breathing hard

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kobe
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breathing hard

Post by kobe »

for some reason my bird always tends to have short breathe when I let it jump and fly short distances?

Could this be because he eats lots of sun flower seeds?

How do I get him away from sunflower seeds, he is extremely addicted to them. He eats other apples, oranges, pomegranete, pineapple, cucumber, pears, but doesn't really like veggies.
aasdf
Amazonite
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Post by Amazonite »

im not sure why he is short breath maybe a vet trip would be good, as for the sunflower seeds i had to sit down with Amazons seeds and pull all the sunflowers out by hand, it took ages, that was so i could train him but now he has them back.
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Lauren
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Post by Lauren »

This is a sign of respitory distress. It can be a number of factors. Over heating (birds can overheat very rapidly) is one of them. Summer time is a big worry for me.
Try a sunflower free diet for a while, I try to pick out as many of them as I can out of the seed mixes when I give seed to them. Keep track of his weight. This is something I need to do aswell, as my Jibby is the same. He follows Yodas lead around the house, darting from room to room, Yoda being 6 years younger and I guess more fit, is able to fly for longer periods. Jibby however starts panting quickly. I can feel both theyre weights when I hold them on each hand, Jibby is much more heavy than Yoda. Although I havnt weighed him in over a year, my vet thought he was a good weight and this was when I was panicky about his health. An IRN should weigh about 110 - 120 grams if I remember correctly, someone feel free to correct me if Im wrong.
To minimise respitory problems, try and keep your house as 'smell' free as possible, no air fresheners, deoderants, teflon fumes, cleaning products, smoking etc. This can all kill and usually a first sign is respitory problems! I usually clean the cages and let them sit outside in them while I use the hard cleaning products inside, like bathroom cleaners. Cool him down if hes hot by offering heaps of water and iced fruits to lick or even a quick misting with the water gun.
Panting can be a number of things, so a good avian vet check up might be a good idea.
"Jibby aka Gilbert" Indian Ringneck 13 years "Charlie" Rex Rabbit 1 year
ryelle
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Post by ryelle »

Spit pants too when hes been flying. if he gets spooked and darts across the room he pants like mad, and our room isnt very big. hes done it the whole time weve had him (almost a year). you can hear him pantin across the other side of the room if the T.V is quiet. i say "god spit, your so unfit!" but by the sounds of it it isnt that :? Me and my partner smoke and we try not to let him come into contact with too much (we smoke more upstairs now), and we close all doors into the living room, and open all windows for half hour if we are cooking or cleaning the kitchen. We use no other chemicals anywhere near him. If we have people who smoke also coming over for a visit we move him into our bedroom and keep the house fully ventilated.

Could it just be him being unfit? he has his wings clipped but can still fly pretty well (lil bugger), and i think the extra energy he needs to use because he hasnt got his full wing could be a cause. oh, this was also happening when he was a special diet food (multi-coloured pellet things) which had no sunflower seeds or nuts in.
inept
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Post by inept »

Ruffle pants when he flies as well. You pant when you sprint, even if you eat a healthy diet, so why is it unusual that your bird would too? Healthy eating doesn't mean that your bird is in shape. These aren't exactly migratory birds so and they are fighing a number of disadvantages, seeing as they're pets.

If your bird's wings are clipped then it's flying with a physical handicap. Getting lift with clipped wings is a tremendous effort. Also, since our birds don't fly regularly they simply don't have the cardiovascular capacity.

If your bird pants after physical exertion it's nothing to be surprised by or worried about. If it's always panting, that may be serious.
Lauren
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Post by Lauren »

inept wrote:Ruffle pants when he flies as well. You pant when you sprint, even if you eat a healthy diet, so why is it unusual that your bird would too? Healthy eating doesn't mean that your bird is in shape. These aren't exactly migratory birds so and they are fighing a number of disadvantages, seeing as they're pets.

If your bird's wings are clipped then it's flying with a physical handicap. Getting lift with clipped wings is a tremendous effort. Also, since our birds don't fly regularly they simply don't have the cardiovascular capacity.

If your bird pants after physical exertion it's nothing to be surprised by or worried about. If it's always panting, that may be serious.


I agree, good points, but its still a good idea to rule out any other problems and make the home a safe environment to fly about in. Always take precautions. Can never be too cautious.

My birds arent clipped and are constantly darting around the house together. Yoda usually calling out for Jibby to follow. The poor old boy cant keep up with a young chicken. hehe

I smoke aswell, but outside or in the bedroom with windows open when its cold, no where near the birds.

Oh and to answer your other question Kobe.. I take the hard approach to changing a diet, because I know Jibby is so stubborn when it comes to food and if he gets what he wants he'll never change. I just take the food (sunflower seed in your case) and offer something different. If he refuses. Oh well, tuff! If they dont have what they want, they will eventually try something different because they have to.
Before we had Yoda, Jibby was extreemly stubborn with food, refused anything new, but Yoda being the enquisitive one who will eat anything, has 'showed' to him the way. hehe. When he sees Yoda doing something or eating something he will want to try too.
"Jibby aka Gilbert" Indian Ringneck 13 years "Charlie" Rex Rabbit 1 year
ryelle
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Post by ryelle »

isnt always a good idea to mix the food your wanting them to eat into the food their eating now? we had to do it with the pellet food because Spit wouldnt touch it. in the pet shop all he was eating was Sunflower Seeds... there was nothing else in the mix, the shop still feeds only Sunflower Seeds... horrifies me a bit.

if you mix a bit in for a while, theyll get used to it and eat a bit, then you just gradually add more and more over a few weeks, and they should get the hang, worked for us.

unfortunately we cant get hold of the pellets anymore cus we are miles away from the shop, so spits eating a horrid mix from the local pet shop and i dont think he eats a lot
Lauren
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Post by Lauren »

Some birds do take to this (adding pellets to seed) and some are just fussy. I tried this with Jibby and he just picked all the pellets out, threw them on the floor and ate the seed still in there. :roll: This is why I just took the seed and replaced it with pellet/crumble/fruit and nut mix.
I buy mine online because I found hunting down bird food other than seed here is hard.
Sorry Kobe, got a little off track. :?
"Jibby aka Gilbert" Indian Ringneck 13 years "Charlie" Rex Rabbit 1 year
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