The Continuing Capers of Companion-ing Cotton

[Laurasea]

You haven't done anything wrong.
Looks like he is snipping them off at the skin rather than pulling them out, I don't see any shafts. Or he us eating those.
When Penny pulls her out , it's the complete feather with shafts, and after Feather ( newly learned term )
Feather anatomy

Anatomy: Parts of a Feather | Outside My Window

www.birdsoutsidemywindow.org

 

[Cottonoid]

Ok, you are too good to me! My son's gf pointed that out too and I JUST texted her I need to better learn anatomy! This is awesome; thank you!

Cotton has definitely been crunching enough it wouldn't surprise me they were snipped. Would that mean the shafts won't come out until he next molts?

Reading your link now

 

[Laurasea]

I don't know what it means, the snippet instead of pull. Or how that effects everything? Im sure there is some kind of bio feedback ...as damaged feathers get replaced often quicker. We will have to await your observations

 

[Cottonoid]

Cotton is kind of an n=1 guy

I can't wait to check out his food bowl in the morning. He went back a total of four times after he initially ate dinner. Maybe he was just pickier and it took him longer to eat his fill. I heard a lot of moving things around the bowl itself, beak against steel. We'll see

 

[Laurasea]

Looking for my better feather article o have saved , but will throw this in

Q & A: “What is the cause of parrot plucking?” PART I

Do you know what is the cause of parrot plucking? Learn more in the following article written by Tony Silva.

www.parrotsdailynews.com

This one is fun

Everything We Know About Birds That Glow

Owls, puffins, and lots of other flying friends exhibit fascinating patterns under blacklights.

www.atlasobscura.com

 

[Laurasea]

I don't know it seems this better feather article isn't linking so trying again

Everything You Need To Know About Feathers | Bird Academy • The Cornell Lab

All About Feathers Unique to birds and their dinosaur ancestors, feathers have evolved into impressive biological structures that come in a surprising diversity of colors and forms. Here, we cover the breadth of feather biology by looking at feathers from a variety of scientific viewpoints inclu ...

academy.allaboutbirds.org

 

[Cottonoid]

These are really good - this last one has such good examples!

 

[Laurasea]

Ok last one

Colourful parrot feathers resist bacterial degradation

The brilliant red, orange and yellow colours of parrot feathers are the product of psittacofulvins, which are synthetic pigments known only from parrots. Recent evidence suggests that some pigments in bird feathers function not just as colour generators, ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[Cottonoid]

Ok last one

Colourful parrot feathers resist bacterial degradation

The brilliant red, orange and yellow colours of parrot feathers are the product of psittacofulvins, which are synthetic pigments known only from parrots. Recent evidence suggests that some pigments in bird feathers function not just as colour generators, ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Oh wow. That's fascinating! Makes me want to look into this in other species

 

[HeatherG]

Oh wow. That's fascinating! Makes me want to look into this in other species

I have always wanted to look at my birds under a black light. I wonder if the more plain appearing birds fluoresce under different lights?

 

[Cottonoid]

Every time I've checked in on Cotton this morning he's preening, ha. Big loooooonnnngggg passes. But also took a little break to beat/flap his wings a few times.

He's still very terrified of hands and bare arms, but I've noticed that he's not fearful at all of new perches or toys. Once I'm out of the cage, he beelines straight for the new thing to investigate. I added more to the front of the cage yesterday when I got home, since he's been using only the cage bars to get across the front half, and he went straight for figuring out how to test a cotton rope swing.

When I cleaned his cage yesterday evening, I saw that he'd been playing/chewing literally every single toy - a balsa plank, the crinkle paper preening ball, his beloved cork and balsa kabob, a couple cardboard shredders, and even a preening toy from the rescue. It was a chewy sort of day!

 

[saxguy64]

Awesome to hear how busy he is. Time spent chewing toys is time NOT chewing feathers. Feathers or not, I think he's going to be just fine. He's so happy with you there! 🤩

 

[Cottonoid]

Thank you! I feel like it's going to be a very long while before he trusts my appendages or even my presence close to him, but it's so incredibly fun to see his personality start to blossom!

 

[saxguy64]

I have no experience with them, but I hear it's not uncommon for ringnecks to be fearful of hands. There's always work around. I've been visiting the refuge nearest us and hanging out with some of the conures there. Most of them are fine with clothing/long sleeves, but fingers or any bare skin is considered evil by a bunch of them. Still very sweet birds, just don't like those fingers.

 

[Cottonoid]

For my future reference since I'm at work and can't bookmark it

Feather/Skin Disorders (from Merck)

 

[Cottonoid]

it's not uncommon for ringnecks to be fearful of hands

I've had a few people that have studied the wild habits of African and Indian ringnecks tell me that those areas have the highest number of natural predators per square mile, so they have a much higher fear response to anything moving that isn't a flockmate.

I had my windows open this weekend and Cotton had his eye on a stray fly across the room. Not to mention the dog eating stray discard pellets

I've no idea how that tracks compared to other species, but it sounds plausible to me as to why the ringnecks tend to "untame" more easily.

 

[Laurasea]

For my future reference since I'm at work and can't bookmark it

Feather/Skin Disorders (from Merck)

" heavy metal poisoning (notably zinc). " from above link..This is more common than people are aware of. Have info on in ornithology thread. Even mouthing jewelry, other metals, questionable toys , the zinc starts building up, its chronic and itchy is also a symptom of. Vs the more acute when they swallow metal bits especially ones with lead.

 

[saxguy64]

I've had a few people that have studied the wild habits of African and Indian ringnecks tell me that those areas have the highest number of natural predators per square mile, so they have a much higher fear response to anything moving that isn't a flockmate.

I had my windows open this weekend and Cotton had his eye on a stray fly across the room. Not to mention the dog eating stray discard pellets

I've no idea how that tracks compared to other species, but it sounds plausible to me as to why the ringnecks tend to "untame" more easily.

That does make sense, but certainly don't give up hope. I've met a few ringnecks that were quite hand tame and even downright snuggly

 

[Cottonoid]

My dogwalker says hello to Cotton every day and sends a photo - I spied with my little eyes more feathers on the ground.. Little buddy's on a mission 💚

 

[Cottonoid]

Cotton removed at least one tail feather (I haven't cleaned the bottom tray yet since I usually do around 630pm), and he didn't bleed to death as I feared.

He's been very active with all his toys again - lots of new paper shreds, and 3 completely destroyed birdie bagels.

He's left his new chest feathers alone which is mildly interesting - since I've known him, those were the target of all plucking. His wings are rapidly disappearing.

I saw on the pet cam he was beating his wings again today in a couple different spots in his cage, and he has been fluffy and watching me/actively listening since he ate dinner.

At one point he started to stretch and looked like he almost fell backward off his perch 😱 but caught it with his beak (his feet were still around it). I'm sure his balance is a little off kilter, poor guy!

I was going to use this afternoon for opening his cage door and just relaxing but I'll have to see what he thinks.

MY new theory is that he's a reclusive celebrity and he's letting me know very plainly that not only does he not like paparazzi (as I've known) but my goodness Parrot of the Month?!? How dare I ! 😄😄😄

....bald parrot legs with little fluffy downy bits are wicked cute, in case any of you are wondering!