Still a little worried... :33:

Starwing

Member
Jul 17, 2014
31
0
The Netherlands
Parrots
Kobus the Blue Fronted Amazon
Hi everyone!

It's been quite a while since I updated on Kobus the :green:!
I promised that the next time I would post something it would be of
the playstand I was building for her at the time. It is done, and I will
post a pic of that along to make good on that promise! But...

... I still have some minor health concerns over my green little dragon.

When I last posted, I was going to switch over from seeds to Harisson
Pellets, and I can finally say that that has been a complete success.
It took some gradual "kidding her into getting some of the crumbs in her"
until she actually started eating the pellets themselves as her main dish,
but I can finally say her main diet now consists of pellets.

We still feed her plenty of fresh veggies every now and again, mostly
slices of carrot, pieces of cornflower, brocolli and the such.

We also tried to tone down the amount of fruits she gets to eat, because
she really likes them, but I know now that veggies > fruit.

I am going to have an appointment with an actual avian doctor between
now and some time (I haven't had a reply from their office yet) to check
Kobus on all diseases, check her feces under the mic, and have her (or his :D) gender pinpointed by DNA. I feel I will be so much happier when everything is actually OK....

Kobus has been moulting for a while now, and her moult seems to have stopped among her large feathers, now mostly her small facial contour feathers and her belly.

I find a lot of these little facial feathers from her absolute forecrown (just above the nose) recently, and today I found one that seemed a bit odd to me. I now kind of know how bloodfeathers turn into "mature" feathers and how you can tell them apart by the color (dark/red vs white), and this tiny little blue feather seemed to have a dark black/red shaft. It's an absolutely tiny feather, and I haven't ever found large feathers like that, so I'm sure it's not as scary as I now presume it to potentially be, but I'll post a pic of it here:

Floppy for scale!
veertje3_by_gydo-d87uo70.jpg

Close up of the same feather:
veertje1_by_gydo-d87uo6w.jpg


My girlfriend made an accidental close up of her that was really really sharp, so I'll post it here too. The little "plumes" on her forehead show really good here.
kobuscloseup_by_gydo-d87uo6t.jpg


Her beak seems kind of flaky on this picture too, but I try not to worry too much about that, since I know I'm feeding her the best/healthiest I can...

I am, nevertheless, going to have an appointment with an avian vet sooner than later rather, so I'll share my concerns with her as well, but what do you guys think? Does everything still look "normal" to you?

NOW to make good on my promise!!!
(No really, I hate to break a promise :D)



The entire platform. We call it the "ship mast" since that is what I originally had in mind when thinking of it (anyone who ever played Donkey Kong Country will know :p)


platform_1_by_gydo-d87utrs.jpg


I can has food here too?? :D

platform_4_by_gydo-d87uts8.jpg



Everything is connected to eachother by wooden plugs, and every piece of metal that I had to use for toys and stuff is stainless steel. No zinc poisoning for our pretty girl!
 
She looks great. Lots of new feathers on her head, bet she loves for you to preening them.
 
It looks fine. The part of the shaft that stuck into the skin is white which looks normal. The dark line up the center of the feather, I believe it's just coloration. Thanks for the pics, she's a pretty bird.
 
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She looks great. Lots of new feathers on her head, bet she loves for you to preening them.

Thanks for the reassuring words! I do help her take off those annoying little feather wrappers every now and again. I was really scared to do so in the beginning, afraid I might hurt her, or break off or damage her feathers, but I saw a really cool video of someone doing the same thing with their red and green macaw which was really reassuring (and educational if you've never seen the full mechanics of feather growth!). As a matter of fact, I think I saw a link to that video right here on these forums, so thank you, unsung hero! :D
 
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It looks fine. The part of the shaft that stuck into the skin is white which looks normal. The dark line up the center of the feather, I believe it's just coloration. Thanks for the pics, she's a pretty bird.

Yes, I do believe you are right on the coloration, but I was a little startled at first! A lot of her tiny yellow and green facial feathers have white shafts. Since I only recently delved deeper in the anatomy of birds and their physiology and found out about bloodfeathers, I had a mini-heart attack when I thought I saw little "bloodfeathers" fall out before even becoming mature when I found these little blue feathers with dark shafts!

All in all, all of your kind words reassure me that my little girl is in good health, but to keep myself from repeating this cycle of "finding new things of imminent doom and disease -> bother the kind people of this forum -> feel reassured for a while" I'll feel a whole lot better when Kobus has had a proper visit to a proper avian doctor.

When I asked the person that I was buying Kobus from if she was ringed, he answerred with a firm "no", which was dissapointing, but I had seen the bird, and although I felt uneasy, I decided to pick her up anyways.

When I got there, she turned out to have a CLOSED/full ring after all. The owner didn't even know this! This I found peculiar, and since she's only 4 years and a bit old right now, and they didn't give me any information on tests for diseases or even her gender (so "she" could easily turn out to be a "he" in the near future :D) so a couple of days ago I decided I was going to take the big step and have her visit an avian doctor, even though it will be quite a long trip from where I live.

As always, thank all of you for your kind contributions! :smile015:
 
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I think Kobus is just fine :). I do, however, understand your worry. I too see every little thing as possible sign of disease and doom. Ugh, wish I would stop doing that. It's because despite being super cautious and careful, I still had a virus and death 9 years ago. I'm trying to lighten up a little these days. I mean, still be careful about things which are within our control, and not worry past that.
 

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