rbpittman

Judy, so sorry to hear that the vet visit was disappointing and non-conclusive. I too am curious as the what your original vet has said about the feather chewing and possible causes. In the meantime, glad to hear the Josey wasn't overly traumatized by the event and did so well on her travels home with you. Keep us posted on her progress.

Jess thanks for the info - after looking at the site my intrigue went to disgust. Why take a beautiful creature and mutate into something so different? I'm assuming in the name of science. The adult birds are not nearly as beautiful as the babies, and do not even resemble greys to me. I'll be perfectly happy with my greys as they are, as God intended them to be, and their red colorings only on their tails.

Thanks for the support. This has been a labor of love for my baby. With my first grey (Dixie) all I had to do was bring her home and love her. She is 19 months old and talks non-stop, plays well with her toys and seems to be a very happy litle girl. While not a cuddle muffin like Beau, her independence is appreciated and respected. We do have moments of closeness which are added joys as our trust grows. Beau is only 4 months old and I'm hoping with all the support and love of the forum members and the love and care I can give Beau he will too be as happy and healthy as Dixie. I'm not sure I want him to be as independent as she is, but I know with maturity that will come (I'm a total mush for the cuddles).

From my understanding the bands identify the breeder and location but not necessarily the hatch date of the bird. You would need to contact the breeder to find the exact hatch date of your baby. If you didn't purchase him from a breeder the bird shop should have records of his hatch date.<br><br>Post edited by: rbpittman, at: 2009/10/29 14:14

While the idea of getting a pet (of any kind) and having to rehome it is an abomination, I would rather see one re-homed than abused, shoved in a cage, in a garage, and then ignored. I watched that with my neighbor next door - a beautiful greenwing macaw in a cage smaller than the one I have my sun conure in. The bird didn't like anyone in the family except the mom so it was put in the garage and kept there. That bird needed to be re-homed. My neighbor across the street had two lovebirds. One was constantly abusing the other one. Rather than purchase a separate cage for them, she got rid of the aggressive lovebird, purchased another, and now has her pair again. This woman is my friend, however, she didn't do the research, didn't ask the questions, and bought the birds in the worst place in the world - a chain pet store. The excuses people use are generally exactly that - an excuse. They can't admit they didn't do their homework before deciding on the bird. They didn't look into the reality of how much it would cost to house the pet (a good cage, appropriately sized as opposed to the minimum requirements), the toys it would need, the destruction it can do, the annual expense of food. They figure, we have/had a dog it can't be that hard. Well it's a totally different world than that of a dog or a cat. You feed the dog, you walk the dog, you take the dog to the vet annually and you play with the dog. All in all you spend less time interacting with your dog than you think you do. With a bird, there's the food preparation. Yes pellets are easy but for a healthy bird you need fresh fruits and vegetables (read dollar signs here). Figuring I spend the same on one bag of Harrison's as I do a 40 lb. bag of iams for my dogs! The dogs get daily treats, so do the birds. The dogs get toys, but not nearly at the same expense or the same number as the birds do. One stuffed squeaky animal will last Chow 6 months and may cost me $5.00. Dixie's favorite wooden chew lasts less than a month and costs $15.00. I take the dogs (I have 3) to the vet once a year for annual check-ups and a year's supply of flea protection and heartworm meds - total cost $500.00. In two visits to the vet with Beau I've spent almost $800.00 (two weeks!). I'm not complaining about these costs, but for those who get a bird, it may be the difference in them eating or the bird eating, or being taken to the vet. While the excuses are only excuses (even that of an allergy - unless they landed in something they have never ever been exposed to before) - they are the justifications these people need to make it through the re-homing process and giving the bird a chance at a life with a family that does want it, and is willing to do whatever it takes to keep the bird happy and healthy - like many of the members of this forum have already done. I'm sure they know who they are for having rescued a bird that otherwise might not be with us today. Maybe that's one of the topics we should be discussing in this forum. Not how much we love our birds, because God knows we all do and we love each other's birds as well, but the expenses that are really involved, the heartache of dealing with one who is not "perfect" like on YouTube and doesn't talk and sing or dance.

I believe the only reason Beau had so many feathers pulled was due to the severity of the damage he had done, his age, and in hopes of this not becoming a habit. Mind you this had only been a problem for Beau for just over a month as opposed to months or years of a problem. I did not request this procedure, in fact I thought a collar would be recommended before such a drastic action. Today I questioned the regrowth question and Dr. Jose confirmed, not all of the feathers will grow back at the same time, they won't have the same support as new feathers coming in, in a normal situation, and they are prone to more damage from falls and movement in the cage so additional precautions must be taken.

Patience and love is the key to helping Michael overcome all his baggage. First - reassure him that you mean no harm. If handling is not an option for him, just be near, calm and serene and happy to be there. Second - live in the moment. Don't worry or dwell on the past, be happy with where you are both at at that moment in time and look forward to the good things.

Today I took Beau in for his second visit with Dr. Jose. This vet is extremely expensive and does extensive testing, but given the results of Beau's blood work, x-rays and the research that was done, I think I got off pretty darn cheap if you ask me. First off - Dr. Jose questioned the diagnosis of a crop burn as the reason for Beau's plucking his breast and the ensuing chewing of feathers on his right wing. His first question to me was "How was it diagnosed?" Of course, I didn't take Beau to the first vet, I didn't have him yet, so I couldn't answer the question. I could say where he went. Dr. Jose took the time to call that vet for clarification. "No, there was not a scope inspection of the crop, just a hypothesis." He was also diagnosed with a yeast infection by this vet. "A course of 7 days injection antibiotics should have done the trick." Dr. Jose did a complete CBC blood panel and testing for the possible diseases which could have caused such plucking and feather chewing. (Glad to report - all tests for disease came back negative.) The results of Beau's blood work came back with all levels in the appropriate places except his white cell count. It was highly elevated. A repeat of blood work for white cell count was in order - still elevated. On the first visit Dr. Jose did a body x-ray which was to be repeated today. The first x-ray showed some cloudiness around the lung area, but since it was not done after fasting, it could be cloudy due to food. Today's x-ray (after fasting for 12 hours) showed some of the same cloudiness and confirmed Dr. Jose's concern that Beau has pnuemonia. He received an injection of antibiotics in the office with oral antibiotics to be administered twice a day at home. On the first visit Dr. Jose removed 22 feather shafts from Beau's right wing. Today upon examination there unfortunately has been some additional feather chewing, but tiny little flight feathers are starting to emerge and the amount of feather chewing is decreased by about 90%. The removal site is clean, the skin is pink and plump and all looks good. No signs of irritation or damage to the wing. Conclusion: Dr. Jose believe's that if Beau did suffer from a crop burn it was on the back of his crop and the cloudy spots on the x-ray were from infection (the pnuemonia) where food had seeped through the burn, or a more probable scenario - Beau had been aspirated during a hand feeding and this caused the infection. All in all - had I not gone to see the vet, things may not have turned out as well. We will be continuing to see Dr. Jose and a behaviorist to work on the problems of feather chewing. Dr. Jose doesn't want the behavior to continue, understands that it may, but also believes strongly that it is all caused by the illness. As he explained it - birds hide their illnesses to the point of creating other problems to hide the bigger problems. In three weeks my baby has gone from a bare breasted plucker on hand feedings for comfort to one who is ready to eat in his cage with any hand feedings and a breast that is covered with downy feathers. In time his wing will be fully feathered and we will learn to fly again! Post edited by: rbpittman, at: 2009/10/29 01:04<br><br>Post edited by: rbpittman, at: 2009/10/29 01:07

Let's see - Emma does the turkey and the pirate, but Dixie has now learned how to growl like a "wild thing." Wonderful if you can throw that in there as well - I'd hate to see what happens if we stir this pot.

What a beautiful pictures and so in the spirit of the upcoming holiday. WTG Echo and Caitlin

It may look unnatural, but my love of red makes me very interested, although I know my pocket book is not nearly deep enough for such a creature. I'll be happy with my "red" on the tail of the two precious "grey's." Dixie does occasionally look slightly pink - but that's after eating beets.

We visited Dr. Jose today and the new feathers are just now starting to become visible (2 weeks after being removed). The major point behind new growth coming in is that they be kept low in the cage so that falls or movements will not damage the new feathers causing additional chewing. As Dr. Jose explained it and as Dave would hopefully concur, the new feathers are very soft and are easily damaged with nothing already there to support them. In the case of Beau, I've removed all perches that were above his head if sitting on the floor of his cage. The grate has been lined with several towels and then covered with paper to soften potential falls. The highest perch in his cage is less than 3 inches from the floor of the cage. All of Beau's food and water is kept in crocks that sit on the bottom of the cage. The hardest part of all of this is discouragine climbing up his cage sides, and I may end up having to "block" this off, although with what I'm not sure.

She's absolutely lovely and "peeboo" is great! Keep up the great work Darwin.

Dan, you need to make sure that QA and QC get their acts together and make this thing happen fast. In the last 24 hours I've replaced the APC UPS and the PS (terribly underpowered!). Given that I forgot to reconnect the VGC with the PS start up resulted in a completely blank screen. I immediately thought it was a problem with the new terabyte HD, so disconnected it. Then went through the complete restart and set up of the UPS but that didn't help either. So, here we go running through all the connections, all SATA and PCI are grounded properly, no idea of what to do. Plucked up the tower, put it in the boot and headed down to the local hacks for a look see. Unfortunately they wanted $100 just to crack it open so I told them forget it. Off I head to the Geek Squad and those little sweeties were dream boats, looking inside and immediately realizing that the VGC wasn't powered. Go figure. Then today, Windows Vista's 64-bit decided they needed to install SP2. That only took an hour (done while I went to the eye doctor) and a restart with updates that lasted another hour (after I got home of course). Only to result in not being able to log into the damned system. Out comes the laptop, straight to MS I go and start looking into the problems with the latest updates. Restart in safe-mode, get past their problem and do a restore. Please, PLEASE, get your new computer system up and running, I desperately need the special set up in order to just survive and be able to get where I belong: F.A.R.T., T..T., and S.P.E.W. Sincerely, Robin (in need of advice, a new puter, and THIS forum!)

Setting my clock back on Saturday. As to the outhouse - it's a two seater, but you still need to bring your own corn cob and the Sears and Roebuck. We do however have a light - not sure you want to use it though.

Given that I personally can't stand cats, I'll let Bernie kick a few for me (wouldn't be caught doing it myself, even though I don't care for the buggers). I hope Tiggs sings better than that, even if Bernie kicks it...lol.

Having missed the last several F.A.R.T. meetings due to football games and band committments, and knowing I'll miss this coming one as well I'm making up for them all tonight. Especially since it's also T..T. So for the record, I'm T..T.ing and F.A.R.T.ing at the same time. I promise to do so in sufficient amounts to make up for all of the meetings I have missed.

Jay, he's such a goregous creature! Obviously his personality more than makes up for his lack of feathers and really shines through in these photos. Thanks for sharing and giving such a great act a wonderful home.

Such an absolutely gorgeous Sun! Congrats again and thanks for sharing the photo's!

Ditto what Judy and Jill said. I have a 13 year old and thought long and hard before getting him his "own" bird - Sterling a U2 and now Blue a little sun conure. I'm afraid to tell LP what your little baby has been through, I'm sure he wouldn't be reflecting the values of his upbringing, but I'm sure he would reflect the feelings of all of us!

oh that is just toooo cute! birdy love! i love hearing about how cool darius is.

Congrats Penny on Nilah! What a beautiful name! I can only imagine how pretty she is - no pictures yet... anywho...I knew you would come home with a new baby. Welcome to the flock Nilah!

Dixie does an excellent hawk! There was a hawk-head parrot in the shop she came from and I hear it quite often. I also call her a chicken quite often, which she repeats regularly, along with "you'll be a fried chicken" which she has also learned from me (shame on me). So from the count we have: 1 chicken 1 seagull 1 crow 1 rooster 1 cardinal 1 hawk Where's the farmer?

Jan, Beau had 22 flight feathers pulled from his right wing where he had totally destroyed all of them. The remaining shafts were irritating his skin underneath causing additional plucking/chewing. I have not seen any new feathers yet - it's only been two weeks - but the AV said that they would grow back better this way than if they were allowed to molt out or cause Beau to pluck them out himself. The balance issues it has created have resulted in a few falls from inside his cage - even though his perches are low and I've got a blanket covering the bottom. He does have a few scratches on his keel that I'm not happy with. The chewing has subsided quite a bit, and he appears to be preening more instead of chewing.

Beau was chewing his wing feathers terribly after an injury and yeast infection while at the store. I've taken him to the vet and he pulled 22 feathers from his wing. My poor baby does have balance issues and must be kept low in his cage, but most of the destructive behavior has stopped. We revisit the vet tomorrow for a two week check-up. While the behavior has not stopped completely it has slowed down tremendously. Gone is the shaking and shivering upon entering his cage and immediate desire to destroy his feathers, he is much more playful in the last week and is eating much better. Beau has only been home for 3 weeks, and while I'm sure most of his behavior could be attributed to the illness/injury and my own stress of his behavior, ignoring it and living in the moment seems to be working well. The only new damage is to one tail feather and I'm not sure that Beau caused the damage or if it happened in his cage before I could prevent his climbing up the sides. Beau had completely plucked his breast and it is now covered in downy fuzz and beautiful new pin feathers that he doesn't mess with.