I’m not sure what this is...

PatrickTheGCC

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Once every week, I have to drive to my moms house, and my green cheek conure Patrick goes with me. When it is a rough ride, Patrick seems to regurgitate some sort of wet yellow stuff, and it sticks on his beak, to where he flicks it on me. I felt it and it’s a sort of phlegm texture. Is this car sickness, or excitement? He seems to enjoy going to my moms house a lot, so I’m thinking it’s excitement. Please, I need answers on this and how I could stop it!
 
sounds like car sickness if it only happens in the car
 
I agree. Car sickness. Is he kept in a cage during the ride? That might help a bit. I wouldn’t add perches, they have a harder time keeping balance. He may need to feel “grounded” in the sense that he’s not moving so much. I’ve never had that problem, phlegm like seems strange because it’s be coming from his crop if it’s regurgitation.
 
Hi there. I've seen this phelgm-like substance once before. A few years ago, my sun conure Boomer got extremely sick. He sort of puked a very liquidy, slimy substance. Grayish green. It was not the thick oatmeal like consistency of regular regurgitation. Just like your conure, he flung it side ways and part of it went over his head and beak. Rushed him to the vet just in time. He was deteriotating very fast. He was given stuff for infection and was stabilized soon after. I forgot what it's called but everything is detailed one of my old thread somewhere.

Not saying there is something serious w/ your bird. Car sickness does happen for them too. I've seen some threads about it. Some recommendations where to serve ginger before and during the ride though I've never tried this myself. I'd just keep an eye out in case he does it when not in the car.
 
yep sounds like throwing up from car sickness (their inner ear isn't used to driving like we are) do keep an eye out if it happens outside of driving as without being in a car vomiting is a very bad sign.

couple ideas I have seen is to try slowly building tolerance with shorter journeys and build up to the bigger ones and to attempt covering the cage in an attempt to stop the signals to the brain becoming confusing
 
I’ve also heard that stress can cause an infection and it comes up as throw up in a phlegm like substance. Careful observation is needed and maybe the stress of a car ride is too much for him. Is there a way to keep him at home? He might seem excited about being at your moms because he’s happy to be out of the car. Others stressors could be diet or change in the environment. I hope he’s okay! Hopefully it’s just being in the car and isn’t progressing into something else.
 
What may help is to make sure he can see out the window(closed!!). To see the motion at the same time as feeling it, often helps!
 
He is car sick. I take my bird Ollie lots a places in the car and if I'm not careful he'll also get car sick so I make sure he can look at the road and he's on my shoulder and is not facing backwards because that makes him sick. I'm not sure if your bird is in a carrier but if he is I'd suggest you put him on your shoulder and face him towards the road.
My baby is potty trained and the only time he is in the carrier in the car is for a poopy break!
 
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Agreed, it's motion-sickness, and he's vomiting just like a person who gets car-sick does. (parrots give you the lovely, added-touch of flinging the vomit on you/at you, gotta love them)...

Very good advice by SunnyClover about keeping your bird on your shoulder whenever he's in the car, as this is pretty much prevents motion-sickness completely. I was warned by my Senegal's breeder that he had vomited several times in the car, inside his carrier, while being taken back and forth to his Avian Vet, and that was only a 20-minute car ride for him...I was really worried about his because his breeder was in Raleigh, NC, and I was driving from State College, PA, lol...9 hour drive one-way...uhg. I brought along one of the dog carriers that I have modified for my birds, complete with a perch and a water bowl inside them, but I figured that I was going to have constantly stop at rest areas on the 9-hour drive home to clean him up and clean out the carrier...Well, I didn't pick him up from the breeder's house until around 9:00 at night, so i decided to get a motel room in Raleigh, and little baby Kane ended-up sleeping on my chest in the motel room all night long, I woke-up the next morning to him laying on my chest like a little, green fluff-ball, staring at me with the cutest smile ever. So I fed him, fed myself, and decided since he was already so tame and comfortable with me that I wouldn't put him inside the carrier for the drive home, I'd just try him on my shoulder...Well, I was wearing a hoodie, and Kane immediately left my shoulder once I started driving, and climbed to the top of my hood, so he was sitting not inside my hood, but on it, so he could see the road looking over my head, lol. He stayed there for the entire 9-hour drive home, we stopped only a few times for me to pee, not for him, and he didn't vomit once.

It's just like trying to keep a human from getting car-sick, they need to look forward towards the front of the car, never backwards, and they need to be able to see the road and the cars driving past them. If they are inside a carrier that is sitting on a seat, and they can't see anything but the carrier is constantly moving/swaying/bouncing, that constant motion without being able to see the car moving is what is making him sick. And even if you don't have him in a carrier, but rather he's sitting on a seat or anywhere in which he isn't facing-forward and where he can't see the road, he's going to keep getting sick.

I don't know your bird's personality or your relationship with him, but if he's tame enough and likes to sit on your shoulder, then that's the first thing I would try on your next car ride with him, and see how he does. Obviously if he's not tame, won't stay on your shoulder, or if he bites you/your ear, etc., then you can't do this, because the last thing you want is to wreck your car. You obviously can't have him biting you or flying all over the car while you're driving, so if that's the situation then you have to approach it another way.

I actually made a bird perch "apparatus" out of PVC that goes over the headrest of the passenger-seat, and once it's placed over the headrest it moves very little. It allows the bird to sit on a PVC perch that is up high on the seat, and allows the bird to look right out the front windshield and the passenger front window. You can make one of these for less than $10 at Lowes; the only tool you need to own is a hand-operated PVC tube cutter, which Lowes also sells for about $10. You can make them with or without built-in "bowls" for water and/or treats to keep the bird occupied on your drive (the "bowls" are made from large PVC end-caps). I'll find a photo of what I'm talking about and post it here in a minute...I made one of these in about 30 minutes, and it works extremely well for all of my birds. You just have to make sure that you bring your bird out to the car either on his Harness/Leash or inside a carrier, and then once inside the car you then get him out of the carrier and put him on the perch...I'll post a photo or two in a minute...
 
Here is a photo of one of these PVC car perches with and without the bowls incorporated...I built-in only 1 bowl in mine, and it works great for treats to keep him occupied, usually I put pieces of fresh fruit in it. A water bowl, in my opinion, would only result in a wet car, a wet bird, and a wet me, lol. But either way my birds love it because they can see EVERYTHING outside and they've never gotten sick.

I just saw that they sell these on Etsy and other places for between $40-$100!!! That's insane, and I should be selling them! Like I said, the PVC materials, all of them including the end-cap for a bowl, cost me less than $10 at Lowes, and I didn't have a PVC pipe cutter prior to making this, so I bought a cheap, handheld, hand-operated one at Lowes as well for I think $9.99, and it works great. I have since made numerous PVC stands, perches, and huge play gyms using only the same handheld PVC cutter, it's easy to use and and adjustable for all diameters of PVC pipe. It also only took me about 30 minutes to make one of these, lol. (Lowes has way, way more PVC options than Home Depot, more pipe diameters available, and way more attachments/couplers/etc. available than Home Depot, and they are cheaper as well)...I FORGOT, you have to wrap the actual "perch" area of this, the piece of tubing that the bird stands on, with Vet Wrap, so that they can grip and not slide/fall off constantly, as PVC is slippery. So Vet Wrap, many different colors and designs, as well as diameters, is extremely cheap at any Tractor Supply, cheaper than Walmart or anywhere else I've see, so add another $1.25 to the cost, lol...

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Hello! Me again, thank you for all the advice and I’d like to clear some things up after this. It does seem it was car sickness and he has not done it outside the car. We put a towel over his cage on the car ride the rest of the way and he calmed down immediately! He usually is always at the top of his cage in the car but then he grounded himself and calmed down. He is doing very good and I’ve taken some of your advice. He doesn’t appear to be sick as he hasn’t ever thrown up OUTSIDE the car. Now I know what to do next time we are in the car. Thanks everyone! -Cooper
 

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