Help me decipher this behavior?

naomisarah · Aug 3, 2010

My Rafiki (25 years old, rescued and placed in my home just over a month ago) does this funny thing in the morning. He rips up strips of newspaper and lays them over his water dish, half-in and half-out. He leaves them there all day until evening, when he pulls them out and rolls them up into little balls and sucks the water out of them.

He came from a situation where he didn't have fresh water often and he even lived for a while with chronic dehydration... you dont think this behavior is because of that, do you? It would be an effective way to sop up little bits...

Spiritbird · Aug 3, 2010

Poor bird. Must be very smart to have figured this one out to stave off dehydration. Many cages have 3 or 4 bowls. I suggest you try multiple bowls of water in the cage and when bird is out of the cage give him a bath size bowl of water and see what happens. Remember to bathe him. Is the bird pulling the paper up from the bottom of the cage through the grate? Another idea is to give him lots and lots of shredding toys so he can shred away without haveing all the newspaper print in his system.

naomisarah · Aug 3, 2010

There is no grate in the bottom of his cage because it distressed him to lose food through the grate. His water dish is actually a big ceramic loaf pan that's bigger than he is - I change it twice a day - the newspaper makes it a little gross, but if this is really a hydration security thing for him, I don't want to try and stop this behavior, I want to let him do it.

When I think about it, it seems like such a smart way to sop up the last little bits of water when you have a hook-bill and it's not deep enough to dip in.

His mate had died, though I don't know if from dehydration or egg-binding, and he's a great bird but I sense he's been through much trauma.

naomisarah · Aug 3, 2010

I'll switch him to paper towels, to get rid of the news print issue for sure, but yes he has things to shred, it's like he does his "morning business" which includes a drink and the paper-laying and eating and preening, then comes out of the cage for some play (training) with me, then goes back in to rest and comes out again in the evening... and around bedtime he goes and does his little birdie paper-rolling. It seems like habit, like he's done it for a long time or HAD TO do it often.

Birdamor · Aug 3, 2010

My dear, bottom grids are a health safety feature so I suggest you put it back in the cage. I agree with the suggestion of putting several different sources of water in his cage as well as wet, soft food. Has he been seen by an AV and had all tests done on him (complete avian blood panel, bile acids, choanal and anal swabs, fecal, skin scraping, full body X-rays)? Birds that were severely neglected and/or abused need more complete check-ups than 'normal' birds.

naomisarah · Aug 3, 2010

Thank you, he had his vet workup done at the last home he was in who fully re-habbed all of the birds they got from the nasty breeder home (I have not seen copies and fully intend to get my own workup done... just figuring out the $ aspect of that). I will be getting him an even bigger cage this week and I'll leave the grate in that one from the get-go, but I do change his papers twice a day right now. He came to me rather suddenly so I wasn't very prepared. :-/

ScottinVentura · Aug 3, 2010

Animals that have been through things like that develop coping mechanisms. We had a rescue dog that had been nearly starved. Food was available infrequently, and inappropriately. When we fed her, she'd start by taking about half the food in the bowl and hiding it in different places, then she'd finish up what was left. I've never seen that before or since - plenty of dogs will try to hide what's left over after they eat, but she's the only one that hid her food and ate what was left.

What made me really sad was her desperation when she'd go back to check on her stashes of food and found they were gone. We couldn't leave it there to rot and draw pests. Eventually we started replacing it with rawhide chews, or dry dog biscuits, or something like that. When she found that something was still there, she was fine. She did it her whole life.

wildheart · Aug 4, 2010

SharonC · Aug 4, 2010

I don't use the bottom grates in any of my cages. I do a paper change twice daily....

Spiritbird · Aug 4, 2010

I too do not use the grate in the cage. My bird is very healthy. Because I am home all day I do change the paper frequently. I actually think the cage stays cleaner that way rather than have the droppings wrap around the bars of the grate.

Aussie Ben · Aug 4, 2010

Grates are great inventions, but like SB I don't use them because the poop builds up on them. With larger cages, cleaning them generally means going outside and scrubbing them down everyday. Much prefer to just change paper.

antoinette · Aug 4, 2010

I never had a grate ever, with all my other birds, I changed the paper 2 to 3 times a day.

Mishka is a :smile022::smile022: :smile022: when it comes to ripping up newspaper, and paper toweling. I simply can't keep up with her,
I do have a grate now, the ONLY reason being, within a minute ALL the paper is ripped to pieces, which leaves the bottom of the cage being bare.
It is not too difficult to clean a cage with a grate.
I have a special brush, which I use daily to scrub the grates clean, using plain hot water which makes it so easy.
Mishka poopies in one particular spot in her cage. Where her feeding bowl is, I place a doggie bowl below it. Mishka deposits "most" of her poopies in the doggie bowl. I hardly ever have to scrub more than a few of the bars, but still clean the entire cage.
It takes me about 8 minutes to clean :grey:

cage.

ARE
Bottom grate's a health safety feature

I have spoken to various bird experts and breeder's, pertaining to not having a grate in a bird's cage.

THEIR REPLIES WERE ALL THE SAME ........

AS LONG AS THE PAPER IS CHANGED A FEW TIMES DURING THE DAY, THERE SHOULD NOT BE A PROBLEM.

:grey:

Birdamor · Aug 4, 2010

Yes, changing the paper often would help but the grates are very useful when people work all day long or have to go out for hours on errands and are not there to change the paper several times throughout the day. It also depends on the species of the bird. Species that are ground foragers definitely need it while species that are exclusively canope feeders don't but, if you have a bird that goes down to the bottom of the cage and looks for food there, you need to put a grate or the bird will end up, eventually, eating his own poop no matter how often you change the paper (and this is dangerous if you have a bird that has had a re-infecting disease or is prone to intestinal infections or just has a weakened immune system -something much more common than people realize with pet birds who live under stress every day of their lives). And cleaning them is a breeze with a good scraper (I use the ones they sell in the hardware store that have a flat blade as well as the steel bristles) and a scrubby sponge.

Spiritbird · Aug 4, 2010

Those that want to scrub a grate please feel free to do so. Those that do not please feel free to do so. Please end this debate. It goes nowhere.

Aussie Ben · Aug 4, 2010

lol yes, it seems the grate debate wasn't so great.

craftsmaster · Aug 6, 2010

This chick may never be actually handled by a human as they are weaned from their parent. In fact, very often the only interaction this chick may have had with people is not a favorable one. Usually, a parent-raised chick has no concept of people until he’s caught in a net or being held down with a thick glove or towel.

antoinette · Aug 6, 2010

Aussie Ben said:
lol yes, it seems the grate debate wasn't so great.

brookysmom · Aug 13, 2010

LOl @ that last one

I have to say I have grates in some and not in others mostly i do rescue and if they have them they do it not they ddon;t.
That said I am homne all day i change often etc

As far as grates i do them daily wiping with a damp paper towel each day when I do morning feed paper change
works great and i never have build up

greenbirdsf · Aug 20, 2010

I agree that you should switch from newspaper to paper towels of some other paper that doesn't have ink on it. Perhaps she will eventually understand that there is a plentiful supply of water for her now and she won't feel the need to continue the shredding. That is so great that you were able to take in this poor bird! I get crazy when I hear stories about abusive/neglectful homes....

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