I need help for my African Grey!

[Ana Borges]

This is Yara, a female with 5 years old. We are from the azores Islands- Portugal.
Yara came to us when she was a litlle baby, she never had adult feathers because she always rip them out!
She only eats bird food (nutribird p19), she doesn't eat fresh fruit and she haves a lot of toys but don't play with them!
The only thing that she likes to do is biting wood, eat and sleep. She is not a easy bird for people to.

Here we don't have any vet that know how to deal with exotic birds, that is why I need help desperately.

Thank you

 

[Danita]

@ncGreyBirdLady

Anyone here can they help?

 

[Danita]

@Macawnutz @Hankmacaw

This lady came to Lucky and Coco's page and I asked her if she could post here.
There is no avian vets on her island.

This grey is 5 years old

 

[sunnysmom]

Welcome to the forum!

@BirdGuy21 ?

 

[Danita]

Oh and she feel and hurt her beak too

 

[Hankmacaw]

Hi Ana and welcome to AA.

I looked up the Nutribird P19 and it is a food for breeding birds and has excess fat and protein, but that isn't as bad as the sugar in it. Have you tried feeding her fresh vegetables and very, very little fresh fruit. I don't have a clue what is available on the Azores, but any leafy green vegetable such as Swiss Chard, Kale, Spinach, Rommaine lettuce and many others are good. Mango, Papaya, Oranges (not much) and no grapes are good.

Do you know what your baby was weaned on and what the breeder fed her before weaning? She may very well have nutritional deficiencies from a young age.

I consider Harrison's the very best pellet on the market with Roudybush a close second. Lafeber's is ok, but again has sugar added. Never feed a "fortified" pellet it is far too easy to overdose on vitamins and some vitamins don't process well from manmade products. Greys need extra calcium - does she have a mineral block or get calcium supplements?

I would consider getting her some Red Palm Oil and DMG and Milk Thistle extract.
Amazon.com : Avitech AviGlo Organic Red Dende Palm Oil 8 oz : Massage Oils : Pet Supplies
Amazon.com : Vetri-DMG 125 mg, 3.85-Ounce : Pet Antioxidant Nutritional Supplements : Pet Supplies
Amazon.com : Milk Thistle VETERINARY Natural Alcohol-FREE Liquid Extract, Pet Herbal Supplement 2 oz : Pet Supplies

Tell us more about Yara's day - what she does, when she does it how long? Does Yara have lots of out of cage time and lots of one on one time with you? Is there anything in particular that caused you to ask for help now?

 

[MARILYN CEDENO]

Hi Ana! Welcome to AA. Yara is a cutie! My best advice is to continue offering Yara fresh fruit and veggies in small amounts and maybe, over time, she will begin to nibble them. Greys are very curious but cautious creatures (if that makes any sense), and what she may refuse to touch now may be something she'll explore in the future. Try to add a bit of palm oil (if you have access to it) to the chopped veggies. The nutrients in the produce along with the oil will boost her overall health and may help make her skin supple and help her feathers grow in smoothly so they are not as 'sharp' when they emerge. Give her access to an occasional bath or spritz her with water also. Does Yara like to come out of her cage and climb around? My Grey loves her out time so we try to allow her more freedom than seclusion. She doesn't allow a lot of touching, but she loves to be free to flap her wings and climb about.

 

[jmfleish]

Yara is adorable and those eyes are enough to melt anyone's heart! What I would try in order to get some veggies into her tummy is to try hanging leafy greens in her cage like toys or even weaving them through the bars. She might find them entertaining enough to rip up and will eventually get some in her stomach. A friend of mine from FB just posted a great clip of her Ekkie's totally ripping up a flowering kale that she had hidden nuts into. I'll see if I can get the original URL for it so I can post it here, turning veggies into toys is definitely one way to go. Does Yara like nuts like almonds?

 

[Sand]

Can she still eat ok with her hurt beak? i know you said she is not good with people, but I wonder if you spend a lot of time talking to her and letting her cage being near you maybe she would open up? Maybe she has a neurological problem that she was born with I mean a problem with her brain. I agree with everyone else that I wonder if she could try some vegetables

 

[Ana Borges]

Hy Hankmacaw, thank you for your reply.

We are trying to find help for a long time, but with no sucess. Recently on facebook I find the page "Lucky lou and Coco too", and finally we can see a light at the bottom of the tunnel.
When she was a baby, my mother breed her with Nutribird a21.
The problem is that we give her fresh fruit and she doesn't eat them.
We have a male to, he eats the same food and fresh fruit. He doesn't have that kind of problems! The only diference is that Xavier came to us when he was already an adult.

Yara don't come out very often, because she's always biting and hurting herself, we are afraid because of that.
She spends her day sleeping, eating and talking when we are home. We play some music for them and she's the only that dances. She have a lot of toys but don't play with them.
This week she feel and hurt her beak, she's eating normaly and we are giving her vitamins again because of the blood lost she had.
I will try to feed her with green vegetables and fresh fruit for some days and find another food for them, perhaps Nutribird is not good for both.

 

[Danita]

Thanks guys!
I want her to post a pic of the beak injury too.

 

[Ana Borges]

There's a foto from her beak now.

 

[Ana Borges]

And this is Xavier, the male. We spend the same time with both and he is more sociable.

 

[jmfleish]

Here's that video I was talking about earlier from Monika's FB page. Let me know if you have problems seeing it. You can see the almonds stuffed into the kale. The Ekkie is having a great time with it!

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10209907203813822

 

[Cloudburst]

You have to do experiments and find out what texture she likes. Chopped, whole, raw, cooked. Most parrots love mash. Boil or stream veggies, then mash them like baby food.

Try cutting the veggies ad fruit in different way.
Only give her half the nutribird, slowly cutting down to zero, but then you must have veggies, fruits in her bowl.

Now I'm much more strick in my sanctuary. It's eat this chop (veggies)

I rescue parrots who only know sunflower seeds: trust me, they will not starve if you want to get strict. They will eat the fresh food, if that's the only option. But if her option is wait long enough and the human will give me my junk food, they will wait. They are smart than a three year old toddlers

 

[Just-passn-thru]

Here's that video I was talking about earlier from Monika's FB page. Let me know if you have problems seeing it. You can see the almonds stuffed into the kale. The Ekkie is having a great time with it!

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10209907203813822

Ohh! I like that , I 'm going to give that a try

 

[Hankmacaw]

Many of us whose birds prefer something other than veggies, we feed them their chop (several different veggies chopped up and mixed) in the morning when they are the most hungry. After her breakfast she has free access to Harrison's pellets all day. They get their more likeable stuff later in the day along with more chop. My Jasper gets her almonds and a walnut along with more chop and a little bird bread in the evening. She actually really likes the veggies now.

How often does she get a bath or shower?

Xavier is a beauty.

 

[Hankmacaw]

PS - I couldn't see the injury on her beak very well. If she is still eating ok then she is probably ok, just watch it closely so it doesn't get infected.

 

[Danita]

I was wondering if it was the tip that came off?

 

[BirdGuy21]

Welcome to the forum, I am sorry to see you are having trouble with your Grey. Her eyes are beautiful and very expressive. Everyone above has already asked a lot of great questions and offered some advice. What I can reiterate and add is an improvement in diet, starting with a base of pellets and fresh veggies with a little fruit. I know you said she doesnt eat them, but that is actually very common at first. It may take several tries for her to be interested or even take a bite of a new food. Be persistent and offer some veggies or chop everyday with her food. It may also help for her to see you eat the veggies as well, as birds are flock animals and will want what you are having.

You said she likes to chew wood but is hesitant or uninterested in new toys. Provide her plenty of wood since that is what she likes to keep her busy. You can slowly try to introduce new toys by letting her see you play with them first and leaving them in a location outside her cage but where she can still see them. This may help her to become more accepting of new toys.