New Lesser Sulfur 2

[Pajarita]

He's met Freddie and he is very interested but, for some reason, Freddie doesn't seem to be too keen on him (actually, I need to have both of them DNA'd because I don't really know if both are males or what).

As to his stopping his plucking... well, from your mouth to God's ears, as they say, but when they've been plucking for so long, they just keep on doing it out of habit (like people who chew their fingernails). But, hope springs eternal and, as there is ALWAYS improvement with good care, I will keep on trying.

[liz]

I saw a picture of a Cockatoo that plucked himself bald. The rescue knitted him a sweater. I am not saying that is what you should do. I am just saying how cute it was and that he really liked it.
They said it was hard to get off him on changing day.

[ParrotsForLife]

You should get him one of those feather plucker things Avian fashions sell.

[Pajarita]

In my personal experience, the best thing you can do for them is provide them with the best possible husbandry. Well, when it comes to plucking, of course! If he was self-mutilating it would be a different story! In any case, so far, so good. His new chest down feathers are still there and I haven't found a single plucked or barbered feather since he first came. He also seems to be quite happy, he sings and dances with me, he gets his scritches regularly (and I don't have to beg for them either as I had at the beginning), he is eating well, exploring as they all do and chewing my entire house down to splinters

[Pajarita]

He continues to improve. Slowly but surely. We already went through the 'one step back' when he pulled 5 of the 12 new down feathers he had allowed to grow on his chest but, although it was a disappointment, I did not worry because I was expecting this to happen. AND he now has 5 contour feathers growing on the back of his neck and upper back which I look at every day but try not to touch too much so as not to call his attention to them. No news on the primaries though even though Freddie is now molting them (toos molt later than other species because of their fall breeding season) but it's OK because I did not expect his endocrine system to be back on track so soon, anyway.

He has learned the routine and what I say real fast. We have our love sessions very early in the morning (before dawn when I open his cage) and he has learned to expect them. Then he climbs down and goes over to the cardinals cage (the tallest spot in the living room) and, when he hears my: ."Here we go! Que rica papa!" which I say when I come over with the gloop (I put his produce on top of the cardinals cage earlier), he quickly climbs down and walks over to his cage He is also stepping up on command every single time as well as giving me a kiss when I ask for one. And, I've identified his favorite fruits which are blackberries and pomegranate seeds so far.

I've also have started putting him in the birdroom (in a cage) for a little while every day (he is there now but I am coming over to get him in a few minutes) so he can get used to been there slowly and without too much stress. I would have wanted to wait a bit longer to work on his plucking more but he is demolishing my living and dining room and my husband already started threatening to "open the door and throw him out!" so the choice was to speed up the process a bit or keep him in his cage for hours which I will not do.

[Pajarita]

Today is the second day he has spent in the birdroom. He had been going in for a little while every day so as to get him used to the other birds in there but he had to be put there pretty much full time sooner than I would have liked it because he had gotten into the habit of opening the cardinals' cage and getting inside, scaring the poor things out of their wits. He wasn't happy the first day, I can tell you that. But he seemed much better today, he was talking to me, moving around the cage and even left it to run across the room and start climbing up the cage where Freddy has his box -which was NOT a good idea so I kept my eye on him and Freddy and, when I saw Freddy going straight for it, I got Linus back in his cage (with the door open).

His plucking has not really improved much but, in all honesty, I don't expect to although I never lose hope. He grew one single remige on his right wing but although he did not pluck or barber it (which is what he has done to almost all his other primaries), he did chew on it. Aside from that, no new feathers seem to be coming out so I am thinking irreparable follicle damage because, for all I know, he could have been plucking for 15 or 20 years now...

Poor Linus is what I call a 'bird with a lost soul' - I had a CAG like that... These birds don't seem to be able to bond with birds or people. It happens to cockatoos and other species that are so needy. People buy the baby but don't take the time to bond with it, thinking that talking, feeding, cleaning the cage, giving it toys, etc is enough when it's not, and the poor animal grows up disaffected. They want and need love badly (and they are not aggressive at all) but they no longer seem to be able to reach out to take it when it's offered... And so they pluck, they barber and they self-mutilate. Freddy seems to be fine with him and, of course, the other birds pretty much ignore him which is a good thing right now. He does observe Freddy and me interacting with great interest, especially when I do the papapapa with Freddy - I assume this is because he does something similar with me only he doesn't quite click his beak like Freddy does but it's more like the sound of somebody tasting something.

Let's hope that the birdroom does its magic on poor Linus...

[Pajarita]

I thought to give you a bit of an update on poor Linus. He is doing much better than I expected, actually. He has, finally, decided to like me and looks forward to our daily 'love' sessions calling out to me "Hello - Hello" until I go to him and, when I do, he quickly comes down from his perch in the back of the cage (he is only caged at night so he can eat his dinner in peace without Freddy bothering him) and approaches me on his own initiative. He also erects his crest, whips his head and makes kissy noises at me AND he rests his beak on my face when I kiss his head. He is eating VERY well (I love toos, they are such great eaters!) AND he has, apparently, decided to allow some of his feathers to grow and leaving them whole. Here are two pictures of him now and, if you look at the pictures of when he first came here, you would see that there is almost no skin visible now (well, except for his chest) and that the feathers now have integrity and are whole instead of completely chewed up, barbered and/or plucked as they were before. He even has a few whole primaries!!! Now, whether he will start with his bad FDB again in a day, a week or a month or not is anybody's guess BUT the fact that there is an improvement -even if it's the teeniest, tiniest bit, gives me hope.





Doesn't he look better?

[Wolf]

He is looking better.

[Chantilly]

He is indeed looking better! Nice work Paj!

[Pajarita]

Yes, he now has a number of whole feathers which he did not before (he even has a sort of a very short tail now ), if the feather was still there, it was either barbered all the way down or completely chewed up and half hanging from his body because he did not allow his pins to actually grow enough for the feather to come out, he would chew them when they were completely closed and beginning to come out of his body - terrible! Now the trick is to make him continue to improve... We are going to Home Depot on Friday to buy more wood for him to chew because he is running out of the ones he likes - they have to be 2 or 3x1, they can't be thicker or he doesn't like them and they can't be short or hanging or anything but standing up on their edge on the floor next to the wall, if you put a couple of said boards in this position and in his two favorite corners of the room, he spends hours chewing them. But they have to be exactly what he wants, in the position he likes and the corners he prefers or he ignores them... they can be real 'particular' sometimes, can't they?