Baby Lovebird - Normal behavior or illness?

themacinjosh

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Mar 8, 2012
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I just got a peach-faced lovebird a few days ago, and she (we are waiting DNA test but think it's a she) is absolutely wonderful. She is very young, just done being weaned and was hand-fed by the breeder. We've got a great bond going, but I'm very worried. I just finished getting rid of all the things that might be hazardous to her, like air wicks and switching to PTFE pots and pans and all. We're living in a downstairs of a house and the air down here smells like old house smell, it's dusty and dry which I'm trying to improve.

Here's what I'm concerned most about, and since it's been quite some time since I've owned a bird, I'm not sure what's "normal" (first time with a lovebird too)...basically i've noticed a few times a day she kind of sneezes, or snorts (no discharge, just notice little sneezes). She preens quite a bit, and sometimes itches her head really fast with one of her feet while preening. During the day, she'll be content just sitting on my shoulder, occasionally gets bursts of energy and wants to explore...but then at night, after dark but still at around 7 or 8, she starts getting really restless. Just can't find a comfortable place to be, tries to borrow in tight areas in our clothing, and it's almost impossible to handle her cause she just keeps moving and squirming. Eventually we just decided to put her in her cage for the night, with the cover on....and when doing that she settles down and goes to sleep very nicely. As far as I know, sleeps the whole night. Except for one night i noticed she woke up, chirped, sneezed and went back to sleep.

Does this sound like typical behavior for a lovebird in an area of kind of dry air and dust? When I google 'restless lovebird at night' i get a bunch of results suggesting mites being an issue.

I know birds mask their illness really well, but i'm not noticing any other signs of problems, feathers look good, eyes look good (I think, again, it's hard to tell what the norm is after only a few days of being with her!). I'd appreciate your opinions based on your experience!

**I should add, I just bought a thermometer with a humidity gauge and it looks like we're just on the dry side of normal in this room, so it's not TERRIBLY dry but we have a wall heater in here to try and keep the temperature warmer and that makes it dryer.

**Also just noticed I said PTFE pots and pans, i meant PTFE *free* pots and pans. haha. yikes.
 
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Pedro

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I would say it's all normal behavior especially the preening & grooming. The sneezing should be watched but it could be the dry air is irritating the airways. A few dishes of water around the place may help.

Now to the sleeping, parrots usually go to bed when the sun goes down so i would think the poor little bub is being put bed far to late. Remember your bird is a baby & really needs it's sleep & reasonable bed time. All my parrots are all in bed & covered by 7pm every night.
 
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themacinjosh

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Oh wow! Ok, well that does make sense. It's kind of confusing though because our bird will seem to full of energy and ready to play...also makes it VERY difficult to put her back because she just wants to stay out with us...but when she's out with us, she is all antsy like I said. If it's true that she's just tired, then I guess she just doesn't know what's best for her own good! haha...I suppose it's like a little kid, wanting to stay up later but the parents know they have to sleep.

I just hope it isn't because of mites or something. I might call the vet tomorrow and explain to them this. Have you experienced a similar behavior with birds that are staying up too late?
 
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themacinjosh

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Hey one further question--I'm also of course VERY worried about drafts...so I tried to find the least drafty spot in this room....I don't think there IS one. And we're just renting a small space, and this room is where we sleep and is by far warmer than any other room anyway.

I put a towel on the back of the cage to hopefully block any draft, and the bird also has a happy hut on the bottom of the cage. She seems to like sleeping toward the top of the cage on her bungee, I'm not sure if that's because it's warmest there or if it's just where she likes to be. The room temp is around 72 (just got a thermostat so i can see if it's too warm or cold because i'm a TERRIBLE judge of temperature). Do you have any other suggestions for keeping the bird from a harmful draft in an overall drafty-ish area?

Oh also, I love in California, the SF bay area, so temperatures never get lower than 40 at night and it's usually upper 50's during the day. So it's not an arctic draft or anything. But still, I am really worried because like I said, every spot in this room i feel some cool air movement.
 

roxynoodle

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Dec 1, 2011
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It's normal for birds to want to sleep up high, to be safe from predators.

Are the drafts coming through windows? They sell these kits of plastic you can put over the window to help block them.
 

stephend

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I got the impression that you replaced pots and pans with PTFE coated cookware. PTFE is not bird safe, it is genaric Teflon.
 
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themacinjosh

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No, ha, sorry, I have a hard time communicating that....we replaced the pots and pans with non non-stick....as in PTFE free.
 

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