NutMeg

I appreciate anyone offering to help her. I have limited access to internet so I will leave our temp address here. We are staying and can relieve mail at Meg Rispoli 21 Hillside Ave Belvidere NJ 07823 I have contacted Bird Paradise but no response from the owner via Email. The workers there know of whats going on though,. You can call Chris ( she takes care of the internet orders) and ask her how to help as well. Thanks Meg

Our house burned down to the ground on Tuesday in Elizabeth NJ on Monroe Ave. You can google the news. The fire alarms never went off. Our dogs barked and saved our lives but we had moments to get out as the fire consumed half of the house before we knew. My husband passed out in the house trying to save anyone he could try to and was dragged out my neighbors. I was able to grab 2 of my dogs and Lucky. My other dog escaped but we are pretty sure our other dog died in the fire along with my Macaw, Amazon, and many other rescued exotics. We have nothing to our name. Lucky is in a temporary cage that is no good for her but I managed to get some food, a perch , food and water bowl and a toy. My dogs have nothing but food. I got a little help from the red cross but my animals really need help. I am going to try and see if Bird Paradise in NJ can set up a link for donations for Lucky. IN the meantime she eats Zupreem natural pellets, Harrisons adult fine and pepper, She could use perches and toys etc. Or if you can even donate to a new or used cage donations can be sent via paypal to PJRIspoli@gmail.com Dogs can use beds, toys, food, leashes, bowls, anything dog related. Swee-pea is a medium Pit, Ping is a 114 rottie, and chou-chou is a 10 lb pom. Please if you can help anything is appreciated. Please I am looking for help for them. My sisters are working on getting us clothes and basics and I have

Does anyone know how often this can be used? Is it ok to apply daily??

A vet cannot rule out or say it is not a calcium problem with out taking blood and checking the levels. Even if the blood levels says its in normal range it can still be a problem ( as calcium levels can be tricky) which is why my Grey is on a calcium supplement as a precautionary. Her levels came back normal and we are still treating her with a low dose just in case. If your bird has been eating nothing but Sunflower seeds for years I wouldn't doubt if she was having bone and and muscle problems, and possibly MBD. I would follow the advise above. If you can't find another avian vet around follow your gut and take the advise of the experienced here. You have to be tricky and find ways to sneak the things your bird won't eat into something he/she will. When I had a hard time getting a past rescued Cockatoo to eat pellets and good food I would smash Harrisons Adult regular and pepper pellets and grind them up, mix them with some natural almond butter into balls and gradually add more bigger crumbles to the pellets and slowly weaned out the almond butter. I would also take Kale and other greens and put them in a chopper and cover cooked pasta with the greens and get my birds to eat them that way. Be creative and try your hardest to get the good foods into your bird!

:*( I can't help but cry for these poor creatures! All of them! This is soooo horrible! I wish I had the abilities to go break in at night take them all out and then burn the place down. Sooo soooo sad!!! This just infuriates me

Such a sweet dog! That was too precious! Thanks for sharing!!!

Ok so no offense to anyone here please My questions were exactly how much does a glass window pane block. And if she benefiting from the sun she gets in the window at all. After doing some research glass window panes do block most if not all of UVB but they do not block UVA. Now they need uvb for the vitamin d/ Calcium thing but I just also read that they need UVA as well. I also read but not sure how true this one is that after 15 years they don't block as much uvb, however I can't find any other site to back that up. The following is from a bird site. " While people can’t see UVA rays, birds can. UVA lighting helps birds identify ripe foods and even their own mates and other familiar birds. Because UVA rays aren’t blocked by glass, natural light through a window is a good way to provide the necessary UVA rays; however, UVB rays are blocked, so this is not a way for birds to get beneficial UVB rays." So she is benefiting after all but this won't make up for UVB she needs. At least now I can know she is enjoying it and its useful for her. Now I just need to research about how much a screen filters out. As for the bathing, I know how to bath her, I have already read the links here. I cannot shower her outside, 1 It isn't an option at the moment, and 2, that won't get under her wings where she likes to pluck as well. If I do not soak under her wings she plucks more. I am looking into the Aloe Vera juice for her. I did stop after she nipped me as I didn't want to keep upsetting her but this needs to be done. I will just have to do it gradually I suppose.

Wow he is gorgeous!! Do you mind if I ask what you feed him? He looks so healthy and just beautiful!!!

Hello all So I know all birds needs sun for Vitamin D. I know that most windows block the uvb but I am wondering by how much. When lucky sits on her perch in the sun is she not getting anything from it health wise at all or just not as much as she "could be". I ask because I have gotten sun burned through glass windows, and have sunglasses that state does not block UV rays ( or something similar) The windows in my house are very old. The storm windows and window panes are real glass not the new plastic stuff. I also wonder how much screens block out? When the window is open and the screens are down the sun still pours in. I assume its much stronger through the screen? Also today was the first time I gave Lucky a bath since her coming home from the hospital. I was afraid to stress her out too much and wanted to wait until she was near 100% again. I used a spray bottle and lightly misted her , lifted her wings and got underneath. She wasn't having it so I did the full spray under the wing up close and got her chest legs etc. She had enough and started to get a little nippy. I let her nip me a few times as it didn't hurt and I wanted to finish and get her soaked good as she is a plucker, but the fifth time she got me a little hard. Hard enough to break the skin if she went just a bit harder. I was kind of shocked and stopped and said no and left her cage. She never bites so I was more taken back and felt bad. What do I do when she does this? Thanks guys Here are some pics of her soaking up some sun after her soaking. Looks like I need to clean my windows again!

I will go check that link out later . thank you

.......Lovely hahaha and thanks for the tips!!

I haven't had the honors of this happening to me yet and not sure if I look forward to it. When they do this they actually regurgitate and it comes out of their beak?!?!? Gross hahha

She hahaha . Everyone thinks She is a boy cause of the name. I didn't name her Lucky, not to fond of non original names but it came with her and she knows it so I wasn't going to change it I call her plucky once in a while because of her chest. Thanks for the comments everyone:)

Thats the problem, the old chain ( wasn't new) and the new ones didn't have anything stating what the metal was. I'll just have to ask before buying now. Meh!

Some quick pics of Lucky until I can get some better ones taken and uploaded Taking a nap on mama after coming home from the vet the first night giving kisses to daddy at the vet before getting blood drawn Playing in the top of her cage.

Thank you for posting this video! Dayo is wonderful! My girl lucky was watching with me and in awe staring at the screen intensely.

Ok @ Jayd Nutmeg is just my nickname,I don't give it to my fids, no worries but thanks for the info @ Doug, Thank you for the info. She had a chain with old pieces of wood on it that she has had for over 10 years in her cage. Her previous owner stated she would ring the bell at the bottom when she wanted something or was out of food etc. Not sure how true that was but I felt bad and kept it in for a bit after we got her to make her more comfortable with the her new home by having everything familiar to her. I must say me and my husband took a magnet and touched it to everything. My husband runs a scrap metal yard and told me that 100% stainless steel would not be magnetic as far as he knows. The outside of this chain was also semi oxidized looking.It was darker and dull as opposed to bright and shiny and when we touched the magnet to it it stuck like glue. However a few of the other new chains from the popular bird store also stuck, so I wasn't sure what to think. I took everything out of her cage anyway. I guess I will have to ask the bird store how they know these particular chains are safe. As for the vet. He is a DVM only as far as I know, however he has been treating small animals, birds, and exotics for years. He is the vet for a zoo over here and see's all types of exotics and birds and not your typical "exotic pet" and that was the only hospital that would see her at 2am who had any experience. He seemed fairly educated on the Grey telling me specific things these birds were prone to as opposed to a Macaw etc. I do have an Avian vet though who is board certified who I keep in touch with about my Macaw. He has seen and performed surgery on wildlife and other rescues for me but has never seen my Macaw. She goes into Violent seizures anytime she is moved, touched etc. I fear transporting her and then being examined on top of it will be the end for her. She is wild caught, not friendly ,65+ years, and has gone into seizures and shock simply from being moved from one house to another, from being put into a carrier etc. and he is an hour away. Long story short, we basically agreed to let her be unless something serious or emergency came up. I planned on emailing him and asking his opinions on this but he is currently out of the country so it will have to wait. I know most if not everyone here is not a vet but I also think that some owners of a specific species , over the years sometimes know more then vets. And I don't mean can save a life more then a vet,or know how to perform a surgery I just mean with knowledge and experience. I do really like this vet though and would love to make him and his staff her vet for basics etc as they are super nice, clean,large facility, and have a specialty and rehab center on site with over 20 vets but are ridiculously expensive. I am still recovering from our bill.

The Amazons name is Nelly @ Grey Wings already one in here I have asthma so it helps me too. I used to have 2 rescued/fosters,one was a Moluccan and the other an Umbrella, I know all about white dust! hehe

Thanks I have a 67 year old Scarlet Macaw, a 6 year old Yellow naped amazon ( who hates everyone) and a 7 year old white faced cockatiel. The tiel and the amazon are housed on the other side of the house in different rooms while the Macaw is in the same room as our grey. I will get pics up either tonight or tomorrow

Thanks for the welcome! I will definitely get some pictures up. I posted in the Health section.I would appreciate any feed back! Sorry it is such a long post!

About 2 weeks ago( approx 2 weeks after we took her in) I heard a noise from her cage around 2 am and saw her half climb and flutter down to the cage floor so I ran to make sure she was ok only to realize she was going into a seizure. I took her out and held her and it lasted for maybe a minute. I got some sugar water just in case her sugar was low and she took a tiny bit. I put her in a carrier to watch her as she seemed ok then. However only 10 minutes later she went into another seizure and it was much harder and wouldn't stop. We rushed to find the nearest animal emergency who treated exotic birds.It was almost an hour away! We wrapped her up in something warm and took off. Her seizure never fully stopped the entire time. By the time we got there she was panting and her eyes were still twitching although she wasn't having a seizure. It was then 4 am. They took her back, got a catheter in her and gave her meds to stop the seizures and took blood. They thought maybe it was low calcium but her levels came back as normal. We left her there over night to be worked on as they weren't sure she would survive. Her body temp was very low as was her heart rate. They even asked us to consider putting her down which we would not do unless she continued to seizure and suffer. We left a deposit and left after saying our goodbyes to her just in case. We got home around 7 am and we were called by 9 am by the Actual doctor who came in for the day. She had another seizure and got more meds for it and he was also talking about putting her down or it would be costly to save her if it was even possible. Mind you I do not have a credit card and care credit would not help us. I asked him to do everything he possibly could as cheap as he possibly could and try to save her and I we would come up with the money. So he started her on an IV,Antibiotics,and a medication for Lead poisoning. That night I called them at 12am and we were told she hasn't had another seizure yet and she was eating some fruits and food. By 9 am I got a call from the doctor saying she was able to perch again , was climbing again but looked depressed and horrible. He said if she doesn't have another seizure by 2pm I'll dispense you the meds we have been treating her with so she can try and get better at home with out the stress. We picked her up by 6 pm and were given meds and injections to give her. Luckily I am experienced so I didn't have a problem and he let me take her home to do this. Well after 5 days of injections, oral antibiotics and calcium she was doing wonderful. We took her back 3 days after the injections ended to test her lead levels. They came back as zero.he said she looks wonderful and has even gained weight since this happened. He thinks it could have been a brain infection, calcium issues, lead poisoning which was treated successfully, brain tumor, or epilepsy. He does not think it is a calcium issue because of the blood results and the rest of her blood profile looking very healthy but we are still giving her a low dose of liquid calcium daily as a precaution. He said if it was a brain tumor she wouldn't have responded so well to the treatment. So he narrowed it down basically to either some kind of blood or brain infection or Epilepsy. He warned me if it was epilepsy this would happen again.However after doing research I found that with epilepsy the seizures don't last as long as the one she had. So basically we are clueless as to what this was which scares us. We have taken all metal out of her cage including coop cups, even though it was thought to be safe for her coming from bird stores and one that has been in there with her for many many years with no issues. I have also taken out most of her toys and given her ones with either no metal and or no plastic. She had baby chain links in her cage that she had chewed on but the vet doesn't think that was it,but says it is possible if it was made in china. Now I fear giving her any new toys and am super paranoid. She has colored wood blocks to chew on and a grass hat with that confetti paper looking stuff in it , with the japanese finger trap type stuff on it. I fear giving her anything plastic now but she loved playing with everything before. I need to know if these plastic things sold at bird stores are safe for her. Or the metal rings used to hang toys, or the chain the toys are strung on etc. I couldn't find anything on it saying stainless steel. So how do I know? Also here is her current diet Zupreem natural colored pellets, Fresh Poland spring water only now, Raw Almonds from Whole Foods ( which are steamed on the outside to kill anything) She gets other nuts from Wholefoods but doesn't usually touch them and its sparingly. She gets Broccoli ,and sweet potato daily as she loves them and Butternut Squash every other day. Then banana, blueberries, pasta,brown wild rice, apple, watercress, fresh corn on the cob, string beans, cinnamon sticks, fresh coconut and I try other veggies but she usually won't eat them after trying it. I try to mix it up so its not boring. I bought a bunch of dried fruits from whole foods but she won't touch them so my other parrots get them. She is picky with fruit and nuts and will usually only eat almonds. She occasionally gets the pepper fine course harrisons pellets as well. I buy most of my stuff from Bird Paradise in NJ. If I am leaving anything out ,or doing something wrong please please tell me!!!

Hello all Me and my husband have been owned by birds for a few years now but we have recently added a beautiful girl named Lucky to our home. She is very loving with us and we absolutely adore her. She is a chest plucker but its not 100% bald. We are unsure of her age. She was found outside with no band by a person then with her previous 15 years. I am unsure how long she was with the person who found her and am trying to get more info. I am assuming she is at least 16+ I have had a horrific experience with her which I will be posting in another thread for ideas and opinions. I'd appreciate any and all feedback. Thanks