GCC twitching wings and beak grinding? HELP

Hello,


Ill get right to the point, my GCC is twitching his wings and sounds like he's grinding his beak.. so i dont know if I should be scared or not..

Ill try to post a video but if it can't be uploaded I'll try to explain as best as possible

It happened twice once yesterday, whilst on his cage, and right now on my shoulder. His poop is as normal as it can be, he's eating normally and I believe he's going through a molt though it's the beginning.. im starting to see pin feathers on his head and neck. He's also been bathing regularly. His wings are twitching as if trying to bat away flies and grinds his beak along with it and it stops when I pick him up off my shoulder ( I did this once ) so should I be worried??

He's been acting normal honestly nothing out of the ordinary except these twitches and beak grinding.

Usally grinding is a sign of a happy bird. We will want to see the wing twitching.

Its like using your shoulders to the the " I don't know" motion except faster like a flicker

Could be seizures (least likely, and worst scenario). However, he could be twitching due to the pin feathers. Noah, if I accidentally hurt a pinny while preening him, will kind of twitch his head for a few seconds. Last night, I really hurt one of them (I swear, I try to be extremely careful), and he just kept twitching his head for at least two minutes. The next, most likely possibility, is that he's being a happy, silly goofball. Noah twitches his wings just like you described, while clicking his beak and making some silly vocalisations, when he gets excited for a bath. He loves the water, so he gets quite excited before he bathes. He'll do the wing twitching, beak clicking/grinding, a bit of head twitching/bobbing (shaking his head in excitement), for 30 seconds to 2 minutes before finally hopping in the water.

Does your conure kind of "spread" out his shoulders repeatedly while twitching his wings? If so, he's likely doing the same weird, excited ritual that Noah does. Did anything happened that seemed to "set off" this behaviour when both on the cage and on your shoulder? For example, did he hear the sound of running water, hear the beeping of a microwave, see some special food, etc?

[ame="https://youtu.be/sGVQKA990WM"]Twitching and beak grinding - YouTube[/ame]


I uploaded it here I hope it helps [ame="https://youtu.be/sGVQKA990WM"]https://youtu.be/sGVQKA990WM[/ame]

wrench13 said:

Usally grinding is a sign of a happy bird. We will want to see the wing twitching.

Click to expand...

I uploaded the video, hope it helps

Well, I'm so paranoid... I'd get the vet's input, butttttttttttttttttt...
I will say that the Rb flicks his wings and grinds his beak when he is being roosterly.
But it's for a few minutes, a few times a day... not non-stop.
What a precious little beauty. I want one!

Edit: after watching again, this behavior is actually something much different than I initially thought

Okay, never mind, I'd take him to see an avian vet. Looks more like he's experiencing discomfort, or has something wrong neurologically. That behaviour doesn't really make sense. I'd definitely show that video to the vet. I know "take him to the vet" isn't really what you want to hear, but that behaviour really seems to be caused by some sort of discomfort or neurological issue.

Oh, fudge you live in Saudi Arabia (I think that's where Dubai is). It's a step up from trying to find medical care for animals in India (there's basically no vets at all there, just volunteer vets flown in from overseas), but I don't know if you can really find a vet (let alone an avian vet) where you live. I'm wondering if this behaviour could be kind of like toe tapping and wing flipping in eclectus? Has anything at all changed in his diet? It could be anything like a new bag of seed, to a different cultivar of fruit or veggie.

I think I should have checked out? Couple of things to think about?

Diet - any foods with artificial colours in, ie pellets? Keep all foods natural, pellets are best if they are Organic, no artificial additives. Re where you are in the world with regards an AV which is difficult try withdrawing all foodstuff and just give fresh, washed, chopped vegetables to start with. Keep an eye on what is going on, if it gets better add more fresh foods one by one.
Showers - are they given often?

Great advice plumsmum. I'd definitely try giving him just some fresh, human-grade, bird-safe veggies that have been thoroughl'y washed. I don't know what the water quality is like in Dubai, so maybe use bottled water from North America if it isn't considered "safe" by Western standards. I don't know what water treatment and whatnot is like in your country, but I know that most warm countries have unsafe water. Okay, just checked, and it seems as though UAE tap water is typically safer than bottled water.

Anyways, hopefully feeding him only natural, unprocessed foods will help solve his twitching definitely seems like some sort of reaction to food colouring, preservatives, synthetic vitamins, or some sort of allergen. Definitely seems similar to the behaviour you'd see in an eclectus who's had a bad reaction reaction to something in their diet.

Good news: I just did a quick search and apparently there are avian vets in Dubai. Makes sense, since falconry is popular in the Middle East, and Dubai is considered one of the wealthiest places in the world, so I'd imagine a lot of people keep raptors and parrots as a sort of status symbol.

What kind of responses did you get on the other forum you posted this on?

Well, he doesnt do this all the time, its not nonstop he did it for like 2 minutes today and about a few seconds yesterday. He's always with me so I notice almost everything.
Ive gotten him about a month ago from a pet store so he's eating a seed mix but I give him one or two slices of apple each day. He bathes himself almost every other day.

I want to wait for another month or two to get him converted to pellets.

But really I haven't had much experience with a parrot to know if this is discomfort or anything, you know he was preening me before it though and he's grinding his beak? Isnt that usually a good sign in a bird? So can you guys explain a little bit more why you seem to think it's discomfort? Thankyou

Yeah I would agree to seeing an AV, after seeling those videos. A little bit cold be just resettling feathers after moving around.

Lacewing said:

What kind of responses did you get on the other forum you posted this on?

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Uh one person said that it could be a begging behavior, and another person said it was probably new feathers coming in the wing that's causing discomfort. But i didnt get any alarming comments like I did here.

The water is pretty safe but just for extra precaution I always give him refrigerator water I guessed its filtered and whatnot, I'll definitely try to change his diet, as for food colourings, the only thing that I've added is a fruit blend pellets zupreem I think but he hates those so I don't think he eats em.

Though, if he's really hurting why the heck his he grinding his beak?

Parsaxyz said:

Lacewing said:

What kind of responses did you get on the other forum you posted this on?

Click to expand...

Uh one person said that it could be a begging behavior, and another person said it was probably new feathers coming in the wing that's causing discomfort. But i didnt get any alarming comments like I did here.

The water is pretty safe but just for extra precaution I always give him refrigerator water I guessed its filtered and whatnot, I'll definitely try to change his diet, as for food colourings, the only thing that I've added is a fruit blend pellets zupreem I think but he hates those so I don't think he eats em.

Though, if he's really hurting why the heck his he grinding his beak?

Click to expand...

I thought about begging but it appeared to be involuntary flicking movements of the wings, birds when ill will put up with a lot and not show it. Sorry if we have alarmed you but we will always put our birds first on here and so take all things that do not appear normal seriously. It is the easiest route by far.

I'd go with a different pellet I think. Really would not hurt to have an AV look him over

PS If you boil and cool your water first that will help, unsure if just filtering water makes it safe?
Try giving him a scritch when he flicks his wings, is he asking you for attention as the beak grinding usually shows contentment.
Please improve his diet as what you say you feed is lacking and this can be the precursor to illness OK?
http://petgreencheekconure.com/green-cheek-conure-diet/

It seems like an involuntary movement to me, which is why I would definitely take him to an avian vet. I couldn't really hear the beak grinding, it actually sounded more like a "clicking" to me, which is an entirely different thing than beak grinding. When you couple this with the fact that you only got him a month ago from a pet shop, I'd have him to an avian vet immediately for cultures and fecal smears to rule out an infection of some sort.

"Dance like nobody's watching..."