What's wrong dittobird?

[Z28Taxman]

He seems a little off today. He was his normal chirpy self this morning, but when I came home and opened his cage to let him out and get his dinner ready, he did his usual climb onto his balcony and watch but didn't fly out to me. Instead he went back in and roamed around the cage until I put the food in and he ate.

Then he bopped around the cage a bit so I opened it again but he didn't seem to want to come out and then went and hid in the happy hut. Uh, oh.

Ok It's really humid in here and he hates humidity so I turned the air conditioner down to dry it out a bit. he did perk up for awhile but still didn't come out. Everytime I go near the cage he hides in the hut again. He is pooping and he ate the normal amount of food today so hopefully he's just a bit off from the humidity.

He's due for a checkup anyway so I guess I'll call the vet in the morning and get him checked out.

If he doesn't come out for his normal 9pm tv time he's definitely not feeling well. The only time he ever didn't come out at 9 was when he was sick.

[Z28Taxman]

The poops he's done since I came home were all urates and urine. :(

Well he came out of his happy hut at 9pm and ate while I was in the bathroom. So I opened the cage and he came out. Ate a bit of a nutriberry and flew over to his gym to play. While he was there it looked like there was poop at his vent but he flew back to the cage. So I managed to get him out and look and yup. Poop in the vent but he can't pass it. :(

He is perky now though.

[Z28Taxman]

well I managed to get hold of him and get a good look at his vent. there was quite a bit of poop half dried there so I gently massaged it a bit until he wriggled free. As I was looking up the vet's number in my phone I looked over and noticed it haning free (about an inch long) but when I opened the cage again he ran around to the back. Poop was gone and it took me a bit to find it but wanna take a guess what it was?


Yep somehow he managed to find more string. fortunately it passed on it's own without causing the yeast infection. Now he's quite perky and preening on my head. Hopefully that's all there was. Now I just have to figure out where he found a string that long.>:

He's definitely feeling better. I'm trying to get him to let me look at his vent again and that's a no go. He's flying like a little fighter jet. well right now he's standing on my monitor making fun of me but from what I can see of his vent it looks clean. Now to see a real poop and some eating.

Well as I was typing this part one occurred, he was standing on the monitor looking at me, turned around and pooped a normal one on the desk. Looks like he dodged a bullet this time. Still don't know where he got string that long.

[Z28Taxman]

Now he's mad at me, he's sitting in his happy hut with his head poking out giving me the evil eye. :evil:

[Bubblelady]

He figured your life is too boring and you needed some extra excitement. :whistle: Glad he is feeling normal again. At least, what is normal for him!

[Z28Taxman]

Lovebirds and normal don't belong in the same sentence! :rotfl

After I finished typing my last message I stepped outside for a smoke (do to that in the house) and spied on him through the window, he came out and had 4 sips of water instead of his normal two and sat on his boing preening. He spent the next 45 minutes preening, pooping and chirping before his light went out.

Now he's in the happy hut beak grinding his way to sleep like normal.

I think he does this stuff on purpose so I'll take him to the vet, he loves going to the vet (see, normal and Ditto don't belong in the same sentence). Hopefully when he wakes up tomorrow morning he eats like a little pig like usual!

[Lovie]

I hope Ditto is feeling better. :( At least he's feeling well enough to glare at you. :)

[Z28Taxman]

All seems well this morning. I came down and he was out of bed and chirping at me. When I uncovered him he was hopping around in the cage. He ate some pellets and nibbled on avi-cakes. I could see evidence of eating his nutirberries and avi-cakes when I changed the food dish.

I opened the cage and he came right out and flew to his gym chirping away. when I came to the computer he flew out here and he's sitting on my hand looking like his normal perky self.

[linda040899]

Sorry I missed all this last night, Dave. I was one exhausted human slave when I got home from work last night! Time to retire?????????? :)

I'm glad that Ditto is fine this morning! He seems to have an affinity for string! Where in the world did he find it?

[Z28Taxman]

Sorry I missed all this last night, Dave. I was one exhausted human slave when I got home from work last night! Time to retire?????????? :)

I'm glad that Ditto is fine this morning! He seems to have an affinity for string! Where in the world did he find it?

I did find a bit of frayed string on the boing so maybe he found it there (guess it's time for a new one). None of the looked that long but who knows. I guess I'll be pulling stuff out and looking for more strings.

He seems fine now. He preened my hair, kissed my nose and was nibbling on my fingers and did a perfect poop. I just put him back in and as soon as my hand got him to the cage opening he flew into the cage and dove head first into the food bowl and is eating!!!!:happy:

He's not fluffed, breathing fine and quite the ball of energy. :happy::happy:

[linda040899]

As I always say, if it can be done, a lovebird will do it!!! He's just trying to make sure you are paying attention and you sure are!!!

Ginger and Harley are my 2 that constantly get into trouble! Greys are way too smart and what one doesn't think of, the other will! I got up this morning to find Harley wandering around the floor in the living room! Not sure what he was looking for (other than me) but he was still searching when I found him!

[michael]

Dag nabbit Dittobird! .. Your starting to make ME nervous! Between you and the Beeb's... enough is enough already!!! ......... :mad:


:)

[Z28Taxman]

As I always say, if it can be done, a lovebird will do it!!! He's just trying to make sure you are paying attention and you sure are!!!

Ginger and Harley are my 2 that constantly get into trouble! Greys are way too smart and what one doesn't think of, the other will! I got up this morning to find Harley wandering around the floor in the living room! Not sure what he was looking for (other than me) but he was still searching when I found him!

That's one thing I don't have to worry about with Ditto. He won't wander around the house alone. If I'm in the house he'll find me (well if I'm on the first floor, he wont' fly upstairs). If he can't fine me he goes back to his cage and waits for me to come into view. I proved that by leaving him out of the cage and going outside and watching through the window. He flew around calling a few times then back to the cage. As soon as I came in the door there was a little yellow screaming fighter jet flying right for me. :rotfl

He's eating again and having a good old time so he seems back to "normal".

[Z28Taxman]

I went to visit my parents for an hour and when I got home I heard a very loud lovebird call as soon as I got to the door! :happy: I can't sneak up on the Dittobird, he knows when I'm coming home even when I walk home.

Look for poops, yep, normal ones. So I looked in the food dish and there was a lot less in there. I took it out and the 6 full and 3 partial avi-cakes that were in there 2 hours before were GONE! :omg: Also gone were quite a few nutriberries with only enough crumbs to cover the bottom of the 3 inch diameter bowl. That bowl is 3 inches in diameter and 2 1/2 inches deep and was filled to the top at 9:30 and by 11:30 it was down to half.:omg:

I'd say he's feeling good now!:happy:

[linda040899]

Ditto's appetite sounds like a good match for Echo's! Between the 2 of them, they would put one owner in the poor house if they lived in the same home! Echo is always hungry, even if he's just eaten! He LOVES nuts of any kind.....shelled walnuts, pecans, almonds, cashews, pistachios (all unsalted, of course)!!! If I have any kind of food, he will moon dance until I offer him something. :rotfl

[Z28Taxman]

Ditto's appetite sounds like a good match for Echo's! Between the 2 of them, they would put one owner in the poor house if they lived in the same home! Echo is always hungry, even if he's just eaten! He LOVES nuts of any kind.....shelled walnuts, pecans, almonds, cashews, pistachios (all unsalted, of course)!!! If I have any kind of food, he will moon dance until I offer him something. :rotfl

Oh yes. I can't believe how much that little bird can eat. Even without wasting anything a 3 pound bag of nutriberries lasts at most 3 weeks, sometimes less. Although now that it's summer he eats less. In winter if he's being wasteful a 3 pound bag can last less than 2! :omg: A pack of avi-cakes usually lasts a week or a week and a half.

Even if he's just eaten a lot I can put in a fresh bowl and he just has to have some more, I can't believe he only weighs 50-52 grams.

After more eating, pooping and playing he settled in for his afternoon nap around on the perch under his happy hut at 12:45 as usual. at 1:15 or so he woke up and chirped at me for a bit, made the rounds of his cage to make sure everything was where it should be, nibbled a bit and settled in on his knotrageous toy for the rest of his nap. He's not been in the happy hut at all.

I opened his cage to let him out to supervise his dinner prep (he must supervise dinner) and walked to the kitchen. He was back to his normal routine, fly to the kitchen, circle around my head while screaming like a falcon and zip back to the cage. Then zoom on to my shoulder to make sure I do it right. Then as I put the food dish in the cage, he's in the cage climbing down the boing to be there once I swing the door closed. He's now face down in nutriberries again!

[Maxie]

Oh my goodness! I missed all the drama! Thank God Dittos fine :)

[Z28Taxman]

Oh my goodness! I missed all the drama! Thank God Dittos fine :)

Yep, he's fine now. Tonight instead of hanging out in the happy hut he's dancing on top of it! :happy::happy:

[Maxie]

Yep, he's fine now. Tonight instead of hanging out in the happy hut he's dancing on top of it! :happy::happy:

lol...that's great!!! It's unbelievable how these little guys make us worry!

[Z28Taxman]

His summer moult has kicked in. He's got pin feathers on his head and while he was flying this morning he lost a flight feather. He usually does moult in late June into early July so now he's itchy too.

[Z28Taxman]

May have spoke too soon. He was fine all weekend but when he woke up this morning, he ate a bit, gacked and shook his head and got mucous looking stuff all over his head. :(

Off to the vet we go. Of course he didn't like the forced bath at 5:30am.

[Maxie]

Oh no :( I hope everything goes well at the vet and it's nothing serious. I get so sad when I read posts on here about lovies not feeling well :(

Please keep us posted on the little guy.

[Z28Taxman]

Well since he vomited he's been fine, preening, hopping around and playing. He ate pellets and avi-cakes and kept it down and has been pooping. Gacked a few times but didn't vomit. Now we're waiting for the vet to call back.

[linda040899]

Gheesh! Ditto sure is making sure you are paying attention! Chances are the vet is going to want to check things out. It's worth a gram stain, if nothing else.

[Z28Taxman]

Gheesh! Ditto sure is making sure you are paying attention! Chances are the vet is going to want to check things out. It's worth a gram stain, if nothing else.

Yep, he's going in. Unfortunately his normal doctor is in another clinic and can't see him until next week, so he's going to see a different one tomorrow at 5:30. I'd rather not wait that long but oh well.

He's doing ok now. There wasn't any food in what he brought up this time, just slimy mucous like stuff. He's been eating fine since and other than being mad at me for making him take a bath at 5:30am he seems fine.

[Z28Taxman]

He can't be feeling too badly, he took a short snooze to calm down from his morning aggravation (being forced to get very wet to clean his head). First he stood at the food dish and pouted, ate a bit and preened before his snooze. When he woke up he ate quite a bit so when he was done I opened the cage to see if he'd come out (when he feels really bad he'll stay in) and out he came. He sat on my chest watching me race on the playstation and ground his beak for half an hour pooping twice.

Once the race was over I decided to see how much he ate so out came the food bowl, he ate what appears to be a normal amount, the better part of 6 avi-cakes were gone and a few nutriberries with the usual amount of crumbs. Put the food back in the cage and he followed it and ate a bit more and is now on my head preening! I've not seen any "gacking" since early this morning either. Maybe it's just his sneaky little plan to make me stay home from work today!

Good thing since the vet visit is only tomorrow evening unless things look really bad then I'm taking him in and not leaving until he's checked out! :whistle: Worst case scenario is I have to take him in after hours since the do have 24 hour emergency hours and a vet on staff at all times.

[Maxie]

It's good that he's eating and still has an appetite. No food is coming up so that's a good sign too :)

[Z28Taxman]

Yep. I suppose it's possible that it's just a result of having passed a piece of string all the way through. the last time he did that he didn't feel well for awhile either.

A few of his poops have had a small mostly digested seed or two in them which is another reason I want the vet to check him out. When he had the yeast in his crop last time the poops were almost all seeds until he got the nystatin for a few days then they all but disappeared. It took a week or two after passing the string for them to completely disappear.

Well after a little snack and a poop he went into the happy hut for a nap. I don't like that.

Now I think he's just messing with me, I opened the cage and he came out, flew to his gym to play and is now sitting on my shoulder looking smug.

[Z28Taxman]

Well he definitely hasn't lost interest in his food. His bowl was full this morning and about half full around noon. I just refilled it and it was only about 1/4 full and it's a large bowl, 3 inches in diameter and at least 2 1/2 inches deep. He didn't waste much either. Instead of standing on my shoulder patiently waiting like he usually does he hung on the front of my shirt and watched the nutriberries go into the bowl and actually tried to snatch the avi-cakes out of my hand. :omg:

Once it was full he didn't wait to go in the cage until the bowl was put in like normal. He actually flew back to the cage as soon as we got into the room and was sitting there waiting for it when I got there! :rofl:

He did sleep a bit more today and looked a little fluffy at times but not always so I'm not convinced that something isn't off but he hasn't vomited again and he's acting like his normal self. He is moulting so that may have something to do with it and his feathers are still a bit messy after this morning's mishap despite the bath.

He'll definitely be going to see the Doc tomorrow evening.

As for his poops, he's becoming an expert at hiding them. I can see him do it but the can't find them. I swear he's hitting the grate on purpose. The ones that do hit the tray always seem to fall under his food dish so it's tough to tell if the seeds were there or with the poop. The ones that fall away from the food seem normal so who knows. He has been gacking a bit but no vomit. It's not uncommon for him to do that it just gets my attention (although I try not to let him know that so he doesn't keep it up).

[Maxie]

Ditto really sounds like quite the little character! :)

I love hearing stories about how little lovebirds act and behave...it cracks me up!:happy:

I really hope he gets a clean bill of health tomorrow evening :)

[Z28Taxman]

He's a little goofball that's for sure. He's acting fine now. his evening schedule is right on track. After his dinner he played a bit then took a nap, when I had dinner at 8 he ate again and waited on his boing for 9:00 so he could come out and hang out on the couch with me. He came over for scritches and flew back to get a snack. He went through his normal routine there too. Fly back to the cage, Ring his bell and get a nutriberry and bring it back to the couch. He ate all of that and decided he wanted some veggies so he went back and ate some of those before coming back for more skritches. He's got lots of pins on his head, poor little guy.

I've not seen any "gacking" or otherwise abnormal behavior. The only thing I don't like is that I haven't seen an actual poop in a few hours. He pooped quite a bit today but lately they've been either just water or urates. That's not uncommon either. Usually in the evening he'll do a few that are just water because he drinks a good bit of water with dinner. Then they'll have some urates and the poop will gradually work its way in. It just hasn't happened yet. :confused:

[Z28Taxman]

So far so good this morning. I came down at 5:30 and he was already up. There was a fresh normal poop under the happy hut and he did another one while I was getting his food ready. Both look good.

There were a total of 5 poops in the hour between the time he got up and I had to leave so no crisis there. He was chirping at his friends outside, eating and playing with his toys. When I left he was moving betwwen eating pellets and avi-cakes.

[Maxie]

That's great news for Dittobird! :) He sounds like he's back to normal :happy::happy:

[Z28Taxman]

That's great news for Dittobird! :) He sounds like he's back to normal :happy::happy:

Seems that way. He just want's to go to the vet.

[linda040899]

Seems
That's the operative word! There have been times when I've taken birds in for simple exams, only to have a gram stain show an infection that I was not aware was even present!

[Z28Taxman]

That's the operative word! There have been times when I've taken birds in for simple exams, only to have a gram stain show an infection that I was not aware was even present!

That's why I said seems and he's going to the vet today. I'd rather take him and be told he's healthy than not do it and...

There will be gram stains of both ends.

I did put fresh paper at the bottom of the cage before he went to bed last night so I could get a good look at the poop this morning and know that all that were there were recent. They looked perfect.

He's due for his checkup anyway. And he loves vet visits, he just doesn't like to get into the carrier to go there.

[Z28Taxman]

Well we're just about ready to leave. I came home early and interrupted his nap. There are a bunch of fresh poops and he ate all the avicakes I put in this morning but there do appear to be some tiny seeds in one or two of the poops. No signs of vomiting but last time when his yeast infection started he only vomited every few days. I hope if he's got another one from the string mess we got it earlier this time and it goes away quicker.

The last time he needed meds for a month.:x

He's definitely a bit off though. He's usally dancing all over the place when I come home and he's now having another snooze. Well maybe it'll be easier to get him into the carrier although I doubt it. He seems to be able to go from snooze to 200mph instantly.:evil:

Well that was easier than I thought. He saw the carrier on my desk and when I opened the cage he got the bright Idea to hide in the happy hut. Bad idea dittobird. I took the hut out, covered both ends and put it at the carrier so he had no choice but to go in!

Of to the vet we go!

[Maxie]

Awwww, poor little Dittobird, you tricked him :(

I hope all goes well at the vet. I'll say a little prayer :)

[Z28Taxman]

Well we're back with mostly good news! He loved the car ride as usual, he was dancing up a storm in the carrier and the louder the engine got (6.2 liter V8's rumble nicely) the faster he danced. He loves sports cars!:happy:

Of course he was the center of attention in the waiting room and was taunting all the cats. The cute vet techs were all ooh-ing and ahhh-ing and he ate it up. You'd think he never gets attention here.:roll:

I had to put him on the scale since once Dr. Nicastro got him out he flew right to me. Daddy's boy anyone? He stepped right n the scale and stood still like a good boy. A big boy, 52 grams. He's definitely eating enough.

He was rather uncooperative with Dr. Nicastro. Flying all over the place, she had to catch him after he landed on a picture frame. Of course since he pooped about 6 times between 4 and 5 he didn't do it in the office. She managed to get a swab anyway from his vent.

The crop swab was a different matter altogether. He managed to bury his head in the towel and even with me holding him and the Dr. trying to hold his beak open with a forceps he managed to almost bite the head off the swab. She had to take him to the hospital side and get the techs to help (that's my boy, get the girls after you).

Ok now for the results.

The good news, feathers look great. Eye's, great. Plenty of meat on his bones and heart and lungs sound good. Nobody could believe he's 11 years old.

Poop stain... His normal 95% gram positive. He did poop in the carrier on the way home and it was normal green with no seeds.

The only not so good (but not bad either) news is the crop swab. At first glance Dr. Nicastro thought it looked like there may be some yeast but under high magnification it didn't look like it. She's going to consult with his normal doctor Dr. Rubey (the bird expert) for a second opinion.

We decided against any meds at this time since he seemed otherwise healthy, no point medicating for the wrong thing or isn't necessary. It is possible that what's going on is a result of passing that piece of string through the GI tract. I can believe that since even that one strand of cotton string in a little lovebird would be the equivalent of me swallowing almost a foot of rope! :omg: (my analogy not the vet's).

So we'll see what Dr. Rubey says but things look O.K. for now. Unless he gets worse we wait for the phone call.

[Maxie]

Great news!!! :happy::happy:

BTW...I cracked up reading your post. Hilarious!:rotfl

[Z28Taxman]

Great news!!! :happy::happy:

BTW...I cracked up reading your post. Hilarious!:rotfl

:rofl::rofl::rofl:

Of course when we got home I put the carrier on my desk and opened it. He waited until I left the room and made a beeline for the cage, had a little snack, preened and now is having his after vet nap. He used up a lot of energy.

[michael]

Well we're back with mostly good news! He loved the car ride as usual, he was dancing up a storm in the carrier and the louder the engine got (6.2 liter V8's rumble nicely) the faster he danced. He loves sports cars!:happy:

Of course he was the center of attention in the waiting room and was taunting all the cats. The cute vet techs were all ooh-ing and ahhh-ing and he ate it up. You'd think he never gets attention here.:roll:........

...........The crop swab was a different matter altogether. He managed to bury his head in the towel and even with me holding him and the Dr. trying to hold his beak open with a forceps he managed to almost bite the head off the swab. She had to take him to the hospital side and get the techs to help (that's my boy, get the girls after you)..........[snip]

Reading between the lines its quite clear Ditto's knows exactly how to get what he wants......, except for maybe more string. Sorry Dittobird :(.

Glad to hear the tests showed him to be in good health. As for the 1% possible yeast issue, were keeping our feathers crossed here. ....... :)

[Z28Taxman]

Reading between the lines its quite clear Ditto's knows exactly how to get what he wants......, except for maybe more string. Sorry Dittobird :(.

Glad to hear the tests showed him to be in good health. As for the 1% possible yeast issue, were keeping our feathers crossed here. ....... :)

Well at least if it's yeast, nystatin will take care of that. When he had the yeast during the last string incident it was so bad he couldn't keep anything down and it was brewing enough in his crop that seeds would just bubble out of his mouth at times. :omg: Hmm, yeast + grain =beer. He was a little brewery!:omg: After the first does of nystatin he ate like a little horse and never looked back.

Not that I'm looking foreward to that. Giving him that stuff was almost as bad as trying to get a crop swab.

He's done with his post vet nap and is doing his best to keep lafeber in business selling avi-cakes! :rofl:

Oh he knows how to get what he wants alright, and after seeing those cute vet techs ooh and ahh over him I should take him out with me to help pick up women.

[michael]

[snip]........ Oh he knows how to get what he wants alright, and after seeing those cute vet techs ooh and ahh over him I should take him out with me to help pick up women.

Funny... I was thinking the same thing. But didn't wan't to screw up the program here. ....... :whistle:

[Z28Taxman]

Funny... I was thinking the same thing. But didn't wan't to screw up the program here. ....... :whistle:

Oh, right. I need to stay on topic.:whistle::whistle::whistle:

[linda040899]

News sounds good but I can tell your gut instinct isn't so sure. How well I remember the last episode! I agree with no meds yet, as there's nothing concrete to medicate. Medication interferes with normal body flora and many times, a healthy body will fight off an infection if given the opportunity. All you can do right now is play the waiting game and watch. Ditto sure loves his attention, even though he gets plenty from you. Definitely a ladies guy, too!

[Z28Taxman]

News sounds good but I can tell your gut instinct isn't so sure. How well I remember the last episode! I agree with no meds yet, as there's nothing concrete to medicate. Medication interferes with normal body flora and many times, a healthy body will fight off an infection if given the opportunity. All you can do right now is play the waiting game and watch. Ditto sure loves his attention, even though he gets plenty from you. Definitely a ladies guy, too!

Yeah, gut says he's still not quite right. Not nearly as bad as last time but not right. It did however take a long time after the yeast was gone until he was back to normal. Passing a string through a little GI tract cant be comfortable. Even after the yeast was gone he vomited occasionally and pooped seeds for at least a month. This string went through more quickly as evidenced by the condition of the string when it passed (it was very tough to pull apart unlike the last one which disintegrated with the slightest tug.

I know I can't judge anything by his behavior tonight since he had a vet visit a few hours ago but he is a bit fluffed. Mostly his back feathers.

Oh yeah I'm also being snubbed. BIG TIME. He didn't eat dinner when I did, instead he snoozed and would look at me occasionally. When I finished eating he popped up and ate for an hour.

I opened the cage half an hour ago and he kept right on eating for another 20 minutes putting a huge dent in the pile of food in the bowl. He did miss his prime eating time while at the vet. We had to leave about the time he would have woken up from his 2nd or 3rd afternoon nap to eat. That would help explain his refusal to poop at the vets.

After he stopped eating he decided to play in the cage rather than come out. I just walked over to the cage and tried to give him skritches through the cage bars and he went and hid in the happy hut and came out when I walked away. After I sat back down here (across the room from the cage) he walked out on his balcony, looked at me and went back inside to play.

Yep, I'm being snubbed. He did that in the vets office too after they brought him back in the room. He stood in his carrier with his back to me and if I moved to be in front of him he went to the other side. :evil:

[Maxie]

Yep, I'm being snubbed. He did that in the vets office too after they brought him back in the room. He stood in his carrier with his back to me and if I moved to be in front of him he went to the other side. :evil:

:rotfl:rotfl:rotfl HILARIOUS!!!

[Z28Taxman]

There's no snub like a lovebird snub. Even now while he's eating he turned his back to me. I put my hand in the cage and zoom, back to the hut and he gives me the stink eye. walk away and he's back out.

I managed to coax him out. Can let him go to bed angry. So we went to the couch to watch Disco the parakeet videos and get beak rubs and head skritches. who could resist that?

Now he's standing on my thumb preening!

[Z28Taxman]

Well after preening on my thumb for a bit longer last night he decided he was hungry again and flew back to the cage to eat. He was still eating when his light went out so I left him go until he decided to go to bed.

This morning as I came into the room he came out of the happy hut as usual. There was a fresh poop under the happy hut. He did a bit more gacking than I'd like to see but he didn't vomit and then he started eating. Did another couple of droppings while I was getting ready to leave and played with his toys between trips to the food dish for breakfast.

I went through our normal routine and scratched his head through the bars before I left and he went right back to eating.

Of course I forgot my ID badge and had to come back and he was still having his breakfast. No wonder he weighs 52 grams!. :rotfl

[Maxie]

too cute! :)

[linda040899]

Hopefully, this will resolve itself with a bit of time and careful watching! There's nothing quite like a parrot snub! You know it when they are annoyed. Harley has pulled this same thing on me when I trim his nails or I do a mini wing clip to limit where he can go!!

Ditto and Echo have that love of food thing in common! Anytime I'm near Echo's cage, he thinks it's time for a treat, even if he's just eaten! There's always room for pecan, walnut, almond or pistachio! :rofl:

Can we claim them as dependents on our tax returns???????????

[Z28Taxman]

Hopefully, this will resolve itself with a bit of time and careful watching! There's nothing quite like a parrot snub! You know it when they are annoyed. Harley has pulled this same thing on me when I trim his nails or I do a mini wing clip to limit where he can go!!

Ditto and Echo have that love of food thing in common! Anytime I'm near Echo's cage, he thinks it's time for a treat, even if he's just eaten! There's always room for pecan, walnut, almond or pistachio! :rofl:

Can we claim them as dependents on our tax returns???????????


I wish I could claim Ditto. I'd save a fortune. It seems every couple of weeks I'm buyng almost $100 worth of food from that pet place.

He doesn't bite when he gets mad but I wish he would. Bite and get it over with, the snubs are worse. But nothing a good beakrub, headscratch and Disco the Parakeet videos can't fix.

Sometimes I think I watch him too closely. He was getting quite annoyed with me on Monday. He didn't like me checking his poops too often. But I haven't seen any whole seeds and there weren't even any partial ones since yesterday afternoon. Of course there weren't too many poops last night since he didn't eat much until almost 9pm.

Like I said last night. After his last incident it did take awhile after he passed the string until he was back to normal as far as poops and the vomiting/"gacking". He didn't pass the string that time until after he was declared yeast free and had been off the meds so this one seems to have passed quicker.

Still waiting for what Dr. Rubey has to say. He may want to see him again. He was a bit fluffed last night but he was also stressed out and angry and doing a lot of preening to fix up the messed up feathers from being toweled. He wasn't fluffy when he was out with me and acted normal.

He was a bit fluffy at times this morning but he again spent a lot of time preening. Hopefully the fluffiness calms down.

Of course it doesn't help matters that his usual june/july moult is kicking in.

[Z28Taxman]

Well, I came home and ditto wasn't in his happy hut. He was lounging on a perch. Ok look at him, no signs of vomit on him or around the cage. He does look a bit puffy though. :(

Ok take out the tray and look for poops. Good news, there are some and they're not all in the same place and none of them were anywhere near the happy hut. Bad news is that there appear to be seeds in them and not just one or 2 tiny ones. There also don't seem to be as many of them as there should be for a whole day but I did find some older ones on perches. Kind of tough to count them in that large cage. I opened his cage to see if he'd come out and he ran into the happy hut. :( He came out though as soon as I took his food dish to the kitchen to see how much he ate. He ate a normal hot day amount.

Well some good signs. I opened the cage and went to the kitchen to get his dinner ready and he squawked at me and flew out. When I put the veggies in he went in and looked at them and came back out to make sure I filled the avicakes and nutriberries to his satisfaction. Once he saw the nutriberries he perked right up and came off my shoulder and hung off my shirt to see how many he was going to get. Once the avi-cakes came out he almost jumped in the bag! Although he is "gacking" a good bit more than I'd like. And he's still fluffed. We'll see how the rest of tonight goes and I'll probably wind up calling the vet tomorrow morning.

Soon after he ate a bit he did a perfect poop, no seeds, good shape and color. And was playing with his toys. I think he's purposely trying to drive me nuts. Especially after I reached in to check out his knotragous toy (there were dried poops on it) and he went back into the happy hut and is hiding in there. Probably want's me to stop messing with his stuff!

He did come out of the hut after I left the room (little stinker) ate and drank some water, and went to give himself head scratches on his knotrageous toy before taking a snooze. He usually eats longer after I get home and doesn't snooze so quickly so he's still not feeling well. But at least he did eat today and from the locations of the poops he didn't stay in one place.

Ok now I know he's messing with me. An hour ago I was sitting here at the computer watching him and he went and hid in the happy hut. 10 minutes later I went outside for a smoke and looked in the window about a minute later and he was out and eating. I came in to watch tv and he played around for awhile, used his knotrageous toy to give him self head scratches and took a nap and sleep chirped at his outside friends for 15 minutes. Woke up, ate again and noticed I was watching him and he went back to the happy hut.

15 minutes ago I went out for another smoke (I really need to give that up) and came back in and there he is, eating again. He even rearranged the food, took an avicake up to the veggie bowl so he's still up to his usual mischief. I opened the cage so we'll see what he does when he's full.

Well after half an hour of eating (I swear he must have eaten half his body weight) and a sip of water out he came for headscratches! And of course since he's so annoyed with me looking for poops he gave me one on my hand rather than trying not to poop on my like usual! :rofl: But that didn't last long, As soon as I walked over to the cage to retrieve the avi-cake and nutriberry he put in the veggie bowl, he went back in and put them right back before going back to the other bowl for more avi-cakes. Even if he's not feeling well he knows where he wants his food and you better darn well leave it where he puts it.

20 minutes later and he's still eating and not fluffed anymore! Now that I've probably bored everyone to death it's time for me to join him at dinner. :rofl:

[Z28Taxman]

Somebody flipped a switch and Ditto perked up. After I fineshed dinner he came back out and we stood by the window watching a nasty thunderstorm. He loves thunderstorms. He will actually fly to the window to watch them and if I stupidly leave the door open (not the screen) he'll actually hang on the screen and get soaked.

At 9 he flew to the couch and ground his beak while I gave him beak rubs. He hasn't been fluffed up or "gacking" all night nor have there been any abnormal poops since I got home.

When I put him back in the cage he ate a bit of everything, avi-cakes, nutriberries, peas, carrots and pellets and is now happily playing and not fluffy.

Hopefully it stays that way.

[michael]

[snip]...... At 9 he flew to the couch and ground his beak while I gave him beak rubs. He hasn't been fluffed up or "gacking" all night nor have there been any abnormal poops since I got home.

When I put him back in the cage he ate a bit of everything, avi-cakes, nutriberries, peas, carrots and pellets and is now happily playing and not fluffy.

Hopefully it stays that way.

Ditto to that! ........:)

[Z28Taxman]

Ditto to that! ........:)

His vet called me right after he came to the couch and she was pleased that he was grinding his beak in my hand. Dr. Rubey should look at his crop slide tomorrow to offer his opinion.

[Z28Taxman]

More good news this morning. The remainder of last night went well, after he went back into the cage at 10 he ate for most of the 40 minutes until his light shut off and he went to bed and wasn't fluffed at all.

When he woke up this morning he came out and pooped 3 times in the half hour between the time he got up and I had to leave for work and was quite energetic. Unlike the last 3 mornings there was no "gacking" as soon as he came out of the hut and the poops looked good. After I put the fresh food back in he started eating and was still eating when I left. He only stopped eating for a few seconds to get his goodbye head scratches.

I also think I solved the mystery of no overnight poops. He normall sleeps in the hut with his tail facing the front of the cage and backs out to poop several times overnight. So they hit the paper in the tray toward the front of the happy hut. Well the last 2 nights he must have been sleeping facing the other way and pooping out the back of the hut which dropped onto a manzanita branch rather than the tray. There was one poop on there that wasn't very old and a bunch that were dried. He's getting sneaky on me.

So we begin today with guarded optimism that he's feeling better. :happy::happy:

[Maxie]

Great news! :)

LOL @ the poop:rotfl

[Z28Taxman]

Now that's more like it! Got home today and about 3 seconds after I got out of the car I heard the distinctive call of a perky Dittobird.

Get in and there he is on one of his swings chirping at me.

Look in the cage and too many normal looking poops to count!:happy:

That's the first time this week he's been noisy when I got home. Now he won't shut up!:rofl:

[Z28Taxman]

Yep, he's definitely feeling much better. He's a little ball of fire. Hanging on the front of my shirt while filling the food dish wasn't good enough today. He actually jumped onto the counter and tried to catch the nutriberries as I put them in the bowl. And I had to try and put the avicakes in with him on the bowl eating the nutriberries. :rotfl

[Z28Taxman]

The rest of last night went great and he was back to his normal self.

This morning started well, he came out and played around and ate and looked good. there was a poop below the happy hut (fresh). It was a bit large but usually his morning poops are large. His morning poops this this week have been large and a bit looser than normal too but after the first one or two they're back to normal.

While I was sitting on the couch watching the weather and he was eating pellets I could see that his vent looked dark. Odd....

I let him out and managed to get hold of him and he had very fresh poop there. It wasn't dried on just kind of pasted there. I cleaned him off and he went and stood on top of my computer monitor and stared at me for a bit before he flew back to the cage. After eh went back in I saw some poop on the front of the cage outside the bars. the only way it could have got there was if he pooped out of the cage so something came out on his way back in (he was clean when I let him go) or while he was trying to avoid me before cleaining him.

If I see that again, we're off to the vet. I haven't heard back from them yet about the crop swab so if they call me today I'll mention this mornings stuff.

Other than that he seemed fine again this morning, eating, playing and chirping and I made sure to give him some skritches before I left to let him know I still love him. He was going to hide from me in the happy hut but stopped to enjoy the skritches instead.

I hated to come in to work today. Then again I never want to come in here.

[Z28Taxman]

It's a good thing I don't have any human kids. I worried about the little fluffball all day.

Turns out there was no need to do so. I came home and once again heard the Ditto call before I got to the door. Looked in the window and he was standing tall on the top perch, sunning himself under his full spectrum light. Once I got in the house the ruckus started. He gets really wound up when I get home from work.

Look in the food dish. It was heaping full this morning, now half full. Vent area looks fine (once he stood still long enough that he wasn't a little yellow blur). Plenty of poops scattered all over the tray (paper was fresh this morning). Yippiieeee!!!

Filled his veggies with the appropriate avian supervision and then turned to the water dish. He tried to take a bath in it while I was filling it so ok, make a bathtub with my hands and wait for him to get drenched under the faucet!

He wasted almost nothing in his avi-cake/nutriberry bowl and ate half of it.

Now he thinks he's a house sparrow. He's nibbling away chirping exactly like a sparrow. He's so good at speaking sparrow that if he's in his small cage on the screened porch and calls to them they'll actually hop up on the step to the door.

I also think I solved the mystery of where the string came from. I saw him pulling at the knotrageous toy around one of the wood blocks. So I took it out and noticed some loose slightly frayed strings. Trimmed anything that looked like he could chew it loose and got a new one coming. That's the only thing in there that has white string that is what he pooped out last week.

[michael]

[snip].........I also think I solved the mystery of where the string came from. I saw him pulling at the knotrageous toy around one of the wood blocks. So I took it out and noticed some loose slightly frayed strings. Trimmed anything that looked like he could chew it loose and got a new one coming. That's the only thing in there that has white string that is what he pooped out last week.

I understand the Knotrageous toy is Ditto's favorite, but any chance of replacing it with one constructed with material safer than string?

[Z28Taxman]

I understand the Knotrageous toy is Ditto's favorite, but any chance of replacing it with one constructed with material safer than string?

I'm looking for something with leather instead of string.

The knotrageous will likely be relegated to his gym where he'll be supervised.

Although this one is old and the string is getting weak so it's easy to pull apart. The top part where he climbed and nibbled for years is coming apart. I removed that now.

He seems to be back to normal now.:happy:

[Z28Taxman]

I understand the Knotrageous toy is Ditto's favorite, but any chance of replacing it with one constructed with material safer than string?

I'm looking for something with leather instead of string.

The knotrageous will likely be relegated to his gym where he'll be supervised.

Although this one is old and the string is getting weak so it's easy to pull apart. The top part where he climbed on for years is coming apart. Once I saw him pulling at it I took it out and could pull strings apart with my fingers. That section has been removed.

He seems to be back to normal now.:happy:

[michael]

I'm looking for something with leather instead of string....... [snip]

I was thinking the same. Whats nice about leather is it tends to break off in much smaller pieces. String or material not so much. .. Speaking of, BB loves to chew on all my T-shirt collars, socks, couch arms, well, i'm sure you get the picture. Even while supervised, I often wonder whether or not he's ingesting anything of length, especially after reading whats happened to Ditto. .. Needless to say, since then, i've taken whatever measures necessary to encourage him to chew or forage on anything but.

[Z28Taxman]

I was thinking the same. Whats nice about leather is it tends to break off in much smaller pieces. String or material not so much. .. Speaking of, BB loves to chew on all my T-shirt collars, socks, couch arms, well, i'm sure you get the picture. Even while supervised, I often wonder whether or not he's ingesting anything of length, especially after reading whats happened to Ditto. .. Needless to say, since then, i've taken whatever measures necessary to encourage him to chew or forage on anything but.

Ditto used to sit on my toes and try and remove the sock fuzzies. I of course discouraged that and he hardly tries it anymore. He never really chewed on my shirts other than to climb around. His favorite thing to do is ride around inside the sleeves of t-shirts. He'll sit there with just his head sticking out so I have to walk around with my arm sticking straight out in front of me. :rofl:

His moult is in full force now. Every time he fluffs up another down feather or 2 fall out and he's a little pincushion. He made me give him beak rubs and head skritches for a full hour last night. The only time he let me stop was when he stood up to poop, then it's right back to skritching or else! :rofl:

[Z28Taxman]

Well the little Dittobird seems to be doing well. Last night he ate tons of peas and carrots. He even went back to the cage around 9:45 last night and ate more peas. :happy:

He's snoozing a bit more than usual but that's normal during a moult. It's kicked in big time now. Snooze, preen, preen, eat, play, preen, snooze, repeat.....

I can still set my clock by him. He ate dinner when I did at 8 and sat preening and beak grinding on his boing. at 8:45 he started chirping and dancing around to remind me that it's almost 9:00 and time to come out to watch tv.

I may have also figured out why his pellets make his poops so dark. I read the ingredients list again yesterday and one of the ingredients listed is dried blueberries. Blueberries make very dark almost black poops!

[Z28Taxman]

Knock on wood he seems to be back to normal. Got home today and there were tons of poops in all the normal places and there were at least 8 full avi-cakes and a few partials in there. There were none left and one perky little bird bouncing around.

He ate a few nutriberries but not many. Figures I've got at least 2 3 pound bags of those so of course he'll switch!

And he's moulting like crazy. There are enough feathers in there to make at least 1/4 of a dittobird! He's feeling like a porcupine.

He's also rediscovered his piñata and did quite a bit of damage to it today. Good thing I've got another one on the way.

[Maxie]

Have you noticed that your post has had almost 6000 views! :omg:

[Z28Taxman]

Have you noticed that your post has had almost 6000 views! :omg:

Nope, didn't notice that. most of those are probably the web search bots that are always here. Either that or everyone loves the Dittobird. Ditto would vote for option 2.

[thebubbleking]

We are just monitoring daves actions to make sure our flock is safe from his fidnapping ways! oh and ofcourse everyone looooves dittobird! heck why else would someone talk to someone who works for the irs unless they had a super cute lovebird!

[Maxie]

:happy::happy::happy:

Of course we all love Ditto!!!!!

[Z28Taxman]

Ordered a new boing for him today. Had to get a sisal one, nobody has the other cotton ones. He's had sisal ones before so he should be ok with it.

He's decided to see if I'm paying attention. He went into his happy hut which is usually and uh oh unless he just bops around and pops back out. But nope he stayed in but I can barely see his tail.

Ok what are you doing Dittobird. He's sneaking up on the knotragous toy, attacking a wood bit and giving himself skritches with it! :rofl::rofl: I haven't seen him do that in a long time. He usually stands on the branch under it or hangs on top. I guess he can't hang on the top since that was the part I removed last week because it was getting worn and I think that's where he got the string.

Now on the top there's just a piece of cactus wood that spins around when he stands on it so he uses it like a treadmill until he gets mad that it won't stay still. :evil:

[Maxie]

:rotfl:rotfl

[Z28Taxman]

He's my little goofball. I let him out and he spent 20 minutes preening my ear before doing some exploring. he's acting like he's 2 years old again.

[Z28Taxman]

He's doing quite well now. Other than doing a bit of gacking in the mornings which isn't necessarily unusual he sometimes does run around the cage gacking at his toys when he wakes up, he's been pretty much normal. He only vomited that one time last Monday morning and his poops have been normal and plentiful.

He's eating, preening and playing like his normal little self. He took a break from dismantling his piñata to preen.

He's even eating more veggies than he has in awhile. Monday night he actually ate almost all of his peas. Sometimes he eats just a few from each pod, he got to lazy to tear them apart. For the last few days there's been nothing left but shredded pods and the "skins" of peas! :happy::happy::happy:

[Z28Taxman]

He seems to have had a setback this morning. He got up and was "gacking" a bit as he frequently does but he would then act like he was feeding toys. Ok nothing unusual. I got out of the shower and came in and something didn't look right. I turned on the light and he had vomited up some mucous looking stuff that was on his head. The same thing he did 2 weeks ago.:( He was eating when I came out of the shower and after I cleaned him off he went right back to eating.

Guess I'll call his vet today and see what they have to say. I do remember that after the last time he went through this he pooped some seeds off and on and occasionally vomited for almost 2 months afterwards. I'd hate to drag him in there only to find out he's ok but I'd also rather not wait too long if something is wrong.

[michael]

Having expelled mucous to the point where it ended up on his head would be enough for me to make the call, if anything, to at least give a heads up. The rest, well, nobody knows the Ditto Bird better than you Dave. .. Hoping for the best here. ....... Ditto!!!

[Z28Taxman]

Having expelled mucous to the point where it ended up on his head would be enough for me to make the call, if anything, to at least give a heads up. The rest, well, nobody knows the Ditto Bird better than you Dave. .. Hoping for the best here. ....... Ditto!!!

I'm definitely making the call. Mucous on the head isn't a good thing. At least there were no seeds in it like 2 years ago. He didn't like being cleaned off at 6am though. It was a good sign that there were 2 poops in the half hour between when he woke up and I left and he was eating.

[Z28Taxman]

Well, his normal vet is on vacation until the 21st and his backup vet isn't in the local clinic until friday. So we have an appointment for friday morning unless he gets bad then it's off immediately.

He did the same thing two weeks ago, gack, shake head, get mucous on head then he was fine for 2 weeks and weighed 52 grams when we went to the vet the next day and got a clean bill of health.

[Z28Taxman]

Just got a call back from Dr. Nicastro. Dr. Rubey will be back next tuesday and I'm going to make an appointment for him to see Ditto (he's dittos normal doctor and the bird expert). He did look at Ditto's crop swab from 2 weeks ago and didn't see anything glaring but says a recheck might not be a bad idea just to be sure. So if he seems ok we'll go in tuesday. If he is still not well he's going in immediately.

[linda040899]

Are the episodes related to what he eats? I'm wondering if there may be a change in something that doesn't agree with him. Any correlations?

[Z28Taxman]

Are the episodes related to what he eats? I'm wondering if there may be a change in something that doesn't agree with him. Any correlations?

Not really. When he vomited 2 weeks ago and again today it happened before he ate anything. He came out of his happy hut, gacked at a toy then shook mucous on his head.

Then he eats a little bit of everything (avi-cakes, nutiberries and pellets). This morning was the same, he started eating immediately afterwards. That's when I noticed it. He started eating his pellets. This mornings poops had no seeds and looked normal. The poops don't have any smell so that's a good sign.

Yesterday he had some seeds in the afternoon but by evening there were none or only one or 2 (possibly seed hulls).

I got home today and other than some messed up feathers on the back of his neck, where he didn't get cleaned off to well this morning, he looks fine. Chirpy, happy and eating.

I found some older droppings that weren't there this morning but looked fine, no seeds. A few fresh ones that had some seeds but those were on the paper at the bottom so not all of them may have been in the poop when he did it.

Food dish shows a normal amount of food eaten and all seems normal again? :confused:

Dr. Nicastro did say Dr. Rubey didn't see anything conclusive in his crop swab but said a recheck after a bit probably wouldn't be a bad idea just to make sure. He will get checked again.

I still have the Friday appointment and will make one for Dr. Rubey on Tuesday. If he doesn't seem right we go in immediately.

when he had his string problem 2 years ago it did take him over a month to get back to normal.

[Z28Taxman]

I tried to encourage him to take a bath to get the rest of the gunk of his feathers. While I was getting his food ready I left a trickle of water running in the sink. He flew out, landed on my shoulder and flew screaming back to the cage. I guess he didn't trust me not to make him take a bath like this morning. >:>:>:

Once I got the avi-cakes out he came back so I made a little bathtub with my hands and he stood on my shoulder looking at it but didn't take the bait. Ok I give up. Put the food in the cage and he went and ate it. Then wandered over to the water dish and what do you know, splash, splash, spash and one wet lovie. I knew he couldn't resist water for long! Now I've got a very wet lovie preening and beak grinding on my shoulder.

After 20 minutes of scritches, he got hungry and went back to eat. Now he's swinging like tarzan from the his bells and making quite a racket.

That stuff he vomited up this morning must have been really nasty, even after 2 baths and 20 minutes of scritches the feathers on the back of his head are still gunky looking. Probably stripped all the oils off. But he seems absolutely normal now. Other than wasting a lot of food again which he does from time to time. Gets expensive when he gets in those moods.

[Z28Taxman]

Well, he did go into his happy hut for a bit tonight but he wasn't sleeping. He was alternating between playing peek-a-boo out the back, attacking the wood blocks on his knotragous toy, rubbing his head on it and then he'd stand up in the hut and rub the back of his head in the top of it. When he came out his feathers looked much better. The hut must have fluffed them up.

When he came out tonight he spent the entire hour getting his head scratched and if I stopped, he used my fingers to do it himself.

He did two good poops. Only one of them had one seed in it otherwise normal. When he went in the cage he started eating and is still going, first the avi-cakes/nutriberries, now over to the pellets.

He does seem to have switched up his diet again tonight. For the last week or so he was eating mostly avicakes and the chewing up the nutriberries eating few of the seeds in them. Tonight he ate more of the nutriberries and less of the avi-cakes. He likes to switch up what he eats. He also ate his veggies like a good boy.

It's odd how the seeds disappear from his poops at night and seem mostly to happen in the afternoons and early evening.

I've also not seen any gagging since this morning, lately that's when he seems to do it. right after he wakes up. Then he stops.

I may have spoke too soon. Once he finished eating he went into his happy hut. It's about 20 minutes til bed time.

[Z28Taxman]

Well he stayed in his hut last night after he went in around 10:15, bouncing around and grinding his beak.

This morning when I came down I did my normal routine, turned on the kitchen light, fired up my computer and heard him click his beak at me like normal. I peeked under the cover and could see a little black eye peeking at me from inside the hut.

He came out a minute later and I uncovered him. He made his usual rounds of the cage while I refilled his food dish. There was a fresh poop on the branch behind the happy hut (only one seed) then he stood in front of the happy hut and did another normal one with no seeds. He then ate some pellets, "gacked once or twice and acted like he was feeding his happy hut. He ate a bit of nutriberries while I took a shower and used the cactus wood on top of his knotrageous toy to give himself head scritches.

As I was about to leave I went to the cage by the food dish and put my finger through the bars to give him his morning scritch and to give him his daily pep talk (did I mention he's spoiled rotten?) and he came over, grabbed a beakfull of food and stood up into the scritch as usual. So this morning was about normal for him.

[Z28Taxman]

Are the episodes related to what he eats? I'm wondering if there may be a change in something that doesn't agree with him. Any correlations?

I went through his vet records last night and his last vomiting incident was 2 years ago aournd the 4th of July which coincided with his summer moult. I wonder if some of it is related to that? He is moulting big time and it kicked in 2 weeks ago when he vomited the first time.:confused:

[Bubblelady]

"Molting makes me SICK!"
Ditto Bird

[Z28Taxman]

"Molting makes me SICK!"
Ditto Bird

Eating string doesn't help. 2 years ago he had just gotten over the first string incident.

Even if he perks up and is perfectly normal for the rest of the week he's going to Dr. Rubey next week. If he keeps acting sick he's going sooner and seeing whoever is there.

Of course it got ridiculously hot yesterday and today so he'll eat less. Now how am I supposed to judge his appetite when the darn weather keeps changing? As long as he's pooping.......

[linda040899]

As long as he's pooping.......
Yup. As long as what goes in one end comes out the other, there's no blockage! Ditto's voracious appetite is nothing short of amazing!

[Z28Taxman]

Yup. As long as what goes in one end comes out the other, there's no blockage! Ditto's voracious appetite is nothing short of amazing!

Yep, when the poop stops, we go to the vet even if it's sunday and it costs $150 to walk in the door. Been there, done that.

Poop coming out also means there's plenty going in. His bowl was again filled to the top this morning when I left. Well ok it was full when I put it in, he put a dent in it before I left and who knows how long he ate afterwards although he usually goes back to sleep for a bit since it's 5:30am. When I got home it was half full. Only a few bits of the 8 avi-cakes I put in were left and most of the berries had been at least chewed up. He's eating the veggies out of them first and whatever the large white seeds are. So half the food gone and 3/4 of what was left was crumbs. Not bad considering the dish is 3" by 2 1/2 inches and it's 80 degrees in here.

He was sitting on his swing waiting for me when I got home and once the door opened the calls and bell ringing began!

There was no signs of vomit. The poops were nowhere near the happy hut except for one directly under the middle of it below his empty millet holder. He hops over there to poop when he naps under his knotrageous toy. 2 very fresh poops in the middle of the cage had a few seeds (bottom of the cage so I can't tell how many were there before the poop). tried to count them but gave up after I got past a dozen on the paper plus who knows what didn't get that far.

He came right out to supervise his dinner preparation and tried to climb into the avi-cake bag as soon as he saw it.

I have no idea where he puts all that stuff he eats. You'd think he'd at least be the size of a conure by now. Maybe he is Echo's brother. :rotfl

Hopefully he can keep going the way he is until Dr. Rubey is back from vacation on Tuesday since he wants to see him anyway, no need to drag him out more than necessary but if need be, we go whenever.

He's been eating for the last 20 minutes with running between food dishes and hopping a lap or two around the cage so even though he's still a bit off he's not doing to badly. Hopefully he's recovering from the string mess and back to normal soon.

Hopefully he stays out of the happy hut until bedtime tonight. Of course I probably didn't help by bugging him so much last night. If I fuss over him too much he hides in there. Good thing I don't have any human kids.

I'm gonna go toy shopping again to find something as fun as the knotrageous without the string.

40 minutes and he's still face down in the food. After he finished eating he climbed around the cage, stood in front of his happy hut and looked at me. When I looked at him he went in. I think he was waiting for me to walk over there because after about 2 minutes without me even flinching he came back out and stared at me then started preening. Now he's screeching and attacking it. I think I've spoiled him even more than he was before. :omg:

Darn, I wrote another book! Did I ever mention how much I love the little guy?

[Z28Taxman]

Well after I didn't fall for his happy hut trick the first time, he tried again a few minutes later. He went and stood in front of the hut, fluffed up and looked at me to make sure I saw him and went in again. Again I didn't budge and kept watching tv. He stayed in for about a minute and came out and ate then went to play on his toys.

So after he stayed out for awhile acting normal I let him out for scritches and to stand on my shoulder watching a thunderstom through the screen door. He loves watching lightning and feeling the breeze from thunderstorms.

He didn't try the happy hut stunt since. He spent a good amount of time eating and playing and enjoyed another hour of beak rubs and scritches while we watched tv.

He only pooped once but it was perfectly normal (he didn't want to interrupt the scritches to poop) :rofl: .

Now it's time for the bedtime snack. He was fine tonight and I hope he stays that way this time.

[Z28Taxman]

Well I've never seen that before...

This morning Ditto got up as usual and while I was changing out his water dish he ate a bit. Once I put the water in he went over hand had a nice big drink, ok so far perfectly normal. He then went up and stood in front of his bell to feed it, again normal. Only instead of just bring up the food and feeding (or acting like he's feeding) the bell, it was water and a few seeds. What he brougt up was "fed" to the wood ball on top of the bell and had no smell to it at all, it was just water and there was no head shaking, just normal regurgitation/feeding action. It seems like he forgot that feeding the bell with only water in your crop isn't going to work.:confused: After that he went and ate some more and "gacked" up a bit more water and ate again. Sometimes when he eats he will regurgitate up a bit, chew it and swallow it again. He's always done that.

After that he was fine, ate and went to feed his toys and went back to eating normally which he was doing when I left. I even watched him through the window a bit after I left to see what he would do and he just kept right on eating.

He did poop at least 3 times and they looked good though with only a few almost totally digested seeds. Other than the watery attempt at feeding toys he was his normal perky chirpy self. He even chirped in sparrow to his buddies outside.

I wonder if that's what happened monday and two weeks ago? Tried to feed his toys on an empty crop and was surprised by the watery stuff he brought up? Unlike the last string incident which resulted in the yeast overgrowth in his crop, I've not seen him stretching his neck wich his beak open to try and burp out the gas, nor has there been any seeds just dropping out while he sits there from the gas pushing it out.

[Bubblelady]

Well, one thing for sure....life with Ditto is never boring!

[Z28Taxman]

Well, one thing for sure....life with Ditto is never boring!

I'd rather have boring right now. I've never seen him feed water to his toys. Doesn't mean he's never done it, he usually tires to feed them before drinking, or eats first. At least he came over for his scritches and breakfast before I left.

[Z28Taxman]

Well, I got home today and was immediately greeted with a bouncing chirpy Dittobird. He was sunning himself under his full spectrum light on the perch at the top of the cage.

Ok that's good. No signs of vomit on him and none around the cage. Ok great he didn't vomit today. Look for poops. Again stopped counting after a dozen on the paper. But, there are more seeds in them, including a fresh one on the perch below his java branch. Not as bad as last time but still way too many. Look around some more and I did find a white string spitball on his java branch. The only place that could have come from was his knotragous toy. He hadn't eaten it and even if he did it was so small he'd have to eat hundreds of them to cause a problem. It was way smaller than a millet seed and wasn't eaten, just balled up and spit out.

But ok. Toy comes out. It's been replaced with a new boing and piñata. I figured he'd be mad at me and hide in the happy hut out of spite. Well he did go in the hut, but it was just to test his emergency escape out the back because he popped right out the back of the hut, climbed up the boing, rang the bell and then on to the perch undr the light, and back to the boing to check it out. He doesn't seem angry about it yet.

Food wise he appears to have eaten about the same as his usual warm day amount and is at it right now. Right as I was going out for a smoke he decided to take a bath before heading to the pellet bowl.

I think I'm keeping the Friday morning appointment unless those seeds in his poops decrease dramatically by tomorrow evening when I get home.

[Z28Taxman]

Well he didn't seem to mind the new cage arrangement. He enjoyed the second pinata hanging next to the new boing.

Like clockwork at 9pm he quit playing and started his let me out dance and enjoyed an hour of scritches and chit chat.

This morning's poops were fine, no seeds. He did run around gacking but did come over for food and scritches before I left the house. I think he caught on to my peek through the window trick though.

When I left I looked through the windows to see if he kept eating but he hopped up on his swing and was looking my way. :whistle:

[linda040899]

When I left I looked through the windows to see if he kept eating but he hopped up on his swing and was looking my way.
He's got your number down pat!! :rotfl :rotfl :rotfl

[Z28Taxman]

He's got your number down pat!! :rotfl :rotfl :rotfl

Yeah, just when I think I've outsmarted him, he shows me who's boss!

I did watch him eat a bit last night and he seems to be eating the pellets and veggies out of the nutriberries but fewer of the seeds (except the safflower seeds, he's eating those first). The seeds I see in his poops look like the millet. It makes it difficult to see how much he actually eats since he chews everything to bits and forages.

I'm still going to take him in tomorrow unless there are a lot of perfect poops in the cage when I get home. I really don't want to wait until Dr. Rubey gets back from vacation on tuesday if there's a chance there's something going on that Dr. Nicastro can catch quicker. I certainly don't want him to lose 10 grams like he did 2 years ago. It took 3 months for him to recover from that.

Funny that the "gacking" only happens in the morning, and the seeds in the afternoon.

Last night he went through his normal poop schedule. During the evening the poops slowed for a bit because he doesn't eat much in the afternoon. He did a few that were mostly urine because after I put the water in when I get home he takes a big drink then he took a bath. Then he'll do one with almost all urates, then the poop returns. on the couch it was urates and when he went back in the cage he pooped several times before bed without seeds.

[linda040899]

I think keeping the vet appointment is a good idea. Once you really see a problem, you are borderline in trouble and it's always easier when you only have symptoms, even though nothing seems to point to anything in particular!

[Z28Taxman]

I think keeping the vet appointment is a good idea. Once you really see a problem, you are borderline in trouble and it's always easier when you only have symptoms, even though nothing seems to point to anything in particular!

Definately. It is encouraging that he's as energetic as ever. He has some of the symptoms of yeast/bacteria infection but not all of them. Unfortunately they could also be from swallowing the string and the irritation it caused. If Dr. Nicastro can't see any bacteria or yeast it'll be up to Dr. Rubey next week to decide where we go next. If his weight stays good it may just be observation for a bit. If he's lost weight it may be barium/xrays wich is what we were about to do last time until the yeast showed up and he got better with treatment. The yeast only showed up in the gram stains a week after he started vomiting. Also he has not vomited any acutal food this time. The two times he vomited were a week apart and they were both just mucous and happened before he ate anything instead of after.

[Z28Taxman]

Well, we're definitely going to the vet tomorrow morning (we were doing that anyway).

First the good news. I got home today and he was standing in his usual spot, on the top perch below his light (it's the only light on during the day). He started chirping at me as soon as I walked in the door and dancing once I came in the room. No signs of vomit on him, the cage or walls. Look for poops. Hmmm, not as many as yesterday but still quite a few on the paper but a couple of them don't look good.

The one's under the food dish look great, no visible seeds and a good number of them but they're all old and very dry and were likely done this morning shortly after I left while he ate breakfast. None under the happy hut where they'd be if he had spent any time in there and one directly under the hut where he goes when he's hanging out on his branch for his afternoon snooze. That one was relatively fresh but contained quite a few seeds. In the center of the cage under his large Java branch was a very large one only a few hours old that contained more seeds than I've seen all week and next to that was a dried one. That one also had plenty of seeds and upon breaking it up I found what may have been a tiny thread of white string. It was less than 1/4 inch long but string nonetheless.

Further looks around the cage found fresh poops on the branch under his pellet bowl that didn't have seeds and he's done at least one poop since I came home that looked good with no seeds.

Looking at his food dish at first glance didn't look like he ate much but as is his normal sneaky behavior looks can be deceiving. Once I took everything out the 8 avi-cakes that were in there were half eaten. removing the nutriberries showed fewer crumbs than yesterday but more whole berries than the last few days. However they were only enough to cover the bottom of the bowl and the bowl was a little over half full of berries to start with. So I'd estimate heate 4 avi-cake squares and at least 6 berries. not bad for the 4th straight day of 90 degree temperatures outside and 78-80 degrees in here. I let it get a little warmer to help him out.. He tried to climb into the avi-cake bag again and ate a bit once going back in.

He was however annoyed with my poop patrol and toy examination and climbed into the happy hut to protest shortly afterwards.

He only spent a minute or two in there and came out and stared at me. So after he stayed out for a bit I opened the cage and he's sitting on my hand preening.

Update. He went back in and ate and played a bit, did his usual early evening all water poops a couple of times, then I went to the couch and he tried the hide in the happy hut stunt again. When I didn't move he came out and preened for 15 minutes, ate some veggies then sat on his boing looking at me and started grinding his beak. As a reward I let him out and we went to the couch for scritches. After 10 minutes of scritches he took his 7pm nap and woke up and preened for another 15 minutes. As I was about to put him back in the cage so I could start my dinner.... Poop. Almost perfectly normal. Barely detectable seeds that disintegrated as soon as they were touched. then time for him to eat and play again. He's currently bouncing between his piñatas and swinging on the chain of his bell like tarzan.

[Z28Taxman]

Well, tonight he's making me look like a liar. He acted perfectly normal all night and so were his poops. I refilled his food dish and he the equivalent of about 3 avi-cakes that I put in and several nutriberries in the 4 hours since I put them in along with some veggies and as soon as I put the food back in the cage he went right back at it and did another seedless poop. And I again saw no regurgitation motions.

Of course you know he's not going to do any of it at the vets office tomorrow just to make me look like I'm going nuts! :evil: He's going to make me start drinking again.:whistle::whistle::whistle:

[Z28Taxman]

Well it's a good thing he was back to his normal self last night because I overslept and missed his appointment with Dr. Nicastro this morning.>:>: I never sleep this late.>:

I came downstairs at 11:30 :omg: to one very wound up Dittobird. He hates it when his light comes on and he still covered.

He looks fine and the poops look good too. Refilled his food dish and he started eating again. So hopefully all goes well until he see's Dr. Rubey on Tuesday at 10:30.

After posting this I let him out and noticed one seed on his head. Don't know how it got there but he hung out on my shoulder, flew around a bit, went to his gym and then went back in his cage to eat and take a very good bath. Now I've got a very wet lovie preening on my shoulder.

[linda040899]

I came downstairs at 11:30
It's been so long since I slept in that late that I can't remember the last time I was still in bed even at 7:00 am. If I'm not up, Dao lets me know he wants fresh water (morning and evening routine) and a screaming macaw isn't the most pleasant way to wake up! Funny thing is, every time Dao yells you can hear Sonny say "Shut up!" in a quiet tone that sounds just like Jim.......

[Z28Taxman]

It's been so long since I slept in that late that I can't remember the last time I was still in bed even at 7:00 am. If I'm not up, Dao lets me know he wants fresh water (morning and evening routine) and a screaming macaw isn't the most pleasant way to wake up! Funny thing is, every time Dao yells you can hear Sonny say "Shut up!" in a quiet tone that sounds just like Jim.......

Yeah, I never sleep that late either. I was debating setting the alarm but figured since the appointment was only for 11 there was no need. I did wake up at 6:30 but decided to go back to sleep, well I did!

Fortunately (or unfortunately today) Ditto stays quiet until I come downstairs.

He seems to be doing so far. He ate and played some more and settled in for his afternoon nap a little later than normal because he had to wait until he dried off. Can't nap when wet. He is pooping and so far there aren't many seeds in them. I just wish he didn't have to wait until Tuesday to see Dr. Rubey (if only for my own piece of mind).

[Z28Taxman]

Well now that his feathers have dried I can see that the feathers on top of his head are spikey so there was something messy on top of his head. It's still odd that he only regurgitates/vomits when he first wakes up. I don't know that he actually vomited or if he fed his bell toy watery stuff then rubbed his head with it. Since I removed the knotrageous toy he uses the bell for both feeding and head rubs.

Also odd is that only his afternoon poops seem to have seeds in them. This morning he pooped fine, almost no seeds if there were any at all. He did 2 in the last hour that had more seeds in them but not nearly as bad as what I saw yesterday. Other than that he's acting perfectly fine and after his first wakeup regurgitation he doesn't do it again at all and his evening poops haven't had any seeds in them. :confused:

[Z28Taxman]

Now he's driving me nuts. When I was getting his food ready, he tried to feed my shirt collar. Then he went in the cage ate for a bit and fed both his boings. Ate some more, regurgitated chewed and swallowed it, wiped his beak and is taking a nap next to his old piñata and chirping quietly like a sparrow.

I refilled his food dish late today since I overslept it was only around noon. He ate a decent amount before he took his nap at 1 and snacked a few times through the afternoon like usual.

I wonder if on top of everything else his hormones are kicking in because I've been paying even more attention to him than normal?

Update: I just got off the phone with the vet's office and we're going in tomorrow morning at 10:20. He went down to eat and started gacking again. Went to the pellet bowl, more gacking, veggie bowl, more gacking. Back to the boing for a bit then into the happy hut. He popped before going into the hut and there were far fewer seeds than earlier today but he shouldn't be in there now and that regurgitation while trying to eat has me worried. I will set my alarm right now.

Update2: after spending 45 minutes in the happy hut he came out, went to each food dish, gacked at it, then went to the water dish and drank some water. Pooped and ate pellets He did gack a few times while eating them but spent a few minutes eating them. Then he went to eat his avi-cakes/nutriberries and has been at it for 10 minutes gacking twice but not vomiting, just bringing them up, chewing then swallowing. The poop was much better, large, well formed and the seeds tht were still there were mostly digested. We're still going to the vet tomorrow even if he's perfect for the rest of the night. Tuesday is too far away if he's not eating enough.

Update3: well I don't know what got into him 2 hours ago but now he's acting totally normal. In the last half hour he's pooped thee times and there was only one seed in it and he's been eating fine.

[Z28Taxman]

Well just a bit ago I saw a possible non-vomit solution for the gunk on his head today. He was again feeding the wood ball on top of his bell. The bell hangs from a chain that has 4 wood balls on top with the chain going through them. He was actually feeding it this time, then he put his had between the top two, raised the top one and used them to scratch his head and now some of the feathers on his had a stuck together again. He looks like he's got a cocatiel crest! :omg:

He's been acting perfectly normal ever since he came out of his hut, right down to the poops. He spent all evening eating and playing with a few breaks to preen and do his let me out dance at 8:30. Now he's sitting here on my chest grinding his beak waiting to go to the couch. Gotta go! :whistle:

And tonight on the couch he was fine. 15 minutes of scritches, fly back to the cage for a snack, eat that, play on the gym, come back to eat again, then help me make tea (he has to drink the water before I put it on the stove, he's my personal water tester). Once the water got warm I put him back and he's been eating ever since.

[Z28Taxman]

Well, he ate pretty good this morning. I uncovered him and he was sitting in there on his swing. there were 3 large poops but they had seeds in them. Unfortunately they were around the food bowl so that's not a good judge. there was an older one on the perch in front of the happy hut. Seeds but not as many. I see no signs of vomit other than what was still on his head from whatever he did yesterday.

Now to corral him into the carrier and off to see the Doctor.

[linda040899]

Have you thought about adding a probiotic to Ditto's food? Avi-Tech has the best one for birds and those are for digestion. Perhaps more digestive bacteria might eliminate the undigested seed. Just a thought.........

[Z28Taxman]

Have you thought about adding a probiotic to Ditto's food? Avi-Tech has the best one for birds and those are for digestion. Perhaps more digestive bacteria might eliminate the undigested seed. Just a thought.........

Well, we're back! And of course he had to demonstrate that he was feeling fine by flying around the room then hiding on my back and peeking at the doctor over my shoulder.:evil:

He stepped on the scale and weighed exactly the same 52 grams that he weighed at 5:30pm last Tuesday. He pooped on my shoulder and of course it was a perfect one, no seeds. Crop swab was fine, no bad bacteria or yeast. Took a poop sample (did have some small seeds but nothing nasty) that was good too. So whatever is going on isn't yeast or bacteria related and he's obviously eating fine. Dr. Nicastro (who saw him last week) was in the office but not officially working and she looked at the stains and said they look better than the ones last week. The crop swab was definitely clean unlike last time when even Dr. Rubey wasn't able to positively say it was good.

When he stepped on the scale it was a huge relief when it said 52 grams.

We decided that it would be a good idea to keep Tuesday's appointment with Dr. Rubey (his normal doctor) so I'll talk to him about a probiotic.

I knew he was going to be feisty at the office before we even left the driveway. As soon as I started the engine he started doing his little dance and the faster we went, the faster he danced. :rofl:

[michael]

Sounds like what he needs is a good joy ride every now and then to somewhere's else besides the vet :whistle:. .. Seriously though, I wonder if it was perhaps just a small bit of string that caused the upset?

[Z28Taxman]

Sounds like what he needs is a good joy ride every now and then to somewhere's else besides the vet :whistle:. .. Seriously though, I wonder if it was perhaps just a small bit of string that caused the upset?

That's quite possible. it did take awhile last time before he was back to normal. He does love car rides. It's just getting into the carrier he doesn't like. The happy hut trick didn't work this time. He went in but as soon as I tried to take it out, he snuck out the back.:evil:

[Z28Taxman]

Well I've found one drawback to removing the knotrageous toy. While he hasn't seemed to mind it being missing most of the time, usually around 3pm he would go down onto his manzanita branch and take a nap snuggled up inside the bottom of it. Instead of that he's napping in the happy hut. He's done it every day since Thursday (the first day I was home since I removed it). today he did the same thing, between 2:30 and 3 he went in and at 4 he came out.

He's been acting normal today. When I uncovered him he was his usual chirpy self. Found several poops that had no seeds those were older. A few fresh ones that had some seeds but not any worse than they've been. Around noon however there were lots of seeds and a few that were at least as many seeds as poop. After he came out of the hut the poop looked better. Still quite a few seeds but was mostly green poop. After a bit of preening he started eating. Another poop and that one was almost perfect.

I wonder if the stress of yesterday's vet visit made him a bit worse. He really didn't like getting the crop swab at all. they took him over to the hospital side to do it and I heard him yelling at them through several closed doors while I was in the exam room on the other side of the building.

I have not seen any regurgitation and the feathers on his head are finally not looking gunked up.

I still find it weird that he seems to poop normal in the morning, seeds in the afternoon and normal again in the evening.:confused:

[Z28Taxman]

Well this morning, Dittobird came out of the happy hut at his normal (when I go to work) 5:45am. he made the rounds of his cage, ate a few pellets, then went around regurgitating for awhile before coming over to eat. he accepted his normal breakfast head scratches and was still eating when I left. What he was regurgitating didn't seem to have any seeds in it, just mucous looking stuff which makes sense since he hadn't eaten in about 8 hours. There shouldn't be anything in his crop after that long.

This morning's poops were perfect as were the ones he did last night.

So I'm going to have to talk to Dr. Rubey tomorrow when we see him about why he would only regurgitate first thing in the morning, why poop seeds in the afternoon when they're fine otherwise?

[linda040899]

So I'm going to have to talk to Dr. Rubey tomorrow when we see him about why he would only regurgitate first thing in the morning, why poop seeds in the afternoon when they're fine otherwise?
Valid question, Dave
I'm wondering if a C&S from an early morning sample would shed any light on anything? Strange......

[Z28Taxman]

Valid question, Dave
I'm wondering if a C&S from an early morning sample would shed any light on anything? Strange......

Might have to bring that up too. When we went in for the first appointment with Dr. Nicastro he did regurgitate while standing on my shoulder and brought up some of that mucus looking stuff but swallowed it back down like normal. I'm wondering if the stuff on his head is because he brought it up, swallowed it back down, then shook his head to flick the rest away like he sometimes does when he regurgitates normally?

He acts normal. The only real difference is that he is back to chewing his nutriberries to bits (eating the safflower seeds first) then foraging for the rest of the bits. The only thing I can think of to cause the seeds is that he's not properly hulling them when he forages through the crumbs like that. Especially when he does it in the morning before it gets bright in the house and his light comes on at 10am.

Of course you know he won't poop any seeds at the office when Dr. Rubey see's him.

[linda040899]

The only thing I can think of to cause the seeds is that he's not properly hulling them when he forages through the crumbs like that.
That sounds perfectly logical. Wild birds need grit to assist with removing the hulls from seeds that they swallow whole/unshelled. Parrots don't need that kind of grit because they shell their seeds, or they are supposed to! Should your thoughts turn out to be the case, sprinkling a tiny bit of Prozyme over his soft food will help predigest he food in his crop/gizzard so that you won't see whole seed go through his system anymore. Prozyme is all natural and I use it when I'm hand feeding baby birds to help with digesting the formula so that none remains in the crop for too long a period of time.

[Z28Taxman]

That sounds perfectly logical. Wild birds need grit to assist with removing the hulls from seeds that they swallow whole/unshelled. Parrots don't need that kind of grit because they shell their seeds, or they are supposed to! Should your thoughts turn out to be the case, sprinkling a tiny bit of Prozyme over his soft food will help predigest he food in his crop/gizzard so that you won't see whole seed go through his system anymore. Prozyme is all natural and I use it when I'm hand feeding baby birds to help with digesting the formula so that none remains in the crop for too long a period of time.

Logical thinking is what I'm paid to do, but Ditto never works logically! :rofl:

I will definately ask Dr. Ruby about digestive aids tomorrow. I don't want to do anything before he sees him tomorrow so as not to skew any results.

I looked through my thread from his last string incident and it went pretty much the same way. It took awhile for him to get back to normal, seeds coming and going and even his eating the berries the way he is. Total time from first signs of a problem to last evidence of seeds in poops was almost 4 months. It took 3 months after he passed the string until he was completely back to normal. Hopefully without the yeast it doesn't take that long this time.

The only thing different between that incident and this one is that he didn't get the yeast and the associated 10 gram weight loss.

He hasn't vomited whole food, there has been none of the open the beak and stretch the neck and certainly no sitting around with food just dropping out of his beak.

Fortunately there's been no signs of string since last week either.

[Z28Taxman]

Well there's definitely something going on. I came home today and he was in his happy hut again, napping. He did come out when I removed the tray to look for poops. Found 2 relatively fresh ones in the middle of the cage that had little to no seeds and some older dried ones by the food dish. There was no poop at all over by the happy hut other than what was there before he woke up this morning so I guess he wasn't there long. There was one on the grate near the food dish that was fairly fresh.

When I went to outside to have a smoke he went back in the hut but when I came in he came back out and started regurgitating and feeding it.

While I was cleaning his veggie dish he hopped over to the boing and started chirping at me so I let him out. He then proceded to regurgitate up beige stuff and try to feed it to my neck. I've never smelled what he brought up before but I did get a bit of a sour smell from him. Once the food went in the cage, he went in and nibbled then started running around regurgitating at everything. try to feed the swing, boing, Bell, piniata. What he's bringing up isn't food, it's sort of beige mucus like stuff. I hope Dr. Ruby can get a sample of that. I did manage to get a bit of what he fed to the piñata and it did have a faint sour milk like smell to it but I've never smelled his regurgitated stuff before so I don't know.

One bit of good news, he did not vomit on himself or anything else today.

The food dish was another story altogether. He chewed up everhting in there to crumbs. I can't tell how much he actually ate but I don't think it was as much as he normally does.

He did just poop again and there were a few seeds but nothing like yesterday but he's now sitting in front of the happy hut again. :( The poop had no smell so if there is something going on it's not making smell in the poop.

Update: I left the cage open and went out for a smoke. When I came back in he was still standing in front of the happy hut but went inside soon after. He's definitely not feeling well. He always eats when I put fresh food in. He did this Friday night though which is why I made the appointment for Saturday. I put food in, he "gacked" at every dish, ran around feeding a few things and hid in the hut for half an hour or so. Then came out and ate and acted perfectly normal. He's confused the heck out of me now.

[Z28Taxman]

Well just to add to the confusion, I walked past the cage to go to the kitchen, looked in the hut and he had his back to me and appeared to be snoozing. So I went to the kitchen to put my tea mug on the counter. As soon as I got to the counter I heard a chirp and claws on the cage. Turned around and he's standing on the balcony looking at me. He then tuned around, wiggled his tail feathers and pooped on the rug. :evil: Then he ran in the cage and started eating and hasn't "gacked" since he went in the hut 45 minutes or so ago. Pretty much a carbon copy of Friday night with a bit more regurgitation. That bird is determined to cause me to have a stroke!


BTW, I found the poop on the rug and it was almost perfectly normal (might have been, there are seeds on the carpet there, he makes quite a mess, I frequently find food crumbs on my desk 6 feet away from the cage).

Yep. It's official, he's got to be purposely trying to drive me nuts. While he was eating I stepped outside for another smoke and watched him through the window. He ate the entire time (about 10 minutes). When I came in a started some water in the sink to rinse a baking sheet to make dinner and he flew out to me and stood on my shoulder watching what I was doing. I tried to see if he wanted a bath but he just stayed on my shoulder. Now he's sitting on my chest waiting for me to finish this so we can go to the couch for scritches. Just like Friday, someone flipped a switch while he was in the happy hut for 45 minutes or so and the regurgitating fiend has been replaced by my normal, happy, snuggly beak grinding Dittobird. :confused:

Well he didn't stay on the couch long. 10 minutes of serious head scratching worked up a serious appetite. He did a small but good poop and went back to eat and eat and.... You guessed it. Eat.

45 minutes later and he's still eating and hasn't regurgitated once.

And he's fine once again. His poops have been good he ate a lot (and chewed everything to bits). I tried an experiment when I let him out for couch time. Took two nutriberries to the couch and set them on the couch when he was in my hand.

He looked at them, walked down there and in less than 10 minutes had them eaten to just a few scraps. He then climbed into my hand for scritches. After 40 minutes of scritches he went to forage through the crumbs so after he didn't find what he was looking for he went back to my hand where I gave him the few large bits that were left. He ate all of those too. No signs of any oddball behaviours or feeling ill.

[Z28Taxman]

Well so far this morning he looks ok. I came down and could hear him eating. Uncovered him and he looks good, no signs of any regurgitation or gunk on his feathers. He's a little fluffy while he's eating but it is 68 degrees in here.

Found at least one poop under the happy hut from over night. one fresh one in the middle of the cage that looked normal (no seeds, well formed, had no smell). there was a large poop under the food dish, that one also had no seeds but had a bit of a sour smell to it but overall he seems to be acting fine again. I haven't seen any large amounts of seeds in his poops since sunday.

We'll be leaving to see Dr. Rubey soon so hopefully all goes well ant this is the last time I need to take him in for quite awhile.

[linda040899]

Good luck with Dr. Rubey!
I know how frustrating it can be when things don't seem quite right but there's nothing definitive showing up!

[Z28Taxman]

Good luck with Dr. Rubey!
I know how frustrating it can be when things don't seem quite right but there's nothing definitive showing up!

Tell me about it. He seems fine now. He was eating when I uncovered him at around 8:50 and he's still at it at 9:32 so he should be able to give Dr. Rubey some good samples if nothing else. :rofl:

Better get ready and get going.

[Z28Taxman]

Well we're back. Dr. Rubey says he's fine. After what I've observed since Friday regarding the regurgitation it does seem to be just his homrones kicking in. Maybe stronger than normal because of the amount of attention he's been getting the last few weeks. He's got no yeast or bacterial problems. His weight is good, 51 grams today and he was flying around the exam room.

His lungs/airsacks were clear, heat sounded good and feathers looked good. He palpated his abdomen and felt no abnormal masses and said he was in great shape.

He pooped quite a bit on the way there and while in the room with only a few seeds. Dr. Rubey agreed that it could be due to passing the string and his eating like a maniac again.

As long as no new symptoms show up, he maintains his weight and keeps eating we should just watch for now. If the seeds don't stop we do more tests. He didn't feel that x-ray or bloodwork were really necessary right now so as not to stress him further. And X-rays probably wouldn't show the string unless there was a huge amount of it and since he is eating and pooping that's not indicates. So we watch.

Of course he did make the obligatory mention of PDD but agreed that PDD isn't likely in Ditto's case since it's only seeds that are undigested not everything he eats, he hasn't vomited any food and doesn't show the nurological signs. Pluse he showed the same symptoms 3 years ago with the last string incident and the fact that he is still alive and over 50 grams pretty much rules that out.

I did watch him eat last night and he'll eat fine for awhile, then once he's full he goes nuts and chews everything to bits and I did see him swallow a few millet seeds without cracking the hulls off them.

So I guess I can stop panicing. :whistle:

[longobongo]

After Bailey's PDD scare I've come to notice that her droppings contain a few more seeds (only seeds, not everything she's digesting). Partially digested, sometimes they look pretty undigested. This only happens right before she's about to lay an egg. Her droppings are larger and "less digested," I guess is a good way to put it. After all the testing, my vet and I come to the same conclusion: It only happens right before egg-laying. I think sometimes the birdies aren't feeling well, and it's completely unexplainable and temporary, much like headaches in humans! And sometimes they are feeling well, and their droppings are just strange for a time. Obviously this doesn't mean you shouldn't take Ditto to the vet, but sometimes things are so minor that even the vet can't find the temporary underlying cause. At any rate, I'm glad to hear Ditto is doing well! I've been following this thread :)

[Z28Taxman]

Yeah, I've always seen an occasional seed, but there were quite a few of them lately. On sunday there were a few that were almost all seeds. That could be due to stress and his being totally uncooperative with his Saturday visit. He fought them like crazy to avoid the crop swab. I could hear him screaming at them from the other side of the clinic. We didn't do the crop swab today since he had 2 in the last 2 weeks and they were clean, no need to put him through that again 3 days after the last one. He did not have bad breath so Dr. Rubey felt it would be counter productive to do another one.

Yesterday there were hardly any seeds and today only tiny ones.

One more good thing is that since he was just there Saturday, Dr. Rubey didn't charge for today's visit so he got a free checkup.

We both agreed that PDD is highly unlikely since he hasn't had any contact with birds since he was 14 weeks old (over 11 years ago), and the closest I've been to a parrot in the last 10 years is walking past them in the pet store.

As for his food wasting and going nuts in the food dish, I'm going back to what worked the other times he's done that and putting less in and refilling it more often. If there is less food in the bowl, he doesn't waste as much.

[Z28Taxman]

So far so good. He's acting like his normal self. He didn't do any regurgitation today that I saw. I don't know what he did when he first woke up since he was awake and eating when I came down but nothing since.

When we got home from the vets office, I opened the carrier and he flew into the cage and inspected everything to make sure nobody stole anything while we were gone. :rofl:

then he ate for awhile and I refilled the dish. He seemed to waste less and ate all the avi-cakes.

He was active and chirpy, playing, preening and eating until 2pm when he settled in for a nap. He napped and just relaxed until 4:30 waking to preen occasionally. At 4:30 he woke up and chirped at me looking like his happy little self so I opened the cage and we got his dinner ready.

He didn't regurgitate for me or try to feed me today and there were a normal number of poops. One or two had some seeds but far fewer than sunday.

I just ordered a new scale so I can track his weight again since my last one broke.

Oops, I left the cage open so he ate a bit, had a drink and is now grinding his beak snuggled under my chin. :happy:

I have been paying an unusual amount of attention to him lately since he passed the string so maybe if I pay a little less attention his hormones will calm down a bit. Not that I want to pay less attention to him mind you... :whistle::whistle:

[Z28Taxman]

And tonight he was fine. He fed the bell toy a bit but no nasty regurgitation. Poops were better than they've been in a over a week and he didn't go in the happy hut all day.

During tv time he flew back to the cage, grabbed a nutriberry and ate the whole thing and took his time cracking open the seeds and leaving only a bit of dust. Then he went for an avi-cake and ate that normally too. Now if only I could get him to do that in the food dish. >:

Funny if he puts them in the veggie bowl he eats them fine too.

[Z28Taxman]

Well I hope I'm not going to jinx things but this morning he was acting much better. He did regurgitate a bit but not nearly as much as he had been doing. He was acting like his normal chirpy self and he appeared to wait until after he ate something. It's easier to regurgitate when you're not doing it on an empty crop.

[Z28Taxman]

I got home tonight and there was a chirpy bird sitting on his perch. Good number of poops with some seeds in them but still not as bad as Sunday's were. The food dish was a different story. All the avi-cakes were gone but the nutriberries were chewed to bits again.

He didn't even wait until the food went in the cage today. He hopped onto the bowl while it was on the counter and started eating it.

It does seem like his hormones are raging now though because he was eating fine while I was outside for a smoke. Less than a minute after I sat here he started regurgitating, hopped up on his balcony and regurgitated some more and flew over to me, perched on my finger, regurgitated a bit more then gave himself head rubs on my finger before snuggling up under my chin. After snuggling there and nibbling on my shirt for 10 minutes he went back to eat.

I guess maybe I've been giving him a little too much attention the last few weeks.

[Z28Taxman]

His evening poops were good, no seeds and putting less food in the dish seems to have helped. He still chewed everything to bits the first time he ate normally for awhile then went nuts but there was far less wasted.

I tried to be sneaky and after he chewed up all the nutriberries and put 3 of the el-paso nutriberries in figuring that since they were the only whole ones in there he'd eat them, or at least chew them up. Well that didn't work. As soon as I put them in he did go down and try them but as soon as he realized that they weren't the garden veggies, he tossed one out, pushed the other 2 aside and foraged through the crumbs. Can't sneak anything by the Dittobird. :evil:

I still find it odd that he'll make such a mess in the normal food dish but the stuff he took up to the veggie bowl, at least one avi-cake and one nutriberry, were eaten completely with no signs of them having been there when he was done.

At 8:30 I refilled the food dish since I didn't put much in the first time and he ate most of 6 avi-cakes and a good bit of the nutriberries before chewing the rest to bits. I put the same amount in again and he ate with little waste until 9 when he came out. After going back in he ate more before playing and relaxing until bed time at 10:40.

This morning the dish still had plenty of whole berries with less waste. He didn't do the regurgitation at all this morning and his morning poop was normal. :happy::happy:

[Z28Taxman]

Well my new scale arrived today. But of course he wouldn't cooperate like he does at the vets office and instead of standing on it he flew back to the cage. Of course I don't have the nice perch they do so I'll have to rig something up. However I did get sneaky and managed to weigh him anyway. After I filled the food dish, I put it on the scale and zeroed it out. He hopped on to eat and viola, 50 grams. 1 less than what the vet scale said on Tuesday but that's ok, different scale (just an el-cheapo $19 dollar one from amazon but it'll do the job). There were also a lot of poops in the cage. Seems to be a lot more than in recent days including a few large fresh ones and none of the poops were on the happy hut side of the cage so he didn't hang out in there unless he went to the other side of the cage to poop.:evil:

As to how he seems to be doing, the fresh poops were good, didn't see any seeds. As soon as I got out of the car I heard him calling me and he's looking perky as ever.

He even ate one of the el-paso nutriberries today. I think he's feeling much better.

And just to geek out, I put his food dish on the scale after 2 hours while he was out with me for a bit and it went down from 172 grams to 170. He decided to go after it so before he got there I zeroed it out and when he hopped on I found the 2 missing grams. Guess he's eating plenty!

[Z28Taxman]

He's definitely doing better than he was last week. His poops look much better. The only regurgitation I've seen the last few days is a little bit in the morning and yesterday he only did it (when I saw him) after I let him out to get his dinner ready. He stood on my shoulder and regurgitated then ran around feeding his toys when he went back in. Took a short nap and woke up acting normally. He ate at least 13 grams of avi-cakes and nutriberries yesterday on top of the veggies and pellets.

So far today he's had 5grams of food and he's been eating more since I checked. So I guess since he's eating more than 10% of his body weight and maintaining 52 grams he's good to go.

Since I started putting less in the bowl he's been wasting less too.

The only thing I don't like is that the late afternoon nap that he used to take snuggled up under the knotrageous toy is now being taken in his happy hut since the toy isn't there anymore. I guess I need to find a toy to hang there that isn't made of cotton rope so he has a spot to nap and be less visible without being in the hut.

[michael]

[snip].......The only thing I don't like is that the late afternoon nap that he used to take snuggled up under the knotrageous toy is now being taken in his happy hut since the toy isn't there anymore. I guess I need to find a toy to hang there that isn't made of cotton rope so he has a spot to nap and be less visible without being in the hut.

And for how long has Ditto Bird enjoyed his knotrageous toy? .. :( .. Ah well, much better to be safe than quite possibly sick again.

[Z28Taxman]

And for how long has Ditto Bird enjoyed his knotrageous toy? .. :( .. Ah well, much better to be safe than quite possibly sick again.

He's had a knotrageous toy since he first came home. So 11 1/2 years. Not the same one mind you but he's always had one.

Other than that he's doing well, he stepped on the scale last night while I was weighing his food dish and he was up to 53 grams.

[Z28Taxman]

Well I may have found an explanation for the gunk on his head those two mornings. He was regurgitating on my shoulder while I was getting his dinner ready and then he sneezed, got some on my but missed his head.

He hasn't been sneezing. Usually he only sneezes when he's got his face buried in a pile of nutriberry crumbs. But he did sneeze with a mouthful of regurgitated stuff.

Now he's fine and having a nice dinner. He seems to be back to normal now.

[Z28Taxman]

He's definitely doing much better. He wasted very little food last night, and while today there were still a lot of crumbs in the dish there were some larger pieces that he didn't chew up. He's been his normal chirpy self and he didn't regurgitate in the morning yesterday or today.

The regurgitation definitely seems to be hormonal now. Yesterday and today I came home and stayed quiet for awhile and it wasn't until I started talking to him that that he started doing it and then he fed his toys.

After he goes back in he calms down and snuggles up to one of the piñatas for a short nap then he wakes upand eats and has a good time and doesn't regurgitate again all night. Although now, just to prove that I don't totally have him figured out, he's doing wing flapping exersizes:happy::happy:.

His poops look good, no seeds and they seem to be more regular in frequency.

Now I just have to find a suitable replacement for the knotrageous toy.

[Bubblelady]

This site has some toys that might work that are made out of things like sea grass and crinkled paper.

http://www.byrdbell.com/products.html

[Z28Taxman]

This site has some toys that might work that are made out of things like sea grass and crinkled paper.

http://www.byrdbell.com/products.html

Some interesting toys there. Might just find one that fits the spot! :happy:

For the last 3 days he hasn't regurgitated in the morning and only did it after I got home and started talking to him. And he's wasting slightly less food! :happy::happy::happy:

Haven't seen a seed in any poops for a couple days. Of course now he's going to start again just to prove me wrong. :evil: