Stories- ringneck, quaker, and gcc

[Pajarita]

Thank you so much for the update, I missed your postings and news about your three birds. It seems that everything is going OK and that, although you had to make adjustments, they are working out. And yes, GCCs would much rather be on your shoulder than fly anywhere - they are as bad as toos!

[shiraartain]

Will reply to everyone's comments later. At the emergency vet right now. Mom let Fajr out of his cage after I put him back in and he snuck past the open door and into Lemon and Clover's room and onto their cage. Got his toe bitten, and I found him on the couch at the other end of the room. Was confused about why he ran up to me, then ran away when I asked him to step up until I saw his toe. My original reaction did nothing to calm him down, but we made it to the vet and they're amputating the bitten portion of the toe and stitching up the rest. Will update once I get home and things calm down.

[Wolf]

Oh man, that is just a total bummer and I am so sorry to read about this. It sounds like he may have gotten bit more than once, is this true? Poor little boy.

[shiraartain]

We don't know how many times he was bitten as nobody was present when it occurred. The toe was barely hanging on, though. Because of the urgency of the situation, I didn't take any photos, but basically, the front portion of his toe was twisted around at an impossible angle and just barely attached to the rest of his foot. Had to run back to the vet with him because he was working his way around the collar and had cut open a few of the stitches. Thankfully, it was just the ones they had added on top of the real ones in order to make it more difficult for him to get to them. They switched the collar and we came home. He's more bothered by this one since it's bigger and makes it more difficult for him to walk/eat/drink and they gave us extra tape to put on the collar because he keeps trying to tear up the tape attached to the collar.

When the vet came in to get the consent form signed, she made it very clear that it was possible he could die during the amputation due to shock and stress, which I knew, but hearing it said by the vet made me 100x more nervous, and so I was on edge the entire time they were working on him.

He rebounds from anesthetic EXTREMELY fast. Once he was in his cage after we first got home (about a 20 minute drive), he began hopping around. Literally hopping around his cage, chirping. Ate a bit, then the problem with the cone happened and we took him back. Last time as well, he perked up right after arriving home. Now he's covered, on his perch, and beak grinding.

I think I spent the bulk of my day either at the vet or driving to/from there. (Drove there, drove home to grab his collar and drove back to vet. Drove home, then drove back to vet during rush hour bc of the cone issue, then drove home again, still during rush hour and with intense rain).

He's cagebound for two weeks, after which we can remove the cone. Back on metacam and baytril. They gave me some new baytril, and said I might run out of metacam (since i'm using the metacam from his last injury) and to just come to them or go to my regular vet if I run out.

Sister who went with me pointed out he and Lemon are twins now. Lemon is also missing part of a toenail- he came to us like that.

Will try and post pictures of his previous collar and his current one when I get the chance.

[shiraartain]

Kiki will not rest, when she find me wearing a hair tie, until she has chewed it in half and has removed it. She is also almost as bad about zippers.

Myrtle believes it is her mission to keep things out of my hair.
Rachel has to keep her door closed because Myrtle can open her jewelry box.
I have to hide my purse. Myrtle unzips it and steals from me.

Good to know we're not alone in our struggle I'm trying to figure out how to construct a toy that will play to her love of hair ties without actually using any, but haven't gotten anywhere with that.

One time, we let Clover and Lemon out for playtime when the birds were all placed together, and Fajr was left in his cage. Clover immediately scurried over to Fajr's cage and flew off with the hair tie that was securing his cage door closed, freeing him.

Thank you so much for the update, I missed your postings and news about your three birds. It seems that everything is going OK and that, although you had to make adjustments, they are working out. And yes, GCCs would much rather be on your shoulder than fly anywhere - they are as bad as toos!

They are working out, for now. My parents and sister are seriously considering the idea of rehoming the bigger two, because I won't be around to supplement their care for much longer and the twins aren't fully stepping up. I don't think today's accident exactly made my parents eager to keep them around after I've left. It's something I'm looking at and considering seriously, because there is still enough time to think about it, and it's better for me to rehome them if necessary to the best possible home we can find than for my parents to hand them off to whoever pops up willing to take them.

The vet said he looked healthy aside from his toe and his wings seemed to be in good shape, so that chased away the lingering concerns I still had.

[Pajarita]

Oh, poor baby! And just when he had finally gotten better after getting his leg broken! What a bummer! But a missing toe is nothing, Shira, he will be able to walk, perch and climb as if he had all his four toes on that foot. Sorry to hear about your parents rehoming poor Lemon and Clover... I mean, I completely understand their reaction and, given the fact that the twins are not really pulling their weight on their care it's completely understandable but it wasn't their fault, you know. Parrots always bite the toes and feet of the other parrots perching on their cage. It's a given.

[shiraartain]

Yes it's definitely our fault with Fajr heading into the room...open door, not noticing him stealing away....it was a preventable accident. I honestly feel so guilty towards Fajr. My Mom understands that, but it's a shift away from the fondness for Lemon and Clover that I feel happened very slightly in my mom. Dad is returning from a trip, and doesn't even know yet.

At least we've been able to make progress with the pair and make them more "adoptable". Figured out the sorts of toys they like, got them used to humans and now they're less prone to biting and pulling out people's hair and more at ease interacting with people (I think they like the younger twin as they'll pick up things immediately from her, but will bite if she startles them or they get annoyed of her nuzzling). Have a minimum cage size that we can require (the tiel cage they were in before is what caused a lot of their previous problems, I believe). Fear of humans is replaced by cheeky curiosity and I was so pleased to find Lemon doesn't pin his eyes at all anymore when I approach the cage or bring my hand close to the bars. Their previous owner was surprised to see them even come near our hands.

[Pajarita]

Don't beat yourself up about the accident, Shira. Things happen no matter how careful we are with them. Parrots are naughty by nature and it's hard to keep up with them. It's like we say in Spanish: Tanto va el cantaro a la fuente que al final se rompe (So often goes the clay jar to the well that, at the end, it always breaks). Some things are pretty inevitable when one keeps a little parrot in a human household - our homes are really not meant to keep a little bird safe.

Please be careful who you adopt Lemon and Clover to. Make sure it's an adult household and that somebody is home all the time, that they know, at least, the basics when it comes to husbandry and ask them to keep in touch and to join the forum so we can help them out. We would hate to lose sight of the pair...

[shiraartain]

Will do, Parj! Going to move their cage hopefully this weekend to see if that doesn't work out better. Closer to the central family area. Just gotta figure out how to separate Fajr from them there.

Longer update later, but I wanted to share something real quick. My Dad just got back from Pakistan and he was telling me that he saw my cousins were freely feeding their cockatiels sunflower seeds as part of their main diet. Because we always tell him to get the mix withOUT the sunflower seeds (and used to manually pick them out), he remembered and told them not to feed sunflower seeds because it's bad for the birds. This is the dad who grumbles about the vet being a waste of money and when I nag at him about sharing his food with Fajr. Progress!

[Pajarita]

Yes, it is, indeed, progress! My husband only takes care of the parrots when I am not here and that happens once every 5 years or so but he has also learned what is good and what is not from hearing me - even my grandkids know not to free-feed seeds to parrots