Girltron

Well...no conflict in the house. But cleaning might be upsetting to him. Also Frank worked half a day on Saturday, so maybe he was annoyed that his favorite person wasn't there.

I really appreciate your help. I'm thinking of taking a stiff brush and soap, and just scrubbing the thing really well so maybe the exposed parts of the thread locker might come off. It's a little tacky feeling to me.

I never thought of bathing him more than once in a day. He definitely doesn't nibble on his feathers while they're wet though, so if I see that he's been at it I'm going to take your advice. This morning he's being utterly perfect, talking, dancing, happy...no feathers in the bottom of the cage... I'm starting to think he just doesn't like weekends!

This isn't a homemade toy, but it seemed the right place to post. I got Francis a "Play box NRP" from the Birdsafe Store, and when it came I realized there's thread locker on a lot of the pieces. It seems the kind of thing he would get on his beak or toes while playing, and then ingest. I emailed both the manufacturer and the birdsafe store to ask. The store emailed me back right away to say they'd never had anyone tell them of a problem in ten years; but the manufacturer hasn't bothered to respond to me and it's been several days. I still haven't given the toy to Francis because I'm still leery of it. Isn't threadlocker pretty nasty stuff? Anyway it didn't increase my confidence that the manufacturer didn't answer my email.

Hm. Pterodactyl scream. That about covers it. So far as I could tell, nothing had changed near him the day he first did the noise. He didn't do it at all yesterday, and only a couple of times on Saturday I think, but if you'll notice my plucking post, Francis had a rather stressful weekend for reasons we still don't quite understand. He was doing police sirens this weekend mostly. An ongoing issue with us is trying to reduce sexual frustration for him. Maybe the noise has something to do with that.

It's apparent to me now that Francis has been biting off the feathers underneath his wing joints, and also plucking some of the soft feathers on his chest and back in a couple of patches. I can only see those areas when I bathe him and his feathers get all wet and flat, but the wings are more noticeable. Evidently he always bit his flight feathers off, but the plucking isn't something he was doing at my friend's house. The thing is, we're going into Francis's 4th week with us. I would say he's only started doing this in the past week or so. He has a past history of plucking at his original owner's home, but for the past ten years or so he has only chewed his feathers and not plucked. He also bit me on Saturday when I reached in to bring him out for his playtime. I didn't look at his eyes first so it's my fault I was bitten, but I don't know why he was angry. He'd been happy enough that morning. I have a couple of theories: he gets his egg on Saturday mornings, and if he's having some decreased kidney function (his bloodwork did show that as a possibility) the extra protein might be making him feel bad. I don't think I"m going to give him any more. Also, I'd been cleaning a lot that day and had moved one chair from across the room to the area in front of his cage. Because he bit me-not a nip, but a big chunk of skin off, blood everywhere, yuk-we didn't move him to his sleep cage that night, but just covered up his big cage. We did the same last night even though he seems to be in a better mood. Neither of us particularly wants to offer a finger at the moment. But he's probably had less sleep than he should because of that; and on Sunday was when he did the majority of the feather damage that I see. He's had big changes in his life: new cage, new schedule, new foods, vet visit...but he seems so cheerful and talkative most of the time! I know we're two of his favorite people, but maybe the stress of moving would cause this even if he loves being here? Do some parrots take a few weeks to start visibly showing their stress through plucking? Can I assume that this might be just a phase that he'll get past? He's prone to sexual displays around both me and my husband, but more with my husband. I'm aware that frustration can cause plucking so we do what we can to avoid the situation: when it's his playtime, we'll mostly stay back and let him wander: he stays within sight of his cage mostly, and doesn't really try climbing any furniture, so he tends to stay in the kitchen examining the floor and sometimes throwing a toy or two. Otherwise if he can, he'll try to follow us around and start regurgitating/drooping his wings/squeaking.

I'd like to put a big 2x4 type of perch in Francis's cage for him to chew on, he's so charmed by our cabinets and baseboards. My husband's afraid the stuff we can buy in Lowes might have been treated with something; what do we need to look for to make sure that the lumber is safe? Obviously buy a wood that's not toxic. I think I've read that pine is good...I'll check to make sure, but what else do I need to ask about? The more he has to chew on in the cage during the day, the better. He goes through cardboard like a beaver, but still sometimes has time to bite the tips off a couple of flight feathers. :eek:

Yep-Francis is still squeaking away, but as I expected his new bedtime really cuts out a lot of the annoyance level for my husband. I suspect he's squeaking less, but I haven't counted in awhile. He came up with a super-loud hawk sounding screech awhile back, and it's one of his new favorites, but Frank doesn't seem to mind that one!

He had fallen several times in the previous week, once breaking a feather. Possibly he had some bruising, but definitely not enough to affect his movements. I wasn't expecting his creatine levels to be affected that much by it, but maybe! My worry is how much stress it will be to take Francis back for a second blood test. Poor fella, he just hated the first visit. He screamed. But if the uric levels are too high even considering the egg he ate, I'll have to do what they suggest, because I don't want to ignore possible kidney issues. Maybe I'll try calling an avian vet if I can find one; like I said, my vet isn't a specialist.

Okay so I got back the results from Francis' CBC. I see a couple of things that look a little odd but I'm hoping someone here can interpret better for me. The big one is the uric acid, at 16.3 mg/dL. I'm worried about kidney issues but after I got off the phone with the vet, I remembered: the morning his blood was drawn, he'd had his weekly egg and I recall he ate almost all of it. Would the protein intake cause the uric to spike this high? He's a tiny bit low on calcium but I think that's from 10 years without direct sunlight or a bird light. We've already corrected that so I think the calcium levels should go up. The other thing, which the vet didn't even mention to me but I see on the sheet, is: AST value of 181 U/L and CK of 2065 U/L. I don't see why his creatine levels should have been that high. He was stressed at the office, but that wouldn't cause it, would it? I'm planning on going back to do a uric acid recheck in a few weeks, but I'm hoping it turns out normal because I'm NOT going to feed him extra protein that day. What about the other, though? Should I ask for a full CBC again and ask more questions about liver or muscle issues? My vet is an "exotic pet" vet and not an avian specialist per se. So while I know he consulted someone before he called me and I'm sure he's trying to be thorough, I'm afraid he won't recognize something a more qualified vet might.

I can't answer for the essential oils being healthy or not-I always open my windows while I clean, no matter what I use, just in case-and I know most other critters, like my cats and dog, are much more sensitive to the essential oils than humans are. Most of the food items they're from are safe for birds as far as I know, but the thing is the EO's are highly concentrated. But the cleaners you listed are pretty simple, natural formulas and you can make them yourself too, wholly unscented: use plain liquid castile soap diluted with water for the cleaners, add baking soda when you need a scrub, and for the glass cleaner just vinegar in water does the trick.

Interesting. Francis's old vet records show that they used to clip a nail for bloodwork at his vet in California. That seems much worse! Because the first foot they poked didn't bleed right away, they did the other foot too. He squeaked much more on the first one, I think they hurt him by not hitting his vein just right.

That's probably wise. Lucky for me, today Francis is in a famous good mood, whistling along to Dvorak and waggling his wings at me. I've reached into the cage several times (with my fingers tucked in, just in case) and he's nibbled on my arm friendly-like, and tried to step on board once. I wasn't actually asking him to step up though, so I let him transfer his weight back onto the perch and closed the door, and gave him tons of praise. His feet are still a little swollen and red where they pricked him: they had to do it twice, poor little chicken. He's much better though. Tomorrow or Wednesday I should know the results of the bloodwork. We couldn't do a fecal because he was too stressed to poop while we were there! I suppose I'll just bring them a sample one morning.

Yeah so Harrison's seems to be mostly sunflower seeds, which I'd noticed. But it does come pretty highly recommended. So my solution was to feed approximately half Harrisons and half supplemented seed mixes that don't have sunflower seeds, and Francis does seem to be addicted to the seed mixes so he favors that more than any other part of his diet. If he eats 3 tablespoons of the seeds per day, plus maybe 2 of the Harrison's, and I estimate that he's probably actually eating 1/8 teaspoon of the oil when I consider the food he throws...is that too much? Francis is getting more exercise than ever in his big new cage and during his playtimes, but he's certainly not flying miles every day like he would as a wild bird eating a wild diet. It does sound like we need to back off on the almonds. Maybe I'll start alternating grapes and almonds as treats? They're probably the only two things he loves enough to accept as treats. Eh I've got an Avian Sun bulb and hope if he's had a chronic D deficiency it will help him recover. My friend didn't have one, but she did open her windows often and I suppose sometimes he got direct sunlight that way. I'm very careful to include one dark green leafy vegetable in his veggie mix. What I do is pick one dark green leafy, one green veggie, one yellow/white veggie, one red/orange/purple veggie, and one root veggie each week and I rotate through them, providing two or three in each bowl of food. That should ensure he gets a pretty wide range of nutrients.

I've seen dandelion greens in Farm Fresh and Harris Teeter in my region. Actually I've seen them in most grocery stores I've ever been to. Often I find them near the herbs or specialty salad greens (radicchio or endive). I've been planning on getting Francis watercress, which I bet is quite nutritious, and I read of a cool way to feed it: float it in the water bowl and let the parrot fish it out to eat! Xtreme, when I lived in apartments I grew some things in hydroponic pots and it worked well. I bet an avian full spectrum bulb would be just the thing for growing some greens under! Jayd, I'm interested in one thing. Chard and beet greens are very closely related. Why do you recommend one more than the other? I would have assumed they would be similar nutritionally.

He's still holding a grudge. Tonight during "parrot time", the only time I got close to him was to offer an almond, and he darted in, ignored the almond, and bit my finger. This was after about a half hour of us playing games from a distance, peek a boo and so on, me yawning and him copying me...all good and happy things, or so I thought. I'm going to have to let my husband do all the handling for awhile and really work to get back his trust. I worried about this when I set the appointment, but for various reasons I felt he really had to see the vet. Especially with the feather picking. But the previous owners hadn't taken him to the vet in 10 years, so it was critical. I'm learning more about Francis and I don't think the situation is irreparable, but it's not good and it's definitely a setback. I'm not sure I'll ever take him to the vet again unless it's a dire emergency, as long as his bloodwork is healthy this time around. Could the vet have handled it differently? he was happy until they grabbed him in a towel, then held him up with his head in a vise grip, then stuck needles into his feet. I told him it was okay and he was being a good boy, but I think I actually just lost credibility because he so obviously felt that it wasn't okay. Are there less scary ways for vets to manipulate birds?

I thought of that, but Francis tosses an awful lot of what I give him. He likes pasta, so it's a surer bet that he'll eat more of it. Now, he was living on a seeds-only diet in his former residence. The vet yesterday told me he's overweight, based on what he could feel...I don't actually have a good baseline weight for him, and they didn't tell me what he weighed yesterday either, but clearly his old diet wasn't doing him any favors. I'm a little worried about overdoing it with the oil too, but he's a feather picker so I really want to work it into his routine. Here's how I feed him, and maybe y'all could give me a sense if I'm giving too much fat: 1/4 cup of Harrisons High Potency kibble per day, of which he eats 1-2 tablespoons on most days. In the dry bowl I also put about 3 tablespoons of seed mix per day, which he does eat almost all of. I got two kinds that both looked good: Higgins Safflower Gold for large hookbills, and Volkmann's Avian Science for hookbills. I just mixed them together. I leave that bowl out all day. The fresh food bowl gets filled twice a day, morning and night. I put about 1/2 cup chopped veggies, 1/4 cup chopped fruit, and 2 tablespoons of well cooked beans. In the morning I add 2 tablespoons of whole grain noodles, semicooked, tossed with 1/4 teaspoon of red palm oil. He eats most of the pasta and does eat some of the fruit and veggies. He adores beans. We're using almonds as rewards and he gets up to possibly 5 a day. That might be a lot of fat, considering the palm oil???

I've never had to think about this specifically because of a bird until now, but I've always loved making pomanders for gifts so I'm going to start doing that for my house too. Just take an orange, lemon, tangerine, lime...whatever you like...and stud it all over with whole cloves spaced about 1/4 inch apart. As it dries it will become a solid ball of cloves, and smell lovely. It can be kept as long as the scent remains, and refreshed by leaving it in a paper bag filled with cinnamon, cloves, and spices, with maybe a few drops of clove essential oil. In a week or so, take it out, blow or shake it clean outside, and there you are. You can leave pretty bowls of them around, or tie a ribbon around them and hang them up.

Oh good. I hope so. After two attempted bites yesterday, I'm not going to try putting my hands in there until I'm sure he's acting normally. My husband can transfer him to his sleep cage. We can talk through the bars, and he will take an almond from me. Unfortunately I saw him pick at that spot this morning for a moment. I suppose bad habits die hard.

Ugh, I hope so. He's offered another nip this afternoon so I'm not going to try putting my hands in there today. I'll let him sleep in the big cage instead of the sleep cage for a change. He's only just done a few little whistles, he's really quiet. I hate being the bad guy, I'm the one who takes all our pets to the vet, administers medicine, picks up puke...and as a result, I'm the party pooper every time. I hope I can get him to use the carrier for "nice" trips too. I hope I don't get my finger bit off trying to do so! It won't be for several weeks, that's for sure. I'm just really hoping the bloodwork comes back normal. Given that he was living in a painted cage with rusting toys, the vet says if he comes back anemic at all they're going to want to do an X-ray to look for heavy metal poisoning and that means another carrier trip, more angry bird, more traumatic vet visit! Not to mention medicine I suppose. I'm just crossing my fingers. The vet showed me where he's been habitually picking and picking at his right wing under the joint. It's very bare and just so sad looking. I can't be sure he's done that at all since he's been with us, and I hope he totally stops because the vet says at this stage he thinks the feathers will still be able to grow back.

Ha ha, yes, the first time I just dipped an almond into it and handed it to him. He happily shook all the goo off, then ate the almond and left me with orange splatters on my new shirt.

Poor Francis. He thought we were off for an interesting ride. He whistled so happily the whole way there. He even regarded the vet staff with a fairly benign eye, until they had to grab him and give him a poke...I didn't know he could make a sound like a strangled turkey, but now I do. Now that they've taken blood his foot hurts. I tried to offer my hand for a step-up and he gave me a warning nip and only wanted my husband. He wouldn't step up at all, and at last was brave enough to try climbing his ladder back into his cage. He's right in the middle now, one foot forlornly in the air, all his feathers akimbo. I sure hope he starts trusting me soon. I hope even more that everything's fine with his blood work, because the second time I try to put him in the cat kennel he's going to know exactly what's up.

I don't seem to turn up much info on dosage for this stuff. Francis will eat it if it's tossed into something he really thinks is fun, like brown rice pasta. I just don't want to overdo it. How much is enough?

Heh heh, well for one thing, Francis is 14 years old. (we finally got hold of his vet records from his first family. They kept everything, even his little cuff, luckily!) For another, his tendency to get sexual whenever either of us interacts with him sans agenda means that we like to come up with lots of distractions for him. It's not hard actually...we put the toy where he can play with it during his play time, then every so often we hold out a bead and tell him its color. Then one of us will take a couple of beads on our palm and say, "which yellow?" We do this to each other right in front of him, and we try to vary giving the wrong answer (the asker says "no") and giving the right answer (the asker says "yes! good job!") and then we ask him the same question. The first time he grabbed the yellow one was totally accidental, but we praised him so much he does it every time until he starts getting bored.

I'm so excited! We got him one of these puzzles: http://www.birdsafestore.com/Products/The-Teacher__FM213.aspx and we've been telling him the colors every night at "parrot time". Last night I put two of the beads on my palm and asked him "which yellow?" and he grabbed the right one, so I got all excited and gave him an almond. After that he picked the yellow one when asked nearly every time. Next I'm going to start teaching him using a mix of objects to make sure he knows the name yellow is associated with anything that's that color. Maybe he'll start saying "yellow" soon... Which is all funny because I'd have told you that yellow was his least favorite color. Maybe it still is!