Upbeat - news

[ChristaNL]

A grey bite is nothing to be sneezed at - I got a beautifull one high on the bridge of my nose/ where the eyebrows would meet (a few years ago) -> instant bloodbath.
I got too close to a freaked out guest-grey while sharing a shower, my bad.

So you have my sympathies!


(and thank you for your kind words)

 

[Laurasea]

Sunny is making progress, glad to hear about wing flaps!! A bite on the face!!!!! I hope I never see the day!

 

[bigfellasdad]

A grey bite is nothing to be sneezed at -

lol, no sneezing just eye watering! Enzo's previous owner was bitten by Enzo and a peice of cartlidge from here ear was removed!

 

[ChristaNL]

Grinnn, I love your sense of humor!

I was just very, very happy the grey-bite was on a non-essential part of my face.
My eyesight may leave a lot to be desired, but I do not want to miss it!

=

Sunny actively using her wings are rare occasions.
So I really cherish those moments. :heart:


The one thing she does do is what someone described as 'the crucifixion pose' : she will stand up straight with her wings spread (well ... as far as they will go).
:angel:
It has something to do with inner exitement, she tends to do that when is she is halfway ticked off about something.


But I do not speak macaw well enough to really understand what she is saying.
(and with those busted up wings she mumbles badly of course)

 

[TiredOldMan]

I use the vet wrap on pvc perches. Supposed to be water resistant, I change it when it starts to feel tacky.

 

[ChristaNL]

I will try it then
there is a layer of fake-rope (plasticy stuff) around the metal bar, but I see it does not provide her with enough grip (-opportunities).

 

[ChristaNL]

Also said it in the "brag about your bird"-thread:
I am very proud and relieved Sunny has not chewed off her tailfeathers today.


So far she has always let one large feather grow till it is truelly finished and then gnaws it to pieces.
Now she has 3 tailfeathers almost halfway there and a 4th coming in, and apart from a few stressbar-looking/gnawdamaged holes they are pretty okay.

Weird development: those feathers are far more "bendy" than the previous ones! :40:
Just noticed it today (yup- daft human again) that this bunch seems to have a *lot* more suppleness in them than previous feathers.
They bend very easily sideways (smooth!) and are not as stiff in the downward and esp upward direction...
(the direction that annoys her the most)

That gives me hope they will also be less irritating to Sunny, because they have more give in them - they really feel a lot less stiff (and even brittle) than any large feather I have felt on her before.


I just wish I had more macaw-experience... I have NO clue how resilient/ bendy a "normal" macawtailfeather should be or how they feel.
It almost makes me hope that the entire barbering-problem was due to "bad quality feathers" as a result from sub-optimal nourishment.
Wouldn't it be great if it would prove to be that simple? :01:
(Just better food, larger cage, beter physical condition and ... job done?)


LOL nothing is *ever* simple with parrots, but can I just foster this tiny bit of hope? :51: (pretty plze)

 

[bigfellasdad]

Christa, with you commitment and enthusiasm im sure Sunny is going to be fine

 

[ChristaNL]

Whoohooo - she let me grab her!


Okay- short(ish) story: after having her morning porridge
(yes the fortified oats experiment is still ongoing- I use to mix her meds and supplement in there as well, so it's really a morning-boost)
and a tail-inspection (removing some of the hard encasing) + scritches/ beak massage etc.etc. she was happy to sit on my lap and groom herself (getting the bits I missed or did not do a thourough enough job on).
'Till she decided she was finished/ bored and went in search of entertainment -->
some nice tearing of a newspaper & happy noises and before I was aware: she reached out and tipped the teapot!
**hot water flood alert**
So I immediately grabbed her around the body and lifted her up and caried her away -- only then realising she just let me!
I literally swooped down on her like a predator, grabbed her (including the wings- which got slightly pressed against her- a move she absolutely *hates*.
I can lift her of course - we practised- but only if I go beneath the wings and just use pressure on the rump) and even when the moment of surprise wore of (for both of us) she remained relaxed and unfazed about it all.
No bites!!
and if she ever had a reason to ...it was today.

 

[jousze]

Whoohooo - she let me grab her!


Okay- short(ish) story: after having her morning porridge
(yes the fortified oats experiment is still ongoing- I use to mix her meds and supplement in there as well, so it's really a morning-boost)
and a tail-inspection (removing some of the hard encasing) + scritches/ beak massage etc.etc. she was happy to sit on my lap and groom herself (getting the bits I missed or did not do a thourough enough job on).
'Till she decided she was finished/ bored and went in search of entertainment -->
some nice tearing of a newspaper & happy noises and before I was aware: she reached out and tipped the teapot!
**hot water flood alert**
So I immediately grabbed her around the body and lifted her up and caried her away -- only then realising she just let me!
I literally swooped down on her like a predator, grabbed her (including the wings- which got slightly pressed against her- a move she absolutely *hates*.
I can lift her of course - we practised- but only if I go beneath the wings and just use pressure on the rump) and even when the moment of surprise wore of (for both of us) she remained relaxed and unfazed about it all.
No bites!!
and if she ever had a reason to ...it was today.

Soooo Nice that she stops button and that she lets you do those things!
I’m sure she’s a wonderful bird! I hope I’ll meet her one day!


Jose

 

[ChristaNL]

Today I completely closed the aviator around her body / the propper way to be secure and safe and she did not care!
(more nuts plze)
She was amazingly unfazed about it all.



5 full minutes of aviator-time :jumping40


(I did not to push things, always quit when you are ahead etc.)
Sunny did not really like me messing about with her wings (there is a feather forming there, so .. . cranky about anything/anyone touching that)- so she lunged at me once just to make sure I did not forget.

She seems to have picked up the "drop it" command as well, and really coorperated by letting go of the straps when I asked her to.


I am slooowly phasing out the non-stop nuts- so she really looks at what is happening with an empty beak instead of busily chewing a moutfull and only half paying attention.
But I think the familiarity is winning: naming whatever it is I am doing, and she knows the routine and the sequence by now.




LOL< lets not party too wild, tomorrow will bring its own surprises of course, but for now ... enjoy the moment

 

[ChristaNL]

Ladies and Gentlemen...

we have an spontaneous FLAP! :35:

I know- lets do the whole "That's one small flap for [a] macaw, one giant leap for macawkind." - just to celebrate.

(next year it is 50 years ago we landed on the moon, time to dust off all our quotes anyway)

=

Sunny really wanted to get on the table (from my lap) but could not quite reach it by beak&legpower alone, so she did what every bird has done since times immemorial: she flapped herself up there!

No (obvious) painsignals during/after that manouvre, she stayed relaxed and focussed and just went straight to what she really wanted there.

Extra amazing: she's not been on alternative painmeds for a few days, usually she show signs of being uncomfortable by now... keeping fingers crossed!

 

[jousze]

Ladies and Gentlemen...

we have an spontaneous FLAP! :35:

I know- lets do the whole "That's one small flap for [a] macaw, one giant leap for macawkind." - just to celebrate.

(next year it is 50 years ago we landed on the moon, time to dust off all our quotes anyway)

=

Sunny really wanted to get on the table (from my lap) but could not quite reach it by beak&legpower alone, so she did what every bird has done since times immemorial: she flapped herself up there!

No (obvious) painsignals during/after that manouvre, she stayed relaxed and focussed and just went straight to what she really wanted there.

Extra amazing: she's not been on alternative painmeds for a few days, usually she show signs of being uncomfortable by now... keeping fingers crossed!

Thats SOOO GOOOD!!!
I have the feeling she’s improving so FAST! I hope that she won’t have any kind of pain after that!!!


Jose

 

[Laurasea]

Woot woot!! Flap flap !!! Yippie!!!!

 

[ChristaNL]

She is back to lunging/ latching on a bit too much-> so back to the painmeds it is (if I can find the other bottle... ugh once I 'archive' something it tends to *really* disappear on me).
No biggie, we'll try again later... no signs of serious pain, but she is definitely not in a great mood about something.

but...

Sunny chose to take a shower on her own today! :40:

Of course she started out by getting a wee bit wettish, because we all shower together if possible (Japie did *not* want to join today) and Appie went first.
After Appie finished it was her turn, but she lunged at bit, could not seem te get really comfortable sitting on my arm (she sometimes almost falls asleep there, so a bit out of the ordinary) so I just put her back on the showerperch and got on with my turn.
Then she decided to half-flap about in the "sidespray" (and we all know how I love it when she goes into using those wings! ) and I decided to give her her own shower, to see if she wanted to try it
(She never had before)
So I directed the spray next to her on the perch, and showed her it was there by splashing about, and invited her by tapping the other side of the perch "come over".

There was some interest in putting a part of the wing there, to 'feel out' the situation, a few headswings to investigate and all of a sudden she just sidled over and sat *bam* in the middle (a bit crooked so her head would not catch too much downpour) and she stayed there, happy as a clam!

Now I have another problem: she did not want it to end!
She sat there getting nicely soaked completely (and she was already pretty wet before she did this) and enjoying the hydrotherapy-back-massage.

I had to cut off her spa-event eventually, but I hope she liked it so much she wil repeat it some other time.


(She is talking up a storm atm and just inquired wat Japie is doing -> demolishing cardboard of course, that is why he did not want to come with us to shower, he had work to do )

 

[Laurasea]

Makes me smile to picture her enjoying the shower so much! I would love to hear more about the African greys as well do they have their own thread?

 

[ChristaNL]

No sorry- I have been really neglecting them (in the written sense not in real life of course) just because, I know them pretty well (as a species they have been around a huge part of my life) and I keep a 'highlights off ...' journal about them on the computer.

I started this one to document a bit what we did ( I have a terrible memmorie for the good stuff- I tend to remember the traumaas and forget the small joys along the way), but also so other people could step in and tell me if I was doing something completely crazy or just plain wrong.
(has not happened yet, so I hope I am doing okay)

But you are absolutely right, they are part of the family too and you should be able to meet them sometime.

 

[ChristaNL]

To tell the long story short (TLDNR):

I am twice holey and she...was sort of flapping! :40:


(long version: )

LOL parrots and their routines...
I was late in providing the medical-mush and shower today, so Her Majesty decided to break my skin, twice.
(Hmmmpf I hoped we were past that.)
Anyway- it was all my fault of course because her foodbowl was almost (!) empty (the horror); that the equivalent of 3x the daily amount of munchies is lying on the bottom of the cage, free for all to grab, does not count of course.

(oh of course she got more pellets etc. once it was clear fouraging was not on her mind today, she is chilling out and commenting on some kiddie-show on tv now)

One of those 'happy little accidents'.
After a spot of Aviator-training...

I had been messing about with the perch from the Northern Parrots carier yesterday evening- finally figured out why it kept spinning around the lenght-axis (stupid el cheapo construction shortcut) and it was lying on the sofa.
So I wanted to see if she would step-up on it -> scary unknown stick with rope around it.


Well she did, but with lots of protest....with her wings! :11: :angel-smi

She was balance-flapping (even though the perch was rocksolid between my hands it is still a scary stickthingy) with her right wing and sort of making 'stirring the pot'-moves with her left.
I am not sure if she does the 'broken wing flap' because something still hurts or just out of habbit!
Judging by the look on her face she is not sure either anymore!

I know she has waaaaay more painfree stretch and give in those wings now than she was using, so I suspect habbit.

Now I am keeping my fingers crossed the coin will drop and she''ll realize that using her wings this way does not hurt and is (partially) possible again.
She will have to start using them sometime - I cannot be there all day every day to exercise them for her.

 

[ChristaNL]

so... not too much training lately, but she has another 2 (way off to the sides) tailfeathers growing in, very exciting because these are not supported by any other feathers (yet?) so I hope they will not anoy her too much.

There is a setback with her wings again (due to the few flapping-exercises we did? something else?), lots of gnawing on the feathers (no longer) covering the right elbowjoint and she will not let me do the usuall moving and stretching.
(It has been a few weeks now since she had a good stretch or workout)

The positive is she can rotate her tail freely now -- I had *no* idea macaws had so much mobility past the pelvic bones! So many tailjoints there - they appeared to be one solid mass when she got here.
(I spend so much time focused on her supertight & hunched schouders and neck I did not pay propper attention to the hindpart, it was just when I got to the serious desensitizing of the new feathers/ tail she started loosening up there as well. Before that she was as rigid as the end part of a piggybank.)


Anyway *the* absolute cuteness of today: after sitting on my lap, dismissing my yoghurt, ripping a part of a newspaper to shreds and throwing them all around and over herself, scaring herself by removing my glasses (she is determined to remove them, but my naked face still shocks/ scares her ... silly girl!) she was in for a footmassage!
So she climbed to the tableperch, grabbed a convenient hand and let me get on with it ... all the while resting the foot (the former very sensitive spot where the legband used to dig in her flesh) on my finger. :40:

:07: It was SO endearing.

 

[Laurasea]

Awww! Hey did you ever think of trying that lazer therapy on her wings? You have access to the vet school right? It could be really beneficial?