Navre and Friends in Boston

[liz]

You can put Terro in a hidden place in the room and the ants will go to it. There will be many more but all going to one place. It calls the whole colony and will kill out the whole colony. I have even taped it to the underside of cages as well as on the ant trail.

In the Philippines I saw a black line on my living room wall. I looked closer and it was ants. I followed the trail to the bathroom. There was a little toothpaste on the outside of the tube. I brought another ghecco in from my garden and he took care of it.
Most households had big roaches they could hear running across the floor at night when the lights were turned off. I had a little jungle cat that was found by another WAF and had to be bottle fed. I named her Kitty Monster because she loved to attach me and only me. We had no roaches in our house. She only grew to the size of an 8 week old but she was a terror. My neighbor complained that she was beating up on her 5 big Persians.
We were in a barrio close together with stone walls separating yards. Her Persians stopped sleeping on the wall.

Sorry. Didn't mean to high jack the thread. A memory came back.

[Navre]

It's good advice. I'll have to look into Terro.

[Navre]

Nicky has started to pull all his feathers out, all over. I don't know if it is still stress from the vet visit. It was a week ago.

Whereas two birds who never plucked before have suddenly started plucking, it seems like it could be something environmental. Nothing significant has changed in the diet, or lighting, or anything like that. It's been the longest days, of course, so maybe it's hormones? Maybe the two birds (male and female) are getting each other going even though they really don't show much interest in each other?

Nicky 25-30 years old. He has been here a year. I don't know why he would start to pluck like this now.

[Pajarita]

I have found that birds have 'delayed' reactions when it comes to stress. They don't show it when it starts but much later... My 'off the wall' theory (the ones for which I have no scientific basis for, just personal observation) is that they patiently wait for what bothers them to change and, when they don't see it happening, they decide to give up - and that's when they start the behaviors. I don't think it's hormones because although plucking is one of the behaviors one sees in overly hormonal birds, it doesn't happen with 'normally' hormonal birds.

Could it be that you are not spending enough time with them? Or that their 'routines' are not as steady as they should be? The reason I mention this is because you go to the rescue regularly and you have said that you have to drive hours to get there so, obviously, the days that you go you are, pretty much, out of the house all day long. Birds don't do well with one day yes, one day no... especially the ones that pluck.

[Navre]

The rescue is just one day a week.

[Navre]

I threw out their vitamins, since they had expired in May. I didn't put them on the gloop too often anyhow.

I forgot artichoke hearts in this batch of gloop, but I doubt that would make such a difference.

I'm sure all the fireworks last night didn't help.

[Navre]

I've been letting Nicky take things at his own pace, but a year later he still isn't really trained at all. And whenever I have to pick up up for any reason, he goes backwards. Taking him to the vet means he's scared to even see me.

[Navre]

The only other thing I've changed lately is his nutriberries. He used to get "senior bird" nutriberries, but I recently switched to regular.

[Navre]

His skin looks really red in spots.

[Pajarita]

Hmmm, I don't think that any of the things you mentioned are the reason why they pluck and, if the rescue is only one day a week, that shouldn't have done it, either.

I think that Ocean might be plucking because of Nicky but I also think that getting her a mate might be an easy solution to whatever is making her do it. Nicky is another story... greys are very difficult birds to 'snap out' of whatever bothers them so, in my personal opinion, the best thing is to give them what they want.