murfchck

This too shall pass, just hold on. I know it is tuff on our feelings when the loves feels like it is fading but they will come back around. I chalked Bongo's change of feelings up to just testing the waters. For almost a full month, he wouldn't let me take him out of his cage, he would just sit in there until Pat got home and would step right up for him. Now we are back to normal, he won't let Pat touch him and i am his taxi. I also have never been bit by Bongo, hard pressure but not one drop of blood has been shed. I am still waiting for that day though, it will happen and of that i am sure. (Fearful of it because Pat says his bite if worse than Gabbys and Cotays and their bites hurt bad! lol.)

Yup. 2 x's a day for one week. So for a bird we will have to hold her over a sink and spray her foot softly like she is by a jet in a hot tub. So I guess I wasn't too far off of my vision. Lol. Said she is healing nicely and that in a week if she still won't use it he wants xrays to see if it is broken. However even if it is, the way she holds it will allow it to heal normally. She is an A+ patient.

We go today at 1. When I picture Cotay in hydro therapy I laugh because all I picture is a naked bird in a tiny hot tub sipping a tropical drink and calling out "oh waiter" to me!

So, i am going to get technical here, bare with me please. You know the area on a birds body where there is that joint where the tail begins, the area where they can wiggle. Anything above that i consider the body. He does have more now. I do not know what is going on but he has another feather, not as large as the one in that sad picture i tried to post but it is there and i can also see 2 others under the skin still but definatly the start of feathers, one on his leg and the other under his wing. I hope we didn't mess things up last night but we had to seperate the Too's. They were in the double macaw cage with the divider and yesterday morning, half of the feathers on Gus's face were gone. (the ones that fluff up and cover the bottom beak) Not having a spare cage, we put the macaws in theirs and the Too's in the big ones. I am searching for another cage on craigslist and the bird mart is next Saturday so hopefully this will work for a week without causing to much damage. One bird gets feathers and another loses his.

Welcome to you both from a fellow Texan! There are so many books out there that can help you along i don't know where to begin. I will say anything by Barbra Heidenreich will not steer you wrong. I signed up for one of her classes months ago and am on a waiting list for the year 2016, lol. (I just hope i do not screw up my birds in the meantime!) Something you will see alot on here is the word fids, which is feathered kids. That kinda throws people and it is asked about alot. There is a bird fair next weekend in Cleburne, Tx. I am not sure where exactly you are located but that is a great place to start building your birdie paradise! Congrats!!

Here is my boys feather!

I am attaching the photo of her poor foot. Talked to vet yesterday because it is so swollen and she still won't use it. He said he expected this, that is was a very bad injury and a lot of damage. He said she would be needing hydro-therapy that we will be starting in a week or so. He also said that we didn't discuss this when i brought her in because he more concerned with stopping the bleeding. He will go over everything when i come in Monday for her follow up. I had dropped her off as an emergency and never saw him that day and when i picked her up, he was with another patient. I do have to go up there today for more antibiotics. They gave me exactly enough for 7 days, 2 x's a day but didn't take into account that we would loose some due to our expert experience of pulling the syringe out and stuff squirting out the top. lol The pain stuff is no problem, it is a thinner liquid so it doesn't continue to come out!

Been there, asked the same questions! lol ( search 21 yr old just laid an egg ) I am sorry, i just woke up and not clear thinking yet but i remember i was told they will lay 4 or 5, more than that is when i should call the vet. They explained what to feed and what not to feed during this time, how to interact with her and how not to. It was very informative and really helped me thru.

Thank you Nancy! It took Gabby over a year not to bite me if I had to handle her for any reason, now we have an understanding and get along pretty good. Cotay will one day get there with me but i am okay with waiting. I got a picture of her foot but it hasn't uploaded yet, as soon as it does I will post it, poor thing, it looks so painful and swollen. We go back to the vet on Monday for a recheck, i am a little fearful that it could be broken but Pat tells me i am over reacting, lol. Thats what us moms do! I had Pat do her meds Tuesday night and thought it went good but i gave them to her yesterday and Pat asked why she didn't sling it like she did when he gave it to her, Maybe she understands that if i am giving it to her she must really need it because so far (knock on wood) she has been great taking it for me. Now we have her feather issue, the vet thought she had picked at her chest and i had told them she didn't and that the amount of feathers she has is much more than when we got her... Came home to a cage full of feathers, she picked darn it. I guess her inability to move around to get to her toys caused boredom so she plucked, her chest is bare again and little white fluff was everywhere. For now i guess that feathers are better than her foot if she has to pick at something.

Almost 3 years, we had been told Oliver would not get his feathers back but he has one coming in on his body! It is a pin right now but it is over an inch long! Located on his back by his leg, i am so excited for him!

They were worried she would pick at it and open it up but so far, so good. She seems to be feeling a little better and i know this because she is lunging and trying to bite me again as of last night. We put their dinners in the cages and since she still isn't using the foot and she was looking upward for her perch, i thought i would help her again like i did the night before. She lunged at me throwing herself upside down hanging from one foot on a perch, i tried again to help her but she was out for blood so i had to let her work herself back up. It is a good sign, i guess :-( , lol. Should be real fun getting her to take her meds this morning. She gets two in the morning and one in the evening, why couldn't it be one in the morning and two in the evening when Pat is here to give it to her?? lol She adores Pat and he her so for him it is easy as pie. Gabby however isn't taking the extra Cotay attention very well, we noticed she has some feather chewing damage on the top of her wing. When it rains here, it pours!

Thank you all! She has three areas that he used glue on to stop the bleeding, poor thing looks miserable and she isn't out of the woods yet. If she picks at the glue it could get worse. Poor hubby, Cotay is his little girl and even after they went to bed last night, every 2 hours he was going in and checking on her. The vet gave her 2 meds, one for pain and an antibiotic. She was really good letting me handle her yesterday, today should be interesting. Cotays cage is Bubba's first cage when he moved in here, i don't think he was trying to be mean, just knew that was his cage and it has a perch on top, the others are domed so he was just going for comfort. It was really weird trying to explain to the vet that Cotay is not a mutilator, Bubba nicked her chest and he thought she did it to herself picking. I am telling them, she has alot more feathers now than when we got her, lol.

Ha! Just spoke to the vet and they had to use surgical glue. We can pick her up at 7 tonight as long as the glue holds and she doesn't open it up again. He got a nip on her chest too but that's just surface! Yeah! Pad lock time for the big boys cages!

Bubba, our macaw, got out of his cage during dinner. Bit Cotay pretty bad on her foot. We thought the bleeding had stopped but woke this morning to what looked like no less than a blood bath in her cage. What we knew to do wasn't working and so she is now at the vet and they think they have to keep her over night. My poor little girl, she doesn't like me but knew I was taking her for the care she needed and was wonderful letting me handle her.

There must be something about those paper towels we don't know about. This is Gabby on her mission to rid the world of paper towels too!

Big boo boo. We moved the too's back into the double macaw cage and out of the bird room and into the living room. Mostly because of the dust and the macaws and then because we thought if they could see us, the screaming would slow down. Welp, that was a big no on the screaming. We were worried that we would wake them up to early in the morning, but never thought about what time we put them to bed. I also did not think through the stand situation and where they would be during the day when everyone is out. It took us 4 hours to disassemble it to move it and that was done Sunday, Sunday night i wanted it moved back, lol. Last night we decided this wouldn't work at all so tonight we tear it down and move it again! Gesh. We made a deal, no more cages that don't fit through doors!!I have one that can come in and out for washings, the rest i have to scrub where they stand and use a ladder to get to the tops. We keep talking about the bird house in the country and how nice that would be but we got their asking price Friday and am not sure we can pull it off, we have someone working the numbers now. There is a second one we found, not as much land but the house itself is huge and the birds would all have their own rooms, it was built in 1908 and our absolute dream house. Already dubbed the money pit. Someone tried to make it into a bed and breakfast but lacked carpentry skills. We joked about not being able to drink in the house because if you tripped and your face went into the wall you would walk away with not skin left on it, the texture is so bad. One room is about 5 inches lower because the texture they used on the ceiling is about 5 inches think and pointy. lol Alot of work but could be worth it. The bird house as we call it, has issues of its own but there is room to run and hide and cry. lol

When it was just Bongo and Oliver, they ate with us also. Well it was more like stood by and or in our plates and ate for us and we would end up eating from their plates, lol. My table isn't big enough now for 7 plus us!

I will agree with that. I have one that her favorite past time is drawing my blood, until I have something she likes. It is tough on us not chosen but when they do decide we are ok, it is a great rewarding feeling.

That is a great find! Your babies are going to love it!!

I guess Gus is feeling better again, he has started tossing his food out. That is something i did not miss, lol, back to the brightly colored poop from the dogs. Lilly only lets Pat harness her now to be put on the stand. It is funny but she loves being on her stand and plays non stop and is quiet but if she doesn't have the harness on, she jumps off and screams almost constantly. I just don't get it.

Mine were a far cry from the picture as well, but they didn't seem to mind the odd shapes. I am going to try it with some apple added to it and see if Miss Picky will give it a try. Let me know if your guys like it!

I have been struggling to find something all my birds will eat, and i found it. 2 ingredient pancakes! All the bowls were empty last night (except one and that was Lilly who only eats pellets and apple so far) Of course the hubs and I had to sample and i don't even like bananna's but it smelt so yummy! 2 eggs 1 bananna Mix well and make your pancakes! I used coconut oil to add flavor when cooking.

So I was crying and could not reply when I read that. Heartbreaking and beautifully written. My heart goes out to all in need of being rescued and to those who rescue.

There is still a hole in her head but it doesn't seem to bother him much. Just when his crown goes up, it must pull at it. He has been grabbing the feathers up there with his foot and tugging at them. None are loose or broken that we can see. Ahhh, on to Lilly and her harness, lol. Still works great to keep her on the stand... When she lets us put it on her now. She use to love wearing it which is where this idea came from, now she knows it means she can not fly off her stand and refuses, by way of biting to put it on. She is my little Cujo! I was holding her the other night bawling my eyes out at the love i have for her but she is such a pain in the butt with her antics!! I assume this is where the phrase " love- hate relationship " came from! LOL

I think it is wonderful having birds flying around! In our house it is just Gabby and Bongo and the two U2's flying with the macaws watching and wishing they could join! Cotay isn't ready to fly but i am sure when she is, she will be into everything!