feather as tool

[jthorntonwillis]

My Blue front amazon just plucked a primary flight feather and proceeded to use it as a Q-Tip to clean his ears,and then scratched all the areas of his head and neck (that he can't reach with his feet) for about 5 minutes.Then he discarded the feather,just like k I'm done: Hilarious to watch! But is it normal? This bird is 28 years old,and I have had him for about 16 hours,so you can understand my concern....

[Pajarita]

Yes, it is. Parrots use tools and feathers are commonly used as scratchers.

[Dave & Karen]

Yes, my parrots do the same thing when they lose a feather, theyll play with it or use it to scratch themselves etc. If i see one of them drop a flight or tail feather I'll offer it to them and theyll usually preen it or play with it some then discard it. My sun conure gets really goofy when i give him a feather he dropped.

I got a question for you about adopting an older bird as we recently adopted a 10 year old dyh amazon and she was all happy and excited the first week but she seems like shes homesick now as she dont want to be pet or up on our shoulders etc. she still eats well but she definitely seems to be a bit depressed and wanting to keep to herself.
Did yours go thru a stage lime this after being rehomed?

[jthorntonwillis]

Yes, my parrots do the same thing when they lose a feather, theyll play with it or use it to scratch themselves etc. If i see one of them drop a flight or tail feather I'll offer it to them and theyll usually preen it or play with it some then discard it. My sun conure gets really goofy when i give him a feather he dropped.

I got a question for you about adopting an older bird as we recently adopted a 10 year old dyh amazon and she was all happy and excited the first week but she seems like shes homesick now as she dont want to be pet or up on our shoulders etc. she still eats well but she definitely seems to be a bit depressed and wanting to keep to herself.
Did yours go thru a stage lime this after being rehomed?

It's been a couple of weeks,and he Still seems happy.One thing he is not is a morning person! he mumbles and grumbles for 15-20 minutes after he wakes up,and does not care to be interacted with.then he climbs out of his cage and he starts talking and clowning around.But no,he does not seem homesick.Probably because p/o were gone all day,and he just sat in his cage with only one toy to play with.Now he is thoroughly spoiled,and as I work third shift,He has someone home all day to talk to,and he NEVER shuts up!

[Dave & Karen]

Yeah I re read your post and saw it said you had yours for 16 hours at the time you wrote it.. my bad eyes and reading it from my phone at work... you get the idea... I thought it said you had yours for 16 years... lol

Anyway, I got home tonight and she was back to herself... very talkative and Very excited to see me... I opened up her cage and she nearly jumped into my hands then was acting very clingy with me, feathers all fluffed up, grooming my face, preening my hair and all.
I"m starting to think she might be a bit jealous of the other birds since we have 8 others besides her and we try our best to give everyone equal out of cage time and attention but she was an only bird for the first 10 years of her life and now part of a 9 bird flock so she may have just been mad at us for giving the other birds attention while she's adjusting to her new home... I don't know, but I was glad to see her back to herself after acting so gloomy all weekend.

It could still be a bit of homesickness with her tho since her p/o raised her from an egg and she was very attached to him so I'm not ruling that out yet, just glad to see she was very happy when I got here...