Upbeat - news

[Timneh]

If she favors the healed wing it could be a memory reflex of the past pain. She anticipates the pain when she lifts her wing, that could take time to disappear. You seem patient so I am sure everything will work out well.

 

[TiredOldMan]

Hmmm, I will try to find one that is at least 50 inches across, the current birdybath is 20+ inches and her wings hang over the sides when she (sort off) stretches them...

(I bought this one with the greys in mind- they should fit, wings and all - but do not want to ... sofar anyway)


Maybe I can get to a animal-supply-store where they sell things for the large animals (bovine/horse etc. sounds promising, great idea!)- but tomorrow is a workday (at least half one anyway) so do not get mad if nothing much happens

Okay 50", maybe a kiddie wading pool? I don't know anything about your side of the pond but over here during the season you can buy cheap plastic wading pools in just about any size.

The operative words being "during the season", however maybe online sellers might have something available now.

 

[ChristaNL]

If she favors the healed wing it could be a memory reflex of the past pain.

I wish it was that easy, the CAVs have checked her wings twice while she was fully sedated - the restrictions are very real, the jointcapsules etc. are all warped, tendons and other non-flexible tissues have shrunk, muscles have atrophied.

It similar to what would happen if we would get a plaster cast (arm or leg) and it would be kept on for months and months longer than necessary.
Some of the joints seem almost 'frozen' in position.

The CAVs never could find any breaks- so it it probably due to be stuck in a small cage for waaaaay too long- so she could never stretch out enough.
(I already was an advocate for as large a cage/ as much freedom for your pets as you can get them, but now I am adament about it.)

So the only way is to daily work with them (small movements, very light -as painless as possible- stretches, to get the tissue to 'give' a little and adapt in the right direction), trying to get her to a point were she will start moving them herself more and more.

She wil sometimes do a stretch herself (esp when the greys are doing theirs - after a nap etc.) but the place she *really* moves is in the shower/ bath. Playing in/with water will make her exercise of her free will as well as being FUN.

I cannot "make" her flap with the usual handdrop (yet) -> she has fallen sooo many times in the past -> she loses trust and will revert to biting (hard) and hanging on with her beak as well and not flap at all.


She is improving bit by bit, but we do not know where that will end.
(the CAVs are sure she will never be able to fly again - thats is okay, as long as she is happy and painfree.)

 

[Laurasea]

You haven't even had Sunny a year, you are doing so good. I hate that the wing stricture might be permanent....Penny had some wing stricture but she wasn't in that tiny tiny cage at the petstore long, because she has full or nearly full movement back.. I agree almost all cages even for the well intended are to small... My quakeres cages are at least two wingspan and they always do flaps stretches and big grooming outside of the cage , I have mine out from sun up to sun set most days and I feel my house is too small for them, they need more room still. I really ache for the wingtrim Parrots of working parents....only being able to walk a few inches or half a foot for 9 hours of the day, then made to stay on playstands it what not ..it has to give them mental as well as physical strictures .

 

[SilleIN]

A professor in anatomy at the Danish Veterinary School gave some laser treatment to 2 of my older macaws and that improved the movement for them quite significantly. Don't know if that is possible somewhere in your country, but that helped quite a bit here. Jakob flies like a pro today

 

[ChristaNL]

Sille you are actually the second person to suggest that...

my old school has moved since I graduated/got my bachelors, but if the softlasers are still in active use I might get my hands on them (if I ask very, very nicely).
Something to pursue after the hollidays (all the uni's buildings etc. are closed for the hollidays)


Today I got a serious warning chomp (no bite but close) when I tried to get Sunny out of the bath.. she was not done yet!
(She was so soaked through she was showing skin even on her backside ...)
She started this year with a bald penguinbutt ... she now has almost half a real macawtail, but the penguin is still strong in her

 

[ChristaNL]

Not sure if the interrupted sleep with all the fireworks etc, has anything to do with it- but Sunny has been an absolute cute parrot lately.
(She beak-punched me in the face this morning, so the parrotpart is still very much there )
On the whole she seems a lot calmer and more relaxed than she used to be.
I hope she is still healing/ letting more of her true personality show.
No matter what happens she always manages to surprise or amaze me.
I :heart: the "calm eyes".

No more serious biting when I stick my hand inside the cage (touch wood!) ... she loves scritches (with my hand and arm inside the cage with her) almost as much as outside. :40:

Last week one of my friends was brave enough to offer her a walnut *inside* the cage.
Instead of attacking him or the nut in his hand she remained calm, came over to get it but kept a respectfull distance and very, very gently reached out to take the nut from between his fingers! :40:
She is learning / showing good manners!

In a few weeks time she will be here 1 year. *What* a journey.


New cage is still not up <deeply ashamed> but the good thing is: they are all fascinated by the parts!
Sunny has been climbing it a lot already - after pulling me in the right direction of course

So that will make the transition for all of them a lot easier when we assemble it.
It is already "old news" to them.

 

[Laurasea]

Almost the Gotcha date! Awesome!!!

 

[SilleIN]

Sille you are actually the second person to suggest that...

my old school has moved since I graduated/got my bachelors, but if the softlasers are still in active use I might get my hands on them (if I ask very, very nicely).
Something to pursue after the hollidays (all the uni's buildings etc. are closed for the hollidays)


Today I got a serious warning chomp (no bite but close) when I tried to get Sunny out of the bath.. she was not done yet!
(She was so soaked through she was showing skin even on her backside ...)
She started this year with a bald penguinbutt ... she now has almost half a real macawtail, but the penguin is still strong in her

It would be nice if it works, if not, Sunny's no worse off. It's one of the few no risk things that can be tested.

My Jakob had never really flown, when he came here and he had a strange habit of sitting on his wings and he would flap his wings in a strange angle when perching. It seemed his shoulders were incorrectly angled and he could fly, but very poorly. He flies like a pro today and I never see him sit on his wings anymore. He will every once in a while flap his wings when perching, but the angle doesn't seem to be wrong anymore.

 

[ChristaNL]

Leaving the past behind...step by little step.

Sunny is in another mini-molt and she is littering the cage with the left-overs of barbered feathers.
No tops anywhere, just the part that is normally attached in the skin and a V-shaped part of the feather (base).

I've picked up a few and comparing them to what I got used to by now - was shocked!
Even the smaller feathers (thumblenght and under) feel and snap like toothpicks instead of bend and the endparts are curiously flat instead of round like normal ones.



She must have felt like a hedgehog instead of a bird the previous (few?) years!


Thank you guys for all the suggestions about supplementing her diet -
we know she can build 'normal' feathers, she just needed the means to do so.


*hugs*

 

[LaManuka]

Have you assembled Sunny's new cage for her yet? We assembled Fang's new one a few months ago now... it was the first time we ever bought a cage in a flatpack and had to assemble it ourselves and we are NOT the most gifted handy-persons in the world so it got a bit ugly!

It's so wonderful to hear that Sunny's feather barbering is (fingers crossed!) a thing of the past, she is thriving so much with all of your love and care and attention. She and your greys could not be in better hands

 

[ChristaNL]

Nope...not yet... (setting up the cage) :12:
I have been more than usually depressed ( a handfull of weeks now) and a bit under the weather the last few days as well.

Oh...and a bad parront-- but they are not taking it personally.

I have found something to protect my flooring at least, but it needs a bit more cleaning, and maybe shorten it a bit etc.etc.
Will get to that when standing up straight is no longer quite the challenge it is today.


Sunny was sitting om my knee yesterday being really interested when I was naming and touching all her bodyparts.
(there was some time for a nice footmassage in between)

She no longer freaks out when something/ someone touches her tail.
I am very happy about that because her tail bumping into something usually ended with me being bitten (panick-attack the other way around: she panicks, I get attacked).

There is another pinfeather slowly forming in her more crippled wing- so back to "you may look, but not touch" for a bit.

 

[ChristaNL]

Tonight she got a bit overconfidend/ exited.

I was away pretty long and very tired, so when they all got a chance to get out of the cages...
Sunny really, really wanted to go sit on the vieuwing perch near the toiltet/front door and she was in such a hurry to steer me there she overballanced and since she gave up on her deathgrip a few months ago (to my HUGE relief)... gravity won out and she hit the floor.

Not hard, but she was a bit unsettled and spend some time (after being picked up, looked over and cuddled of course) just sitting there and just very gently scratch herself behind her ear. :40:


The cutest thing *ever* :07:

and more important: she was consoling herself/ calming down even more and NOT plucking/overbarbering at all.

She was just very gently combing through with a foot instead of going at it with her beak. :41:

 

[Laurasea]

Your toilet is by the front door? @@

So happy Sunny is more chill

 

[ChristaNL]

Yup, that is quite the normal layout here (ever since we moved on to "indoor toilets" anyway, before that is was "the sh!thouse in the back yard" of course ),
In a lot of places the first door you see after entering through the front door is the toilet on one side, the door to the living room a bit further into the house.

We always have hallways, no way we would have a frontdoor opening in the living room! (Al that dirt, wet and cold coming in? No way!)

Where else would you put one? Next to the kitchen? (We have building regulations about that- there should always at least be 2 doors between the place where you prepare the food and where you evacuate yesterdays food)

 

[TiredOldMan]

Sounds similar to what we call a mud room.

 

[Laurasea]

Lol
It's nice and civilized here! Hallway then kitchen living room, second hallway and tucked off that the toilet! !

 

[ChristaNL]

Sounds similar to what we call a mud room.

Ah, that sounds what we have at the back of the house in more rural areas... where you mostly use the back door anyway ...
(more space to build)
You have back-door then there is the room next to the kitchen (usually where the appliances end up, and the large freezer etc.), before you enter the kitchen/ the propper house/ living quarters.
Something like that?

 

[LaManuka]

Sounds similar to what we call a mud room.

Oh what I would give for a “mud room”! We have a small post-war home (WW2 that is), absolutely brilliant location but small and just about busting at the seams with stuff even though there’s only two of us plus birds. Previous owners at least had the sense to add a little sunroom out front which serves well as the bird room as it adjoins our living room and the guys can come & go as they please. But would love to renovate ... or DETONATE!!

 

[ChristaNL]

LOL@ detonate
I have lived in so many buildings that could really use that treatment to improve them!
(prolonged student-days, renting rooms in absolute run-downs)