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Post by freswood on Jul 4, 2008 10:45:55 GMT
That's very reassuring, thanks guys!
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Post by freswood on Jul 3, 2008 8:07:02 GMT
Hi all, it's been a while since I've been on this forum! I'm just needing a bit of advice about my rainbow lorikeets Yogie and Archie (both boys). Once winter struck they started behaving a little differently - they don't really want to leave their cage and Yogie is far more aggressive towards Archie. This is quite unusual because they normally become quite vocal if left in their cage even for half an hour!
Is it normal for birds to act like this during winter? They are also beginning to moult so this might have something to do with it. Maybe trying to conserve energy during the colder months? Perhaps it's instinctive? They are also becoming tired earlier in the night. They used to have about 10-11 hours of sleep but now have 12.
We got Yogie last winter and he didn't want to leave his cage then. Though I don't know whether that's because he was frightened. I don't want to rule out the possibility of illness, however they aren't puffed up and they are eating just as they normally would. Their droppings are normal too.
Thanks for your help!
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Post by freswood on Jul 7, 2007 5:59:20 GMT
Hi, I thought I recognised the name. I'm Cass from pigeons.biz by the way. I'm on this forum for my beautiful baby Yogie (go check out some pics of him in the lorikeet photos board)
Your story was so moving that I cried. You're a very kind person to look after Pij the way you did.
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Post by freswood on Feb 20, 2008 8:29:01 GMT
I have two rainbow lorikeets. I got Yogie in July when he was 6 months old, and bought him a companion, Archie, in December who was 2 months old. They are both male, and although Yogie is much bigger than Archie, they get along perfectly. They are the best of friends and spend most of their time together play-wrestling and grooming each other.
I'm guessing that your birdie is relatively mellow, being 12 years old. It shouldn't be a problem. On the issue of cages, don't settle for a cheap cage. It's great that you're looking at $600 ones because the ones below about $300 are often made out of powder-coated or galvanised zinc. If the coating chips away and the zinc rusts, and then a bird comes along and licks it, it can get heavy metal poisoning. This will cause seizures and death. You'll need to check that the cage you're buying is made from coated steel.
Keep them in separate cages to begin with - I would recommend at least a fortnight until you can be sure that the new lory isn't sick. Don't throw them in a cage together, and take them out for supervised play a little bit at a time. This is what I did and it took about 2 weeks for them to get along and a month for Archie to fully settle in.
Good luck and let me know if you need any more help!
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Post by freswood on Sept 27, 2007 6:12:47 GMT
I'll post this on the other thread discussing seizures, but good news, the test came back negative for zinc poisoning. Everything else has been ruled out, so it must be epilepsy. And that's fine, because the medication is controlling it perfectly. Lucky Yoges, I don't think his previous owner would have bothered to medicate a sick bird.
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Post by freswood on Sept 26, 2007 1:17:33 GMT
Well we still haven't got the test results back, but Yogie continued to have seizures so we put him on the epilepsy medication. It's been 2 days and he's totally fine! I really thought he was going to die, but now he's stable. Uggh he just licked my lip (he's on my shoulder). I still don't know whether it's epilepsy or zinc poisoning though, because the medication would still control seizures caused by zinc poisoning. The results should be coming through within the next couple of days.
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Post by freswood on Sept 17, 2007 8:02:55 GMT
The vet rang earlier, and believes it could be one of 3 things: - lorikeet paralysis syndrome - epilepsy - hormones, because it's spring now Yoges has been fine since his episode, so I guess it's just a matter of waiting to see what happens
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Post by freswood on Sept 15, 2007 0:05:01 GMT
The results came back negative, thank god. Hopefully it was just a one-off episode.... and hopefully it's not epilepsy. The vet is going on ring on monday to discuss the results. Has anybody else had experience with bird seizures?
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Post by freswood on Sept 13, 2007 23:04:18 GMT
I took Yoges to the avian vet as soon as I could get an appointment - wasn't until 8:00 pm. Turns out he had a seizure, and the vet ran some blood tests. I'll be getting the results tonight. He could have anything - heavy metal poisoning, diabetes, epilepsy, etc. I'm so worried about my baby.
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Post by freswood on Sept 13, 2007 6:42:23 GMT
Yogie did the weirdest thing just then. Right after biting my brother on the face (during which my brother thrashed around) Yogie was put inside his cage. 10 mins later I came back and Yogie was sitting on the floor of his cage with his foot in the air and neck/head tilted down into his chest. I went up to him and he tried to jump up to his perch but missed and kind of tumbled to the other side of his cage. He then resumed that same strange position.
So I put my arm in and he climbed up it but seemed really disoriented. He spun around in circles, lost his footing, then put his head down into his chest again. He looked like he had no idea where he was or what he was doing. It really scared me. I cried for ages. He seems normal again now, but I feel really worried that there's something wrong. I thought maybe he got hurt when my brother thrashed around. It wasn't anything particularly violent, but birds are so small and probably incredibly fragile.
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Post by freswood on Aug 19, 2007 7:57:00 GMT
Well Yoges came home today. We didn't get one of the rooms re-corked, so he's in there at the moment. The smell in the rest of the house has almost gone but there's just a faint trace. Once the smell's gone, we'll take him into the bathroom and he can have a bit of a splash in our bath! Ever since I saw the vid of Harry(ette) I've been wanting to try it with Yogie.
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Post by freswood on Aug 10, 2007 1:43:52 GMT
He's started this habit of sitting on my shoulder and chewing my ear, neck, mouth and cheeks. Sooooo weird! I hope he doesn't go for my eyes because he beak is so sharp.
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Post by freswood on Aug 8, 2007 23:43:15 GMT
I really miss having Yogie at home Can't wait 'til he can come back!
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Post by freswood on Aug 7, 2007 7:54:24 GMT
Our floor has recently been re-corked, which included them varnishing it. On Friday they're going to come back and fix up the mess they made (don't get me started ). Anyway, we'll have fumes in our house for a while. At the moment, Yogie is at my grandma's place. This is really convenient because she lives right over the road from school. I come in every morning and lunchtime to look after Yoges. How long do you think we'll have to wait before he moves back in? Just until we can't smell the fumes any more? I'm trying to be really careful because I know that varnish fumes can be fatal for birds.
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Post by freswood on Jul 4, 2007 9:10:29 GMT
UPDATE:
I took him to the vet and Yogie is perfectly healthy! He had his wings slightly clipped, and they took a feather for DNA testing. The vet thought the sneezing was fine. I'm really relieved!
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