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 Post subject: New Here!
PostPosted: Sun Sep 11, 2016 7:21 pm 
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Hi, Everyone!

I'm new here, but I'm a long time lurker. I'm a doctoral student studying counseling psychology, so I can't promise I'll be on here a lot. This forum seems like a great, friendly place to ask questions and learn more, though!

Anyway, my little baby is named Zappy (okay, he's named Zapdos after the Pokemon). I got him two years ago (his birthday is May 11th), and he's my best friend. Oh, and he's a cockatiel! His greatest joy is to sit on my shoulder while I make my way through my reading list for the week or grade my giant stack of student papers.

Zap is a little bit of a problem child. Everything was great for the first six months I had him, but then he went through his first moult...then there were blood feathers. Soooo many blood feathers...and Zap broke them. Aside from that, I'm pretty sure his breeder clipped his wings when he was, like, 4 weeks old. When I don't clip his wings, he hits the ceiling, the walls, the windows. He has no control, and I think it's because he never really fledged? Anyway, I'll have to admit that inexperience had me bringing him to the vet whenever I saw blood, but I quickly learned the difference between a "non-serious" blood feather incident and when it became life threatening. I almost lost him (this was vet visit 5 in 3 months) when he broke 13 blood feathers at once during a particularly bad night fright. I couldn't stop the bleeding and cried the whole way to the emergency vet, sure he would die before I arrived. After that I was done. Zap sleeps in an aquarium now, and he loves it. More on that later, if anyone is interested. I'm convinced that the aquarium saved his life. Plus, he's on Avi-Calm.

So, I have my master's in counseling psych, and I've diagnosed my baby. Near as I can tell he has generalized anxiety disorder with panic attacks. I also think he may have a bird version of Tourette Syndrome. He randomly emits this high pitched squeak when he whistles. It's very odd but endearing. I'm not sure if that's common?

Anyway, I'm sure I'll post more about my little buddy in the future. He has a bunch of quirks, but I love him!


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 Post subject: Re: New Here!
PostPosted: Sun Sep 11, 2016 8:50 pm 
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Welcome to the group! Zappy is adorable.

He will probably learn to fly well if he gets the opportunity to do it safely. Babies don't automatically know how to fly when they fledge - flapping is instinctive but steering and landing have to be learned, and there are a lot of crashes before they figure it out.

A new fledgling doesn't fly very fast because they don't have a lot of wing strength, and that helps protect them from getting hurt when they fly straight into a wall. An older bird will usually be stronger even if he hasn't been flying, because there's a certain amount of flapping that goes on when they're climbing and birding around. A bird that's been clipped enough to slow him down but not clipped so hard that he falls like a rock is less likely to hurt himself smacking into a wall than one that's fully flighted.

It's unusual for an adult to have a lot of blood feathers at the same time. The feather only has a blood supply while it's growing, and the blood supply disappears when the feather is fully grown. But if he knocked out a lot of wing feathers during a night fright, they would all start growing back at the same time so he'd have a lot of them. Cockatiels are a lot more prone to night frights than most other parrots, unfortunately it's a characteristic of the species.

:tiel-flight:



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 Post subject: Re: New Here!
PostPosted: Sun Sep 11, 2016 11:06 pm 
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Hello, welcome to the forum! :D I have a bit of a problem-child tiel myself, named Alex.

Alex hatched in October last year when it was somewhat cold, and the parents for some reason abandoned the clutch. All of the chicks had died and been thrown out of the next box except for little Alex. Even then, her bird parents plucked all of the feathers.
I got Alex before she was weaned, and she's a little behind her age mentally, I think. Took much longer to wean than it would take for a cockatiel (moving to a different house could've played a role in that), and still acts like a baby. Alex has night frights to the point where she ends up knocking out all of the flight feathers in one wing, so even if I wanted to clip her wings it's not like I'd have to.
The feathers just grew back though so here's hoping she can get some practice in without losing them... Again.

Did you try any methods to prevent night frights before moving him into an aquarium, such as covering the cage up or making sure there's no sudden noises? Night frights often happen for a reason and cockatiels are especially prone to it. They happen when the bird has seen or heard something in the night, and since they don't see well at night, it freaks them out. Instincts say it might be a predator and their first instinct is to try and fly away even if they're in a cage.

The only concern I have about the aquarium is ventilation. Even with a wire mesh top, the glass walls blocking some airflow and I know for some small animals, poor ventilation can lead to some problems. Not sure if birds happen to be one of those animals though, but I think there's a reason why we typically use cages for them instead of aquariums. If Zappy is out for the majority of the day though, then this shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Zappy both looks and sounds like an adorable bird. I'd love to hear that high pitch squeak you're talking about because it definitely sounds unusual. If you have a video, I'd love to see it. :D
I wish my birds would patiently sit on my shoulder while I do college homework. :lol: No, instead they try to "help" me in any way possible by trying to chew on my laptop keys or catch the mouse on the screen, or shredding textbook paper or anything they can come up with. Zappy sounds pretty well behaved despite the quirks.



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 Post subject: Re: New Here!
PostPosted: Mon Sep 12, 2016 1:42 am 
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Hello and welcome....
I'm sure you'll like it here....
It's very friendly and you can ask as
many questions as you like...
Sounds like your having a worrying time
with Zap....
All good advise given to you.....I can't add to it....



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 Post subject: Re: New Here!
PostPosted: Mon Sep 12, 2016 4:58 am 
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Welcome!


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 Post subject: Re: New Here!
PostPosted: Mon Sep 12, 2016 6:47 am 
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Thanks for the welcome and replies, everyone!

To clarify, Zappy has been doing really well for the last year ever since I got the aquarium. He's out whenever I'm home and hasn't had any issues from what I can tell. Honestly, it's better than waiting in fear every night for the sound of him thrashing in his cage (literally was happening every night). I got so little sleep during the second semester of my master's program, that almost everyone I talked to wanted me to give my baby up. I didn't, obviously. I didn't even consider it, but this solution has been a miracle.

The aquarium is like his safe space. He heart wings it, sings to it during the day. Zap is an anxious little thing and cries his heart out whenever I leave the room, but if I stick him briefly in his aquarium while I take a shower, I come back to content "crunchies." Last night I even heard "Jingle Bells" on repeat while I was getting ready for bed. I tried EVERYTHING before the aquarium. At one point, he had 3 night lights, 1 lamp, soft music playing, literally every recommendation that anyone ever gave me. Heck, I even bought him a baby monitor so I could listen for night frights when I was a little farther away. He doesn't get injured in his aquarium and likes it, so I count it as a huge win. He had so many blood feather incidents that basically every flight feather was trying to grow back at once. The emergency vet I took him to at the 13 Blood Feather incident didn't specialize in birds (at the time I was living in a rural town), so she may have been pulling feathers that shouldn't have been pulled. He literally ended up with no flights after that incident, though. His avian vet at the time said that he was the most anxious bird she had ever seen and wanted to put him on bipolar medication. He wouldn't have whistled ever again, so I vetoed it. Regardless, I live in a city now, so I have an emergency vet lined up who actually works with birds. :woohoo1:

Someday, I'm going to try to letting him be fully flighted again. Even though the night frights have dwindled, he still is hyper anxious when there are unexpected sounds. My dad sneezed one time when I was home, and Zappy crashed into the ceiling and several walls before falling all the way down to the floor. With his anxiety issues, flight doesn't seem safe. I'm working on exposure therapy to sound, though, and he can glide pretty far distances when he sets his mind to it. He just doesn't seem to WANT to fly. I have to coax him to fly a few feet to my fingers. In fact, I've taken to going on walks with him while he waddles at my side like a dog heeling.

Anyway, like I said, things have really worked out, and I'm really happy with where Zap and I are at the moment! Thanks for all of your comments! Zap and I are happy to be a part of the forum!


Last edited by Zappy'sOwner on Mon Sep 12, 2016 7:50 am, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: New Here!
PostPosted: Mon Sep 12, 2016 7:47 am 
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JessiMuse wrote:
Hello, welcome to the forum! :D I have a bit of a problem-child tiel myself, named Alex.

Alex hatched in October last year when it was somewhat cold, and the parents for some reason abandoned the clutch. All of the chicks had died and been thrown out of the next box except for little Alex. Even then, her bird parents plucked all of the feathers.
I got Alex before she was weaned, and she's a little behind her age mentally, I think. Took much longer to wean than it would take for a cockatiel (moving to a different house could've played a role in that), and still acts like a baby. Alex has night frights to the point where she ends up knocking out all of the flight feathers in one wing, so even if I wanted to clip her wings it's not like I'd have to.
The feathers just grew back though so here's hoping she can get some practice in without losing them... Again.

Did you try any methods to prevent night frights before moving him into an aquarium, such as covering the cage up or making sure there's no sudden noises? Night frights often happen for a reason and cockatiels are especially prone to it. They happen when the bird has seen or heard something in the night, and since they don't see well at night, it freaks them out. Instincts say it might be a predator and their first instinct is to try and fly away even if they're in a cage.

The only concern I have about the aquarium is ventilation. Even with a wire mesh top, the glass walls blocking some airflow and I know for some small animals, poor ventilation can lead to some problems. Not sure if birds happen to be one of those animals though, but I think there's a reason why we typically use cages for them instead of aquariums. If Zappy is out for the majority of the day though, then this shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Zappy both looks and sounds like an adorable bird. I'd love to hear that high pitch squeak you're talking about because it definitely sounds unusual. If you have a video, I'd love to see it. :D
I wish my birds would patiently sit on my shoulder while I do college homework. :lol: No, instead they try to "help" me in any way possible by trying to chew on my laptop keys or catch the mouse on the screen, or shredding textbook paper or anything they can come up with. Zappy sounds pretty well behaved despite the quirks.


Jessi, rereading your comment about Alex really reminded me of Zap. I hope her feathers are able to grow in and stay in soon! I know Zap's were wrenched out so much/often that even now one of his flights won't grow back in (even after a year). I guess the integrity of the feather was compromised so much that it won't grow back? The other flight feathers that fell out really often in the past seem to fall out at the drop of a hat. He got startled by a gunshot when I was watching a cop show on TV and flew 3 feet into the wall a couple of weeks ago. That was enough to get his blood feather to fall out and some bleeding to occur (luckily this seems to be an isolated incident). Has Alex gotten any better?


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 Post subject: Re: New Here!
PostPosted: Mon Sep 12, 2016 9:50 am 
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Cockatiels do NOT like sneezes lol. My birds have heard me do it a million times and it still sets them off. If I'm able to tell them that something is about to happen they don't freak out, but due to the nature of sneezes I'm frequently unable to talk when one is coming on.

Repeated accidents can damage the feather follicle to the point that feathers can no longer grow, and it sounds like Zappy may have had enough damage for them to not stay in as well as they should. There could be other issues though. The flight feathers support each other in a wing that's properly feathered, but there's not enough support in situations where there's basically one long feather and everything else is either missing or clipped very short. So that isolated long feather is likely to get knocked out under conditions that wouldn't cause problems if the other feathers were there. If you can prevent him from having further accidents it's possible that the follicles might heal over time and do a better job of retaining the feathers.

The singing and heart-winging to the aquarium sounds like he's making friends with his reflection. That might be one reason he's calmer there. A bird that's alone is at higher risk from predators than a bird that's in a flock. He's got a flockmate in the aquarium to help keep watch and spread the risk around, and the flockmate never freaks out over anything at night. You might even consider giving him a mirror. A lot of people will say to never give a mirror to a bird because it can cause problems, but they do have their uses. IMO the decision should depend on whether it is beneficial or problematic for your individual bird.

Not wanting to fly might be because he's had so many bad experiences with it. When people want to teach an older bird to fly, it can be helpful to encourage very short flights over a soft surface like a bed, so the bird doesn't have painful crashes.



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 Post subject: Re: New Here!
PostPosted: Mon Sep 12, 2016 10:14 am 
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tielfan wrote:
Cockatiels do NOT like sneezes lol. My birds have heard me do it a million times and it still sets them off.

True. Jaid goes flying every time I sneeze.

I know you. You're from TC. I'm the mod CaliTiels over there if you haven't guessed.



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 Post subject: Re: New Here!
PostPosted: Mon Sep 12, 2016 10:44 am 
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Alex has in some ways gotten better and in other ways gotten a little worse. We just recently got a new dog which has made Alex super anxious and getting her out of the cage is a challenge within itself, even when the dog is outside (there's always been a dog since I've had her, but that dog is smaller and also fairly afraid of birds, which both my tiels are well aware of. New dog however, is neither small nor afraid).

She has some damaged follicles as well due to being plucked by the parents, and still has bald spots on her wings. I'm hoping that they may eventually heal. The flight feathers however have managed to grow back so hopefully they can stay there.

Alex isn't that bad compared to a tiel I used to have named Pecky. He was the last clipped bird I owned before deciding to keep the next one (which was Lucy) fully-flighted. He also hit the ceiling when he flew, and would sometimes have random flighty moments where he'd freak out, then upon landing on the floor he would pant really quickly (not sure if he was hyperventilating or if a bird just pants like that). I would pick him up and pet him to calm him down. Oddly enough he wouldn't let me touch him unless if I had my hand over his body. Kinda acted like a security blanket. Otherwise my hands would automatically be seen as something scary and he would attack if they were near. He was a rescue though and was adopted from our local humane society (which actually took in birds oddly enough?). Even then, Pecky still wasn't the first anxious bird I've had. Or anxious animal in general.

Long story short, I've dealt with a lot of anxious animals, including birds.


Back on the topic with Zappy though...

From what I've seen, birds with better control in flying tend to be more confident. My other tiel Lucy (the bird in my signature) is fully flighted and also very skilled at it, not to mention that she loves to fly whenever she's out of the cage (she'll fly around the room, through the kitchen and back just because she feels like it). Not to mention she tries to come out of the cage when I'm changing food and water regardless if the dogs are there or not. Ironically she's not as "flighty" as Alex is. I mean she is flighty in the sense that she'll fly when startled... :lol: But she doesn't necessarily startle as easily.

It's quite possible that the anxiety stems from not learning how to fly properly when fledged. Perhaps learning to better control his flight will help with the anxiety. I kept Alex flighted when I got her, though she's always struggled. She started to get better at flying... up until she started getting night frights from dislodging the feathers in her wings for three times now. Since then progress has slowed, if not gone backwards altogether, but we'll get there eventually.

It sounds like you're doing a great job with Zappy though. :) I'd love to hear about some of the other methods that have worked for Zappy's anxiety. Maybe I could use them on some of the anxious animals I work with.

Also do you by any chance have septic powder on you? That'll be useful in cases where he may be at risk when it comes to the bleeding. I use it mainly when we have to clip some toenails in case one gets clipped a little too short, but I think it would be helpful if he ends up damaging a lot of blood feathers. I think corn starch does the same thing? I can't remember though. Hopefully someone can confirm that with me.



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