its been to long since I was on the forum...

[Polarn]

as stated in the subject ive been inactive for some time and now I got my laptop up and running again so might be more of the laying on the bed cuddling and typing (cuddling with the birds that is not blowing someone off that badly ), well neither of my birds are really cuddly at most times but the like hanging around on the belly or the shoulder and an occational headscratch.

However I am happy yo say that the birds are doing fine and are healthy well the three that has been here for a while atleast. Yesterday I "rescued" a galah who is supposedly 5 years old and someone had bought her and a male to breed to get chicks and handrear a baby to get a tame bird.... sigh. anyways the male hasnt been nice to her and has plucked her including pullingfeathrs from the wings but the most noticible spot is the head. When I got to the previous owners place he had her in a cage in the livingroom and as soon as we entered the room (maybe 15 feet away from her) she got all scared and wanted to get away. and considering that and the fact that she was plucked and that her cage was way too small I desided I couldnt let her stay there, so I payed (a bit generously) for the cage and the bird came with it, im not a big fan of paying for animals that lands on the farm under care. I dont mind however paying for an animal thats "needed" no animals are really needed but since we run a farmstyle center for kids we actually need functional horses etcetera. but lets end that discussion on the note that I payed less than what you pay for a budgie with their cage over here (no disrespect to budgies, but their abundant and therefore impossible to earn money of here).
I came there prepared with a big enough car to transport a disassembled cage and a travelcage to bring the bird in couse knowing myself I suspected I would want to bring the bird with me. turned out I could have shown up in a smart without the traveling cage, since my travelcage is the same size as this birds cage.
When I first walked up and grabbed the cage she got spooked but as soon as we were outside she got calmer and seemed pretty much unbothered about the fact that i had the cage up against my body, but needless to say she needs a new cage but in the meantime I have rehomed my budgie into another cage (almost the same size but with too small openings for a bigger bird (can barely get my hands in), its a weird build but decent in size. I still think the Galah Girl(named Gila, btw) needs a bigger home but this is atleast enough size for her to be able to stretch her wings and even flap between the walls abit. Now she is put in another building here for quarantine time and she has no problem with me walking up to the cage or bathing her, or even fiddle with the bowls in hee cage, but as soon as I cross maybe halfway into the cage she looks spooked, she seems to enjoy me talking to her or in the phone while sitting in there. However I have a few concerns one is her feet looks older than 5years, almost reumathic, but then she only had a plastic erch (the ones you see in petstores for budgies) and a short all round wooden perch hanging off the side on one wall. another concern I have is her wings. I have yet so far not seem her stretch them out or properly flap them in any way. I can see her being able to raise them but havnt seen any spread yet... the being plucked part im not too fuzzed about since she is plucked where she cant reach herself (part from the wings) but she hasnt plucked any herself here yet and doubt she has ever plucked herself. and even if she has the stimulation of toys, fresh food etc might be enough to put a stop to it. but the other conserns are big enough for me to book an appointment with the avian vet. But I am picky and want an appointment at a specific clinic of hers wich is loated on the countryside rather than where she usually works witch is central in town wich means more noises smells etc for Gila to take in, wich is something I donw wnt to put her through now when she is not feeling a security in atleast having me there. so I'm still waiting for confirmation on how soon the vet can take little Gila in.

She seems alert and wake but really weak so I hope there is something the vet can do for her if so just to let me know everything is fine so that I feel less sorry for her looking so weak and instead feel only happiness for her coming to a home where she will have the opportunity to fly around and if all works out have some interaction with other birds. and to be allowed to keep her beutiful pink feathers once they grow out again.

//Björn & co

[marie83]

Aw poor bird.

I'm sure she will come on leaps and bounds now that she has someone who cares for her.
Good luck at the vets too. I hope she is ok.

[Polarn]

I now got an appointment at the vet and it is today at 20pm (local) so in about 7 hours. Now comes the sad part though that is that I Have to move her from the current cage into a smaller one (wont use the one she came in since she seemed happy to get out of it since she climbed right out of it and into the new one when i placed them next to each other. but I'll be using a carrier with covered sides for limited visibility since I decided together with the vet that I would go into the city with her because that way she has the lab and everything so that we ca do xray and bloodworks and a full checkup so that we hopefully wont miss anything, if anything is wrong with her (besides the fact she doesnt seem to have much of a will to eat anything i present to her in the cage). Also by doing the full checkup (if cleared) I can insure her from tomorrow wich means the medical bills is a lot cheaper if anything happens where she needs care again. even if she isnt cleared anything but the current issue would be covered by the insurance. dont get me wrong the vetbills still isnt for free but you basically hit a roof where you contact the ensurance company and they will pay for additional costs (not all costs included tho, but alot of it). even if it means paying a fee once a year i prefer it that way couse i know I wont end up bankrupt if something ever would happen to any of the furry,fuzzy or winged friends on the farm. Anyways I'll let you know what the vet has to say and if not tonight then ill definitly post tomorrow.

PS now Polarn my amazon has a cozy spell as if he feels there is something im worried about his shuvving his head into my beard...

[pennyandrocky]

welcome back

[liz]

It is amazing how good food, fresh water and love will bring a bird back from the edge.

Myrtle wasn't plucked but was gray colored from malnutrician. I had never seen a blue front and wondered why she was called that since I didn't see any blue. She was so timid with fear I just left her alone and let the home full of critters work around her.

She is now streamlined with a vibrant blue. She is so social she will go to anyone. Myrtle has a favorite cat and dog that she talks to.

Abused and neglected animals know where they came from and the love given with a piece of food it appreciated. They regain hope.

[Polarn]

Just wanted to let you know how Gilas visit to the vet went. lets just start out with the fact that I m happy for her.
The vet (and I do trust her she constantly attend any seminar she can and hosts her own on both behavior problems/nutrition etc, and she is quite old now and has for atleast my whole life specialized in birds snakes and lizzards(used to bring my lizzards and my snake to her as a kid since we lived on the same island)) started out telling me that depending on my beleifs in what they will hold against me i could choose to stay in the room or go out while they checked her, I decided to stay with her since Polarn doesnt seem to hold to muh grudge against me for being picked up before tame etc. and i wanted to have a look for myself as well how badly plucked her wings was etc.
he vet found no reason to draw blood or do an exray because she looked a healthy bird, part from suffering from a bad diet, and she told me the reason i thought the feet looked old was because of this reason, my other birds feet almost has a shine to them, while Gila's has non and just looks like an old person missing the glow of their skin. Anyways she was pretty sure she is a quite young bird and the 5y the previous owner said might be rigt but that it is impossible to say exactly. Anyways since she hadn't been eating or drinking anything since last night when she got here and looked exhauted already when i picked her up the vet asked me f I wanted to try get her to eat/drink for another day and then come back tomorrow night if no result or if I wnted her to give Gila an IV(not sure thats how you type it but thats how you say it) to get some nutrition and additional vitamins into her, wch i desided I wanted since i got no idea for how long she hasnt been eating. I had also seen while she moved around the cage that she had been plucked on her wings and were missing fligtfeathers but new ones had begun coming out, on closer inspection alot of them was already all grown just that she hadnt preen em, so we removed the crust from these and her wings looked all good again, still missing a couple that wasnt fully grown yet but now I cant see it when she moves about. We also clipped the nails since we had her secred and "traumatized" anyways.
Anyways pretty much during the ride home she alreay looked healthier, putting her wings up on her pack instead of having them just hanging (the reason i thought something mighta been seriously wrong with them). once home i grabbed her from the carrier and placed her into the cage and already after about 5minutes she started to dig around the bowl for something tasty, and as for now I honestly dont care about what she pulls out of it as long as she eats something, and ill keep presenting healthy alternatives until she takes it. Anyways didnt want to scare her agan with a camera flash and it is past bedtime now, so te picture below is from yesterday before showering and beeing to the vet.



BTW for thouse who hasnt made the connection to why I decided to call her Gila (besides it being a female name here) the word Galah derives from the aboriginal word Gilaa, just as a sidenote. and just to prove how bad my imagination is when it comes to naming my critters.

Anyways just wanted to let you know she is eating/drinking has been to the vet and already seems brighter.

[Eurycerus]

That's wonderful! I'm sure your care will improve her behavior and health significantly. :]

[laducockatiel]

That galah looks like a turkey Well done on rescuing her, I'm sure her health will improve a lot with you and hopefully her feathers will grow back too!

[Polarn]

hehe yeah she really does look like a turkey I was thinking vulture earlier couse that red patch under the beas looks as if she has a peice of raw meat there, no im not mean to her, I do like her but I would lie if I thought her to be the prettiest galah around. Anyways I have been slightly mean to her (but for her best) I gave her a good scrub down because she had poop on the back and around her own poophole, so I gave her a good bath and made sure to get most of it off, felt horrible doing so tho, she likes the shower. Wasn't particulary fond of me scrubbing. Anyways after the bath and when she was dry again she pretty much started preening herself straight away.
So her plumage looks alot better now compared to the pic above that was taken right as she got home pretty much. I talked to the vet about me being scared of really soaking her since I hadnt seen her flap abot or preen or barely move, so I was scared that I would make her too cold. But the Vet told me that with tempered wather and by increasing the temperature in her room slightly until dry I shouldnt worry and that the cleaning her of would benefit her enough todo it. lets just say im happy I got different tempsensors for each room so that I didnt have to increase the central heating in the whole house.
When spying on her she now acts more like a proper bird pulling strands of grass out that i gave her fiddling with them, not yet seen her play with the toys, preening herself, eating good even though she mosty digs for the seeds i placed in the bottom of the pelletbowl, occationally goes for a peice of apple from the other bowl. But as of right now I am more concerned about her properly eating for a while o regain some strenght rather than her eating exactly what I want her too so shes offered the choice of basically anything that isnt too unhealthy. and since she is underweight she actually do get some sunflowerseeds in the bowl as well.
Yesterday evening i could fiddle with the foodbowls without her getting too freaked out even if she moved to the other end of the perch. this morning when changing her water I jut did it really slowly and she actually sat right next to the bowl as i changed it, so think shes getting more conftible about having humans around and trying to interact, even if the interaction so far is just talking to her/whistling, and occationally fiddle with something in the cage. curiouse to see how long it'll take her to accept a treat from my hands, this morning as she didnt move when i replaced the water i decided to try, but she just looked at the peice of apple and then at me as if she questioned the reason to why she would take it from my hands rather than walking over to the bowl and get a peice for herself.

[pennyandrocky]

i was thinking vulture too when the rescue told me mya was a plucker i had to decide if tht was something i could deal with,researching everything most said it could never go away, but when i saw her and she hopped on and started preening me it just didn't matter.now a year later she is fully feathered except for a line across her chest and belly that you can barerly see.i know that a year from now we'll be seeing pictures of your with more feathers too.