A small scare

[neoow]

We had a little scare this afternoon with Alfie.

He freaked out in his cage and when we looked we could see he had a line of poop attached to his leg. It was like he'd somehow managed to poop on himself and it was still attached so there was a long string of it.

I enlisted the help of my housemate and let Alfie out of his cage. I got him to fly to me then put him on the floor. I then toweled him gently and held him whilst my housemate gently cleaned him up at best as possible. I then let Alfie go and monitored him. He straightened out his feathers and seemed ok - he flew around the room a few times, played with some toys and whistled at me a few times. He also did a few healthy looking poops whilst he was out and about, which is what I was most concerned with. I wanted to make sure he didn't have some kind of blockage.

Goodness knows how he managed to get himself in that pickle in the first place. I can only imagine that he tried to poop whilst he was climbing and gravity interfered.

He's now settled down and is having a little afternoon siesta.

I'll keep an eye on him but I think/hope he's ok.

[judygram]

I can see how that must have frightened Alfie for if he is anything like my Josey she has to always turn and look at that poop that just dropped but in Alfie's case it didn't drop away it clung to him, maybe he will be more aware of being in an awkward position to take a poop and stay in the more natural stance of a slight squat from standing. I know it wasn't funny at the time but when I read your post I did chuckle.

[neoow]

Yeah I can laugh about it now but it was a little concerning at the time for the both of us!

Alfie was very well behaved though.. he gave my fingers a few munches whilst being toweled but not as hard as he could have done. I haven't had to towel him in a long time so I kept everything as calm as possible throughout and made lots of fuss of him afterwards.

My poor housemate is still working on bonding with Alfie. He's never been so up close and personal with him! 😂 He had to clean up the leg and side whilst I held Alfie, as I didn't want him to be at the beak end!

Hopefully Alfie has learned a little more about gravity and will resume pooping in the usual upright position! 😂

[Timbersmom]

It is scary when they freak out, especially won't you don't initially know the cause. I haven't had that happen with Timber before.