JamesC
Active member
- Sep 3, 2011
- 591
- 41
- Parrots
-
Blue Crown Conures: Tootsie and Rosco.
Senegal Parrot: Sidney.
Feathers of the past:
Budgies: Sunshine, Digit, Kiwi, and Yahto.
Senegal Parrot: Kelly.
"Fly free, little ones. Love and miss you."
Rosco gave me a scare a bit ago. I happened to look up and saw he seemed to be struggling, hanging at the corner just inside of the shelf opening at the top of the cage. I got up and found that he somehow managed to get a toenail caught in a little hole and he could not get it out. I'm not sure how long he was stuck cause he didn't make a sound. But he was building up to a panic.
I got a hold of him to support while I tried to figure what was happening. The nail was stuck in there and the sharp edges were grabbing into the nail were preventing me from working it out. He went into more of a panic because he does not like hands and here I was holding onto him. So he bit the ever living heck out of my left hand. Mostly the finger and fleshy part of the thumb. Made the decision to let him go for a bit while I got a towel and get something that I could loop around the toe and use it to help pull the nail out.
So I got the towel and sacrificed a set of cheap earbuds by ripping off one of the wires which made a nice soft but strong loop for me to pull on. Fortunately Rosco held on in place and didn't fall or anything. I got him in the towel to protect my hand, managed to loop the wire around with one hand and got the nail out. It took about a minute to work it out but out it finally came.
He was probably trapped about 5 minutes or so. But he seems like he is doing ok. Obviously sore and has been tucking the foot for about 10 minutes now but he is using it. I just gave him an almond and he used that foot to hold while eating and little bit ago he was playing with a toy using it. Now he and Tootsie are doing some mutual preening. So I think that we are ok. Going to keep an eye on him though.
And now try to figure out how to plug up that hole. It is a U shaped notch in the corner where two main square bars come together. Sidney's cage is a different manufacturer and it has similar holes. The one that caught Rosco's toenail looks smaller than the rest. Like the bar wasn't cut right before welded together. I think that tomorrow I'm going to get a couple of stainless steel screws of different sizes from work, grind a flat on one side of the head then tap one that just fits into the hole and hope it locks in place. It was probably more of a freak incident but that corner of the door gets a lot of use by both him and Tootsie since the food and water cups are there. Don't want any more repeats of that one.
Now time to tend to my hand. The index finger looks like I got it caught in a meat grinder.
I got a hold of him to support while I tried to figure what was happening. The nail was stuck in there and the sharp edges were grabbing into the nail were preventing me from working it out. He went into more of a panic because he does not like hands and here I was holding onto him. So he bit the ever living heck out of my left hand. Mostly the finger and fleshy part of the thumb. Made the decision to let him go for a bit while I got a towel and get something that I could loop around the toe and use it to help pull the nail out.
So I got the towel and sacrificed a set of cheap earbuds by ripping off one of the wires which made a nice soft but strong loop for me to pull on. Fortunately Rosco held on in place and didn't fall or anything. I got him in the towel to protect my hand, managed to loop the wire around with one hand and got the nail out. It took about a minute to work it out but out it finally came.
He was probably trapped about 5 minutes or so. But he seems like he is doing ok. Obviously sore and has been tucking the foot for about 10 minutes now but he is using it. I just gave him an almond and he used that foot to hold while eating and little bit ago he was playing with a toy using it. Now he and Tootsie are doing some mutual preening. So I think that we are ok. Going to keep an eye on him though.
And now try to figure out how to plug up that hole. It is a U shaped notch in the corner where two main square bars come together. Sidney's cage is a different manufacturer and it has similar holes. The one that caught Rosco's toenail looks smaller than the rest. Like the bar wasn't cut right before welded together. I think that tomorrow I'm going to get a couple of stainless steel screws of different sizes from work, grind a flat on one side of the head then tap one that just fits into the hole and hope it locks in place. It was probably more of a freak incident but that corner of the door gets a lot of use by both him and Tootsie since the food and water cups are there. Don't want any more repeats of that one.
Now time to tend to my hand. The index finger looks like I got it caught in a meat grinder.