Insanely Mischievous GCC honestly makes me feel like a failure as a bird parent.

[Beebleburb]

Cecil has yet another injury. I honestly have no idea how he did it, he just snapped a toenail somehow. I swear I try to infant proof everything so hard for this little guy, and he still just manages to get everywhere. He is by far the most curious and fearless bird I have ever met in my life, and it just feels like if there's the slightest way to injure himself he will find it. He broke a blood feather like two weeks ago (no idea how, scared me to death), he lost a toe in a tussle with another bird, he's always bonking himself against stuff and getting little bald spots from it, and has had a lot of toe/toenail injuries. He's probably going to be missing another toe.
I always supervise them, I make sure the toys are safe, everything is as bird proof as I can even dream of making it but he just gets EVERYWHERE!! I am serious he was once rolling his jingle ball along my kitchen floor, found a hole underneath the cabinets where the trim meets the wall, and WENT INSIDE THE WALL. I could hear him scuttling around in there for like a half hour while I FREAKED OUT and he just happily played with his ball inside the WALLS OF MY HOME. I look away for 12 seconds and he will be like, cramming himself between the refrigerator and the wall (oo warm) or hawk diving the ceiling fan cord so aggressively that it turns the fan on (ive removed the cords from my fan because of this) or trying to touch an electrical outlet (I have outlet covers now). Even just playing with his toys he will shake them so aggressively that it will end up bonking him and knocking off feathers or bruising his beak cus he goes at every toy like it personally wronged him in 1000 other lifetimes and he is finally getting revenge. He is just SO MISCHEVIOUS.
I've sort of settled in my head that one day, he will think of some new form of mischief I've never considered, and it will accidently kill him. But at least he will die doing what he loves, being an absolute menace to society. But god the guilt from every tiny injury he gets just eats me alive. I stay awake worrying about this bird constantly. I have two other birds, they are completley normal. All their toes, never get injuries, worst they do is like, chew on something I don't want them to chew. He is just the most fearless and curious creature i've ever met in my life.
Does anyone else have experiences with a bird like this?? How do I cope with the constant guilt every time he finds a new way to hurt himself? Any other birdproofing advice? Im struggling so much with this little man.

 

[Beebleburb]

Id like to add additional ways he has gotten injured/almost gotten injured/gotten into mischeif that would never cross my mind as a normal human

-sticking his foot out of the miniscule crack under the door to try and touch anyone who walks down the hallway (its sealed now)
-grabbed into the hairbrush when i set it down for two seconds and got his foot stuck in the hair then freaked out and tried to fly away and hurt his muscles in his whole leg
-tried to grab the knife i was using to cut up an apple for him by the blade
-peeled a piece of tape off the wall then got it stuck to him
-pulled a nail out of the wall that a picture on one of those strings was hanging on and sent it falling
-I do not sit down EVER before i know where he is for the record cus he will hide under fabric and stuff
-tries to drown in every cup
-desperately wants to swim in the toilet to the point where I installed a thingy that makes it impossible for the lid to be left open cus a little spring shuts it

I agree with people that having birds is like having a toddler, however this is my hyperactive, fearless, unable to feel pain, adhd toddler... and lord he keeps me on my toes!

 

[Shezbug]

Lol sorry to giggle but Cecil sounds awesome!

 

[Icey]

Id like to add additional ways he has gotten injured/almost gotten injured/gotten into mischeif that would never cross my mind as a normal human

-sticking his foot out of the miniscule crack under the door to try and touch anyone who walks down the hallway (its sealed now)
-grabbed into the hairbrush when i set it down for two seconds and got his foot stuck in the hair then freaked out and tried to fly away and hurt his muscles in his whole leg
-tried to grab the knife i was using to cut up an apple for him by the blade
-peeled a piece of tape off the wall then got it stuck to him
-pulled a nail out of the wall that a picture on one of those strings was hanging on and sent it falling
-I do not sit down EVER before i know where he is for the record cus he will hide under fabric and stuff
-tries to drown in every cup
-desperately wants to swim in the toilet to the point where I installed a thingy that makes it impossible for the lid to be left open cus a little spring shuts it

I agree with people that having birds is like having a toddler, however this is my hyperactive, fearless, unable to feel pain, adhd toddler... and lord he keeps me on my toes!

I honestly don't know if I should laugh or cry or what.
I feel for you. It must be hard for you having a forever rambunctious toddler underfoot.
I'm sorry but him going in the wall with his wee ball just cracked me up.
Do not feel guilty. If anything, can you keep him in just one room, so he can't get into trouble in the kitchen or other psrts of your house where he could possibly hurt himself?
Does he stay and play in his cage at times throughout the day?
Does he have alot òf chew toys to keep his beak busy?
Do you do any training with him, where he may blow off some excess energy? (I play ball with my macaw and my cockatoo lives to run around with a plastic bottle.)
Does he get on with the other 2 birds, and do they play with, and groom each other?
I'm just throwing things out there. Maybe rotate his cage toys or get new ones if he spends time in his cage.
Others will jump in to offer suggestions and advice. Hang in there and don't get too stressed. He sounds like a wee firecracker.

 

[Deleted member 57370]

Sometimes we get a brilliant bird with a high energy level .
And we need a picture of yours !!!

My Neptune was such .

Finding ways to challenge their brains , like foraging, needs to be taught, and simple in the beginning, but you can work up to extreme creativity and difficulty as they advance.

Provide him with his own pool. A large shallow serving dish . A horse rubber feed dish , check out feed stores..most birds still prefer the water to not be higher than their chest but enjoy wading around. Get creative. You can float plastic bottle caps in the water , and put a seed in them , or other floating toys .

I don't know what your set up is. But I have hanging perches throughout my great room. I use ceiling hooks and heavy weighted fishing line to hang fine then attach rope rope spiral, it swings , or cargo nets . Then I hide stuff like food , or toys and things to entertain. Flying between their areas burns a lot of energy. Flight is the best energy burner . And doing in home recall and targeted flights to their different areas can help increase exercise.

I've seen such fun stuff from members. Zip tie a plastic clear ( to help not seeming nest like) to the outside side of a cage or perch area , and fill it with little foot toys , do -dads , bits of broken toys and natural materials, maybe a few seeds to find .

Get creative and have fun challenge your character!

 

[Beebleburb]

Lol sorry to giggle but Cecil sounds awesome!

He is awesome, and he is the MOST personality packed bird of my flock by far. Such a little man, yaknow? god i love him. he's just also a terror loll

 

[Beebleburb]

Sometimes we get a brilliant bird with a high energy level .
And we need a picture of yours !!!

My Neptune was such .

Finding ways to challenge their brains , like foraging, needs to be taught, and simple in the beginning, but you can work up to extreme creativity and difficulty as they advance.

Provide him with his own pool. A large shallow serving dish . A horse rubber feed dish , check out feed stores..most birds still prefer the water to not be higher than their chest but enjoy wading around. Get creative. You can float plastic bottle caps in the water , and put a seed in them , or other floating toys .

I don't know what your set up is. But I have hanging perches throughout my great room. I use ceiling hooks and heavy weighted fishing line to hang fine then attach rope rope spiral, it swings , or cargo nets . Then I hide stuff like food , or toys and things to entertain. Flying between their areas burns a lot of energy. Flight is the best energy burner . And doing in home recall and targeted flights to their different areas can help increase exercise.

I've seen such fun stuff from members. Zip tie a plastic clear ( to help not seeming nest like) to the outside side of a cage or perch area , and fill it with little foot toys , do -dads , bits of broken toys and natural materials, maybe a few seeds to find .

Get creative and have fun challenge your character!

he's actually had several pools with running water and showers, but he broke them all by stuffing things in the hole the water comes out of. He has an extra large dog bowl right now and LOVES it, takes the longest baths and is soaking wet, he sticks his whole head underwater!!

With my set up they have a large room with a big ceiling and most play areas are suspended, they fly a lot! He also recalls to his name, and will land on my hand.

As for foraging, I've tried a lot with him. He really dosent care for chewing much actually. He is a plastic toy lover, he loves beads and textures. His best enrichment area is a big dish full of macaroni noodles and beads where he just goes and buries his face in noodles and flails about touching everything, he loves that.

Floating toys in his water sounds like a great idea!!!! If i get him another big fountain, i will absolutely try that. Im trying to think of more things I can get for him that make him feeeel like he is making mischief without actually doing it. For example, he loves to 'steal' empty fruit snack pouches while im 'not looking' or knock things off of tables. I also attach clothespins to things a lot and it takes him a good half hour of raging to remove those usually. Ill keep working on those things!!

He has flat toy play spaces too

 

[Beebleburb]

I honestly don't know if I should laugh or cry or what.
I feel for you. It must be hard for you having a forever rambunctious toddler underfoot.
I'm sorry but him going in the wall with his wee ball just cracked me up.
Do not feel guilty. If anything, can you keep him in just one room, so he can't get into trouble in the kitchen or other psrts of your house where he could possibly hurt himself?
Does he stay and play in his cage at times throughout the day?
Does he have alot òf chew toys to keep his beak busy?
Do you do any training with him, where he may blow off some excess energy? (I play ball with my macaw and my cockatoo lives to run around with a plastic bottle.)
Does he get on with the other 2 birds, and do they play with, and groom each other?
I'm just throwing things out there. Maybe rotate his cage toys or get new ones if he spends time in his cage.
Others will jump in to offer suggestions and advice. Hang in there and don't get too stressed. He sounds like a wee firecracker.

He dosent groom with any of the birds but he is great friends with the cockatiel! the cockatiel sings to him and he dances, they love to do that. He has most of his day as outside the cage time, and its difficult to keep him out of other house areas cus i have a semi-studio apartment but I do do my best with it
All advice is super appreciated! He is definetly a firecracker lol. I laugh at his antics every day

 

[Beebleburb]

https://forums.avianavenue.com/index.php?threads/silly-cecil.301322/

Cecil pics posted lol. I tried to add some vids of him plauing and getting up to trouble but it dosent appear to allow video embeds, ah well, you can see the energy in the pictures

 

[Beebleburb]

I suppose I'll just have to accept that even with all toes unnacounted for he is living his best life lol. And just keep doing my best to keep him safe. Im just such a worrier! I care about his toe count far more than he does, he would probably opt to loose another one if he knew he'd get more peanut butter (with medicine mixed in dont tell him)

 

[Icey]

https://forums.avianavenue.com/index.php?threads/silly-cecil.301322/

Cecil pics posted lol. I tried to add some vids of him plauing and getting up to trouble but it dosent appear to allow video embeds, ah well, you can see the energy in the pictures

OMG he is absolutely precious
You can use Facebook or YouTube to post videos here. Just copy the link.
Please post some. I can't wait to see him in action

 

[Dartman]

The house finch we raised WOULD NOT leave the big parrot alone and lost several toes before we figured out they could not play nice together. We redid the bird protocols and she was fine with several short toes and a few that didn't really work right because her foot was broken by the big bird and the tendons tightened up as it healed. If I stretched her toes out she could move them but eventually they would just curl up again so I stopped trying to stretch out as it drove her crazy. Beeper was a tiny fire cracker too and into everything, but she sang the song of her people and loved the toys we gave her.

 

[Beebleburb]

The house finch we raised WOULD NOT leave the big parrot alone and lost several toes before we figured out they could not play nice together. We redid the bird protocols and she was fine with several short toes and a few that didn't really work right because her foot was broken by the big bird and the tendons tightened up as it healed. If I stretched her toes out she could move them but eventually they would just curl up again so I stopped trying to stretch out as it drove her crazy. Beeper was a tiny fire cracker too and into everything, but she sang the song of her people and loved the toys we gave her.

this sounds relatable lol. Im working on their togetherness always, the beef that caused the toe loss was my mistake- one in the cage one outside the cage. I learned very fast that that is a big no-no. Every time i let them out together i have them stand and eat some millett together a) cus i want them to not associate being close with being threated and b) cus i dont want them to scare eachother by not realizing the other is out! it works pretty well, neither are food agressive and both are little pigs

 

[CrazyKozmo]

Oh my! What a character!! I may have missed it but.....how old is he?? I have a rescue (have her for 17 years now) and one that I got as a chick (21 years ago).

 

[Beebleburb]

Oh my! What a character!! I may have missed it but.....how old is he?? I have a rescue (have her for 17 years now) and one that I got as a chick (21 years ago).

He is 7!

 

[Beebleburb]

I’m at the vet with him today the scab came off his wound and I can either see the quick or his nail or his TOE BONE and I’m honestly not sure wich but I was like ‘ah yep that’s not right’ so here we are.
He does so so badly in the car so I always treat him at home as much as possible. I’m always terrified the car ride alone will kill him, he throws up over and over. Like not regurgitates- throws up.
first avian vet I went to was like ‘oops sorry yeah I know we said you could come in but actually our vet isn’t here today’
I mean I understand life happens but why did they tell me I could come in when the vet was not there I dragged my poor man on that thirty minute car ride. And then another 20 minutes to the next vet- thankful to live in a major city.
my poor boy has thrown up so much. It takes so much out of him to be in the car!
we are waiting to be seen now.I asked for some peanut butter and they had some, it’s his favorite treat, and he ate some wich makes me feel better.
wish us luck. I’m really hoping to avoid any possible sedation

 

[Beebleburb]

he’s really good for the vets always tho so here’s to hope and whatnot. Here’s the man himself in the ‘oops I messed up bad’ travel cage

 

[Beebleburb]

For anyone wondering why i didn’t think it was as bad as this, it was not bleeding, he didn’t seem in pain or anything. I put syptic and iodine on it wich turns the wound area dark so I didn’t notice that it must have had an area that was not getting enough blood flow. So disappointed in myself.

 

[Shezbug]

Hope all went well at the vet. Poor little bugger.

 

[Beebleburb]

Hope all went well at the vet. Poor little bugger.

They amputated his lil toe he did really well for everything though and seems wholly unconcerned with the fact that it’s gone. Got antibiotics and painkillers he should be fine. I just really really hope this is my last unexpected vet visit for a long long time. I try so so hard to keep him safe.