FINCHforum

Hi everyone!

Tonight when I looked in on my birds before bed my yellow male gouldian finch was twitching. Like his whole body every 6 seconds or so. I've never seen this before and I'm freaking out a little

He's currently molting, he is not puffy and he is at the top of the cage perched on a branch.

I gave them nv powder just now, maybe that will help. The only other weird thing, was he was being slightly aggressive to my other male gouldian earlier tonight when i changed out their seed, and normally he is the friendliest one with all of them. And the other weird thing, my two societies aren't sleeping on the same branch. The yellow male gouldian is next to the female society. And my male society is on a different branch. They are never separated to sleep. The female society is sleeping hunched over a little, which is weird for her as well.

If you have any suggestions please let me know, I don't want to lose any of them

I have 4 gouldians and 2 societies in the cage. My guess is my yellow male is about 1 and a half, he is definitely over a year.

thank you all!

Hi Krystle -

I had a similar situation with twitching with one of my gouldians a few months back. I was researching everything I could find on the web regarding this and the one thing that kept coming up over and over was exposure to toxins. If you think there is anything in your environment that may be a risk, you may want to air the room out or remove the birds from the room.

Does the bird seem to be eating/drinking regularly? When my bird had the twitching problems, he was staying mostly to the bottom of the cage and seemed a little off balance. With you saying that he's on the highest perch, that's probably a good sign! Mine also did not appear puffed at all, but he was obviously quite ill anyway. Your other birds are probably sleeping in different pairs because they can sense that the one bird is ornery at the moment.

I would keep a close eye on him. If you have a heat lamp, you may want to set it up for him. I would keep a portion of the cage free of the heat so he can retreat if he needs to cool off.

Please keep us posted - I hope everything is ok.

its a bit hard to tell from the symptoms but 2 things come to mind, both of which may be way off the mark. Coccidiosis and/or worms cause a slight twitch at onset, mainly in the wing shoulder area.Its more like a shiver than anything else. If you are giving any medication to your birds, that can also do it. Agression may be because the male is not felling well. If you are sure that worms/coccidiosis is not a possibility and you are not medicating for anything, I would make sure that there is nothing toxic anywhere near the cage. A bit of info about your cage setup and how long they have been together in this cage would help.

Please include what you feed, do you use any egg foods, how long do you leave it out, and is it mixed with anything.

Kenny is right. Its hard to help with little information and at best someone just might stumble on an answer. Is there a possibility that the bird may have eaten anything that may have toxins on it unwashed fruit or veg. If so I would look at placing some charcoal on a dish as this is a natural way to get rid of toxins. When was the last time you medicated your birds and what did you use? The problem is I could name a few problems that start off with twitching like twirling, virus mites infestation. These are just a few and there are more so any extra info like housing any other symptoms or anything that you might think might help would he appreciated