I have a 23 yr. old female s. cr. cockatoo . Seems healthy, eats a diet of fresh greens, lentils, apple, swt. potato, squqsh.
She frequently squats on her perch and shudders and emits a somewhat high pitch vocal grunt. Occasionally I witnessed
a leaking of drops but she typically has no problem going to
the bathroom. Any idea ?
Hi Mitch,
When you listed the things she eats, you didn’t mention a main diet. The foods you listed are fine, but should not make up more than 20% of her diet combined. If you are only feeding this soft diet, this is part of the problem. Parrots need hard foods because this is what their digestive system is intended to digest. Avian Vets recommend a nutritionally balanced, formulated diet which would be pellets or foraging pellets. Foraging pellets would be our Nutri-Berries, Avi-Cakes & Pellet-Berries. These diets are formulated the same as a pellet but have not been ground up. They provide natural foraging exercise as well as a variety of tastes and textures that are more natural for a parrot. These diets can be fed alone or with pellets and again should make up 80% of her diet. If you are already feeding a type of pellet as her main diet, then this may be hormonal behavior. But before you decide that, I would recommend taking her to an Avian Vet to be sure. She would be having some type of digestive issue. I would be highly suspicious of this being an issue if she is only eating a soft diet.
If she gets a clean bill of health, then it’s time to look at is being hormonal. Again, the soft diet comes into play. These type foods can be a hormonal trigger, especially in the spring and if fed daily in large amounts. When hormonal behavior begins, stop feeding the soft and fresh foods completely. After a couple of weeks, you can start offering them in small amounts about three times a week. How you handle her can also be a hormone trigger. You should limit all petting to only her head and neck. It’s tempting to hug and cuddle a cockatoo, but unfortunately this isn’t what is best for her. This type of contact is reserved for a mate, so when you pet her below her neck, this triggers her hormones. Along with causing behavioral issues, this can also result in serious medical issues, some of which can be fatal. So it is best to avoid hormonal triggers when you have a non-breeding bird. Hormone issues are such a problem that we have webinars on the topic every spring. We just wrapped up our hormone webinars but they can be viewed on YouTube for free.
Hopefully all will check out with her at the Vet. Do change her diet if what you listed is all she eats. And be sure to watch the webinars – link is below.
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
