GCC sleeping at bottom of her cage

[flockof.4]

Hi. I’m new here so forgive me if I’m a little all over the place. I have four birds, one parakeet, one cockatiel, and two green cheek conures. This is concerning my one green cheek.

So, her name is Callie and I’ve had her since 8/1/19 (August 1st) and she’ll be a year old on April 27th. Her first vet appointment was January 30th or the 31st, a week and a half after one of my parakeets died and she was healthy, along with my other birds.

My mom and I cleaned the bird cages last Saturday and that night into Sunday, she was on the bottom of her cage, sleeping but was fine the next night. It’s normal for her to jump onto the bottom and look for food if her bowl needs fresh stuff (but she usually spits out the stuff on the bottom). She was fine all
week, doing her usual jump to the bottom and running around and then going back to the top into her little tent/hut where she likes to sleep. Since we got her the tent, it’s where she loves to sleep. During the day, she’ll nap at the back of her cage on top of it while i’m in the room usually sitting on my computer. She eats when she’s hungry and drinks, what i’m assuming, when she has to (since I don’t usually see any of my birds drink water besides for the other conure). Now, at night (last night and tonight) after I turn my lamp off, she goes to the bottom of the cage to sleep and only when I go to check on her is when she climbs up the cage but then I go back to lay down and she goes back on the bottom. She has her nights where she sleeps on the bottom and is fine during the day and then is back to normal sleeping in her tent the next night. This is (from what I can remember) the only time she’s slept down there twice in a row. She’s not molting and she acts normal except for maybe napping a little bit more but I’m also always in the room and I don’t do much except for sit at my computer and they’re all pretty quiet when there’s not much going on. My mom and me were thinking of calling our vet to get his opinion on Monday if she sleeps on the bottom again tomorrow night. We would like to avoid taking her unless we have to because we just had to take my parakeet for his toe which wound up coming off (and thank god during his appointment).

I’ve read other posts here about conures sleeping on the bottom and it being normal because they like it there unless they’re not eating and the normal behavior changes. I’m just not sure if it applies to this. I’m very on edge about her being on the bottom because my parakeet who passed slept on the bottom for a month and then died (but he was moved to a new cage when he started so we thought “hey, it’s a new cage. Maybe he just wants to be there” and would always wind up at the top in the morning). He also would act normal during the day.

Might be good to add that she has no nesting things and her and my other (male) green cheek don’t get along so they usually keep their space. She is also not DNA tested. We were just told she was female.

Pics of her attached.

 

[Shezbug]

When was her last vet check? I’d be wanting to investigate further given your recent loss.

 

[flockof.4]

When was her last vet check? I’d be wanting to investigate further given your recent loss.

her first and only vet visit so far was at the end of January

 

[Shezbug]

Were any tests done or just a general health check?

 

[Lady Jane]

A bird that has a change in normal routine/behavior is a good idea to have a vet check.

 

[flockof.4]

Were any tests done or just a general health check?

just the general health check

 

[flockof.4]

just the general health check

I should probably also mention because I think I forgot to in the post, she’s been on the top perch in her cage in the mornings and she was eating before I left my room. We were giving it until Monday (and if she had to get checked it’d have to wait until then anyway) because our vet it currently out of town until then. We were just going to put a call in and get his opinion too.

 

[Shezbug]

I have only ever heard of unwell birds wanting to spend a lot of time on the floor of the cage. Especially at night, it seems to be an inbuilt thing into every bird I know and have seen to want to be up high where it’s safe and away from the floor where predators can get them.
Unless your bird is older or has serious feet problems etc I personally would not be comfortable with my bird sleeping on the floor given it goes against their natural instinct and is usually a sign of illness ...... even the birds I can think of with missing toes and legs do not want to sleep on the cage floor.
After the unknown death of your other bird this is something that I would find quite concerning and I would be speaking to my vet about it and wanting confirmation that my bird is not sick.

Can you see any similar behaviours in this bird to the one that passed away? For example... did the other bird spend lots of time napping on cage floor??

 

[Shezbug]

Also.... have you thoroughly checked that fabric hut over to ensure your birds are not picking fibres or fluff from it and consuming it? Many people have lost their birds due to having fabric huts available to them. Just something to consider and check.

 

[flockof.4]

I have noticed some similarities despite Callie being a conure and the one that passed being a budgie. The budgie slept at the bottom (but it was a new cage for him that wasn’t as tall as his previous one. just slightly smaller) and acted normal throughout the day. He also slept a lot during the day where Callie is very energetic usually (unless I’m not doing much during the day). Her tent doesn’t have pieces that can easily be pulled off so I highly doubt she’s getting anything there and it doesn’t look like there’s any pull marks. She also doesn’t usually play with any yarn-like toys. She prefers plastic-y things which also leads me to believe that isn’t chewing that

 

[Shezbug]

If Callie were mine I would be taking her to the vet for a check up.
I would be mentioning the death of the previous bird and the similarity in behaviour (which is not normal for birds regardless of new cage or not) and I would be asking for more than just a general look over- tests to confirm there’s no infection or nasties.

 

[flockof.4]

The vet knows of the budgie that passed. I totally agree with the fact of taking her for a check up and I would do that with any bird that has me very concerned. In another post though I made about Callie and briefly mentioned the ordeal of her being at the bottom, someone mentioned that conures sometimes like to do sleep there so I’m very conflicted. I think before I do anything, I’ll call the vet and get his opinion because I don’t have the money to take her unless I have to since I would be paying for it (or my mom is okay with splitting the cost with me)

 

[flockof.4]

I wanted to give an update. Callie was on the bottom of her cage again last night so we called the vet today around 11am. She was acting fine all day today. The vet called back around 6:30pm (he was out of state for a week so I figured he’d be busy) and right before he called, Callie sneezed twice in a row with a bit of discharge both times (not sure if it was colored) and then a few minutes later sneezed another couple of times but not sure if there was any discharge. My sister then said she sneezed when she was back on her cage. Next thing I know my mom calls me about an unrelated thing and she gets the call from the vet while we’re talking. The vet said he’s not worried and even though she’s still a little young, she could be nesting and if that’s the case, then to put a 3x3 paper towel on the bottom and if she chews it, it’s okay. He said that it’s not entirely out of the norm; just to make sure she’s eating and not sleeping a lot on the bottom. My mom had told him about the sneezing and he said that if she has a fit of like 10 sneezes and then again a few minutes later then he would want to see her but right now it’s okay.

So long story short, he’s not worried right now and he’ll wanna see her if she stops eating a lot and experiencing other signs of being sick and her sneezing isn’t something to worry about unless she sneezes a lot on a row and then a few minutes later has another sneezing fit.

Also, on another post I mentioned her not eating pellets and today my mom and I got Roudybush and Zupreem and she seems to like Roudybush (and my other conure and cockatiel like Zupreem)