Update on my G2 (and me)

[mrstweet]

Its been a while since you posted on your Goffins and I am wondering how things are going and what you found out at the vets. Give us an update when you have a minute.

Sherill

Wow, things have been so busy here! I also have been very active on another forum, so forgive me. Baby is doing well, and has a new new name - Cupcake! The vet trip was okay, her gram stain showed an infection so they put her on twice a day antibiotics for two weeks. The vet was amazing. We JUST finished those and bought her a new cage AND moved her into the bird room so she has had a lot of stress to deal with. She is adjusting magnificently. She loves to sit by the the window and look outside. We have yet to get her converted from seed to pellets but not for lack of trying.


She does eat human food so she is getting enough to eat. I have only observed plucking about once a week so I am given to think it is not psychologically related or a habit but some kind of deficiency. She is due back at the vet's late this week or early next.

On the other had, my other fids are doing very well. I am going to be fostering an eclectus, a budgie, and potentially a meyer's within the next two weeks. It sure will be busy!

[patdbunny]

Awe! Cupcake! What a "sweet" name! (I know, I'm stoopid.)

The plucking could just be seasonal if Cupcake's sexually mature. Our old goffin, Sally, developed seasonal plucking which exists to this day. Come spring and she starts to pick, my friend puts her in the sock sweater and the sweater comes off in the fall. We just did this so the feather plucking didn't get established as habit. Sally's now 16 years old.

[mrstweet]

Awe! Cupcake! What a "sweet" name! (I know, I'm stoopid.)

The plucking could just be seasonal if Cupcake's sexually mature. Our old goffin, Sally, developed seasonal plucking which exists to this day. Come spring and she starts to pick, my friend puts her in the sock sweater and the sweater comes off in the fall. We just did this so the feather plucking didn't get established as habit. Sally's now 16 years old.

She will be 13 in April so she is mature. I was told by her last owner that she would pluck seasonally; however, she came to me in January plucked and has filled in a lot since then.

What is this sock sweater? Is it like the birdie t-shirts I see toos wearing?

[patdbunny]

Oh, I thought I had described the sock-sweater, but I guess not. I'm too cheap to buy the "clothes" specifically made for birds. Well, back 16 years ago I don't think there were no-plucking suits anyway.

What I did was take my hubby's old tube socks, wash well w/ bleach, cut sock the length of the 'toos neck to right above the vent, snip hole at the toe where her head goes, snip two slits on each side where her wings go. There's enough play in it to wrestle her head and wings into it. Originally I also cut leg slits into it, but it turned out unnecessary to put her legs through.

I'd replace the sweater as needed according to tattering and/or her chewing. If I were really feeling like a nut, I'd sew beads and little bits of ribbon onto it so she could chew and play with the decorations.

I used to also make a "plucking collar" necklace - stiff wire cut so it could encircle the neck but not have much room for a lot of play as I didn't want it easily caught on anything so it couldn't accidentally hang the bird. To the wire necklace I'd tie pieces of short ribbon, beads, different kinds of short danglies so the bird had a necklace to chew on and play with instead of her feathers. I never had any problems with the necklace, but I can imagine where it could potentially hang the bird so I never put it on her unless someone were actively supervising.

I see the amount of plucking Cupcake has in your avatar. We never let Sally get that plucked. We never let her get beyond say a dime-size. Basically if there's any noticed plucking, on goes the sweater.

[mrstweet]

She came to me that way so I didn't have a choice. That was the first few days she was here. Do you have a photo of your bird in it? How do you bathe them?

[Dave]

This sounds like the doll clothes my daughter makes out of old socks. Good idea!

[patdbunny]

Mrstweet - I wasn't criticizing you about the plucking so don't take any offense. I just wanted to point out that we never let Sally get even to that amount of plucking. I don't know how much plucking it takes to establish it as a habit and we just didn't want it to become habit. I made a sock sweater this morning and took pics of making it and what it looks like on a bird. I put it on one of my conures. I can't figure out how to reduce it to 575 pixels by 800 pixels to upload here. E-mail me and I'll send you the pics: patdbunny@hotmail.com

Dave - Kids are great! They're creative! They think out of the box. Adults need to think in a more child-like manner.

BTW everyone - whoever wants pics of the sock sweater, it's an open invitation to e-mail me.

[greymatter]

Thanks for the update - is sounds like she's settling in okay.

Neat idea for the Sock sweater

[entrancedbymyGCC]

I think many would like to see the picture of the sock sweater. I'd be happy to help reduce it, or you can put it on any image hosting site (FLickr, Photobucket, Facebook) and display it inline here.

FWIW I generally don't like to put my email address in a forum post since any passing web crawler can harvest it. Even in a PM I'll disguise it somewhat by spelling out at and dot...YMMV.

[patdbunny]

Ok - I posted it on my blog w/ instructions on how to get it on the bird:

Yeah, I have two email accounts - a private one, and the hotmail one for whatever spambot wants to get to it.