Hello from Indiana

[SafeChoice]

I just joined your forum and thought I'd say Hi!
(along with some questions lol)
I'm finding the answers surfing your site, slowly but surely but would enjoy any new fresh comments and suggestions.



I re-homed a Green Wing less than 72 hours ago named Merlin. He didn't come from the best of conditions. I wasn't able to get any history or background on him, but the living conditions I saw were dirty and it appeared he was in solitary confinement. Though the owner did state that he stayed in his cage because her 3 & 5 year old boys stressed him.

When I arrived his water bowl was empty and there were some seed shells in his food bowl leading me to believe an all seed diet. I took him straight to the vet and nothing serious was found except for the obvious feather plucking. He weighed in at 4lbs!
His feathers were filthy. I assume no bath for a while? The owner said he did some talking and his favorite word was "HELP". Is that scary or what

The good stuff is, he isn't cage aggressive and he is trying out the pellets as I wean him off of seeds. So far no luck at getting a step-up to my arm, I offer every time I go by his cage but after a couple seconds I walk away. I've got him out 3 times by sticking a pvc perch in his cage. Once he is on that perch he hurry's to my arm or shoulders and he cautiously lets me pet his head and feathers..


I have concerns about his plucked feathers. His back is nearly bare and his front is at least 50%.
Other than improving his diet and showing him security is there anything else I can do to help with feather growth? Any extra supplements?
Also, I've attached a picture of the feathers droppings I found in a 36 hour period. Is that a normal amount of feathers or is he likely still plucking?


Thanks in advance, Scott

 

[Terry57]

Hello and welcome to you & Merlin!
Plucking is a hard one. I have taken in many pluckers, and almost all of them plucked when they first came. The stress of a move and new surroundings can bring it on.
Some of ours stopped plucking after awhile, some go through stages where they pluck, and a couple never stopped at all.
A good diet, lots of toys for stimulation and a lot of attention can definitely help.
You definitely sound like you are on the right track, and I am so happy he is now in a place where he will come to feel safe, and be taken care of properly

Here is a really good thread about plucking:

http://www.parrotforums.com/behavioral/52217-plucking-search-answers.html

 

[Flboy]

Hello and welcome!

 

[Jen5200]

Welcome to you both - thank you for giving Merlin a good home!

 

[Laurasea]

Welcome! Congratulations and thanks for the rescue! I rescued s birdie that had just started plucking, so far it's gotten worse, but I was told by vet might get worse at first, because of all the changes, I hope get better for both of us!! So even if it gets worse the bird is in a much better place with you!!!!

 

[GaleriaGila]

Well, first of all, you are a hero!
Thank you for your wonderful good deed.
Since you're pretty new to birds, may I take the liberty of offering you some basics that you may enjoy?


**************************************

Here's some reading on bonding for you.
http://www.parrotforums.com/general-parrot-information/49144-tips-bonding-building-trust.html
General Parrot Information - Parrot Forum - Parrot Owner's Community
http://goodbirdinc.blogspot.com/2012...n-parrots.html


Most of us swear by our avian vets in the event of health concerns. I don't know where you are, but here are some links. I only have USA info...
Certified Avian Vets
https://abvp.com/animal-owners/find-an-abvp-specialist/
If none are near you...
Avian Veterinarians
http://www.aav.org/search/custom.asp?id=1803
In my opinion, any of the vets listed here should be better than a regular vet.

What's the diet? That's critical for health. Too many are kept on seeds or other poor-nutrition things. They need veggies, legumes, grains... pellets are a good staple. Here's what I use.
Harrison's Bird Foods
I feed Harrison's, supplemented by fresh healthy treats. My first, and later, my current avian vet recommended it. My bird loves the pellets now, but to get him converted, my avian vet suggested putting pellets out all day, and putting seeds (his old diet) out for two 15-minute periods a day. That would sustain him but leave him hungry enough to try new stuff. I presume the same technique could be used to get him to eat other healthy stuff, like fruits and vegetables! My guy was eating pellets in a couple of days, and now I can feed a good variety of other stuff, knowing he has the pellets as a basic. Pellets are out all day... fresh treats a few times a day. I also like Harrison's via mail because I never have to worry about out-of-date products.

Since you're new parront, I'll just drop a note about avoiding teflon pans, which are lethal to birds if even slightly overheated.

*********************************************

I'm so glad you're here.

 

[wrench13]

Welcome and be welcomed ! Thank you for adopting Merlin, and giving him a better home than he had before. Our members are thebest people and will offer you the great advice, help and support that this board has come to represent.

So one of our Macaw experts is a member birdman666. Go to the Macaw subforum and read everything this fellow has written. He understands the Macaw mind set probably better that anyone on here. It's worth doing a search on any comment or thread he has ever partcipated in.

The fact that Merlin is letting you give him head scratches so soon is such a good sign tht he will be truly happy with his new home.

 

[ChristaNL]

What Wrench said.



Welcome here,
the birdman666 posts have been a great help to me too (it is a pity he does not seem to be around much these days).


Merlin actually looks gorgeous, a totall sweetheart.

(If you count the being caged for a long time and fed a supercrappy diet.)
Let him settle in first and maybe give him some probiotices as well as the pellets?
If nothing else they will help settle his tummy.


(I had more or less the same issues with Sunny -crappy diet- and her poop really stank! 'Till EllenD and a few others brought up the probiotics, it took a few weeks, but it is so much better now.)

 

[Scott]

Welcome to the forums, thanks for rescuing this beautiful bird. Green Wings are among the most fantastic companions! It is possible the plucking arose from a forlorn environment, so improvements in diet, environment, and hopefully a close bond will result in plucking cessation and healthier feathering.

 

[Amsterdam]

welcome to the forum enjoy your stay!

 

[Allee]

A warm welcome to you and Merlin! He's a very handsome greenwing! Thank you for offering a loving home and better life to a beautiful bird. Transitions are more emotional for some birds, this can trigger feather barbering in birds already prone to plucking. Continue to focus on improving his diet, offer toys and interaction to redirect plucking and I think you'll be amazed at how quickly he will adjust and become a happier, healthier member of your family.

 

[Squeekmouse]

Welcome to the forums! Merlin sure is lucky you rescued him. I hope you find good advice and a warm welcome here.

 

[Betrisher]

G'day SafeChoice and welcome!

I'm so glad you've rescued Merlin and hope you make some good progress with him soon (it helps, doesn't it, when the stuff we do works?) I thought I'd offer this useful video as it helped me when I acquired a neglected galah who utterly did not want to step up. The technique worked for me, so I hope it might help you too!

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIaDDSeZKnI"]Parrot Training Workshop Live Demo - Step Up Training with a Macaw - YouTube[/ame]

Betrisher

 

[EllenD]

Welcome to the community!!! And you're from Goshen....GO IRISH!!! I was born a die-hard Notre Dame fan (oddly I'm from State College, PA, and I HATE Penn State with a passion, lol)...I drive out to South Bend every year for a game and spend a week in South Bend and on campus...Love it out there...It's our year baby!!! Of course, for all I know you're a Penn State fan, lol.

Thank you so much for taking in this Macaw, poor little guy...Just getting him out of that dirty environment and feeding him a better daily diet is going to improve his overall physical and mental/emotional health tremendously. And even though he's on an all-seed diet and it's going to take some time to get him to transition over fully to a pellet as his daily staple food, you can help him immediately by changing the brand/type of seed-mix he's probably on to a healthy, varied, low-fat seed-mix that contains No Sunflower Seeds, No Nuts of any kind, especially No Peanuts, and No dried corn of any kind...Just making this change first will help his liver to start healing and the Fatty Liver Disease he no-doubt suffers from to start to reverse. Then you can gradually transition him over from the healthy, low-fat, varied seed-mix to a pellet staple. There are several different high-quality, healthy, low-fat seed-mixes available at any Petco or PetSmart that contain no sunflower seeds, nuts, or dried corn, but rather contain healthier seeds, grains, legumes, dried herbs, dried veggies, dried greens, dried fruits, etc. The best options for one of these seed-mixes are Higgins Vita-Seed California Blend, Tropimix, Zupreem Smart Selects (not the Zupreem "Sensible Seed", it contains peanuts), and Higgins Safflower Gold...

72-hours is no time at all to have a new bird, especially a rescued Macaw that came from those conditions with little to no human attention or interaction, but it sounds like you're doing great already!!! The most important thing to remember is that this is going to be a marathon, not a sprint, and that you need to always go at HIS PACE, not your pace. If you keep doing what you're doing he'll come around soon enough to being a sweetheart...

As far as the plucking goes...Did the Vet you took him to do a Fecal Culture/Gram-Stain or take blood to run routine, baseline Blood-Work? If not, then that would be the very first thing I would do in the next couple of weeks, after he gets settled-in to your home and routine...It's going to be important to get an overall-picture of his physical health, because often with birds that pluck, it's due to a combination of psychological/behavioral and physical issues. And you want to get Blood-Work done to check his Liver and Kidney functions, and to make sure he doesn't have any current Bacterial or Fungal Infections, Parasites, Feather-Mites, etc. So it's going to be important to find either a Certified Avian Vet or an Avian Specialist Vet who is comfortable taking blood from birds (should never require any anesthesia, they just towel them and take the blood from their neck, should be quick and easy)...This way you'll be able to start treating any Fatty Liver Disease, any infections he may have, get rid of any parasites/feather mites, etc. that he may very likely have due to his living environment, and that alone may help the plucking issue...

Besides getting a full picture of his overall physical health through Blood-Work and a Fecal culture, just making sure that his cage is located in the "main room" of your home (the room you and others spend most of your time when you are home) so that he feels that he is now a part of your "flock" will help bonding with him, socializing him, and his overall health as well. This is usually the living room, family room, etc. "Passive-Interaction" with him is as important as direct interaction, so having his cage/stands in the room where you guys watch TV, read, talk, play games, have visitors in, eat your meals, etc. will do wonders for him, instead of having his cage in a spare bedroom or back room away from "where the action is" in your home.

Spending time with him every single day is going to do wonders for this bird, he's most-likely been very neglected and not made to feel a part of the family or "flock", and they are "flock animals", which is a big deal...So first confirm and treat or rule-out physical health issues with a CAV or Avian Specialist through basic diagnostic testing that definitely needs to include routine Blood-Work and a Fecal Culture/Gram-Stain, work on his daily diet, and most of all, just love him!

 

[SafeChoice]

Thanks for all the great info Ellen!

Yes, it is Notre Dames year!


I've had Merlin a week now, he went from seed to Zupreem very easily.
I haven't found any veggies or fruits that he is super fond of yet. He nibbles most and spits them out.

He hasn't changed much from when I brought him home a week ago. He won't step-up when he is in his cage, but he will if he is out, in hopes I will take him to his cage lol.
He spends a lot of time nibbling his feet and naked body.
I kinda figured the plucking may get worse before better with his new environment. His cage is next to my computer desk where I spend 8 to 12 hours on many days. I offer a step-up when he is in his cage many times per day. I give him about 5 seconds, then I move on.

When he is out of his cage he will go to my arm and run for my shoulder. He seems fine sitting on my shoulder, but he no doubt would prefer his cage.

I planned on giving him a couple of months and then another Vet visit for blood tests. His first visit was just a simple physical.
His first day home he allowed me to rub his head. Just the first day though. I remember my first Macaw years ago coming home. At first he was quiet and easy going. His true colors came out later lol. I expect Merlin will be the same.
Thanks again!