GeorgiesDad
Moving in
- Joined
- 12/3/17
- Messages
- 5
Hi all,
My wife and I just today adopted a 16-year-old male Timneh Grey. I previously had owned an Eclectus and therefore have some familiarity and experience with parrot behavior.
This Grey, we were told by the rescue agency, will only step up onto your left arm. The foster mom, who appeared to have lots of bird experience, couldn't figure out why that would be the case and didn't have any success at trying to correct it.
Once we got him home, I realized that the problem appeared to go beyond just an affinity for the left arm. It appeared the bird only wanted to be on the left side of his cage. I had his food and water bowl on the right side of his cage, and he didn't appear to want to have anything to do with going over to get them, even though he clearly saw me load up his bowl with chopped fresh fruit and veggies, and a few seeds. On a whim, I rotated his cage on its wheels, so that now the food and water dish were on the left. Well, he went right to them immediately.
I can't figure out why this might be. He appears to be completely healthy. He's bright-eyed and curious, vocalizes, preens, dances at times. Droppings appear perfectly normal. I do not see any sign of hemiparesis or any physical limitation that would cause him to favor one side over the other. He will move to the right side when needed, i.e., he is being forced that way by an arm, but he seems highly reluctant to do so on his own. He wouldn't even move across his cage perch that way. When I tried to coax him to the other side of the cage with some nuts and seeds, he elected to climb across the bars of the cage rather than simply scoot down the perch.
I will likely take him to a vet soon to be checked out, but I was wondering if anyone here had an opinion on if this could be a wacky behavioral issue and, if it is, how to go about correcting it.
Thanks.
My wife and I just today adopted a 16-year-old male Timneh Grey. I previously had owned an Eclectus and therefore have some familiarity and experience with parrot behavior.
This Grey, we were told by the rescue agency, will only step up onto your left arm. The foster mom, who appeared to have lots of bird experience, couldn't figure out why that would be the case and didn't have any success at trying to correct it.
Once we got him home, I realized that the problem appeared to go beyond just an affinity for the left arm. It appeared the bird only wanted to be on the left side of his cage. I had his food and water bowl on the right side of his cage, and he didn't appear to want to have anything to do with going over to get them, even though he clearly saw me load up his bowl with chopped fresh fruit and veggies, and a few seeds. On a whim, I rotated his cage on its wheels, so that now the food and water dish were on the left. Well, he went right to them immediately.
I can't figure out why this might be. He appears to be completely healthy. He's bright-eyed and curious, vocalizes, preens, dances at times. Droppings appear perfectly normal. I do not see any sign of hemiparesis or any physical limitation that would cause him to favor one side over the other. He will move to the right side when needed, i.e., he is being forced that way by an arm, but he seems highly reluctant to do so on his own. He wouldn't even move across his cage perch that way. When I tried to coax him to the other side of the cage with some nuts and seeds, he elected to climb across the bars of the cage rather than simply scoot down the perch.
I will likely take him to a vet soon to be checked out, but I was wondering if anyone here had an opinion on if this could be a wacky behavioral issue and, if it is, how to go about correcting it.
Thanks.