pokeysdad

Update: Pokey's condition seems to be worsening. He's now almost completely silent. Although I've been using the FeatherIn (and I know that's not supposed to take effect immediately), his plucking has become so bad that there was an area on the back of his neck in which all of his skin was fully exposed. For fear of him nicking is and bleeding at a rate I surely would be unable to stop with cornstarch, I had to roll up some paper towels and put a collar on him. His mobility is better than that which would be present with a "cone of shame", but he certainly seems to miss the access to pluckable areas. The cage is fairly large, but not huge. Surely not quite big enough for two Greys. I tried putting him into his travelling kennel while monitoring him for a short while to see if maybe he was more comfortable spending some of his day there, but he plucked at the same rate. He gets around his cage just fine; to all bowls, perches, and even the bottom when he feels like reinspecting for seeds he may have missed his first time around. I'm getting more and more concerned. Although his strength seems to be fine and he's eating, he seems to be less and less willing to get accustomed to his new home, despite my offerings of attention, space, food, water, toys, foraging toys, etc. All sound effects, even, are totally gone. No kissing noises, even. I don't know why this particular rehoming is so difficult. It's really wearing on me, despite my best efforts to stay positive (especially around Pokey). I figured a couple weeks may calm him down and open him up, but he seems more antisocial now than he did his (clearly scared) first night home. Help?

I have the 16 oz. ordered-if for no other reason than that Pokey is young, and always good to have some just in case. But it seems to have gotten worse. Although I've spent more time where he can see me, I gave him a good amount of space after a grumpy morning yesterday. He's started to take my hand out of his cage with no fight, but I noticed this afternoon that he's gone hard for his left leg feathers on up to the base of the wing. I think this may be from wanting to pick out some of the blood-staining (from the bad wing) to some extent, but it's pretty bad. Both there and on his back, There's some plucking but a lot of "shredding". A lot of feathers have been half-chewed to being soft and without form. Yet he's being more productive outside the cage and has learned some new noises in this time. It's been a couple weeks now and I've still only heard one word, when his owner said only a couple weeks ago that he had an extensive vocabulary. Is there something I'm missing? Thanks again.

So, an update for everyone. I had to towel to use the aloe vera the first time. Now I'm spending more time around the cage just so he can see me and become familiar with me, but the plucking has taken a turn. ALthough he lets me put the aloe vera on without the towel now, he's plucking under his left wing and on his leg. I suspect it might be because the dry blood on those feathers from the wing incident makes him want to pluck them. I thought it had slowed down on the chest, too, but he's slowly going after the chest and leg whenever I'm not looking. He seems more comfortable with me being around and is eating really well, but is fairly disinterested in his toys and the plucking isn't getting better. Any other ideas? He's making me want to pull my own hair out! Lol.

The only difficulty with that is that he doesn't want to come out of the cage and won't let me freely touch those areas even if he did. He'd need to be toweled. Which should I do, leave him alone or towel him to get the gel on?

Hello everyone, Just wanted to give a couple responses. I do not want to start the whole clipped/unclipped debate, but I made sure to check the clipping job thoroughly the very first night I got him. The clip itself was even and good on both sides. As I said before, the previous owner was a certified animal professional (a vet tech, I believe, at a major zoo for nearly a decade). What I suspect is that the first freaked out fall he had his first night or so here caused him to damage a feather on his left wing, and that may have started the process. I have no other reason as to why he's only going after one wing. As far as the breast, that's all 100% plucking. It's gotten worse as of this afternoon, as well. I removed one new toy from his cage that I thought might be confusing/overcrowding him. As I mentioned before, this was what I resorted to when he was bleeding from the wing. I have not removed him like this in any other circumstance. The only other two times he has left the cage, he's wanted to come out on his own and stepped up to my offered hand. I thought very hard about this response. I found it very thoughtful and appreciate it. He has a nice window view that he seems to enjoy (he even took a small sunbathing nap today), and has a full view of most of the apartment from his cage (he is at the window-end of my hallway-structured, long apartment). Talking and hands, however, don't really seem to freak him out. He just typically doesn't want to leave the cage, and I only force him too when I see he's bleeding. I will look into using some aloe vera. Would it also be effective to use on the plucked areas of his chest now? I simply had to use the cornstarch to stop the bleeding, which happened a couple times in frightening amounts. I'd hate to go to a collar or bitter apple spray, but I'm pretty worried here. Even after my reading, the extremity of this reaction seems atypical for a rehoming, even. Any other ideas? Thanks.

Hello all, I just got a 6-year-old TAG. Unsexed, but thinking male, and I call "him" Pokey. I got him from a respected animal professional who simply didn't have the time for him anymore. I have for him a very well-sized cage, separate perch, and there's plenty of room in my 1,000-square-foot apartment for him to walk around. But unfortunately, nearly everything that could have gone wrong has already gone wrong. He's a fairly quiet bird overall, save for when he's being moved or handled in a new way. I've been pretty slow, and he's been getting better about being handled, but he certainly makes his hesitations public. The big problem has been plucking. He's plucked the freshly-clipped feathers from his left wing, and has also gotten a couple caught in the cage bars and lost them when struggling. This most often happens when he seems shaken by his new location (although no locations of bowls have changed), climbing around too vigorously and falling. I've now had to do four minor "surgeries"-he's overplucked/lost enough feathers on his left wing (including his two outermost ones), which were unclipped, that a couple of the larger holes have bled. Similar, I guess, to how one would have a bleeding hole after losing a tooth. By "surgery", I should obviously explain, I've toweled him, checked for/pulled out any feather shards, rubbed lightly with a hydrogen peroxide-soaked paper towel, and then coated affected areas in cornstarch. Then today, I notice this: So now it's spreading to the body. I haven't even noticed this on the body but once or twice, which means he's doing it when I'm trying to get him to sleep (only one time I've ever seen him do at night, also). He has plenty of food, including in a new foraging toy he hasn't touched, plenty of room, and plenty of perch spots. I'm not sure why this could be. He can be difficult to get out of the cage, but sometimes I just have to grab a foot and hold on and let him adjust to me when I notice a wing dripping with blood. Once he's out, though, he seems to enjoy perching and walking around. In fact, a couple of the times I wanted to put him back, he planted himself on my shoulder and was difficult about leaving it. He gets good light, during the day, but doesn't have to hear a bunch of other birds outside. He has only spoken one word so far-"no", when I tried to pick him up one time. Other than that, we've gotten a lot better overall. He's starting to click sometimes at me, and does the smoke detector beep every time I was towards or away from him. I can finally get him to give a "kiss" noise, as well-all in just a week. Only makes it harder and harder to watch him pluck when I just don't know what else to give him. He typically gets the space he wants, too. I'll usually only get him out of the cage if I see he's bleeding or can see he's clearly interested (by far the rarer of the two). I'll check every couple hours, but typically he just wants a little wind gust on the head and for me to be on my way. I have doubts he's getting too little or too much attention. Any ideas? Thanks.