General behaviour changes?

PinkV

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Hello again everyone! It feels like I'm always asking for advice here 😂 my partner is very worried about our Rosella as he's been behaving strangely since we added a conure to our flock.

Personally I think he's just become more reserved since the conure has a much more dominant personality. But it's better safe than sorry right? We're thinking of making a vet appointment, but with the quarantine right now, and my partner being high risk, I want to minimise any exposure if I can help it.

Our Rosella used to constantly chirp and sing and fly around the room, and was overall an active noisy bird. Since we moved the conure into the same room (after the quarantine period) he's become very different. He's much quieter, hardly ever sings or anything, not even screams. He also spends most days on top of his cage (and sometimes he sits on the conures cage) and just sleeps or sits there.

His breathing also seems more laboured? Not in a worrying way, personally I think its probably the summer heat, but my partner worries his breathing is rapid and strange. He hardly ever plays with his toys, and I've tried moving them, or swapping them out for other toys, to no interest.

They both also go onto each others cages, and I'm not sure if I should discourage it? They take from eachothers food bowls, and I've tried stopping them, but as soon as I look away they're right back at it! Neither seems very upset that the other is doing it though, the conure only gets a little nippy if our Rosella is too close, and the Rosella will just fly away, even if it's his perch/food/cage 😂

I'm just curious if anyone else has had this? Is it something to worry about? He doesn't even sing when I put on videos of Rosellas singing, which always used to have him sing along :( it's just sad to look at him, he always seems tired, or just not interested in anything else. He also started "adjusting his crop" which I took a video of and asked about a few weeks ago, but I'm not sure if that's related to his general behavioural changes.

Any advice is appreciated! Thank you all so much for all the advice in the past too, the most helpful parrot community anyone could ask for! ♥️
 
Did you disease test both of the birds?

When you say the Rosella has laboured breathing how often is this? Has this only started since the conure has been in the same room? Has anything else changed in the environment?
 
Did you disease test both of the birds?

When you say the Rosella has laboured breathing how often is this? Has this only started since the conure has been in the same room? Has anything else changed in the environment?

We haven't had the chance to disease test the Rosella, and the conure we adopted from a charity that told us he was disease tested before going to his temporary home, where he was just before we took him in.

The Rosellas breathing is like this nearly all the time, personally to me it just seems like he's puffed up more and his breathing is slightly faster. It's hard to tell if its just because of the heat? He flies around just fine when he does it, he's just been moving a lot less. Other than the new conure in the room we haven't done anything else, we did move our furniture around slightly but not the cages.

It has also gotten a lot hotter where we are and when we have them out of the cages it can reach around 26 degrees in our flat 😩 I might try keeping them in the cage more, and letting the windows be open, see if he just needs a chance to cool down?
 
We haven't had the chance to disease test the Rosella, and the conure we adopted from a charity that told us he was disease tested before going to his temporary home, where he was just before we took him in.

The Rosellas breathing is like this nearly all the time, personally to me it just seems like he's puffed up more and his breathing is slightly faster. It's hard to tell if its just because of the heat? He flies around just fine when he does it, he's just been moving a lot less. Other than the new conure in the room we haven't done anything else, we did move our furniture around slightly but not the cages.

It has also gotten a lot hotter where we are and when we have them out of the cages it can reach around 26 degrees in our flat 😩 I might try keeping them in the cage more, and letting the windows be open, see if he just needs a chance to cool down?

Is he holding his wings slightly away from his body? That's always a good sign that they are too hot and trying to cool down.

Can you get a video of him doing it? Breathing is a difficult one to diagnose as it can be a multitude of things from something very simple through to something quite complicated

Once you are able to get the little one to a vet I do recommend blood work to ensure he isn't hiding any nasties like pbfd or psittacosis.
 
Here's a small video

Of how he's breathing, it takes a few seconds to focus properly. To me it just seems he might be too hot, and he's very particular about how/when he baths so he doesn't cool himself down too often.

Thanks for the help!
 
Yeah I'd defo be going to the vet with the little one. Make sure they do blood work for psittacosis to rule it out. Have they been treated for mites at all? You want to try and rule out the obvious things like air sac mites etc.
 
Thank you @CaptainHowdy & @DizzyBlue , definitely taking him to the vet asap, he's been like this for a few days, but I also noticed his poop was a lot more watery too, just need to get a carrier for him and make an appointment! Will definitely update ASAP, and thank you for the suggestion Howdy, I'll definitely ask the vet about it!
 
Thank you @CaptainHowdy & @DizzyBlue , definitely taking him to the vet asap, he's been like this for a few days, but I also noticed his poop was a lot more watery too, just need to get a carrier for him and make an appointment! Will definitely update ASAP, and thank you for the suggestion Howdy, I'll definitely ask the vet about it!

Until you can get him to the vet keep him somewhere quiet and free from drafts. I would cover the back of the cage coming halfway to the front to keep a bit warmer in there and also help keep him calm as he will know nothing can get to him from behind.

Offer him a millet spray as he needs to keep his energy up and it's usually a favourite go to food for them.
 
Take or send the video, this will show you get that your bird needs to e looked at urgently. Fail bobbing and head back plus puffed up feather. In the mean time keep him warm,treating with a nebulizer or in a steam room may help the breathing.
 
Hi everyone, just wanted to give an update, not good news :( We managed to get him to the vet this morning, due to COVID we weren't allowed to come inside with Mally. But when we got him there the vet immediately said mally seemed anemic, no weight on him, and no energy, and that he basically seemed like he was dying.

He didn't do any tests, and said it was due to Mally already being so exhausted that any invasive testing would just put her under stress. He instead put mally on oxygen, gave him pain killers, and put him on fluids. We waited around an hour before he said to go home, and if mally made any improvements, he would try treatment, but he told us Mally had a 10% chance of survival and even then it would be with weeks of treatment at the vets.

We went home, crying our eyes out, and within an hour of arriving home got a call. They said that mally passed away, and just couldn't hold up anymore.

I'm so sorry to Mally, I hate myself for not seeing the signs sooner. I feel like I failed him. We're still worried, I want to know what caused it, I'm terrified of it happening to our conure. I just can't understand how this happened, I don't know how I didn't see the signs sooner. Thank you all for your advice, and patience with me, and I'm so sorry I failed this bird.
 
my thoughts are with you, I was concerned as I looked at him in the video and thought it was Asperger's but only an autopsy can confirm my thought's, so sorry for you I know just how losing Mally has left a big hole in your heart, fly free little one to rainbow bridge and say hello to our other loved ones for us do not blame yourself.
 
I am so very sorry, fly free Mally go find two of my parrots who passed away this year. Such a very very sad time.
Please don't blame yourself, birds are good at hiding signs of being unwell often until it is too late to recover. xx
 
Sorry to hear your sad news, i do know that our vet warned thatvthey will hide their symptoms well, and it is sometimes difficult to see a problem until too late.... fly high and free little one.
 
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