Clipping concern

[Pajarita]

My dear, please don't take this the wrong way because my intent is not to scold you but to call your attention to some facts that you have obviously overlooked. Healthy birds do NOT fall off their perches, hands or fingers, they don't continue to crash into walls after flying for months, are very well-coordinated, and do not barber their primaries. Plucking and barbering by themselves could be from emotional upset but added to the other two symptoms, it would suggest a medical issue and I would guess that, at this point in time, if it wasn't neurological in origin, it is now. Please take your bird to a good avian vet. And yes, doctors can see things in their eyes that you cannot (cataracts been one of them) and yes, CT scans and MRIs are done on birds all the time.

[JaydeParrot]

Admittedly I think the shredding of feathers was because I originally kept them in an unussed bedroom to prevent them from having to be around humans all the time, they were very timid when I first got them. The bedroom was suddenly needed again and I had to move them to the only other available room, other than the bathroom or kitchen, I moved them to the living room. Cain was fine, but Hide was still timid and would sit next to Cain, watching her nap during the day, he'd close his eyes for a few seconds and then sort of try to shake the sleepiness off, shaking his head and opening his eyes again (in retrospect I figure he was probably too scared to go to sleep). It was around that time that his feathers started disappearing but I've only recently put the two together. His feathers are growing in now, he's very bold and is no longer timid.

He hasn't fallen off his perch for a while and did actually jump off my hand yesterday and landed perfectly on the cushion of a chair. I'm going to wait until his feathers grow in properly to see if some of his flight problems could have been attributed to fear.

Do get your idea about the vet being able to check though, I'll consult one over the phone tomorrow to hear their thoughts and ask about expenses. Can parrot cataracts be fixed? Isn't eight/nine years old quite young for cataracts?

[Pajarita]

Cataracts can be fixed with surgery (same as with humans) but it might be something else and not cataracts so a complete medical is always necessary. For one thing, it would not be the first or the last time that carrier or sick parrots have been sold, adopted out or rehomed as healthy and, for another, even leaving aside the need to know exactly what you are dealing with, it provides with baseline blood chemistry levels which will be used for the rest of their lives. This is an expense that every bird owner needs to consider as part of the 'cost' of acquiring the bird, same as taking a puppy to the vet.

[JaydeParrot]

Update! Hide can fly and land now! . I'm not sure how it's happened, he still makes the occasional mistake but he can now follow Cain flying around the room. He hasn't fallen off his perch in ages and is growing his new feathers in great, I've been washing his chewed or featherless areas with water mixed with aloe vera juice everyday for at least two months now, I've also been putting a drop of aloe vera juice in the drinking water every other day at least. He also ridiculously tame with me (not so much with others) now, so I guess being less stressed out is also helping him to recover.

Anyways, thanks everyone for your earlier ideas on this post, I checked his wings today and he's almost got a full set of flight feathers. He's currently only got one tail feather, which as least is one more than he previously had, (they bent and snapped due to his many accidents).

Still, he 'seems' to be getting better at flying everyday, it's nice to watch them flying together, .

[Harpmaker]

Hurray for Hide!

[Wolf]

Good deal, I am glad about the improvements and yes at least some of the previous flight issues could have been due to fear.

[Pajarita]

Great news!

[marie83]

Really happy to hear this