Odd/unusual things about my birds, what are some odd/unusual things about yours?

[DonnaBudgie]

Rocky my hand raised budgie now almost five months old isn't afraid if anything or anyone! She's one super-confident little girl. She plays rough, beats up her toys and chews everything she can get her beak on. She plays like a puppy, albeit a tough, flying puppy- she rolls on her back and kicks up her legs while wrestling with the object of her attention. She walks around on top of my other budgies' cages, flirting with one particularly attractive male named Nummie. She crawls under throw blankets to take naps. She insists on eating whatever we're eating, preferably right off our plates and thinks nothing of walking right through our food. She throws each one of her collection of toy balls off the top of Nummie and Pickle's cage just for the pleasure of watching me pick them up and put them back. None of Rocky's behavior is all that unusual- for a larger parrot- but Rocky's a BUDGIE- and I've never had a budgie that behaved more like a conure or an Amazon than a "sweet little budgie" - frankly, there's nothing "sweet" about Rocky, my Rockstar Baby Bird, but we love her to bits!

 

[ravvlet]

This is probably more an odd/unusual thing about ME than my parrot…

A previous vet taught me how to clean out Kirby’s boogers using a tiny, tiny, disposable mini Q-tip (moistened with saline solution). During the winter when it’s dry but especially at the beginning of spring (he seems to have about as bad a time as I do with the PNW pollen), I get to bust these things out every time I can hear his breathing, and it works amazing. Have not had to do a nasal flush in months thanks to these, and it is unbelievably satisfying.

Toward the end, once his highness realizes what I am doing, he will even relax into the towel and just let me get ‘em all out!

 

[DonnaBudgie]

This is probably more an odd/unusual thing about ME than my parrot…

A previous vet taught me how to clean out Kirby’s boogers using a tiny, tiny, disposable mini Q-tip (moistened with saline solution). During the winter when it’s dry but especially at the beginning of spring (he seems to have about as bad a time as I do with the PNW pollen), I get to bust these things out every time I can hear his breathing, and it works amazing. Have not had to do a nasal flush in months thanks to these, and it is unbelievably satisfying.

Toward the end, once his highness realizes what I am doing, he will even relax into the towel and just let me get ‘em all out!

What exactly do you do with the q-tips to clear out Kirby's "boogers"?

 

[Rico_Tiel]

What exactly do you do with the q-tips to clear out Kirby's "boogers"?

Maybe they eat them afterwards

 

[Rico_Tiel]

This is probably more an odd/unusual thing about ME than my parrot…

A previous vet taught me how to clean out Kirby’s boogers using a tiny, tiny, disposable mini Q-tip (moistened with saline solution). During the winter when it’s dry but especially at the beginning of spring (he seems to have about as bad a time as I do with the PNW pollen), I get to bust these things out every time I can hear his breathing, and it works amazing. Have not had to do a nasal flush in months thanks to these, and it is unbelievably satisfying.

Toward the end, once his highness realizes what I am doing, he will even relax into the towel and just let me get ‘em all out!

That is really interesting! I sometimes forget birds can have allergies! Or so Kirby seems to have

 

[ravvlet]

What exactly do you do with the q-tips to clear out Kirby's "boogers"?

Swirl ‘em around. Often it’s debris from his skin or dust that just builds up in his sinuses. I wipe off whatever globs of stuff I get out of there on the towel and go back in until his breathing sounds clear and the nasal passage is clear. Kind of a scooping motion? Not sure how to describe it.

Don’t do this without a vet showing you how though, it’s easy to go too deep or push stuff in instead of pulling it out. I also make sure they’re soaked in a sterile saline solution so that I’m not shoving a dry q tip in there.

It’s also not an actual q tip! They’re these tiny cotton buds the vet gave me and showed me where to get - some kind of micro brush for nail art or makeup or something.

 

[DonnaBudgie]

Swirl ‘em around. Often it’s debris from his skin or dust that just builds up in his sinuses. I wipe off whatever globs of stuff I get out of there on the towel and go back in until his breathing sounds clear and the nasal passage is clear. Kind of a scooping motion? Not sure how to describe it.

Don’t do this without a vet showing you how though, it’s easy to go too deep or push stuff in instead of pulling it out. I also make sure they’re soaked in a sterile saline solution so that I’m not shoving a dry q tip in there.

It’s also not an actual q tip! They’re these tiny cotton buds the vet gave me and showed me where to get - some kind of micro brush for nail art or makeup or something.

You don't actually insert the swabs into Kirby's nostrils, do you?

 

[ravvlet]

You don't actually insert the swabs into Kirby's nostrils, do you?

I do, they’re little, and my vet (who is a CAV) showed me how to do it.

Amazons have big nares, and these tools are miniscule. Again, I wouldn’t do it without permission from your vet and I’d never try it on a smaller bird, but our current vet (also CAV, and she knows our old vet) said we should keep doing it because it’s doing a great job of preventing the need for nasal flushes.

This is what the swabs look like:

As you can see, they are quite small!

To be clear, I don’t jam them in there - that would absolutely cause bruising and possibly lacerations as the tissue is quite delicate. Kirby will sometimes sit in my lap and let me clean his nose, and I assume if it were really uncomfortable he wouldn’t. I towel him for it when I need to also put drops in his nares to flush them out (also something we do on advice of both CAVs he has seen) because he hates that part.

It really has made a huge difference, he’s gone a year now without a single sinus infection, which is huge for him.

 

[DonnaBudgie]

I do, they’re little, and my vet (who is a CAV) showed me how to do it.

Amazons have big nares, and these tools are miniscule. Again, I wouldn’t do it without permission from your vet and I’d never try it on a smaller bird, but our current vet (also CAV, and she knows our old vet) said we should keep doing it because it’s doing a great job of preventing the need for nasal flushes.

This is what the swabs look like:
View attachment 49067

As you can see, they are quite small!

To be clear, I don’t jam them in there - that would absolutely cause bruising and possibly lacerations as the tissue is quite delicate. Kirby will sometimes sit in my lap and let me clean his nose, and I assume if it were really uncomfortable he wouldn’t. I towel him for it when I need to also put drops in his nares to flush them out (also something we do on advice of both CAVs he has seen) because he hates that part.

It really has made a huge difference, he’s gone a year now without a single sinus infection, which is huge for him.

I'm sure you're doing things right- I just couldn't picture sticking a human sized q-tips in an Amazons nostrils, but these things are tiny. I'm TOTALLY NOT questioning whether what you're doing is right- I just couldn't quite envision it.

 

[ravvlet]

I'm sure you're doing things right- I just couldn't picture sticking a human sized q-tips in an Amazons nostrils, but these things are tiny. I'm TOTALLY NOT questioning whether what you're doing is right- I just couldn't quite envision it.

Understood! If someone had told me they stuck q tips into a birds nose, I’d have side eyed them for days, LOL.

 

[DonnaBudgie]

I'm sure you're doing things right- I just couldn't picture sticking a human sized q-tips in an Amazons nostrils, but these things are tiny. I'm TOTALLY NOT questioning whether what you're doing is right- I just couldn't quite envision it.

I can only assume that if a parrot didn't want a micro-swab inserted into its nostril it would object VERY STRENUOUSLY!