There and Back Again: A Conure's Tail

[Sunnyclover]

Finley Bite Report: Today was better after that horrible weekend (I described in a separate thread) that made me question my sanity. He only bit me once today but I was was very deliberate with my actions. I kept them shorter and I made sure I was very clear with him on what I was doing and I talked to him sweetly every time I approached him. I also kept him and Ollie apart as much as I could manage and I will continue to do so until I can figure out if Ollie preening him all over and even around his vent is okay or if it means there is a mate shift or what. That would be weird because they are both DNA male but I do know males can bond. It's even kind of weird and uncomfortable to watch because when Ollie is preening him it looks like he is doing it rather hard to me. Finley was also regurgitating for me (has done plenty before) and now for a toy chicken on his cage (new behavior) so i am guessing some of his behavior has to do with hormones.
Ollie has been a very good boy (other than the weird preening thing) but he was a bit worried about the geese outside. He goes around and does this little bird cry noise when he is worried about something. He was doing it a lot tonight but I could hear the geese outside still even though it was dark so I can't blame him for worrying about them. He was happy to go under the blanket and cuddle for the hour leading to bedtime and he stopped being worried so that was really good, at least I could put his little heart at ease with some cuddles time.

I have prepared some videos for you all about what my babies are like after their shower while they are drying. Some birds like to shake their tails and some birds don't like to be touched! And the one who is crabby after a bath isn't who you would think.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXZedczOIzg"]Finley shakes his tail twice! - YouTube[/ame]

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7pxfxSBB5A"]Birdies after bath time.. Ollie no likey touch - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Sunnyclover]

Finley Bite Report: Finley only bit me once today and it was a very easy nearly waring bite so it didn't hurt. I immediately put him on the floor and did not take him to a time out cage, hold his beak and say no bite or to the hallway. Just bite then plop onto the floor then I said "no bite. I think everyone of you who said that the punishment (if you could call it that) needs to be immediately put on the floor or they probably will forget what even happened was right. I can tell he understood and he didn't even attempt to bite or even act like he was going to try to the rest of the day. I am not saying his is cured but I am hopeful!

In other news, I am keeping the 2 boys seperated for now. I am not sure how many of you read my thread about this but Ollie started preening Finley vigorously and and with gusto and even in the vent and wing areas which are pretty much only done to a mate. For fear that since they are both still young and not yet sexualy mature (well maybe Ollie is getting there soon) that they may decide to pick each other as a mate instead of continuing to both me my mates. As of now they don't seem to care that much that they are being seperated, well Finley misses Ollie a little and I can see he would like to be on the tree stand with him I can tell Ollie (who really only cares about my husband and I) is entirely unaffected by this whole thing which is actually so strange because he was the one displaying the mating behavior. Ollie also clued me in that he was is being effected but hormones as well by regurgitating to me a couple times today which he has not done in about 9 months. I am going to keep them separated until Ollie stops rushing over to preen Fin as soon as they are on the tree stand together which could be until mating season is over or a couple of years from now when my bond with both of them is much much stronger. We'll see, I hope everyone calms down is a couple of months. It must be a strong mating season this year because it sounds like hormones are running high across the board here on the forums. I am still going to let them hang out on me together because Ollie could care less about Finley if he's on me, he is still annoyed with Finley during double bird mommy time.

In other other news, Finley tried to take a bath on me today. Yeah it sounds weird right? Well he was all puffed up and wings out and flapping around my lap like he wanted a bath and then I put him on the tree stand where there are little cups of water that he can barely get his head into and he went nuts for about 5 minutes trying to get into them to bathe. I then got him wet in the sink but he didn't think that was good enough or didn't choose to believe that was actually water on his feathers and continues to dip himself into that tiny water dish. I had to take them away for him to calm down. The best part is I got a couple of videos treating me like a water fountain. I have no idea whats going on I feel like I am in the twilight zone this week, the birds are just going nuts! Nuts I tell you!!!

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qG4JD92_Ao"]Finley tries taking a bath on Mommy - YouTube[/ame]

After Finley fluffed off to bed Ollie and I took our usual hour together and snuggled and he went straight to his favorite spot.

 

[wrench13]

re biting: Absolutely the right method to train out biting behavior. Immediately to the floor ( we use a chair back) and IGNORE them, back turned, no eye contact. Not real long, we use like 2 minutes max. Your guys sound like smart ones, they should get the message fairly quickly, but they should ALWAYS be treated like that ( consistency in training is very critical) when they backslide.

Since both Finley and Ollie seem to enjoy handling, have you tried any harness's with them? PoB is a great traveling cage, but nothing beats a out of cage walk on your shoulder and knowing they are safe.

 

[Sunnyclover]

I have trained Ollie to a harness and he has gone many many places with me including a trip to DC where he got to visit all the monuments. I posted pictures a while back, I will link thread below. It took me one day to train him because he is clearly an orange angel sent from the gods to bless me with everything that a good and perfect in the world. Lol. We also have, lets say....5 Pack'o'Bird products. 2 are actual Pack'o'Birds (one for each bird) and the others are 2 Birdie Gogo (one for each bird) and one regulation airline carrier. I am going to train the Green Monster on the harness in the near future. I LOVE taking my birds out, I would already be doing it if it wern't for this stupid cold weather that seems to be plaguing NJ/NY area.

http://www.parrotforums.com/general-parrot-information/69479-ollie-goes-vacation-washington-dc.html

 

[Sunnyclover]

Finley bite report:Only 2 minor incidents this morning in which I put him straight on the floor for 30 seconds or so. After that he really mellowed out. He was almost like he was before all this biting started. He was so playful and happy today and it makes my heart smile! Progress! We are having company this weekend and on Sunday we are having a dinner party so it might throw things off a bit, we'll see. My husband will be home too and I am not sure if that is what threw Fin off last weekend but I don't think this weekend will be a good gauge of that because of all the people in the house ect. Oh well, I am so happy with today and that is what really matters.

Ollie was wonderful today too! Except at 7:40pm (he goes to bed at 8) he was making his worried noise and kept running from shoulder to shoulder and did not want to cuddle. The only thing I can think of is that my babysitter was upstairs doing something and we were talking back and fourth and he could hear her but not see her. He did not get better when I went to find her so I thought maybe he's asking to go to bed early. I put him to bed early and he seemed to want to go to bed. Oh well. Kind of weird but maybe he didn't sleep well last night or something.

These pictures are of Finley playing with his pearls! In one of the pictures Ollie looks at Finley and kind of goes "What on earth are you doing?" lol

Finley playing with his new ring toy and a cameo from Ollie.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRF_ayoVrJo"]Finley takes it off (Ollie cameo) - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Sunnyclover]

Finley bite report: He managed to make to twice to the floor today for biting. However, I feel like something about him has changed, his biting has evolved into something understand now and not just out of fear or crankiness like he was doing so often before. I'm actually really happy with how things are going with him. His bites now are also more of a light warning bite not a hard fearful bite. Little Finley is nearly back to his old self again, the cute little doofus whole stole my heart is back! I'm not sure what happened but I'm all for it.

Ollie is getting increasingly worried about those geese outside (who do they think they are anyways?!) And keeps "warning" me about them often. Thanks Ollie...

A video of Ollie just being Ollie:

[ame="https://youtu.be/EdMHDZ1n7Sk"]Ollie Baby relaxes with Mommy - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Sunnyclover]

Uggg Finley hurt his foot/leg somehow. I think he flew off the tree and landed too hard because I was watching him the whole time and nothing else happened. Poor little boy. I called the vet's office and they said to call them on Monday and they'll find a spot for him if he is still not putting weight on it. He is really bitey today but that's understandable because I'm sure he's scared because his little footy hurts. He does NOT want to be alone without me and he likes me to rub his foot for him. Look at that cute little face!

 

[itzjbean]

Uh oh, poor Finley! I hope he recovers quickly and he stops being a bitey butthole! lol

 

[Sunnyclover]

We'll to be fair he is presumably in at least discomfort if not pain. But he's still so freaking cute I can't take it lol. He seems to be putting more weight on the foot after his shower so that's an improvement.

 

[Sunnyclover]

Well we woke up today and Finley is still limping and oh man is he cranky too! He tried to bite me (only succeeded once) 5 times in the 1st 30 minutes he was up. My best guess is that even if it's just a sprain that today it's really sore and he probably didn't sleep well, the poor darling. He simultaneously wants to be close to me and cuddle but is really bitey and cranky. Is it normal for a bird to be crankier if something is hurting them? I know that I'm definitely taking him to that vet appointment on Monday.

 

[Inger]

Poor Finny!


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[Sunnyclover]

On Monday morning Finley re-injured his already injured foot by frantically flying around in the bathroom after I set him on the floor for biting. I think the most likely cause of the freak out was because I had a towel in my hand and he thought I was going to clip his nails. I took him.to.the vet Monday morning, in fact I was in the bathroom getting ready to take him to the vet when he rehurt his foot (I think he hurt his wing a little too but not badly). Vet gave us some pain medicine after she had a really good look at him. She said it didn't appear to have any wounds or appear to be broken, nor did his wing. I will go back to the vet next week if he still isn't putting any weight on it. The pain medicine doesn't seem to be helping because he still can't use his little foot at all. To step up he has to use his beak and bite my finger to lift himself up. It's very very sad and I'm very sad about all of this. He doesn't seem to be eating enough but he is eating some and I'm giving him more pistachios than I normally would for him to keep weight on hopefully because he is eating those right away. I tried to hand feed him a bit and he wasn't going for it. In general he seems in good spirits towards me and wants to hang out and be close to me and wants to sit with me and play with his foot toys. /Sigh
Ollie of course is being mostly ignored even with my best efforts to give him individual attention. At least we have an hour after Finley goes to bed with him. I feel so bad for Fin, I don't think he understands much of what's happening or what has happened. I told the vet I think he is a little "special" and she said it's possible he is not completely mentally there and there is not any way to tell but also possible his eyesight isn't that great because I told her he sometimes freaks out and bites me and acts scared even though he's not scared of me at all in general. Something to consider as a possiblity for his behavior in the future. My poor baby!

 

[Sunnyclover]

Here is a video of little Finfin and his ouchy foot. Poor baby!
[ame="https://youtu.be/roDmWDZIN1Y"]Finley has an ouchy foot - YouTube[/ame]

Here is a video of Ollie getting some much needed alone time.
[ame="https://youtu.be/0MoVkF9Use4"]Sweet sweet Ollie Baby - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Sunnyclover]

Little Finley still hasn't shown much improvement with his foot so I called the vet and he'll go in Monday for x-rays. I'm hoping it's just taking a while to heal but nothing else is wrong. The good news is that he's in extremely good spirits despite his leg being unusable and is trying to do everything he normally does and then some. I'm guessing that's not helping him heal but it's hard to get him to slow down if he puts his mind To do something. He has pretty much stopped biting for the time being and only will scold me if he's worried I'll hurt his foot and that's very very fair. The weird part is that he let's me touch his foot and leg and even wants me to massage it. I find this very strange because it seems like he'd want me not to touch it if he's hurting. He's a bit off (as I've said before) so who knows. One thing is for sure...he is melting my heart with his adorable antics and his "can't keep me down" attitude. Oh Finney...I love you!

I was making an extra effort to not ignore Ollie today. We had workers here doing construction on the deck part of the day (which makes him make his "I'm worried" noise non-stop) and had my babysitter's sister cleaning the house part of the day and Ollie is not a huge fan of her...for a reason none of us are able to detect. He voiced his displeasure as she was walking by durring a lovely cuddle session lol. It's so funny because he's like "So mad but must get tickles...uggg!"

[ame="https://youtu.be/3znLhSID1iQ"]Ollie is mad but accepting tickles anyway - YouTube[/ame]

Now a video of Fin and his "new toy". This was taken today and this seemed to be the only time he was actually bon his food all day, I'm guessing because it was just too fun to worry about a bum foot! He does do better with his foot on flat surfaces when he doesn't have to perch though.

[ame="https://youtu.be/fuDZIf6oFlk"]Finley likes the toy box more than the toys - YouTube[/ame]

 

[GaleriaGila]

Oh, Finsie-winsie... I'm worried sick about you, but that new toy vid really lightened my spirits.

 

[Sunnyclover]

Finley foot report: Still little to no improvement with his little foot, however it is not "dangling" which is a great sign which means it's not likely broken. I have researched a bunch about birds hurting their feet and I even asked a bird shop owner and they told me they has a conure that sprained his foot and the bird had stayed off it an entire 3 weeks until one day they decided to fully use the foot again. So that was encouraging news but of course I am 110% going to the vet on Monday for X-rays no matter what. He did kind of try to bite me today but not too much, the times he attempted (since I am kind of looking at it from a different POV from what the vet said) I am not sure he can see me clearly out of his left eye. I will continue to pay extra close attention to this so I can figure out what exactly his problem is. Other than that he is as sweet as pie (which is why the whole biting this is so weird in the 1st place because it doesn't go with his personality at all). Even though he is hurt right now he is in such good spirits and he was such a happy little guy today.

Something awesome happened today! We went to 2 bird stores and bought a bunch of toys for the boys and a new table top java tree stand for them. It was so cute because I was picking out toys and my husband had gone upstairs to use the restroom where they keep all the tree stands and cages you can buy and he comes down to excitedly tell me he found this great table stand that has good "poopability" that he wants me to go look at. Now at our house "poopability" refers to the likelihood that something (play stand, cage, toy, perch set up ect.) will get poop somewhere other than the bottom tray area on the where it is easy to clean. I am sure you all have seen java trees with branches that extend way too far out past the bottom on the stand where you for sure have to either put something down to catch the poop or just know that your carpet or floor will probably get pooped on all the time because your bird will in fact adopt that very spot to be the place they perch and poop constantly just because that is the one branch you do not what them to go on... Come on you know what I mean right? Like that one perch in your bird's cage that is getting pooped on every day that you move around the entire cage but somehow your bird still poops on it 20 times a day like it's their job? Or maybe if you are extra lucky your bird will decide that it's favorite place to poop before flying off the big tree stand to the couch is the food bowl...yes I am talking to you Finley! Needless to say that food bowl has a high "poopability". Anyways, I inspected said Java tree stand and he was right! It was perfect and we went home with it. So this was the 1st bird store we went to.
We went to the 2nd bird store mainly to look at the birds and buy another few toys for the new stand. They had these 2 timneh african greys there and my husband really really liked one of them, they were not for sale but boarding. We decided that if we were to get a 2nd parrot we will probably get a timneh african grey but I also voiced my want for a Cockatoo (Goffins to be exact) so we will see if we do get a 3rd bird I do want it to be a more advanced and complicated one. Oh and the 2 timneh african greys had been boarding there for about a year which is really sad to me. Uggg why? I have half a mind if they are still there in a another 6 months to see if they want to sell them. Who does that?!!!

When we returned home I set up the stand and put Fin to bed. Ollie is up another hour so we let him check out the new stand while we cleaned up the dinner dishes and had a glass of wine and dessert. He loved every moment of this time where we were talking to him and cooing at him on the new stand as well as giving him treats to forage in the toy pineapple and congratulating him when he found them. Ollie was the happiest bird ever on the planet tonight! Then 15 minutes before bed I took him to the couch for a few tickles and cuddles, he looked like his little birdie heart was full and about to burst. I am so happy too and I am pretty sure my husband was also. What a wonderful night!

Here is the new table top tree stand!

Here are all 3 of our Java Tree Stands in case anyone was curious.

And finally a picture of 2 wet birdies from last week I forgot to post. Oh they are so cute!

 

[Sunnyclover]

There are ducks outside and it's a scream fest here! AHHHHHH lol.

 

[Sunnyclover]

My little Finley is going to the vet tomorrow to get foot xrays. He had not improved much so I'm really really glad to be going. Wish us luck! We need it.

 

[AmyMyBlueFront]

Good Luck Fin! We be sayin' prayers for you little boy!




Jim

 

[Inger]

Waiting to hear how our little Fin is.


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