Hormonal

[Mrs c]

Hi there. I have a 20 year old grey who is very hormonal. I feed Harrison high potency.... Would it help if I changed to maintenance.. Ideas on this would be welcome please

 

[Wardy]

Hi there. I have a 20 year old grey who is very hormonal. I feed Harrison high potency.... Would it help if I changed to maintenance.. Ideas on this would be welcome please

My understanding of Harrisons high potency is that you use it for the first 6 months whilst transitioning as it has a higher fat content to encourage your bird to transition from seed that has a high fat content and then move onto maintenance.


@Mizzely may well be able to advise

 

[Mrs c]

I was told that greys need to be kept on the high potancy as they need that extra. I am going to check that out tho. Thanks for your help.

 

[Wardy]

I was told that greys need to be kept on the high potancy as they need that extra. I am going to check that out tho. Thanks for your help.

Thats possible i cant think of anyone who has a grey on the forum that i can tag in but Shawna knows a massive amount about bird nutrition.

 

[Mrs c]

My understanding of Harrisons high potency is that you use it for the first 6 months whilst transitioning as it has a higher fat content to encourage your bird to transition from seed that has a high fat content and then move onto maintenance.


@Mizzely may well be able to advise

OK so I checked out the harrisons site and it defo recommended high potency for greys, macaws and some of the large cockatoos. But it also says its helps to bring birds into breeding condition. We don't need that in this house at the moment that's for sure!!!

 

[Wardy]

@Zara

Zara who has a grey who can help ?

 

[Zara]

@Nikomania @jmfleish @Snowghost @saroj12 @redindiaink @ncGreyBirdLady @dollfish @Tvdv96 are quite active members.

 

[Mizzely]

Greys they do recommend staying on HP, however I think it worth a try switching to maintenance to see if it helps.

What else is in the diet?

 

[Mrs c]

Greys they do recommend staying on HP, however I think it worth a try switching to maintenance to see if it helps.

What else is in the diet?

He has veg, pulses, a little fruit and a few nutri berries

 

[ncGreyBirdLady]

I would try switching.Personally I do not think a high fat high protien pellet is totally best for a 20 year old Grey GMHO.Maybe do half and half

 

[ncGreyBirdLady]

I would try switching.Personally I do not think a high fat high protien pellet is totally best for a 20 year old Grey GMHO.Maybe do half and half

 

[Tvdv96]

I do agree with @ncGreyBirdLady, I also do not think it's totally necessary to feed the high potency pellets to greys. I think it's worth a try to switch to the maintenance
I feed Sisi (my CAG) the Roudybush daily maintenance, and she's doing great on that.

 

[Mrs c]

Thank you everyone for your thoughts on this. I am going to try him on the maintenance. Maybe half and half to begin. Hope it looks the same because I remember the change over to pellets with an amount of dread

 

[Tvdv96]

I do believe they look quite the same, but I'm not sure. I wish you the best of luck and please keep us updated!

 

[Mrs c]

I do believe they look quite the same, but I'm not sure. I wish you the best of luck and please keep us updated!

Yes I will. Will be ordering some today.

 

[dollfish]

I also feed high potency ithe evening and chop in the morning. I would cut down on nutriberries andvthe fruit as much as possible, especially if you train regularly with seeds and nuts. My gray is extremely sensetive to light changes so sleep is a sensetive issue in our house. I have also determined certain areas that if Astro sees me in, displays hormonal behaviour. The areas include her aviary and around the cage. I need to limit her access to perceived nesting areas and I do this by putting scary objects in those areas. This deters her from the perceived nesting sites and also help ease the hormonal state since there is "danger" around and it is then no time to fool around. This also helps Astro become more used to these scary objects since she has a very strong urge to approach these areas.

The big difference I saw was when I switched from Zupreem-like pellets for training treats to seeds. In almost less than a week, Astro was not displaying hormonal behaviour. I wouldn't have believed it could make such a huge difference!

 

[Snowghost]

I'm not that well educated in pellets. I still struggle with Paco's diet. As far as hormonal exactly what is he doing? How long has he been acting like this? As for Paco's diet, he get warmed veggies, twice a day morning and evening. That would be peas, broccoli, sweet potatoes, pasta veggies (organic), yellow squash. I change it up. Fruit I do the same, a little banana, sometimes a grape and he does like a slice of apple. A slice of cucumber once in a while, it makes his poo watery. I had him on Roudybush pellets, but supply dwindled after Covid. He has a bowl of nutriberries, that I keep in his cage with Higgins California seed blend. He is 24 and I haven't attempted to switch him to pellets completely. He plucks enough as it is and I fear a change in diet will be worse. I put pumpkin seeds in with his nutriberries, from what I see on the bottom of his cage he tosses the berries out to get to the seeds. I have seen some of the pellets in the seed have been eaten as well. The amount of light, playtime and diet all add to their behavior.

 

[Mrs c]

Not sure if Alfie is a he or a she. Behavior wise we are getting a lot of cage aggression. He is feeding his toys and the mugs on the mug tree in the kitchen even the teapot spout. Struts around all puffed up near anything he considers to be his. Suddenly hates the dog, but only the male dog. If anyone walks toward his cage he immediately flies back and goes in. Then he starts saying" get away.. Go on" he goes to bed about 8.30 with cage covered and once he's settled we go into another room to watch TV. Alf also plucks but only around his neck. He started when he was about 6 years old. Vet couldn't find any medical reason for it. We always get this hormonal stuff at this time of year but usually not as bad.

 

[Snowghost]

Hmmm. Paco is a 24 year old male. Previous owner said he was vet checked when bought from a breeder. He has never acted in the manner you just described. Feeding his toys and too funny the teapot spout is hormonal. You can try moving the teapot, but I would think he wouldn't want to do without his toys. Paco? Poor guy is afraid of everything. Just now I tried to give him his weekend shower, he runs to his back perch and slings his bell and other swinging toy out of the way to get ready. Well, not this morning. He did all these steps and then decides he doesn't want to sit on back perch. So I stopped the spray and left him hanging on the side of his cage. Sometimes I wonder what I got myself into with these neurotic creatures, but they are so funny and great companions. Maybe remove the toys temporarily and see if that calms him down or give him different toys, kind of recycle them.

 

[Mrs c]

I don't remove all his toys I replace the ones he gets amorous with something else. My friend has a female grey and doesn't get this behavior either. Another thing he does is hang on a toy with his wings sort of wrapped around it and makes a kind of clucking noise. And whines. As for bathing, I used to shower him but one day my dad said give him a bowl of water in the cage..... He loves it... He lies on his side to get his wings under the water.... Flaps about and makes little squealing noises. Makes the cage bottom like a swimming pool but it's great to watch him. Maybe he's a she. He's pretty big for a grey. I don't know if that's anything to go by.