Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a lutino parakeet. She has ruby coloured eyes. She does a ton of head bobbing and body swaying. I don't know if any of y'all have ever owned rats but red or ruby coloured rats have less good eyesight then dark eyed rats and do a lot of head and body swaying to compensate. My bird brings this to mind. Do i just have a nervous bird who engages in a lot of body motion or is it possible that her eyesight isn't as good as my other birds and she's trying to improve her perspective by swaying and bobbing? Thank you.

I haven't heard of eye color making a difference in the eyesight of birds. That being said I have taken care of two blind birds and one that we believed could only see objects really close. I do know a lot of birds will bob around and act like you described either if nervous or to get attention. One thing you might try to test eyesight is sit in a room with your birds, stay in the same place, when your birds are not paying attention to you hold up a favorite treat (millet) etc see when your bird notices the treat and if the one that you think might have eyesight problems comes over move the millet from one side to the other to see if her/his eyes follow it. (then of course give them the treat LOL) Most birds if they want a treat or toy will follow it with their eyes and/or heads. If your bird makes no move to follow the item it might not see as well but if it follows the item whenever you move it more than likely the behavior is only stress or attention getting behavior.