Might Be Adopting an Older Amazon

[Teddscau]

Hey guys, I haven't been on in a while. My ovary's been hurting like crazy, so I haven't really gotten much done for almost two weeks now. I'm pretty sure it's endometriosis, and I'm gonna be seeing the doc on Monday about it. Man, it hurts so much.

Birdie's health is definitely going downhill due to her heart problems, so I've been making an effort to have her out with me for at least an hour everyday, but since she has AGY, I have to sit with her in a designated area and disinfect everything afterwards, throw my clothes in the hamper, and thoroughly bathe so I don't accidentally spread it to Jasper. Anyways, Birdie's still very cheerful and playful, so that's good. Once her breathing gets worse I'll have to take her in to be euthanized. Unfortunately I think I might have to have her euthanized as soon as Monday. I just unclogged one of her nostrils with a toothpick, so hopefully she'll start breathing a bit better.

I've been treating Birdie along with the rest of the littles with 500mg/L of sodium benzoate in their water for their AGY. I think the littles might be getting a bit more energetic since starting treatment. I was sitting with her a few hours ago and my dog with dementia broke into the room. Man, he's been a real pain as well. The boy's deaf, losing his sight, has congestive heart disease, kidney disease, muscle deterioration, mild dementia, and he's been refusing to eat the special food we have to give him for his kidney disease, so I've been having to force feed him. Well, force feeding might not be the correct term. More like, forcibly restraining his head while I shove food in his mouth until he decides to eat it on his own. He's still a happy boy and isn't suffering or anything like that, so hopefully he's going to keep being a pain in the butt for the foreseeable future. He's real annoying though since he starts throwing tantrums, demanding to be fed treats.

Anyways, Jasper's been doing quite well. I think the callouses on her feet are getting slightly better. She's definitely more vocal now. I'm a bit upset with her because she's chose Dad as her favourite. I spend hours a day with her, yet she's madly in love with my dad. She comes running over to the side of the cage when my dad comes in the room, making all sorts of cutesy vocalizations. And the most disgusting part is that she's started asking him to pet her head, then starts making the same squealing sounds Noah used to make when he would sleep on my shoulder and nibble on my ear. I get it Jasper, you wanna make eggs with him, but at least pretend to like me. Right, I'm gonna share photos of her at some point, but I still need to setup an Imgur account >_>

I'm re-clicker training her since it turns out she didn't fully grasp the concept the first time around. I wonder if the clicker might not be loud enough for her. I might just get a training whistle for her since I will be teaching her to fly outside (on a harness) at some point. I'm having a hard time though since I can only find those useless ultrasonic dog whistles. Those, and those horrible whistles that coaches use. I just want one of those metal whistle that you use to train exotic animals.

As for vitamin A deficiency potentially causing blocked nostrils, I've read about it online before and saw it on an episode of Dr. K. I'm sure it could've been caused by semsothing else. It was almost like a thin film was covering her nostrils.

 

[Teddscau]

Another quick update. Lara can't gain lift properly again (once or twice a year she quits being able to fly well), so she's been hanging out on the floor in the aviary with access to food and water. She's a bit upset that she can't go on the branches with everyone else, but beyond that she's fine. She's always been aerodynamically challenged (she's part English budgie, chubby, and has wings that seem too short for her body), so when you take into account that everyone is molting right now, it makes sense she can't fly properly right now. Usually she can fly up again after a month or so.

Jasper actually wanted attention from me today (shocking, I know), so I fed her almost her entire lunch by hand (fresh squash and melon seeds, sprouted grains, sprouted pulses, pomegranate, apple, and some chopped up veggies she refused to eat since she's a fussy toddler). Later I sang to her, and it turns out she LOVES Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. She was vocalizing along with me, bopping her head a bit, and I sang it so many times my throat hurts. For supper, she had white rice (I know it isn't particularly nutritious, but I want to teach her to eat brown and wild rice, but she won't eat that stuff), sprouts, a bit of banana, and beets. Oh, and she did some target training with my cousin last night.

Oh, and good news about Birdie! Her breathing has improved quite a bit (it's still bad, but it is definitely better than it's been the last few days). When she's nice and calm, you can't even see her breathing! Her clicking was pretty bad too the past while, but now you can only hear it when you put your ear up to her mouth (it's the sound her tongue makes when she's panting, since her lungs don't crackle). She's also getting spunkier. She's started biting me again, too (she likes beating me up for the fun of it). The size of tumour on her chest has gone right down as well, so maybe it's thanks to the combined effects of the dandelion root extract (for her tumour), milk thistle seed extract (for her liver disease), and sodium benzoate (for her AGY) that she's improving. She's been on the sodium benzoate for almost a week now, and I've upped her dose of dandelion root extract in a last ditch effort to alleviate some of her symptoms.

 

[Teddscau]

Jasper is such a pain in the butt! The only veggies she'll eat are peas, corn, and beets. So, I decided to make her fried rice tonight to try to get her to eat some veggies. I chopped carrot, celery, sweet potato, butternut squash, broccoli, snap pea, nappa, and beet leaf in the food processor until they almost turned into a paste, then I fried them in some olive oil with egg, leftover white rice, and black pepper, cayenne, and a very tiny pinch of garlic powder. Those are all veggies she hates. I let it cool a bit before scooping a little into one of her dishes. Anyways, she absolutely loves it. She spits out the bits that have slightly bigger chunks of veggies, but she's actually swallowing some of the veggie paste that I mixed in with the egg and rice. I have enough for at least a few more meals.

After she finishes the fried rice I'm gonna make her some veggie-tofu nuggets. I'll be throwing a bunch of veggies in the food processor along with fresh tofu and bird-safe spices, mix whole peas and corn kernels in, freeze them into small patties, then dip them in egg and coat them in oat flour before baking them. She loves high protein foods, so she should enjoy them. I'll serve them alongside sprouts and fruits. I'll slowly start making them out of veggies that are chopped more and more coarsely, then hopefully I'll eventually be able to get her to eat chunks of veggies without having to hide them in protein rich dishes.

 

[wrench13]

Just for info, my YSA loves cooked sweet potatos cut into chunks, and hot hot peppers, the hottest I can find, either whole, chunked or processed along with his chop.

Any pics of Jasper?

 

[Teddscau]

Thanks for the suggestions, Wrench. Here's some photos:

Those are some older photos. I'll have to take some new ones and post them.

Oh! I didn't tell you guys about my appointment. The doctor approved my plan to continuously take my hormone pills (they're for my acne, but now that I likely have endometriosis it's being used to help treat that as well) without any breaks, and she booked an appointment with a specialist to confirm the diagnosis. They're probably gonna have to cut me open and surgically remove all the endometrial tissue from where it shouldn't be. If they need to remove my uterus, by all means remove it. I absolutely hate pain, but seeing as surgery is likely the only way to get the pain under control, I'm more than willing to go under.

 

[wrench13]

Thanks so much for the pics, Jasper is classic YSA, pretty young too.. They loose the white at the area adjacent to their nares, and the inner thighs get yellower, as they mature. But she has the up turned beak, making her look like she is smiling, same as my Salty.

I hope all goes well with your treatment and surgery. I've had so many procedures they dont even bother me any more.

 

[Laurasea]

I have endometriosis, and the pain was debilitating. So I feel for you, its a pretty big deal. I ended up getting everything taken out, but wished I would gave tried to save one ovary ....but I'm pain free now.

You baby is very beautiful!!! Looks like over preening and some barber. I see you have some preen toys, but I'd increase them. Those shredders rolls are great, yuccs chips, and increase foraging. You definitely want to through a lot of beak busy work at him to prevent it from evolving to plucking..

Good luck with everything with you too

 

[SailBoat]

Big Amazon Feather Hugs and Prays your way!!!

 

[catastrophe]

Jasper is gorgeous! I’m very excited to read more about your story together! I hope your procedure goes well. Best wishes to the both of you [emoji3059] I feel your pain with the pickiness [emoji38] Mr. Grinch really likes carrots and apples, but not much else yet. He has taken some chunks of homegrown jalapeños though. I may have to steal your recipe [emoji6]

 

[Teddscau]

Time for an update. She’s been a real pain in the butt to step up train. It’s going so slowly. The girl’s got an attention span of a gnat. To make matters worse, she’s been spooked by the step-up perch. She has this bad habit of launching herself whenever she’s startled, meaning she ends up crashing into a window, painting, etc. She went through a spell a month or so ago where she was doing this multiple times a day for a week, so now the step-up perch freaks her out. I’m now using that only for training, and now if she needs to be rescued after launching herself, we have to put on a coat and have her step-up on our arm. I’m hoping if/when I finally finish step-up training her, we’ll be able to start getting her to step-up on our arm without her trying to take a chunk of flesh.

Oh, right, I forgot to tell you guys about the scare we had with her! It was several months ago. So, normally she goes crazy for my dad, singing to him, showing off, y’know the drill. Well, one day she’s extremely quiet, with her eyes closed, not even peeking at me when I go over to her. I say her name, and she won’t open her eyes. I say her name louder, and she opens her eye a crack, and immediately closes it again. I offer her her favourite treats, and she ignores them, and she looks like she’s wincing. Obviously, I’m extremely concerned at this point. Even my mom who always thinks I worry about the kids too much starts to worry. She won’t even talk to my dad, which means she must be on death’s door or something, because she‘s infatuated with the man. We have to call three different exotic vets (the only exotic vets within 2 hours of us) before we can find someone who can fit her in, but they can’t see her until the next day.

She made a miraculous recovery overnight, but I still bring her in, and have them test for everything. Turns out she had AGY, an over-abundance of bacteria in her gut, severely clogged nares (they had been cleared out before, but it turns out further in they were absolutely clogged with stuff), severe phosphorous deficiency, her amylase levels were over 3600 (they were supposed to be 100–600 IU/L), and her creatine kinase was 464 (supposed to be 100–350 IU/L).

So, she goes on antibiotics and Amphotericin B. And we disinfect her cage, toys, perches, change her papers, etc., everyday for two months. Turns out you can just mix her medicine with mashed banana and she’ll consume every last drop without a fuss.

Yeah, so we take her in again, and her tummy bacteria and AGY is all better, but now she has a freaking yeast infection, and her phosphorous is still super low (her creatine kinase and amylase are better). So, time for a course of generic anti-fungals.

Now we’re treating her for vitamin D deficiency, and Dad has to keep putting olive oil on her feet and beak since they’re all dried out. And we have to keep bringing her in to have her nails clipped because she keeps stabbing herself with her nails.

Talk about a high maintenance bird, eh? She’s eating a better variety of fruits and veggies now. Well, mostly fruits. The kid’s picky.

 

[Laurasea]

Well you have bern through a lot!

Low vitamin A will cause respiratory issues, and dry flaky skin abd beak.

As well as low humidity.

Habe you tried backed or roasted sweet potatoes? Very well liked by mine and great source of vitamin A. As well as red chili pepper, bell pepper ect.

Love the updates

 

[StormyPica]

Love the pics!

 

[Teddscau]

Yeah, I’ve managed to convince her that sweet potatoes are yummy. My mom made a roast one day, which meant that the sweet potatoes would be super mushy since she cooks them in the roasting pan with the meat. I scooped some of the mushy sweet potato into her “supper dish” (a dish that fits into her “balcony”), and she devoured it. Ever since she’ll eat sweet potato, even harder ones that I cooked for her in the microwave. I’ve also been sprinkling a bit of Nekton (multivitamin) on her supper a couple of times a week.

I’ve been planning on bathing her more often, which hasn’t happened yet. Although I did bathe her today and on Sunday. The humidity in our house should, in theory, be high enough.

I’ll have to post some more photos of her.

 

[Laurasea]

A very light misting is also beneficial. Use a new well rinsed spray bottle, fill with warm water set to fine mist. Spray above the bird and let the fine mist fall back down on them. You don't have to get them really wet or anything. Tgey often enjoy just a fresh light misting.. or if tgey really got into it keep going

 

[Teddscau]

She hasn’t figured out the whole bathing in a dish thing, so I’ve been having to soak her by spraying her. I never thought about just giving her a light mist to clean her beak and feet in between soaks. Thanks for the suggestion.

The goof doesn’t know how to preen properly, so she relies on me to bathe her so her feathers don’t become a total disaster. Hopefully she’ll start learning to preen properly from watching my lovie girls (they moved into the same room as her a couple of months ago).

 

[wrench13]

Thanks for the update! How is your relationship with her? Yellow shoulders are usually pretty friendly parrots to multiple people, with one or two top tier people. These are very smart parrots, I think right up there with the hot 3 and African Greys. But like most Amazons, it has to be on their terms. If she is freaked out by a step up perch, can you use your hand? Wearing a coat to have her step up on an arm is like someone using a glove; she might even develop a fixation on ONLY stepping up on a specific coat! Using a hand, Keep the thumb tightly curled into the palm, and the other 4 fingers straight out and tight together. It will look more substantial to the parrot then just a finger, and if she bites, the sensitive web between the thumb and indexfnger is protected.

 

[wrench13]

Oh yeah, I want to add, my YSA is also not fond of bathing, refusing any water dish or shower or lettuce bath. I use a spray bottle every once in awhile. If Salty tries to bath in his water dish, I will continue the bath (shower) when he comes out for the day.
These guys are from a very arid part of Venezuela and a few islands off the coast, so its entirely possible that they have evolved to not need/want as much bathing as say a species from a tropical rain forest. These guys are so rare in Aviculture its hard to come to a consensus on this point.

 

[Teddscau]

I definitely don’t trust her like I do with my other birds. Like, I don’t show fear or hesitancy when I’m around her, but… I know I need to work with her more, but it’s hard. The only time she’ll step up is if she’s launched herself somewhere (i.e., she’s on the floor, couch, chair, counter, dog bed, etc.). Any other time we offer her our arm, she chomps down on our arm (she’s not trying to balance herself, she legit chomps down and gives us a welt).

When I’m training with her, she’ll randomly lunge and bite my finger when I’m giving her treats. I know it probably sounds like she’s spooked, bored, frustrated, overly stimulated, I’m not fast enough, my finger was wiggling, etc., but no, she’s calm and engaged before she grabs me. There’s absolutely no warning. Her eyes aren’t flashing, her feathers are relaxed, etc. Half the time she’ll growl at me under her breath while she has my finger in her mouth. It’d be fine if she was only doing this in the beginning of our relationship to see how I’d react, but it’s been over a year of her doing this, and I’m getting paranoid. I’ll still give her treats from my fingers occasionally, but I’ve had to resort to giving her treats on a spoon while training so she doesn’t randomly grab my fingers.

And may she not see our palms. It’s fine if our hand is palm down, but if it’s palm up she gets agitated and will attack our hand. I was working on desensitizing her to it by putting her favourite treats in my palm and letting her eat from it. And of course, I didn’t shove my hand in her face or anything. I let her walk over to my hand and take food from it. She has absolutely no problem taking treats from us, whether it’s on a spoon, fork, hand, fingers, etc. She’s not afraid at all. However, although things may seem to be going fine, she will start growling and roaring as she lunges at my hand and fingers. It’s almost like she’s trying to punish my hand for being there. And it’s not some sort of good natured rough housing. She just suddenly loses it and starts pinching.

I can handle whatever pain a parrot feels the need to dish out, but she does it without warning. She’ll even bite my dad on the arm if he asks her if she wants to hang out with him. We don’t force our birds to step up—we ask them if they’d like to, and if they don’t want to, we don’t push the matter. If he puts on a winter coat, she’ll launch herself at him, go on his shoulder/back, then start attacking his neck and/or ear.

Oh, one last thing. We don’t show fear or anger if she threatens/bites us. We don’t pull away or yelp. Well, my dad definitely shows fear when she forces her way onto his shoulder and starts beating his head up, but I think most people would if they had an amazon flashing their eyes, flaring their feathers, who’s ignoring all attempts to calm her down and remove her.

So, uh, thoughts on how to handle her? She’s a sweet, calm girl, but then she can suddenly become “bitey”. One moment she’s being sweet and taking food gently from us, the next she’s beating us up, then just as suddenly she’ll quit biting and take more food from us.

Hmm, does this part help explain her psyche? For the first several months we had her, she’d suddenly stare off at nothing, eyes blank, leaning toward an imaginary…something…shoulders spread and shaking, saying “bwaah.” She‘d randomly go into that weird trance, for up to, I don’t know, 20 seconds? There was nothing I could do to get her attention when she was like this, and I tried to find what she was looking(?) at on multiple occasions, but nothing was there. Heck, sometimes she wouldn’t even say anything. It was unsettling. She does a similar thing now when she wants Dad (I think?), but before she was doing it for no apparent reason.

 

[Teddscau]

Okay, so she doesn’t seem to be eating enough. One website said yellow-shoulders eat 1/4 cup of pellets and 1/4 cup of fresh foods each day. Another said 1/3 cup of pellets and 1/3 cup of fresh foods. Then an old article from J&B Exotics said they give each pair 1 cup of fresh foods (fruits, veggies, beans, nuts, seeds) everyday. The girl’s maybe eating 1/3 cup of food (varying ratios of pellets to fresh food) each day. It takes her three days to eat 1/4 cup of pellets, and she always leaves some of her supper (fresh) behind, which is rarely more than 1/4 cup of food.

 

[SailBoat]

I find it difficult to Choose to Limiting the volume of dry food that we provide our Amazon As his intake varies by day and general activities. Such a method is more commonly seen at Zoo's where they are not always watching actual amount of intake each animal is receiving unless there is a health issue.

The most dangerous thing that occurs is a fear of starvation, which triggers behavioral problems. We naturally assume that there will be a waste factor and just include that amount in feeding those Parrots and Birds in the great outdoors.