Greetings all!

[jtsmith]

Greetings!

My name is Jon. My wife Sheri and I are proud companions of Snuggles, a blue crowned Conure hatched sometime in May of 1987

He's an old guy, been healthy as all get out until now. He's exhibiting some behavior changes which lead me to believe he's about at the end of his lifespan. I have joined to search for some answers. Thanks for having this resource.

 

[Ducatimom]

Welcome Jon! You came to a great place for answers. Have you had Snuggles the whole time?

 

[Allee]

Hello and Welcome! Sorry Snuggles is not feeling well. What kind of behavior changes are you seeing?

 

[TessieB]

Welcome and sorry Snuggles is having a difficult time. Don't be afraid to contact an avian vet.

 

[jtsmith]

Thanks for the welcomes.

Snuggles has been part of our family for his whole life. In fact, longer than I have since I married into him 20 years ago. Funny how things work out. Now I am the one he trusts.

He has been a wonderful "pet" ( hate use that word) and for the most part very low maintenance. about 10 years ago he had developed a fat tumor above his beak, however a quick trip to the AV -a snip here and there with a dab of superglue and we picked him up good as new. Seriously-that is his only vet visit in his entire life.
The fat was from his food, so at this time we switched him to zupreem fruit blend.

I do take excellent care of him. He gets only zupreem and what we eat-rather what is safe for him to eat off our plate.

I clean his cage, powerwash and disinfect it regularly. He gets daily attention.

We also have 3 dogs and a cat. I do have to keep them separated because our dog did get him about 7 years or so ago, but no real damage occurred thankfully.

I am pretty sure an AV is out of the question at this time. MY wife just went through 2 knee replacements, no income from her side, I am disabled and on fixed income, just found out today I have a blood clot in my leg. The deductible and co pay for my wife's knees just about wiped us out, then this. Blood thinners are about 100.00 per day.

I do not want to sound "cruel" but to be honest, I really think Snuggles is just getting very old. He's right in the gap of life span years.

Symptoms are, lack of balance (tail bobbing, wobbly on perch), slight alertness loss, what I believe is lack of appetite, ( he seemed to have a hard time biting into a carrot) and shortness of breath at very little exertion level. I do not think he could fly across the room at this point, but he could 3 weeks ago when he got away from me and wanted the window.

He never has "molted" completely, just a few feathers piled once in a while followed by a cycle of new ones. Right now he has quite a few new feathers on his crown. His feathers look great.

 

[Birdman666]

Well, first of all 30-40 is the average life expectancy of a conure. So he should have a few years left.

Second, conures are prone to seizure disorders, which have similar symptoms to what you are describing.

I am not an ACV, and I no one is competent to diagnose this over the internet.

Watch him closely and monitor his weight is all I can tell you at this point.

 

[henpecked]

welcome to the forum. There are a few things you can do to help the old fella out. I have many amazons 40+ yrs old and have dealt many of the old age issues. I learn new things everyday thanks to this forum. Loads of good info here and great members. I don't check the conure section much but you can always PM me if needed. (i hang out in the amazon section). BTW the Zupreem Fruit Blend might not be the best choice (high sugar) ,maybe adding more fresh veggies and VitA rich foods would help.

 

[RavensGryf]

Welcome! Another original home for an old guy I've had a Red Bellied parrot for 20 years. He recently had his birthday.

I'm sorry to hear that Snuggles is experiencing some difficulties, as well as the other struggles you're going through.

Like henpecked said, the Zupreem fruity isn't the best food. At this point he might be a bit reluctant to try fresh foods, but if you'd like to get him on a more balanced diet that he might readily accept, try Harrison's organic pellets. I know they provide superior nutrition as evidenced in my bird's blood work over many years. Might help to perk him up? Not much we can really suggest over the internet and not being vets. Good luck with. Snuggles. I hope he has several more long years with you.

 

[witchbaby]

Welcome to the forum.

 

[jtsmith]

Thanks for not chewing me out for "having something I cannot afford"

Even though I thought I had a plan things went wrong and here we are. I honestly intended to do better, but in my defense we raised 7 children, 4 girls and 3 boys. All of our 6 grandchildren were planned. ( just trying to let you know I do my best to be responsible)

That is why I am here. Our furry and feathered kids still remain. I am going to do my best.

As far as food goes, snuggles gets apples, oranges, cantaloupe, chicken, tiny bits of beef, spaghetti, well, I could go on but suffice it to say when we eat he has to have some of it also, and will gladly let you know what he wants by squawking until you put some of it in his bowl. A bird's eyesight is amazing, this one can spot grain of corn from across the room.

Is this what you mean by variety and fresh? It would be easier to list what we avoid, such as avacados, chocolate, bacon-ham, tequila, and so on.

 

[Ducatimom]

We all understand things happen and life gets in the way (that darn life lol). I'm sure you had everything planned but unfortunately like you said you and your wife started experiencing struggles (hope all of that goes well by the way).

Since it sounds like he has a hard time with the harder foods you could try cutting them up smaller, or making essentially a little birdie veggie smoothie with some fruit for sweetness. That way he can still get some vegetables.

Have you noticed these behaviors over time or was it all of a sudden? I don't have any experience with older parrots. I've only had Ducati for almost 3 months and he's only 6. But from what I've read on here symptoms that happen all of a sudden tend to be very bad signs.

 

[jtsmith]

This was a sudden onset. I am beginning to wonder if the current batch of food might be tainted due to some searching thru sick bird threads of recent. We are on a new bag of food. I order it from Amazon, heck it might even be counterfeit.

However I do not have enough posts to send private messages to those concerned. I would like to compare batch numbers.

 

[Ducatimom]

Try mysafebirdstore.com they have all kinds of foods. I'm going to try the pellets next. Right now we're on the dry fruits and veggies from their site.

I don't know anything about contaminated food since Ducati was my first bird. I do know I've never had a problem with this site though and Ducati was completely healthy on his first vet visit a couple weeks ago.

 

[jtsmith]

I wish I would have looked into this forum earlier. It might have been fun, sure looks like a good group of people.

Snuggles is fading fast. Right now he's on the bottom of his cage with eyes closed and rapid breathing.

Since nothing in his life or atmosphere has changed for years, I truly feel it is just his time.

Instead of pointing fingers I would like to remember our time together. He taught me some things.

Thanks for listening. Go talk to your bird right now and tell them you love them please.

Peace.