dangit

If it makes you feel any better, they're not widely available as pets here in Australia either. I've seen a few over the years in pet stores and at bird shows but they're not common.

Also for CaptainLog asking about temperatures, I live in Australia and we've got two budgies. It gets down to 50f here some nights through winter and we don't keep the heat on overnight. The budgies are fine, it can get a lot colder overnight in the desert where they live naturally. So your 70f birbs are getting rather spoiled in that warmth

# ¿ Jan 24, 2022 09:39

bee: Dec 17, 2008; Do you often sing or whistle just for fun?

We went to the pet shop to meet the birds..

This sweet cockatiel seemed very friendly and would come to the front of the cage to say hello whenever we moved past it.

The baby Hahn's Macaw was pretty chill and sat calmly while my kid gave it pats.

I'm still really on the fence about which bird to get! Leaning towards the cockatiel because they don't need as much attention and make less noise than the macaw. But just look at that sweet little green face :3:

# ¿ Jan 25, 2022 07:10

bee: Dec 17, 2008; Do you often sing or whistle just for fun?

Thanks for the effort posts Eejit and Captain Log! I appreciate your sharing your stories and thoughts.

I've kept larger birds before, so I'm not completely unprepared for what to expect but the bluffing thing is something I hadn't given much thought to. I've had lots of birds chomp on my fingers/hands over the years so I'm used to that but my delicate flower of a child still screams bloody murder when she stubs a toe. So the cockatiel is going to be the wiser choice here.

# ¿ Jan 25, 2022 21:11

bee: Dec 17, 2008; Do you often sing or whistle just for fun?

Yep, I hear you there. My last cockatiel would get a little nippy when she was about to lay an egg but it was more of a show of "I'm in a mood rn go away" than anything else. A cockatiel nip isn't going to be as shocking to a kid as a mini macaw nip though

# ¿ Jan 25, 2022 21:33

bee: Dec 17, 2008; Do you often sing or whistle just for fun?

I had an Alexandrine parrot that was super sweet and adorable until I had a baby, then she started getting territorial and possessive of my husband. We decided that it was probably best to rehome her after the day where she burrowed in under the entertainment unit, begrudgingly allowed me to have her step back out onto my arm, but then ran up my shoulder and took a bloody chunk out of my neck before flying over to my husband and cooing in his ear like nothing had happened

She'd started showing some mild aggression towards me just after the baby was born but nothing that fierce before.

Anyway, that was the worst birb chomp I've copped. Having a wild cockatoo step up onto my arm and give it a good nibble for my daring to hang out with it wasn't anywhere near as painful, perhaps because it didn't draw blood. It hurt, but it wasn't so bad that I couldn't hold still and just wait for it to stop when I didn't react.

Anyway, here's so non-bitey content. This sweet magpie keeps coming onto my front railing for a visit. https://youtu.be/CgcrQ7HFOys

# ¿ Jan 25, 2022 23:29

bee: Dec 17, 2008; Do you often sing or whistle just for fun?

What lovely photos, and birbs :3:

I too, am interested in birdy pancakes.

We decided to go with a cockatiel! Meet Sunny

She's currently a bit anxious about being left alone, so I've got her up here with me sitting on my shoulder as I work. So far she's only flown onto my partner's head once while he was on a zoom so, so far so good!

# ¿ Feb 1, 2022 05:14

bee: Dec 17, 2008; Do you often sing or whistle just for fun?

mediaphage posted:

yeah i wonder if she was especially well reared

The woman I bought her off was your stereotypical crazy bird lady. The back sunroom of her house was where all the birds lived, she had about six cockatiels and about a dozen budgies. Some of budgies were rescues and had their own closed cages, but the cockatiels were all tame and were going in and out of their cages as they pleased.

Everything looked clean, all the birds had fruit and veg and fresh looking water. Bird lady was talking about the all the different birds she'd kept over the years while introducing my daughter and I to the ones she had for sale and asking me questions about whether I knew how to look after birds. When my daughter picked out Sunny, bird lady let her two kids who had been helping to rear the birds come and give her some goodbye pats before she went into the travel box.

So yeah, I think she's had a pretty good start to life :3:

# ¿ Feb 2, 2022 09:42

bee: Dec 17, 2008; Do you often sing or whistle just for fun?

quote:

Aaaa parrotlets are so cute, such fluffy little nuggets!

Captain Log posted:

BEWARE!!!

Derpalert! :derptiel:

# ¿ Feb 3, 2022 06:46

bee: Dec 17, 2008; Do you often sing or whistle just for fun?

Youth Decay posted:

Mediaphage has lineolated parakeets, not parrotlets

Cool cool, I stand corrected.. I saw a picture of that kind of bird captioned with "parrotlet" so that'd what went into my brain. My knowledge of non Australian birds isn't super good!

# ¿ Feb 3, 2022 08:53

bee: Dec 17, 2008; Do you often sing or whistle just for fun?

Someone's making themselves comfortable....

https://youtube.com/shorts/RuEeP7hlTcw?feature=share

# ¿ Feb 5, 2022 11:38

bee: Dec 17, 2008; Do you often sing or whistle just for fun?

The only lovebird I've met before was a savage little beastie so that photo is very fitting :3:

Sunny is obsessed with the budgie's seed cups. She gets a little seed in with her pellets, and she's eating the food she's offered including the pellets. But drat, just look at this cute little brat:

https://youtube.com/shorts/WvlV3Y2OxeQ?feature=share

# ¿ Feb 14, 2022 09:01

bee: Dec 17, 2008; Do you often sing or whistle just for fun?

That kea looks so chuffed at the end with the big chunk of plastic/rubber in its beak :grin:

They're lucky to have gotten that camera back, the keas I saw in New Zealand were casually stealing people's lunch and just flying up into the mountains with it.

# ¿ Feb 14, 2022 21:51

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 5, 2024 17:17

bee: Dec 17, 2008; Do you often sing or whistle just for fun?

Hug in a Can posted:

Starr the budgie has to go on Lupron, now, too I didn't know they made that for budgies.

She's not doing well. It's hard, but we all know how this goes, I guess. She's 8 and a half years old

Starr is a wonderful name :3:

It's never easy when our little friends get on in their age. I'm sure that she knows how much she's loved.

# ¿ Feb 18, 2022 01:47

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Pet Island > Bird Crazies: this is what beak performance looks like.

«‹›6 »