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Casper wants help!


Caspersmum

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Hi all,

 

Casper has a bit of a problem and we were wondering if anyone has any ideas on the matter. He's been doing a lot of moulting, and has his new feathers growing in. He's doing a great job of unfurling most of them, but is struggling with the ones on his head. A friend of mine once told me that in the absence of other parrots to do this, we have to do it for them - in the areas that they can't reach with their beaks. I've been trying to do this, but with limited success. Does anyone have any thoughts - if I don't preen them for him, is he going to end up with a spikey head, or will he be able to scratch the coatings off himself?!

 

Julia

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My sun conure will let me roll her pin feathers to release them from their casing but I don't know if my grey will let me do that. She has not gone thru a molt yet so I will have to wait and see.

You can also use some Molt Ease to help the process along.:)

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Guest Monique

Don't worry!! :) The casing will eventually come off on its own. When the pin feathers first come out the surrounding sheath is wetter (or something) and you can't break the whole thing for them or it actually hurts. When the ends start to get whitish color then they're ready to be broken (only the portion that has sufficiently "dried out" and is more white vs. clear. If you see that you can give a bit of a helping hand to your birdy, if you don't they will eventually fall off anyway. Little scritches from their hands will take them off even though they cannot preen with their mouth.

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Guest briansmum

aaaw poor thing, it must be really annoying to mault.. it's like us loosing all our body hair.. or maybe even teeth and having to regrow them. seems like lots of sensible advice here though. just a quick question as there is lots of info on the net about it, when do they tend to have their first mault?

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Thanks guys - I knew I could count on you! He'll let me rub a few of them, then gets fed up and bites! Beccy - I'm not sure about the first moult, but I think it tends to be about this time of year for the older birds.

 

Casper's having a shower every day now, and I think it helps. But a few people have mentioned using aloe vera - does anyone have any experience, and if so what do you do with it?!

 

Julia

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Guest Monique

Just get the aloe vera gel and mix up a few teaspoons in with his spray bottle. Then when he has his spray baths the aloe in the water will help soothe him.

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Hey beccy,

 

I think it shouldn't be a problem - you can get aloe juice for humans to drink - it's meant to be a really good anti-inflammatory - good for allergies, arthritis, inflamatory bowel disease - all sorts of things - so I suppose it'll be ok for birds,

 

And Monique, thanks for the advice - I've got an aloe plant, so I think I'll use it straight from the plant - I know it's not had any pesticides used in it!

 

Julia

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Monique wrote:

Just get the aloe vera gel and mix up a few teaspoons in with his spray bottle. Then when he has his spray baths the aloe in the water will help soothe him.

 

What a good idea!

 

Ponti LOVES my help in cracking open the pin feathers, as long as they are out far enough and ready. If I try to pinch one that isn't ready she bites me and says, "Owwwww" and then puts her head back down, like, "that one hurt, but try for some other ones, would ya?".

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