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[zenguin]

I was asked what Cookie's diet is -

First of all, he could be classified as being "special needs". He can't fly because of an injury in his youth. One of his feet doesn't work as well as the other, so he doesn't eat using his feet to hold things. On top of all this ... he has a scissor beak. Bless his feathered little heart.

He was mostly on pellets

Comments

[angry_crab]

I would certainly take him to an avian vet to see about the scissor beak. Often they can trim it in a way that will help it if not reverse it. Usually birds like that need regular beak grooming to keep the beak from getting too outta control

[bloolark]

Where do you get tart cherry juice? Someone suggested using that with Theo too. Is it something specific, or just cherry juice?

And how do you give it to them? Just some juice from time to time, or?

(Sorry to hijack!)

[angry_crab]

Any natural food store for sure.. also my local chains have it (Ukrops, Kroger, etc). Pretty much check out the natural foods section of your local supermarkets and also their reg juice section. Knudsen seems to be the most widely available, at least in CA and VA. Look for 100% tart, sour, or Montgomery cherry juice. Mix it with the water, give it straight or mixed with a sweeter juice, or add it to the food. I add some to the mash. If you do it in the water 4 parts water to 1 part juice, or up to 50/50... I would only offer this for a short period of time and then fresh plain water the rest of the day.

Celery seed tea, celery, and celery seed is also good. I would just add celery to the mash or on a skewer for theo. For O'Henry I give him celery seed in his dry mix and celery sticks at least once a week.

[angry_crab]

Oh and most people feed some daily. I put the cherry juice in the mash, but I'm pretty lazy about it. It comes in such a large bottle... you may want to freeze it. The anti-inlammatory propteries should be harmed by this since they say even canned/frozen is ok to buy.

[pengybean]

First of, I must say I LOVE your username and icon! My hubby got a big kick out of it as well. ;)

As far as the "shivering" behavior, our CAG does this a lot too. We though she might be cold when we first brought her home, but over time we've found it's more of a "cooling down" reaction with her. She fluffs up her feathers and sort of quivers them. If I remember correctly, my husband even researched it and found that it's a normal thing.

You still may want to mention it at the vet, just to make sure.

[troubleagain]

Seconding the kudos for the username/icon. :D

Sunshine shivers sometimes, too, when I know that she can't be cold, and when I don't think she should be frightened, either. It doesn't seem to be a problem, though, so I don't worry about it. Should I?

[kynekh_amagire]

In addition to shivering when they're cold/wet/frightened/just awakening, my birds also shiver (their wings) when they're really excited about something, especially Firefly (GCC) and Ninja (BH pi). Sometimes when I come home from work, Ninja's wings are trembling so much that he looks like a fat, stationary hummingbird: something that would undoubtedly worry me if he a) didn't do it every day and b) wasn't running back and forth in his cage exploding with "HI! HI! HIIIIIII!" at the same time. :P

[zenguin]

I dig your pic/username too! Good heavens, that's a cute baby penguin! XD

Hearing all the responses saying it's pretty normal is heartening. I'll be seeing the vet all the same.

Yes, I'm probably being a paranoid mommy.

:D

[internettourist]

My male cockatiel shivers periodicly. I took him to the vet for the shivering. His blood level was about normal. I have had him a year now and he seems to be fine. When I inquired about the initial shivering on the blog many people told me to take him to the vet and one lady told me her cockatiel has been shivering all of his 8 years of age. That made me feel better.

I feed fresh veggies everyday in addition to pellets. The birds I have gotten as babies never have needed their fingernails clipped. The two birds I got older came with long fingernails. Their toe nail growth slowed down after awhile to almost match the others. So fresh foods (natural) have a lot to do with short term health as well as long term.