Expert: Chrys Meatyard - 11/21/2006

Question
Hey there,
I'm a first time bird owner who's just bought his first parakeet. I was pretty happy about it when I took him home from the pet store. According to the personel at the store he's anywhere from a few weeks to a couple months old (his nostrils have just started turning blue.)I've set up his cage with a sprig of millet, a cuttlebone, a few toys and naturally some seed and water. I'm a little concerned though. One of the reasons I chose him was because he didn't seem terribly affraid of me as all the other birds did. Even so I figured that the display he gave me while evading the net in which they captured him would prove him to be a lively enough companion. It's been 24 hours since I put him in his cage now and he's barely moved. He's nibbled a little at the millet that I gave him but doesn't seem interested in water. I'm concerned that something's wrong particularly since I didn't expect that he'd be so ready to sit on my finger or shoulder (as he has done) so soon after I brought him home. I guess it just seems that this bird has no spirit. Any advice (or just reassurance) would be appreciated.

Answer
Hey, Alan.  Thanks for posting!

Congratulations!  You're going to love your new keet.  Keets are highly underrated as being good pet parrots (your keet is a parrot!).  Give your new little guy some time.  It's stressful for a bird to move to a new environment with a new person, new cage, no other birds.  Stress is going to make s/he act the way s/he is currently acting.  The amount of time s/he will need depends on the bird...each parrot is different.  Don't ignore s/he, but don't force s/he to do anything it doesn't want to do (try to keep the stress level low).  Keep s/he warm, no cold drafts, good diet, clean/fresh water, etc.  Stress can result in the immune system being down, which can result in illness taking over if the body can't fight off the bugs.  Keep the cage door open when you can so the bird can come out when it's ready (if you allow your bird to come out of it's cage).  Your bird will become more active, etc., when it becomes more comfortable in your home.  You can try to coax s/he a bit if you want, but just don't add stress.  Some will tell you birds from pet stores are sick, poor quality birds, but I don't agree with this in all cases.  It depends on the particular store and the employees in it, however, a good many birds that come from pet stores are nippy/biters because they've had so many people poking and prodding at them all the time, they become fearful and defensive.  This is where the "sickly" theory comes in I think, as with dirty fingers/hands comes illness/disease.  Just watch your new bird for any signs of illness (stress/immune system low/illness creeps in).   

Diet is VERY important.  An all-seed diet is a poor diet for a parrot.  Keets need about 25% seed in their diets, but the rest needs to come from other sources.  Spray millet is good, so is the cuttlebone, fresh/clean water every day, toys...off to a good start!

I know you have a lot of questions!  I have a website I refer bird people to for general information to help them care for their birds properly:

http://www.angelfire.com/falcon/birdinfo/index.html

If your little bird has black stripes across it's forehead, it's under 3 months of age.  If it's cere (area above it's beak) is just now turning blue, it's maybe 3-5 months old, depending on if there are black stripes.

Things you should start looking at on a daily basis are weight (watch the keel aka chest), droppings (get to know abnormal from normal...early signal of illness), get to know your bird's behavior by watching it, if it's eating/drinking and what it's eating/is it drinking enough or too much, make a habit of looking at perches for blood (foot injury), feathers (condition, color), etc.  Sounds like a lot, but you get used to looking at these things every day in a matter of a minute.

Come back with questions as you need to.

Chrys