Upbeat - news

[WakaWaka]

:07:
I am very gratefull for this one from Arika
(thank you WakaWaka!!

this gives me a good insight in how far Sunny still has to go if she wants to reach full mobility.
(I constantly feel so inadequate & unsure / even after reading up on a *lot* of wingrelated studies etc.etc. I still am not very competent at the whole wing-rehab. - always secondguessing myself and looking for a beter way.)
(seen from above) She makes a sort of stretched out \_/\ O/\_/ shape a.t.m.; going for ____O____ eventually of course (full stretch) if her joints can/will allow it.

Christa,
Glad the video is of some help to you and Sunny. It was pure luck that we were able to capture that moment in slow-mo.
It sounds like both of you have made amazing progress. It takes time, patience, lots of love, and the willingness to learn a new language (Macaw). Sometimes us humans don't catch on fast enough for a super smart Macaw
Sounds like Sunny is getting lots of TLC and is in the right hands. You are doing great job working with her and she is showing improved mobility and trust. Please keep us updated on your progress with her and we hope to see a beautiful slow-mo video of her one day.

 

[ChristaNL]

Thank you WakaWaka
:07:
(and everyone else here),
without you guys here I would still be tearing my hair out a lot of the time.
It's always great to hear from/ read about other macaw-people.

The ones I meet in real life always seem to do everything so effortlessly, it's kind of intimidating sometimes!

"macaw" really is a different language, and I get stuck in translation sometimes.
I speak more or less fluent CAG, at least I thought so till Japie showed up -> he garbles something between african-grey and amazon (with a terrible accent! he used to share a livingroom with 2 of them)
It is like communicating with someone who speaks english and spanish mixed in every scentence - and I do not speak spanish!
Appie is more pure grey-ish (so its no wonder they sometimes do not see eye to eye) and Sunny...well...macawspeak... I still need nightclasses or a correspondence-course (and you guys/galls are it!)

=

oh positive macawstuf: its the first of september and she has kept the single primary feather on both of her wings for a month! :41:
They cross above her tailbase, touch each other and everything that really seemed to freak her out before.


of course I might be jinxing it by celebrating ... and she could gnaw them off any time-
but always celebrate the small stuff, because if you keep waiting for the huge ones... you will never get any cake!

 

[ChristaNL]

:smile024: Yup....totally jinxed it.
She gnawed of the right wing one sometime this afternoon (I was out shopping)

It was great while it lasted...

 

[ChristaNL]

Today I had my best friends over -
and well, one of them loves to feed the parrots...and I had the trainingcup with cedar/pinenuts still out. He was very brave and actually gave some to Sunny!
(it's the first time he fed her directly- up till now he placed his offerings in the foodcup or on the broader parts of the cage -- to save his fingers)
It went beautifully!
No lunging etc. :40: she *really* wanted those nuts.
So she accepted them just as daintily as the greys do.

Afterwards she came out of the cage (we were having tea)- and decided she wanted to sit near the computer- but my other friend (from the POTMphoto) was sitting there-- and she automatically tried to step-up on his arm.
Halfway through she was having second thoughts about it...
"hey... I do not know this arm?!"
and sort of froze in a puzzled way
(just like my friend btw)
and you could see her thinking!
So funny!
And she reversed to my arm and was completely chill about it! :40:
(I expected some sort of tantrum and was mentally bracing for it)
So another victory on the behaviour-part and another friend with a positive Sunny-experience.
(He also did great! No panicking or trying to do something defensive: he just sat there, let it happen and was oke with the entire experience.)

 

[Laurasea]

Amazing and sweet! Great progress! You are doing a great job!!!!!!!
Thanks for taking this bird in

 

[AmyMyBlueFront]

We could use a couple photo's here! :09:






Jim

 

[ChristaNL]

Oh Amy eh Jim...I just WISH!
That would have been a great one for posterity etc..

=

We finished having out regular showerparty, everybody is completely waterlogged.
(making the most of the (probably) last warm-ish days / though you never know anymore )


====


I found out a bit later: my girl can jump!!


she was being naughty- so I decided to ignore her and to clean up a bit and completely forgot she has a morbid fear of the little brush (the type that goes with the dustpan).
The moment I reached for the brush (leftside)



So there was a jump and a flap ...
(did I just see a jump?)

(wut? she can flap?? pretty sure I heard one!)
and there was a macaw sitting om my right arm, looking for safety there
(oooooh, SO cute)


I am still amazed.
.

 

[ChristaNL]

Today Sunny went to visit the vet.
She was NOT amused about the cramped quarters in the bench I use to transport her.
(Yup, we went by bike, she was in the bike-trailer, covered with an old sleepingbag to minimize stress - and because it was really windy!)

Amazing: I 've not seen her flap those little chickenwings so much! (ever!)
Of course not something I want to put her through every day- but apart from seeing her stressed it was also good to see her "work those wings".
I was worried she would beat them against the bars and set her progress back a bit, but she was annoyed > panicked, so no problems
She had an unexptected great workout getting there!:40:


The removal of the legband & rest of exam & blooddraw went sooo smooth, they had her back with me (stoned out of her little skull of course ) within 20 minutes!:40:
The leg really did look a bit scary - no real wounds, but (like people who've worn their weddingband continuously for 40 years or so) there was a ridge on both sides where it used to be with some smooth whitish tissue where the actual band was.
(It was wide enough, but it pressed up against the downward facing part of the leg every time she put her weight on it.)



She is already getting used to NOT having this bracelet/ handcuf being in the way.
-> hanging / leaning on the bars quite differently almost immediately
even sitting on the perch she is not so much leaning left or right.

Now we can find out if she is a true righty or an actual lefty.
(She kept shifting preferences, and since 80% of parrots are lefties...)
Apart from the waiting on the testresults- the next few days are going to be interesting!
(Her right leg looks really naked without the band, I was so used to seeing it there)

She is the first parrot (banded as a baby) that I've met that was uncomfortable with the legband.
(She could be projecting of course (displacement annoyance? instead of displacement biting), but you never know unless you try.)
LOL she is also the first more-than-a-kilo bird I have had (so that might also play a role?-> too much weight on the metal?).
1 1/4 kilo is quite a bird! (Because she looks so ragged and chicklike without the large feathers I always think she is a rather smallish B&Gmacaw..)



Sunny sits in her cage, grinding her beak atm.
She has been preening, eating, drinking, gnawing her willowbranches, snacking etc. - all the usual day-to-day-macaw thingies.
The only one still having isues with residual stress is yours truely

 

[ChristaNL]

Oh my ....
she gave me an encore:

while I was typing (and retyping - english will remain a challenge) she grabbed a bar with her beak, lifted a foot and started a HUGE left side wingstretch!
It's the second time I've seen her do one, so I was very happy about it (and sectretly wishing she would do the same on the other side someday in the future).
Be carefull what you wish for:
SHE DID IT! :40::40:

After finishing the stretch to the left she did a glorious as-far-as-the-wing-can-go with the right side!


I am am so so happy I could cry!
(actually I am, only a bit of course)

 

[Aratingettar]

May I ask why have you removed Sunny's legband? Was it too small for her? Cytrynka is wearing a legband, I haven't noticed anything suspicious but... is there something to worry about? AFAIK it should be size-matched for the species, so it will not interfere with the tissue even if fully grown-up.

 

[ChristaNL]

I had a few reasons - one of them because it was almost useless.
In NL the breeders have their code etched in the legbands- so you can always identify your bird that way:
its: year of birth, (code of) breeder and serial number.

Sunny has been gnawing on her band (stainless steel!) so much there was no script left to read-
so all it tells people now is: she was bred in captivity because there is a closed band around a leg.
(correct size for her species afaik)


She is a barberer and has issues with her wings (she cannot open them fully and because of the lack of feathers she is going nowhere with them) - she also mutilates her tail...so her balance is off most of the time=>
that leaves her with the feet and beak to do all the work, all the time!
(its amazing how much the tail does for a bird, even when the bird is just sitting there or moving/walking about )


I noticed she was always leaning when sitting straight up, mostly away from the leg with the band, sometimes way to the other side, and when I played with it -> there was a rather deep groove pressed in her leg. When ze sat on a flat surface (feet spread out) the ring would force the hindfacing toes outwards etc.etc.
Even when eating a snack: sometimes she would in the middle of munching stop, shift everything to the other foot and only then continue eating.
(Inside her cage she always eats hanging upside down from the 'wall', never sitting on the perch next to the bowl... drinking: the same.)


Of course she still spends a lot of time hanging/swinging from the ceiling of the cage- it can very well be one of those repetitive-motion behaviours but it can also be a simple "get the weight of the feet".
We checked the legs and feet (of course) at the vets as well - but there is nothing wrong/ restricted there.

B&Gmacaws are "only" CITES-2-b birds so the legbands are not mandatory, and since she is microchipped anyway ...
there was no good reason to keep it and a lot of "maybe it will make her life easier" reasons to remove it.

 

[TiredOldMan]

Gracie is getting her band removed and micro chipped next week for a similar reason. All the engraving has been worn away. Her Dr. is all for it as he has had to fix many broken legs due to the band getting hung up on something.

 

[ChristaNL]

Gracie is getting her band removed and micro chipped next week for a similar reason. All the engraving has been worn away. Her Dr. is all for it as he has had to fix many broken legs due to the band getting hung up on something.

Don't forget to updat your CITESpapers at the same time
though I think a signed declaration from the vet that number blahblah is now known as number such-and-suc will suffice. (Just make sure it is somewhere when you might need it; if you have it you will never need it, but if you dont ...)



One of the no so smart people at the bureau here told me I had to get permission from them first before I could ask the CAV to remove the band, and the way to get said permission was a declaration from the CAV that was medical necessity and she had to do it ...
He was obviously a chicken-egg-first person, so I got advice elsewhere and decided to ignore them. :28:

 

[ChristaNL]

The afterparty is interesting...

as always, CAV is fun but also a bit traumatic.
The greys were supercuddly this evening (one of the main reasons 2 parrots are great, 3 is a crowd: I only have 2 hands and they are all jealous about the attention the other one receives)

So... Sunny is wavering in affection and relaxation: one moment she is fine, the next there is some "whoa...your hands are creepy" reaction.
This morning my right hand was okay, but my left was pure evil ... in her opinion anyway
weird creature!
But she needs to get it out of her system, so I put up with the more than usual amount of force she puts in her warnings.
(Though I had to super-stare her down twice! I am holey again...)

It really is amazing the difference this non-band makes.
The huge dent in her right leg is already fading a bit, and strange enough so is the excessive amount of callous on the "heel" behind it.
The smooth wite part is showing some signs of scales now and is all seems to be flattening out nicely.

She did the cutest thing that same evening: she tucked her beak on the bars and had a loooong session of scratching herself on her head with her right foot.:40:
(also: first time I ever saw her doing that!)

She is munching treats consistently in her right foot now,
so maybe the girls are always right in this house, while the boy is left ....
(handed/ footed of course )
and while sitting she is leaning almost too far to the right instead of leaning to the left.
A lot of change to get used to for her, finding a new balance.


Tonight she is not only running her old vocabulary...but she started to "do me".
I heard a "come?" and a new "hello?" from her and she is really working on "fresh water" and "finished" (I use it to end showertime and sometimes playtime).

It is really weird: she came halfway out of the cage to swipe at me when I changed the paper (I'd already fed her) and (it was almost annoying-> she started guarding the doorway- and I need that one!) later that evening she was okay with me being (complete upperbody!) inside her cage and cuddling her, she tried to feed me, got scritches and she tried to pluck out some hair (whyyyyy? I wil *not* grow feathers, no matter how many you pull!)


As always, when she decides to be adorable... bring out the Oscars! (or maybe a Nobelprize?)

 

[Laurasea]

Leg bands ugh! My GCC has one that goes all the way up here leg sometimes, really scares me! My breeder didn't put one on Neptune the quaker because of all the things that can go wrong, so happy about that. Glad it's off her!! And that she feels better! I feel ya on not enough hands!!!

 

[ChristaNL]

Not enough hands situation : just went to put Sunny back in her cage...but her topmost perch was already occupied! Appie had snuck in the cage to help herself to a macaw-brekkie (as usual), what I completely missed was that Japie had flew back in the room and followed her there! So he was at the foodcup, she was watching him (at a safe distance).
So when I put Sunny in there... it was kind of crowded!

Try to fish 2 greys out of a cage (in the middle of having breakfast, so in no mood to really step-up) and prevent a macaw from bolting at the same time...

LOL- I love having parrots around, they always make things nicely complicated!
(and me late-ish for work, but that's okay )

Sunny was great this morning (as long as she does not bump her excuse of a tail of course) .
All you want in a (cuddly) bird and more.

 

[ChristaNL]

Happy Equinox everyone!!


The certificate is still "in the mail" but I received an email a few days ago:
all the parrots test negative for PBFD! \o/
No scary diseases in this house as far as anyone can tell.


(yup, I am posting this in both the threads, because I am VERY relieved and happy about this)

 

[ChristaNL]

Nothing special, but I wanted to do a follow-up about the ringremovalstory.
(bandremoval?)


Anyway since the trip to Mordor (ehm the CAV!) and getting rid of The One Band that bound her, there have been some changes.
Yes she was upset about it (vet-visit, anesthesia, getting toweled and having her wings examined and stretched while being knocked out and semi-crushed in the process of restraining her) so it's been a rollercoaster.
Bird in pain, not much fun, bird upset also not enjoyable etc.etc.

She was (and is) hilarious!
With the band gone she has been adjusting like crazy.
Trying out new postures, how to sit, how to eat, how to step up etc.etc.

For now she eats with her right foot, steps up with whatever (left/right) tickels her fancy at that time, even when begging to be picked up she raises one or the other.

*shortcircuiting* some of the time (raise one foot to hail a human cab and then attempting a step-up with the foot that is not in the air...)

She spends a lot less time on the buttend of her body (grabbing her tail/ masturbating?) because now she can get at the really interesting part: scratching herself behind the ears! :40:
Not exactly sure how this was a problem before, but hooking her beak to the bars, her full weight on one foot and scratching her head with the other is a favorite.
She look so ridiculously happy doing this!

She also (sometimes) starts to accept scritches through the bars now :40:instead of just trying to remove some chunks of fingerflesh.
"Oh grandma, why do you have such nice fluffy feathers?"




The terrible ridges underneath have disappeared, but there is still a few mm deep whitish groove in the leg where the band used to be.
(still no idea why - the diameter was correct, but I am still going with: disturbed balance -> different sitting position -> painfull foot because of the band)

The "heel"-part of both feet are grey and sleek now instead of swollen and semi-flakey on one and with several pink, almost raw looking (they weren't) patches on the other.


She spends a lot more time sitting on her perch (but will still dangle from the ceiling in the evening -> probably because the perch is not facing the right way for her to look at me )
... still working on that one: with some tailfeathers growing in I do not want to "overperch" the cage and make her bump into too many obstacles.
(She is already biting the new arrivals, so I do not want to annoy her even more.)


This morning she almost flapped herself of my arm (that is a first since the vet-visit, second time since I met her, wing usuage for the win!) because .... the tail touched something...

(Birdman help? How do you desensitize this the asap-way?)

Before that she was protesting because Appie was walking around wearing the aviator (for 5 minutes max.) and eating nuts, she is still at the "put your head through the loop and do no freak out"-stage.

A lot more talking going on - so I hope that is a good sign.


Still going strong on the 3 steps foward, 2 steps back, so we will get there!

 

[ChristaNL]

Let's see if I can keep it short this time

The whitish groove in the leg is getting a bit more shallow, so that is really nice. :40:
(it's more of a dent now than a serious groove)

She is finally getting back to the level of thrust/ tameness we had before the vet-visit, but compared to the greys she is really a handfull!
They are content with just chilling, scritches and incidental games - this lady thinks I am supposed to entertain her!
Ahwel- she will learn to amuse herself (gnawing, toys, foraging etc.) soon enough.

grinn http://www.parrotforums.com/behavioral/77502-lol-too-lazy-fourage.html was a bust, but I'll keep trying (with your help).


The aviatortraining this morning was one of the better ones.
Appie was already wearing hers and munching away (she is up to 5-6 minutes wear-time now) and Sunny decided that the aviator was not very interesting at all and was nibbling a few cedernuts in a row from my hand with the ribbons dangling around her ears and on her neck! :40:
After months of draaaamaaaa with her hastily grabbing a nut with just her beak through the loop and backpaddling out of reach as fast as she could ...

I switched the training from evening to the morning
-> better lightconditions (so she can see better and asses more accurately) and though she has a higher energy (= more exitement) in the mornings she is also better at processing "the scary stuff" -- so instead of more lunges etc. at my fingers out of displacement/ overexitement ... I got less of them!

The one downside of it all being so utterly positive is that she is back to courting me as well (so she shares some of the tea she stole from my cup with my fingers etc.) and getting scritches on my lap she will reach behind with a foot and grab her tail again.
(masturbate in your own time dearest, it is probably a healthy display of happiness/feeling good but not something I want to be part of)

Anyway- as long as she gets soaked to the bone almost every other day she seems happy; especially if I 'wash her hair'-> yes, she gets a scalpmassage under the running water!
(Lots of pinfeathers on her head atm and she is losing the greenish ones quite intensely now.)

Is is possible she really is a penguin-macaw-crossbreed?
THAT would explain SO much!

 

[Laurasea]

Wonderful to hear so much good news with Sunny!!! I hope her tail featheres make it. Her feet getting better has to make her so happy it's because of you that I had Ta-dah leg band removed while at the vets. I want to get mine harness trained to. Such good news all around.