Hannah & Boomer

[Hannah]

Well I'm getting slow and steady progress with my hormonal amazon boomer, but despite all the toys he dosent seem to play like other birds. He has been droping feathers slow but hes starting to look a little rough around the edges. I know birds molt, but if someone could give me an idea of an how much is heathy it could help a good deal. If I am about to have a plucking problem I would like to be able to know and take action asap. I dont see any bald spots but it just seems to be too many feathers being droped, or I could be parinod...

 

[Auggie's Dad]

It's hard to say. How would we quantify "a lot"? I've never counted the feathers Auggie drops, but there are certainly quite a few.

Do you have pictures of him? That would be the most useful as it's hard to gauge otherwise.

As far as playing "like other birds" I really don't know if ANY birds play like other birds. They do each have their own personality, and sadly most "parrot toys" are not that great for parrots. I always wondered if Auggie was crazy, he didn't like all the fancy parrot toys I bought for him - all the one's that every parrot is supposed to love. Since I've been on this forum I've learned that many of these "great" toys are overrated.

Auggie chews on cardboard boxes and telephone books and is currently beating up on a chopstick.

When you say Boomer doesn't play like other birds does that mean he plays in other ways or is he very inactive? The former should be no concern at all, the latter could mean something... but then some birds are just more mellow.

 

[RedsDad]

Auggie's Dad, I know what you mean about great toys. My Amazon will sit and look at a new toy from the pet shop then walk away, but give her a box to play with or a old paper back book and she will spend all day tearing it up and be just as happy, she has a small lid from a pot that she loves to toss off her cage for me to pick up we do this for hours on end, Red won't bite her cage but will hack at when she's mad or up set about some thing, better the cage than my fingers.

Reds Dad