HELP! Constant regurgitation!

**louielouie** · 09-08-2006, 08:43 PM

A month ago I brought home a 5 year old male eclectus. The problem is, he regurgitates on EVERYTHING. All over his perches, his playstand, and people. The problem is, he does this all the time. We can barely hold him without him doing it and it is very messy. I do not punish him, but try to discourage it by putting him on a stand when he starts to do it so he knows I am not his mate. Is there any other advice anyone else has for dealing with this? And, most importantly, I know many of you have dealt with this, but is regurgitation this OFTEN abnormal? Especially in a 5 year old? I'm worried he'll never stop!

Thanks!

**louielouie** · 09-09-2006, 04:56 PM

I tried more frequent showers, putting him to bed earlier, etc, but it is still going on. Does anyone know if he will eventually "grow out of it"?

**wings** · 09-09-2006, 05:46 PM

Have you taken him to an Avian vet ( a vet that works with birds) for a new bird check up? I would definatly have that checked out. It may not be normal if it is constant. My advice is it would certainly warrent a vet visit. Make sure it is an Avian vet. A regular vet can really screw a bird up.

**PhoenixK** · 09-09-2006, 09:11 PM

I agree that if it's really constant like that, there might be a health problem involved. I'd definitely suggest making an avian vet appointment.

Usually if a bird is regurgitating for typical reasons (as in, a sign of affection), it would be accompanied by other hormonal behavior -- lots of flirting, displaying, being territorial, maybe some aggression. Have you noticed any of these things with your eclectus?

**Chicklette** · 09-10-2006, 06:47 AM

Yes, I agree. I would definitely get him checked out to be on the safe side. I don’t think that much is normal.

**louielouie** · 09-10-2006, 08:02 AM

Actually, I have noticed some hormonal behavior in him. Sometimes he's a bit aggressive (not often), but he also will hump our arms sometimes... haha.

I will make an appointment w/ our avian vet today. Thanks!

**MamaLovesSully** · 09-10-2006, 08:53 AM

great idea taking him to an avian vet! please keep us posted!!

**PhoenixK** · 09-10-2006, 10:30 AM

Yikes! Arm humping!

Good job with making the vet appointment! Even if it is a hormonal thing, there's a chance that he might have medical issues with hormones, kind of like how some birds have problems with excessive egg-laying and stuff...

Apart from any medical issues he may have, there are ways that you could cut down on hormonal behavior over all. Oh Mowsie's written a great article listing several things you can do that might help:
Coping with Hormones

**louielouie** · 09-12-2006, 07:52 AM

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm taking him to the vet tomorrow! I'll keep you all updated.

**louielouie** · 09-14-2006, 10:00 AM

Just an update: I took him to the vet and she said he is quite overweight. She said I should start feeding him less and change his diet. She said that his diet should consist of 50% pellets and 50% veggies, with fruit every once in a while and treats very sparingly. She said that many avian experts agree on this and showed me lots of documentation about it. I asked her about toe tapping, etc, from pellets, and she said that this only occurs w/ excessive pellet-feeding and supplementation. She said the regurgitation is only from the crop (it's not vomiting, which is good), but that she thinks a big cause of it might be that he is eating too much and getting too much fat from the seeds.

I made these adjustments and I think I see some improvement.

Thanks for all the concern and help!

**tiellover** · 09-14-2006, 12:56 PM

That's really great to hear! I'm glad you've got some answers and are already seeing improvement.

Melissa

**PhoenixK** · 09-16-2006, 08:14 PM

Wow! Thank you so much for the update! I'm so glad to hear that Ralphie's made such an improvement! You did a great job handling this problem. Well done, dude!

**Roscoe's Mom** · 09-17-2006, 11:56 AM

Poor Ralphie! I'm so glad it's working out for you. We have a bird who takes us captive before he regurgitates -- if we're outside of his cage, scratching his neck, he grabs our fingers with both hands so that we can't pull them out, and tries to feed them his dinner. He really hangs from them, so if we pull them back he'll fall off and hurt himself! They're just so crazy in love.

It's really cool that you're switching him to pellets, too. Sometimes conversion takes a long time and it's frustrating, but it's really worth it.

**louielouie** · 09-17-2006, 05:07 PM

Well I use pellets for all of my other birds. Today he went the entire day without regurgitating once, and this is a bird that used to do it 50+ times a day!