Sleeping on bottom of cage for first time in 10 years? Emergency?

[Grelli2]

Emergency question! My conure was on the bottom of the cage with her head at a strange angle- similar to the angle it's at when she sleeps. When I spoke to her, she looked at me but didn't move. This went on for a few minutes, so I started trying to call an emergency vet. Now she's moving around like normal. She has really been enjoying playing with some toys on the bottom of the cage that she pulled off of a hanging toy. (The toys do not appear to be a size that she could ingest.) Now my husband is here and doesn't want to take her to the vet because she is acting normal. Would a bird sleep on the bottom of the cage like that?

 

[bonitabird59]

I would take her to the vet. Any difference in behavior that hasn't been consistent within the last 10 years is means for concern. Birds hide illnesses until they can't anymore. Play it safe, go to the vet!

 

[HeatherG]

Is she by any chance incubating those toys at the bottom of the cage?

That’s not great but it’s not an emergency. Since you said she was normal later that’s what I’m wondering.

 

[Grelli2]

Is she by any chance incubating those toys at the bottom of the cage?

That’s not great but it’s not an emergency. Since you said she was normal later that’s what I’m wondering.

How would you be able to tell that she's incubating?

 

[HeatherG]

Well, if she was cuddled up with the toys she chewed down, sitting on them like eggs or chicks, that’s incubating. It looks just like a chicken keeping eggs warm.

My older girl Quaker would do this with her favorite toys or a rubber ducky. She was literally mothering her spool and ball. When it got obsessive I took them away because I didn’t want her egg bound again.

 

[HeatherG]

Do you think that might be what your bird is doing?

If the bird is on the bottom of its cage, head down like the beak is too heavy to lift, can’t perch, not eating, listless that is a very sick bird.

If the bird has arranged a toy or two or three in a pile on the cage floor, maybe has chewed up paper or plucked feathers for a nest, and is sitting on those toys cuddling them (my bird would March around a bit and cluck while she told me to “come ere, come on, step up!”) then that’s a broody bird. She may protect the toys from you, too.

 

[Grelli2]

Do you think that might be what your bird is doing?

If the bird is on the bottom of its cage, head down like the beak is too heavy to lift, can’t perch, not eating, listless that is a very sick bird.

If the bird has arranged a toy or two or three in a pile on the cage floor, maybe has chewed up paper or plucked feathers for a nest, and is sitting on those toys cuddling them (my bird would March around a bit and cluck while she told me to “come ere, come on, step up!”) then that’s a broody bird. She may protect the toys from you, too.

She didn't put the toys in a pile, but she was on the floor again today, but awake, and had just been playing with them. My other concern is that I have seen her flicking her tail some and it makes me wonder if she's trying to lay an egg or is perhaps egg bound? I haven't seen that before so I'm just speculating.

 

[HeatherG]

Her behind would get really big and poofy if she was going to lay an egg. And you can feel the egg moving into place before it’s laid.

I’m wondering if she’s getting a bit nesty over those toys.

I think it’s ok to play with toys, if she was just a little lump bird on the cage floor is what would be worrisome.

My girl Quaker loved to play on the floor with her toys but my boy never goes down there. Completely different personalities. It’s amazing.