Giannine

Poppy ended up going back to her normal self, eating, drinking, vocalizing and moving around her cage yesterday so I am pretty sure she is okay. Thank you for the resource!

Very sad to hear. I'll be praying for the poor guy and you guys

I didn't receive notification of these responses so I am just now seeing them. They completely sealed off the room (bird were in my bedroom with the door shut), had negative air going, and wet the floor down really well before tearing up the old vinyl to prevent it from going airborne.

Hi everyone, I feel like I am always popping in here only when there is an urgent reason...I apologize. Last night, Poppy flew down stairs and into a wall or door. When we got her upstairs, there was blood dripping from inside her mouth. It did stop but I cannot tell where it was coming from. All day today she has been lethargic and seems to not be able to move around her cage as easily because she just stays on the perch we put her on. I offered her water but she didn't want any, even after eating a good amount of peanut butter and not having any all day. She ate a tiny bit of oatmeal and that is it other than the peanut butter (her favorite). I am worried but am hoping she is just sore and will recover without a massive vet bill. Thoughts?

Hi everyone! It’s been awhile, I know! I just found out our rental has asbestos in the floor after a refrigerator leak and am concerned about the birds’ health. It will be removed and my birds are in my bedroom now but is it dangerous for them to be here?

It does appear to be dried blood...it is shiny and blackish red

My Quaker Parrot keeps pulling her down feathers out and they have these little shiny black ball-type things attached to them. Is this normal?

I need to get my carpet cleaned and have always been happy with Stanley Steemer in the past before I had birds... is it safe to have them in the house during carpet cleaning or should I move them outside?

Hi everyone, thank you so much for all of your input and advice! I apologize for being mia for so long...I have been dealing with some serious family issues. Poppy has gotten so much better since I posted this (fear-wise). She is less jumpy. I will try blocking her from getting onto my shoulder with my other arm. She cares nothing about climbing down my arm and will actually hang from my arm and maneuver her way to my shoulder if I try raising my arm so it is a steep decline. I could try out the egyptian pose though...maybe that will work. I got Poppy from a woman named Pat in Florida. She is wonderful. She and her husband owned a pet store in Ohio for 30 years. I love Oak Harbor, by the way...we are in Mill Creek/Bothell. Sorry, I am trying to reply to multiple people in one post:) The main big complaint I have now is Poppy not leaving me alone when she is out of her cage. She HAS to be on me at all times which makes it very difficult to get anything done. As of now, I have no easy way of getting Poppy outside without taking her cage out there. Kind of a hassle but as soon as it warms up, I will do so

Thank you for the replies. Poppy is a Timneh. She came from Florida and I am in Washington state. Our other parrot is not out of Poppy’s sight. Their cages are about 10 feet from each other and are in plain sight of one another. Poppy scrambles up to my shoulder and I have not figured out how to prevent her from doing so. She will not stay where I set her. Our household is pretty calm. I can’t stand chaos and ruckus. Nobody does anything to invade Poppy’s space...they talk to her when she is in her cage but again, they do not handle her. I do. Nobody pokes at her. My kids are respectful of animals. She wants to be with me all the time but until I get these issues under control, I cannot have her out of her cage as much as she was before her wings grew back (all day). Poppy also freaks out if any man comes near her cage. Not my adult sons, other men. My stepdad approached her cage and she started screaming and flapping all over the place. A man who delivered something did the same and she had the same reaction. This is not an abused or neglected bird but you would think she was judging by her behavior.

Hi everyone, it has been awhile since I have posted or visited. I posted before about Poppy being a very fearful bird. She has been like that since I got her at 14 weeks in 2016. She came from a very good breeder and I am home mostly every day so I know what goes on around her most of the time. I don't have bratty kids and the youngest is 9 and oldest at home is 21. He and my 16-year-old (2nd oldest at home) spend 98% of their time in their rooms downstairs. Everyone is afraid of Poppy except my 21-year-old and my 10-year-old is able to get her back on her cage with a perch (she hates when we try to get her with a perch and will attack it unless she is on the floor) if needed but he doesn't handle her beyond that. Neither does my 21-year-old. I am the only one who can actually hold her. The problem is, I have become afraid to. I can hold her but it is only a matter of time before the tiniest noise spooks her and she starts getting bitey with me. The other major issue I am having is not being able to get her wings clipped because I don't know how to even get her into a carrier or towel her without her absolutely freaking out. Her not having her wings clipped has become a big issue because when she is out of her cage and I am in the main part of the house where her cage is because she is constantly flying onto me. I cannot get anything done and I am not comfortable having a fearful bird on me all the time. I have had to resort to having one of the kids let her out when I and our Quaker Parrot are upstairs because she flies onto the Quaker's cage all the time. They have always been kept separate for safety reasons. I just don't know what to do. I have begun to feel like I am a very ill-equipped person to deal with this particular bird. I feel like I got in over my head. Any suggestions for how to get her into a carrier so I can take her to a vet to get her wings clipped? All other advice and input welcome as well.

It says that the medicated food is to help the chicks build up immunity to coccidiosis which is apparently everywhere in the environment so the medicated food acts as a preventative. Really, it just help them build resistance. They do offer a vaccine for coccidiosis so if chicks receive that, feeding the medicated feed will cancel out the vaccine effect. I did read that medicated feed is not necessary, especially if you have a small number of chicks as opposed to hundreds or thousands, in which case, they would be at greater risk because of a likely less clean environment.

That is what we got—Silkies:D Were your chickens vaccinated? I am assuming mine weren't since the guy I bought them from recommended I buy medicated feed for them

We just got 7 chicks yesterday that need to be kept in the house until they are older. Does anyone know what risks there may be to Olive and Poppy?

Thank you so much! This should solve my problem and Poppy can avoid getting her wings clipped. Definitely seems worth the investment. I didn't even bother trying to buy a screen door because Solo (Boxer) would have tore through that the first day it went up so this will 1) Keep Poppy flighted 2) Hold up to a crazy Boxer 3) Give us fresh and cooler air to circulate through the house 4) Keep us from getting Mosquito bites. Win all the way around;) One last question: What length did you request? Our sliding door is about 80" tall...What length do you recommend?

Ok, I think I may need your help Sterling. I see a seller based in China and one in the UK...did you get yours from the US? Could you post the link to where you got yours?

Awesome! Thank you so much for that recommendation. I will now set about to tracking one down!

Poppy will eat some but she loses interest quickly. I didn't think about removing the pellets:rolleyes: Poppy tosses some of hers also. She will dig and toss. Ah well...she does eat some. I just think it's funny how they just love their pellets. That is the quickest and easiest way to lure Poppy into her cage at night—her pellet dish.

It's ok. Everyone has a right to their opinions and every person's situation is different. I have 7 other people in my home and we have a Boxer who is constantly being let outside through the sliding glass door which is directly across from Poppy's cage—she is in the living room and it is in the dining room. I cannot risk losing another bird to flying outside as we did with Olive. Thankfully we found her. My birds cannot get outside with their wings clipped so it is a necessity for my household. I did call yesterday and cancelled. There is no way I am going to put Poppy through that. She is 15-months-old now. We got her last August. For now, I don't know what I am going to do. I don't even know how to get her into a carrier to get it done at a vet...I suppose that would require toweling. The other issue is keeping my house cool when it's hot outside. We always keep the sliding glass door open all day but have been having to keep it shut since the birds gained their ability to fly again. Poppy is an okay flyer. She could definitely get somewhere if she needed to. Olive is a better flyer.

We had one last summer and it was quickly decimated by our Boxer. He jumps/pounces on the door repeatedly if we don't let him in quickly enough so a screen door would also quickly be thrashed.

Poppy and our Quaker Parrot, Olive both love their Roudybush pellets and the premium blend parrot mix from Dr's Foster and Smith. They love it more than their fresh food. It isn't uncommon to put a bowl of fresh food into Poppy's cage and look over at her just a minute or two later and see her hunched over her pellet bowl. Anyone else's birds prefer dry food over fresh? We do switch up their fresh food offerings often...

I am sorry I am just now reading all of this as I haven't been active in awhile except to post about Olive...so sorry to hear about Timber! How frustrating to not know what has caused such a drastic change. I am glad that he has improved and will pray he continues to.

I just took Olive in to a local bird store to get her wings clipped but want Poppy's done in our home because she is far more jumpy and fearful. I spoke with the woman about how she will approach Poppy when she comes on Sunday as far as how she will physically get her to clip her wings and she told me she will bring her own towel and towel her in her cage and that there will be screaming (Poppy). I asked her if that wouldn't make her more fearful than she already is and she said I could be out of the room so that it wouldn't be associated with me. This just doesn't seem to be a proper approach to a fearful/timid bird and seems as if it would traumatize her. Poppy is very jumpy for some reason and seems to get overstimulated easily. She grunts in excitement sometimes just by my talking to her. When we walk through the house to go upstairs to my bedroom or another room, she often flies off of my hand because she is startled by seemingly nothing. I don't know why she is like this as our household is relatively calm and even calmer than some with less kids. My kids are not allowed to yell, run, or create any other type of chaos in the house. Any ideas for what I can do to help her be less fearful and what are your thoughts on this woman's method to getting Poppy to clip her wings? I am afraid Poppy will bite me if I try to get her to give to the woman and she has never been toweled. She also has not been in a carrier/crate since I picked her up from the airport so even trying to get her into one of those to take her to the vet to get her wings clipped would be pretty bad...

Thank you everyone! I just got her wings clipped yesterday. Of course birds are born to fly but in my household, Olive can't even make it outside with clipped wings so it is a necessity, especially because we have such a large household and a dog that constantly goes in and out the sliding glass door (where Olive escaped from). I realize we were very fortunate/blessed to get her back and don't take that for granted!

We got her home this morning! We saw absolutely no sign of her all day yesterday, despite calling repeatedly for her and walking around the neighborhood. The first thing I did was go and get fliers printed and taped up around the neighborhood. As day turned into evening and the sun started going down, I decided to try one more time to go around calling for her. As soon as we started walking on the path behind our house that leads into the neighborhood behind us, we heard her respond. We ran toward her voice and found her about 10 feet up a tree near the walking trail. She was trying to figure out a way down and I mistakenly pulled a branch down to "help" her by clearing an area for her which spooked her and she flew off down the street. My son ran as fast as he could after her and we saw her take a left in between two houses. We called her repeatedly but got no response. I knew she had to be in the backyard of one of the houses behind us or even on the street in front of our house so we ran around, calling her. Finally, we heard her squawking from my immediate neighbor's yard. He is just to the left of us and the tree she was in was very tall and a very short distance from our very own backyard. Unfortunately, she fell silent and would not respond. By then, it was dark. The kids and I set up camp in the backyard to hopefully bring some comfort to her that she wasn't alone. We were well within good earshot of her and she could probably even see us, depending on where she was in the tree. I ended up going inside sometime after midnight because I couldn't sleep. Between dogs barking, airplanes, cars, people walking and talking, it was too much noise. We went in and finally fell asleep. I was jolted awake at 6:30 am by my 8-year-old saying, "I think I just heard Olive!" I jumped out of bed, put my shoes on and we ran outside and started calling her. The crows across the street were going crazy and for a minute, I was afraid they had Olive cornered. The birds were all so active, Olive would have been a fool to make any noise and draw attention to herself and I didn't want her to. We went back inside and up to my room, sat on my bed and talked for a bit while listening to every bird call outside my window. A few times, Giovanna said, "I think that was Olive!" but I wasn't convinced so I didn't move. I was tired and so was she. We laid down and continued talking a bit when we heard a call that perked both of our ears up. Giovanna said, "That was Olive!" We heard it again and jumped up and ran outside toward the back where the trail is. Giovanna started calling Olive's name ("Ollie") and Olive immediately squawked in reply. We ran down the trail toward her squawks and found her within pretty easy reaching distance in a tree. The branch she was on curved right down toward me so I put my hand up and she hurriedly walked down and onto my hand. She scuttled up to my shoulder and I walked quickly home while talking to her so she wouldn't get scared and fly off again. As soon as we made it inside the house, I breathed a huge sigh of relief! I put her inside her cage to eat pellets and drink water while I made some Quinoa and prepared fresh fruits and veggies. She spent most of the day in her cage resting, eating, and drinking. Words cannot express how ecstatic I am that she is back home. We have dealt with two losses in the past 6 weeks (my daughter's father passed and my oldest daughter's boyfriend was just killed by a police officer running him over). Losing Olive would have just been horrible upon already-horrible. I am grateful that we had a good ending. The lesson I learned in this is to let the bird come to you. Don't try to go to the bird by climbing a tree or trying to assist it in any way. Wings are getting clipped again asap.