Noticing strange behaviour

[Nathan1]

This morning my sulphur crested cockatoo was squawking quite a bit which isn't normal for her, she's almost dead silent most of the time except for when she says "Good night" repeatedly. I let her out and now she is sort of spinning back and fourth on top of her cage with her wings stretched out, sometimes fluttering. If I come up to her she is not aggressive, she stops for a moment and says hello but doesn't want to step up. I don't know if she is in pain, if she is just goofing off or maybe she is getting very hormonal this spring or something? She spins 180 degrees, grips the cage with her beak, then spins back 180 degrees and grips the cage again and she keeps doing this over and over again quite quickly. It has been 5-10mins of her doing this now.

 

[plumsmum2005]

Some useful questions to start. Have you checked her cage for anything amiss? All her toys intact etc? Nothing she could have done herself harm on? Is her poop OK ie normal, is she eating the usual amount, has her weight altered. If this doesnt stop call your AV please.

 

[Jayyj]

How long have you had her? Have you been through the hormonal period before with her? It's hard to tell what's going on from the description but the immediate thought that occurred to me is that Alice has a few weeks this time every year where she does some odd, neurotic behaviours - pacing up and down and doing a weird begging thing. I generally pick her up and take her into another room to calm her down and she snaps out of it.

The other thought I had was something in the environment is upsetting her - a foreign object near the cage she doesn't like for example.

 

[Scott]

I have several Goffins who do a slightly different "twirling" dance. They will twirl around for a minute or two, often hopping to a different location to continue. Sometimes they will pause, grasp an object, and continue. I don't associate it with anything wrong or stressful, just a game they play.

Another ritualistic behavior is while eating, one of my Goffins will hold a piece of food, take a bite, touch his beak to a nail, take another bite, and repeat. Seems akin to human OCD, but he is a very well adjusted, happy, and healthy bird!