Baileybea
Meeting neighbors
- Joined
- 11/24/21
- Messages
- 31
- Real Name
- Bailey
Hey guys! I’ll admit, I’ve been very stressed out lately. I’ve been having a lot of health issues (physical AND mental) which led to me realizing that I need to step up my game when it comes to caring for my green cheek Conure, Momiji (Momo). This is gonna be a LONG one, so thank you in advance for reading/answering.
I’m 23 and have struggled with intense anxiety and depression for pretty much my entire life, and now in the past few months I’ve developed some mystery health issues that I’m still trying to figure out with a bunch of tests. I’ve had Momo for a little over 2.5 years now (she’s about 4 though, she was a little over a year when I got her), and while the vet always says that she’s healthy, I know there’s things I could have been doing better and I’m really trying to start now.
Last week I realized her cage was in somewhat rough shape, so I panicked and got her a brand new one. She thankfully got used to it pretty quickly, the only problem is, it’s a lot bigger than her old one and doesn’t come off it’s stand, and since her sleep room is upstairs, we have to carry it up and down the stairs everyday.
I’ve been looking everywhere for a smaller cage that we can use as a sleep cage, but after googling about all the dangers of certain materials, how they can chip or rust or expose bad metals and this or that, I’m really struggling to find one. We live in Ontario, Canada. I actually picked up a brand new version of her first cage, but when I brought it home I noticed the powder coating was literally flaking off in spots, so obviously I’ll be taking it back. I can’t afford stainless steel at the moment and the cheapest one I can even find starts at 1000 dollars (I’m not even working due to my anxiety, I’m a stay at home artist but haven’t made a sale in months because of covid/depression).
I’ve also noticed that since she’s been in her new cage, she’s had a harder time sleeping. She’s always gone to bed with us at around 10-11pm, then slept in until about 10-11 am with no problems. Her sleep room is upstairs and my parents have always gotten up to get ready for work between 6:30-8am (their bedroom and washroom they get ready in is also upstairs) and she’s always been able to just sleep though it, but these past few days she has been waking up earlier, I’m afraid due to the noise. We tried having her cage downstairs, but the noise is even worse and she starts chirping if someone even goes to the washroom at night. We have also always covered her cage with a sheet at night. I then started reading that they can chew on them through the bars and die, and started freaking out, so tried no sheet one night, but when I came in to check how she was doing, she was wide awake and hanging onto the side of her cage, so I had to cover it again to get her to finally sleep. She’s never chewed on her cover before, but I’m worried with the changes lately, something will trigger her to start and I’ll wake up to her being dead.
Does she just have to get used to her new cage? I’m really worried she’ll get sick from not being able to sleep as much as she usually does and I don’t know how long this is going to last. She does like to take naps during the day so I’m hoping that will make up for a little bit of the time she’s been losing while she gets used to things.
Next is feeding/washing vegetables, and how often I should give certain vegetables.
She’s always been kinda picky when it comes to veggies, but we still try to give her at least something every day. She really loves red bell peppers, and she’ll eat spinach, broccoli, and kale and sometimes pick at carrot. I saw that certain vegetables should only be offered 2-3 times a week though. This is what I’ve gathered from research
Broccoli- 2-3 times a week
Spinach -2 times a week
Kale - 2-4 times a week
Red bell pepper - can be daily
Carrot - a few times a week
I also wanna try giving her more options, like cauliflower and stuff. One of my mental health issues is OCD and it has been BAD this past week with trying to make sure Momo is healthy and happy. I’ve read so many things on the internet and I have irrational fears that something I do will just kill her. Even something as simple as giving her a new vegetable even if I KNOW it’s something she can eat/is good for her. I’m worried I’ll prepare it wrong, not cook it when you’re supposed to even if I’ve read 20 different places that raw is ok. Another thing I never even THOUGHT of until now is organic vs non-organic.
honestly, we’ve never in the 2.5 years we’ve had her gone out of our way to buy organic produce for us or her. A lot of it has to do with the fact that most of the year, living in Ontario and the town we live in, it’s not readily available. She’s been perfectly fine so far, but I started reading horror stories about pesticides, how not washing well can make them sick or even birds who dropped dead from freak accidents after feeding a pice of fruit/vegetables. So I then read that you can make a wash with 1 part apple Cider vinegar (bragg organic with the mother) and 3 parts water, scrub them down with it and rinse to clean. I even went out and bought the vinegar, but now am afraid to use that, even though I know ACV isn’t toxic to them and can actually provide some health benefits to them in moderation. I’m worried that even a minuscule amount possibly left from cleaning will be enough to mess with her system or give her diarrhea or something and I’ll make her sick.
Also, she’s been on Zupreem naturals since I got her, but I read that Harrison’s is way better so I bought a bag of the high potency fine to switch her over to and she had super watery poops, so I panicked and immediately put her back in the Zupreem that night. Is it normal for her poop to be watery when switching to another pellet and will it go away once she adjusts to the Harrison’s?
Even when it comes to toys, I’m afraid to leave them in her cage unsupervised. What if she chokes on something or gets stuck while I’m not there? Even though I try to only give her wood and cardboard toys, and never put anything with fabric/rope etc in her cage. I don’t even really like using plastic toys. It feels like I’m worrying/protecting her to a point where I’m actually harming her more in the long run, because I know I can’t just leave her without toys all day. But again that irrational fear that I’ll come home and she’ll be dead from something I could have prevented is there.
I’ve never been this bad with my OCD/anxiety involving her, and it’s kinda starting to ruin my life and impact my family/boyfriend (who also lives with us). I even got to a point where I wondered if I should rehome her…telling myself that she would be better off without me, go to someone who can look after her properly and give her a better life. But I love her so much and I know she’s loves me, and know deep down even if I thought I was doing the right thing, the stress/heartbreak alone could make her sick or even kill/traumatize her, so I could never actually do that.
Am I just letting my mental illness get the better of me? Am I worrying about things I shouldn’t be/worrying TOO much? I’m just so scared and stressed out lately. I can’t even sleep at night anymore because I’m so terrified something will happen while I’m not watching her. It has gotten to a point where I have to recheck if I’ve locked her cage 10 times and then take a video to be 10000% certain it is locked before I go do something. Any help/advice is very much appreciated, and sorry again for the extremely long post.
I’m 23 and have struggled with intense anxiety and depression for pretty much my entire life, and now in the past few months I’ve developed some mystery health issues that I’m still trying to figure out with a bunch of tests. I’ve had Momo for a little over 2.5 years now (she’s about 4 though, she was a little over a year when I got her), and while the vet always says that she’s healthy, I know there’s things I could have been doing better and I’m really trying to start now.
Last week I realized her cage was in somewhat rough shape, so I panicked and got her a brand new one. She thankfully got used to it pretty quickly, the only problem is, it’s a lot bigger than her old one and doesn’t come off it’s stand, and since her sleep room is upstairs, we have to carry it up and down the stairs everyday.
I’ve been looking everywhere for a smaller cage that we can use as a sleep cage, but after googling about all the dangers of certain materials, how they can chip or rust or expose bad metals and this or that, I’m really struggling to find one. We live in Ontario, Canada. I actually picked up a brand new version of her first cage, but when I brought it home I noticed the powder coating was literally flaking off in spots, so obviously I’ll be taking it back. I can’t afford stainless steel at the moment and the cheapest one I can even find starts at 1000 dollars (I’m not even working due to my anxiety, I’m a stay at home artist but haven’t made a sale in months because of covid/depression).
I’ve also noticed that since she’s been in her new cage, she’s had a harder time sleeping. She’s always gone to bed with us at around 10-11pm, then slept in until about 10-11 am with no problems. Her sleep room is upstairs and my parents have always gotten up to get ready for work between 6:30-8am (their bedroom and washroom they get ready in is also upstairs) and she’s always been able to just sleep though it, but these past few days she has been waking up earlier, I’m afraid due to the noise. We tried having her cage downstairs, but the noise is even worse and she starts chirping if someone even goes to the washroom at night. We have also always covered her cage with a sheet at night. I then started reading that they can chew on them through the bars and die, and started freaking out, so tried no sheet one night, but when I came in to check how she was doing, she was wide awake and hanging onto the side of her cage, so I had to cover it again to get her to finally sleep. She’s never chewed on her cover before, but I’m worried with the changes lately, something will trigger her to start and I’ll wake up to her being dead.
Does she just have to get used to her new cage? I’m really worried she’ll get sick from not being able to sleep as much as she usually does and I don’t know how long this is going to last. She does like to take naps during the day so I’m hoping that will make up for a little bit of the time she’s been losing while she gets used to things.
Next is feeding/washing vegetables, and how often I should give certain vegetables.
She’s always been kinda picky when it comes to veggies, but we still try to give her at least something every day. She really loves red bell peppers, and she’ll eat spinach, broccoli, and kale and sometimes pick at carrot. I saw that certain vegetables should only be offered 2-3 times a week though. This is what I’ve gathered from research
Broccoli- 2-3 times a week
Spinach -2 times a week
Kale - 2-4 times a week
Red bell pepper - can be daily
Carrot - a few times a week
I also wanna try giving her more options, like cauliflower and stuff. One of my mental health issues is OCD and it has been BAD this past week with trying to make sure Momo is healthy and happy. I’ve read so many things on the internet and I have irrational fears that something I do will just kill her. Even something as simple as giving her a new vegetable even if I KNOW it’s something she can eat/is good for her. I’m worried I’ll prepare it wrong, not cook it when you’re supposed to even if I’ve read 20 different places that raw is ok. Another thing I never even THOUGHT of until now is organic vs non-organic.
honestly, we’ve never in the 2.5 years we’ve had her gone out of our way to buy organic produce for us or her. A lot of it has to do with the fact that most of the year, living in Ontario and the town we live in, it’s not readily available. She’s been perfectly fine so far, but I started reading horror stories about pesticides, how not washing well can make them sick or even birds who dropped dead from freak accidents after feeding a pice of fruit/vegetables. So I then read that you can make a wash with 1 part apple Cider vinegar (bragg organic with the mother) and 3 parts water, scrub them down with it and rinse to clean. I even went out and bought the vinegar, but now am afraid to use that, even though I know ACV isn’t toxic to them and can actually provide some health benefits to them in moderation. I’m worried that even a minuscule amount possibly left from cleaning will be enough to mess with her system or give her diarrhea or something and I’ll make her sick.
Also, she’s been on Zupreem naturals since I got her, but I read that Harrison’s is way better so I bought a bag of the high potency fine to switch her over to and she had super watery poops, so I panicked and immediately put her back in the Zupreem that night. Is it normal for her poop to be watery when switching to another pellet and will it go away once she adjusts to the Harrison’s?
Even when it comes to toys, I’m afraid to leave them in her cage unsupervised. What if she chokes on something or gets stuck while I’m not there? Even though I try to only give her wood and cardboard toys, and never put anything with fabric/rope etc in her cage. I don’t even really like using plastic toys. It feels like I’m worrying/protecting her to a point where I’m actually harming her more in the long run, because I know I can’t just leave her without toys all day. But again that irrational fear that I’ll come home and she’ll be dead from something I could have prevented is there.
I’ve never been this bad with my OCD/anxiety involving her, and it’s kinda starting to ruin my life and impact my family/boyfriend (who also lives with us). I even got to a point where I wondered if I should rehome her…telling myself that she would be better off without me, go to someone who can look after her properly and give her a better life. But I love her so much and I know she’s loves me, and know deep down even if I thought I was doing the right thing, the stress/heartbreak alone could make her sick or even kill/traumatize her, so I could never actually do that.
Am I just letting my mental illness get the better of me? Am I worrying about things I shouldn’t be/worrying TOO much? I’m just so scared and stressed out lately. I can’t even sleep at night anymore because I’m so terrified something will happen while I’m not watching her. It has gotten to a point where I have to recheck if I’ve locked her cage 10 times and then take a video to be 10000% certain it is locked before I go do something. Any help/advice is very much appreciated, and sorry again for the extremely long post.