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Toe Tapping and Wing Flipping

Chihuahua

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I have a friend who works at a zoo and has an eclectus and I can ask him what they feed the ekkie.. might be useful for others :)
 

Lilyrat

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That would be good to know.

I have switched to sprouts and fresh veggies and fruit. Only one almond as a treat. I have eliminated the allergic food (sweet potato, corn, and squash.)

But most importantly...I believe her last 4 month long tapping/flipping was hormone induced.

As soon as the time changed and warm weather hit (the same week for us) Penelope was back to normal. Her chewed leg has healed too! Shortly after that I switched her diet.

She just turned two, so we will see what the next long winter months bring...
 

Chihuahua

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I should say the ZOO has the ekkie... he is bird free currently :p

edit: unfortunately he said he doesnt feed the ekkies so he doesnt know what they feed them but he may be able to find out.. will let you know
 

clawnz

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Great reading. I am very interested in learning what not to feed and what to feed.
I hope to never have a problem with Sophie. So far in the short time I have had her she has conditioned up well. So very pleased with that.
And i can say she loves the sprout mix I am doing for them. In the time I have had her I have never seen her so keen to eat, as when I put the sprouts out.
She came in a seed junky, and I knew that had to change.
All indications seem to point to supplements and processed foods, at least not helping with Toe Tapping. I am still not sure about Wing Flipping.
The only other thing that has been mentioned else where is Calcium uptake. Somethings can block this. And maybe another thing to look at.

For the leg I think Betadine is safe and it helps dry the wound. It is for humans, but I have used it on my birds.

I will bring over my sprouting thread from another forum.
I am use to sprouting Mung beans on their own. But after seeing a guy sprouting a mix from Topflight and making a few inquiries, found out what they were using. This was enough to get me shopping. And now sprouting 12/14 different seeds, grains, beans, and peas.

Lillian I hope you do get on top of this. You have worked so hard for her well being.
 

Lilyrat

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I want to give an update on Penelope. She is toe tapping the first time in over a year. I believe it was from a hard boiled egg or it could be molting or hormonal. It was interesting reading my past posts - a lot of things I had forgotten about. It is frustrating, but I think we will get past it. As for her leg that she chewed up...she hasn't touched it in over a year.
 

clawnz

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Lillian. Good news and some bad.
So glad her leg has got better and she has not gone after it any more.
Sad to hear she has shown signs of Toe Tapping. i hope you can figure out what could be causing it.
 

Lilyrat

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It had to be the boiled egg...on top of the added pistachio treat she has been getting (added to her nightly 2 almonds)! Those treats add up when you don't pay attention

Penelope is fine today (so far) I gave her a little raspberry tea yesterday and only one almond.
 

Aggie

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Please help.

My 5 month eckie had toe tapping mild from what I think was over eating chillies like 6 weeks ago. He was fine for ages. Went away camping and he had it all night but more severely. Very disturbing :( im not sure if from pellets or the fact he ate twice as much as normal (I thought cos much colder new environment and hanging on to my shoulder all day he was very tired) the AV suggested pellets and brought up toe tapping and he said it was fine. He had been on pellets only 3 day along with sunflower and veggie chop mix. He gets a different mix for bfast and dinner. The breeder brought him up on sunflower and would throw some veggies at him daily but nothing to the variety he gets now.

I've been trying to cut down his sunflower intake so have given him more vegies. So confused by it all tbh.

The last mix had spelt pasta, corn, zucchini, carrot, passionfruit, sesame linseed and coriander. As we where camping he didnt get a chance to fly around much so not sure if it's energy not burnt off.

Anyway i think pellets are going in the bin. I'm really angry buying them and being told I should feed this if I want him to be healthy and live longer. I'm also not feeding him the current mix until Ive got some feedback.

What is everyone's thoughts please?
 

Monica

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Is it Zupreem pellets? If so, might be a good idea to at least withhold the pellets. Maybe see if you can return them?


I've heard Harrison's, Roudybush, TOP's or *maybe* Pretty Bird are better to give to Ekkies if you are going to feed them pellets. I don't know about Vetafarm... but I wouldn't feed an Ekkie Zupreem.


What about feeding sprouted seeds, grains and legumes as a "base" with plenty of fresh foods?
 

Aggie

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Is it Zupreem pellets? If so, might be a good idea to at least withhold the pellets. Maybe see if you can return them?


I've heard Harrison's, Roudybush, TOP's or *maybe* Pretty Bird are better to give to Ekkies if you are going to feed them pellets. I don't know about Vetafarm... but I wouldn't feed an Ekkie Zupreem.


What about feeding sprouted seeds, grains and legumes as a "base" with plenty of fresh foods?
Its an Australian brand 'passwel'. They had others but full of colour so I said no way. My kids wouldn't get that neither is my bird.

I do sprout seeds. And also usually gets chickpeas beans or lentils mixed with fruit/veg. Guess I'll stock to that.

How much sunflower seeds a day do you think is ok? Breeder has all his birds on it

And do you think spelt pasta is an issue? Or linseed or sesame?

Cheers

Aggie
 

Monica

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Might try Vetafarm over Passwell then? Passwell has "meat meal" in it... which makes me skeptical of feeding it.... although, for an eclectus, I'd keep pellets at 25% or less of the diet.


If you sprout the sunflower seeds, I'd say they are okay. You wouldn't want a ton, but mixed in the sprout, they should be fine.


I'd imagine the other things are okay, too, unless your ekkie has a problem with one in particular. Granted, I don't feed pasta to my birds, but I do know many that do. As for the linseed, I think this is best fed ground up. That is, get seeds, put into a coffee grinder (or other type of grinder), and grind into a powder and add to their fresh foods. It's easier to digest ground up than fed whole.
 

Aggie

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Might try Vetafarm over Passwell then? Passwell has "meat meal" in it... which makes me skeptical of feeding it.... although, for an eclectus, I'd keep pellets at 25% or less of the diet.


If you sprout the sunflower seeds, I'd say they are okay. You wouldn't want a ton, but mixed in the sprout, they should be fine.


I'd imagine the other things are okay, too, unless your ekkie has a problem with one in particular. Granted, I don't feed pasta to my birds, but I do know many that do. As for the linseed, I think this is best fed ground up. That is, get seeds, put into a coffee grinder (or other type of grinder), and grind into a powder and add to their fresh foods. It's easier to digest ground up than fed whole.
7

Thanks for that! I will definitely cut back on sunflower.

I think he only had like 10%....but never had anything like it before. I think I'll stay away from pellets for a little while.

He seams ok atm. No toe tapping. No pellets or pasta mix today tho.
 

Shinobi

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Do you keep a food diary? this could help identified what foods are causing the TT & WF.
 

Aggie

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Do you keep a food diary? this could help identified what foods are causing the TT & WF.
I decided no more pellets and chilli once a week at most. Sunflower occasionally as a treat. He now has chop mix twice daily that is supplemented with fresh fruit/veg. He will help himself to a little canary mix which is always available in his cage. However, doesnt eat much of it though. AV said it is a much better alternative.

No more issues thankfully and overall a happier bird
:bounce4:

20170429_171011.jpg

20170327_080809.jpg
 

clawnz

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Great to hear he is doing better.
 

janicedyh

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Beautiful little guy
 

Aggie

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We had another issue of toe tapping and wing flipping. It was horrendous and i have no idea what could have caused it. I had to hold him most of the night to calm him down. He eventually settled enough to sleep in carrier on my bedside table.

Nothing has changed for months. In fact echo is now on calcium once a week for few months as per AV.

He was outside in cage all day with some flying around in arvo. At 10pm he started and it lasted all night. Occasionally his foot will still go but he is much calmer.

Only thing i did notuce was that he ate little last morsel of food i gave him yesterday and has been doing giant pois most of day.

Could this just be from an excess of unused energy?
 

DAislandR

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@vero Here is some information you may want to research about Ekkies. Not sure if there are any new developments but it's worth a gander.
 
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