Eclectus toe tapping

[Lindy1724]

I just noticed my 7 month old female solomon island eclectus tapping her one foot as she perched on her tabletop perch with her other foot nestled in her feathers. I have NEVER seen or heard her do this before. I checked into it on the Land of Vos website, and it mentioned something about calcium deficiency. I haven't given her any eggs in a while, although I just hard boiled some today for her so I am going to give her one with her dinner and see if that helps as the website said doing that can even show results in a couple of hours.

I am so confused, because she gets absolutely no pellets in her diet. She has an all fresh and homecooked diet. The most recent batch that I made for her about a week or so ago had cranberries and okra in it and those are the only things that are new, the rest of the mix she has had for a while. So is there anything else that it could be??? Any advice or info would be greatly appreciated! Thank you all in advance!

[Vankarhi]

Hello I just found your post. My girl is a red sided 19 months old now and the other night while on my shoulder I was horrified to notice she was rythmically tapping both feet on my shoulder. I actually could see it out of the corner of my eye also. It was not real bad, but definetly a toe tap. I dragged out my ekkie book and read that appart from vitamin deficiencies or an abudance of them, it can also be food going off. At the moment we have stinking hot weather (Queensland Australia) and I normally change their food morning and afternoon. Now it gets changed more regular especially the fresh food. I gave her cuttlefish bone and boiled egg and I have not seen it again so far anyway. I am also a member of TEC so have read about others who have suffered it with their birds and Skyes was very mild case.

How is your girl now??

[Lindy1724]

Vankarhi,

Thank you for your concern! Miss Scarlett is doing just fine now. That first night that she did it was quite scary, but I also went to the LOV website and found that it could be a calcium deficiency and that if given a calcium enriced food that the toe tapping could disappear in a very short time and so I gave her a hard boiled egg with shell and all and she stopped tapping that night! She has since done it once more for like an hour (not continuously like the videos that they have on the LOV website) and again, I gave her a shelled hard boiled egg and she stopped so I am simply giving her more calcium in her diet now for that is what seemed to have been causing it for her.

Glad to hear that Skye is doing well. Hope we can both nip this toe tapping in the bud . Thanks again for your response and concern!

[Vankarhi]

That is very interesting because that sounds similar to Skye with her toe tapping. It was a definite toe tap and it was rythmic also, I could feel it on my shoulder and see it. She was still doing it when i put her back in her cage but the next day she did not seem to be doing it. I will make sure I give her plenty of cuttle fish bone and a boiled egg every week (or at least every fortnight). Glad to hear your bird is doing ok.

[txbirdfarmer]

Originally Posted by Lindy1724

I just noticed my 7 month old female solomon island eclectus tapping her one foot as she perched on her tabletop perch with her other foot nestled in her feathers....

I ran across your post and although I do not have eclectus, I have some experience with toe tapping. I had some cockatiels who exhibited toe tapping behavior. I think this was for a different reason than Eclectus do it, but it caused me to do some research.

In my search I found an excellent, informative article cowritten by Laurella Desborough and Brian L. Speer, DVM. Dip, ABVP, ECAMS. I have dealt with Dr. Speer before, as he has spoken several times for my club at our annual seminars. Laurella Desborough, is well known for her work with eclectus and with AFA and has been a speaker numerous times at AFA conventions.

I hope this article helps you -- we published it 2 years ago in our seminar book as it was so informative and on a topic you don't usually hear about.
http://www.oldworldaviaries.com/text...oe-tapping.htm

[Lindy1724]

Thank you very much! That article was quite informative!