Ok, folks, I guess it is time to give you another parrot update. He is fine and he is grumpy and awful like always, hates my guts, but nothing more to report. We have one novelty, but this was more like a necessary evil and not something I wanted to do.While I was holding my parrot on my lap I noticed he has multiple bumps all over his wings.
Parrot sustained multiple injuries in the past, and whenever he touched against anything with his wings he would start to bleed.
The parrot has been with us for a month and ten days now and was previously mistreated.
I was not sure if he is not able to fly because of that or because he is just dumb. But, then I realized that leaving him with a full wingspan was a big mistake. It is an equivalent of leaving an adult with no prior driving experience with a racing car and expect to win Formula...
A few days ago he climbed up on his cage where he spends most of the time now. It took me a month to get him to crawl out of his little turtle shell up on top of that cage. For some reason, his tail suddenly became a problem.
I watched him for almost two hours trying to climb down and back inside of a cage. But, whenever he tried his long tail made of rigid feathers would stuck, and he would climb back on top of a cage.
I tried to offer my assistance, but the only thing I got in return were the hisses, squeaks, and objections.
Finally the annoyed and panicking as always he flew and landed on his head in the cloud of feathers.
This is the longest time any animal refused my assistance. He is just so darn stubborn. I picked him up and planted him in a cage while he was having another nervous breakdown. This time he harmed himself a little more, and one of his old wounds opened up a bit too much for my taste. I had to do something to prevent this.
Then I searched for the options, what should I do. Obviously, his wings are too big and too fast for him. He never flew before he came to us, he is even afraid of flying. Instead of the normal ways he goes around stiff as a paper plane usually ending up buried in a wall, furniture or entangled into a window curtain.
He has no skills to use the wings, and even with a proper flapping and my encouragement he is awful. His tail is too big for him to climb in a way he wants, so everything ends up in a squeaking mess.
I already investigated and took into consideration the possibility of trimming his wings, but usually, the people who do this do it to make parrot more dependent and more obedient. In my case I just want him to stay alive and stop hurting himself.
I didn't even like that idea, but what options I had left?
A parrot still can hover and fly even with his wings trimmed, but not so vigorous or fast.
Maybe I should give him an opportunity which all young birds experience early in life, and that is to fly with a lesser wingspan?
Feathers regrow after trimming, so I decided to give him a weaker pair of wings until he knows how to use them and I also decided to trim his tail which is literary a deal breaker when it comes to climbing. Our parrot will regrow the feathers in full length in only 3-6 months, but maybe it will be enough for him to re-learn flying.
But, there were a few technical difficulties to make this idea work.
The trimming has to be symmetrical, which means I had to trim the same number of feathers from both wings, and they have to be the same length after the trimming.
The feathers to trim should be fully grown and I never ever should touch any blood feathers, because those are the ones that are still growing and if I make an error I could harm him.
This means our parrot has to be calm, and he is crazy as a frying pan, and everything but calm.
I explained to my hubby what I want to do and why. He agreed that it is much safer, maybe a parrot really gets a bit friendlier and there is no guarantee if a parrot breaks a wing if it will ever heal plus a bird can even die.
So, he asked me how do I plan to keep him still and I waved with one dense nylon stocking at him.
So... you plan... to dress a parrot in female lingerie? I thought he is a male... - at times my hubby has a really awful sense of humor.
No, I explained to him. After I take him out of a cage you will stick that thing over his body. He will be able to breathe, but will not see, he will not be able to flap and he will not move much. And I need you to gently hold him on a puffy pillow until I perform his feather-do. Also, you can only use a glove as a cover-up but not wear it because he is small, and you could accidentally grip the bird a little bit too much.
So, in other words, - my hubby summed it down - you want me to hold a parrot that has a bite force enough to break iron bars and crunch nuts... with my bare hand?
Well, yeah, in general, yes. Is there a problem? - I asked.
Ok, let's do it... - he agreed and we continue as planned. He stuck a stocking on a parrot when I got it out of a cage. I measured and inspected carefully parrot's long tail and found the perfect length while a parrot was loudly objecting and squeaking from a stocking.
Then I stuff his bottom in a stocking and pull slowly one of his wings, Counted, measured, trimmed.
I stuff his wing and turn him on the other side and started to inspect the left wing, while my hubby was holding his palm over a parrot preventing our feathery friend to wiggle too much.
But a parrot found a hole in the system and grabbed him. A cockatiel has a pretty nasty curved beak and a fearsome biting force, so when my husband twitched away, I simply substitute his finger with my vertical sideways position fingernail. The keratin from a nail is flexible and with a beak fully open, a parrot can't bite you.
So, while a parrot was gnawing his beak unsuccessfully on my nail, I finished the job with a help of my hubby, removed my fingernail and place an angry parrot into a cage.
I sat next to him and observed him for a while looking for any signs of the stress and inspecting if all feathers are symmetrical.
All looked ok, a parrot combed his feathers a few times, tested flapping, sit on his napping branch and stuck his beak under his wings taking a nap.
Well, I guess I was more under the stress that he was.
By the way, a bird CAN fly, but now he hovers and really needs to flap harder to get anywhere. He looks calmer, behaves less afraid and he is more satisfied with his slow-wings.
After only a few days I noticed there were longer feathers growing under his trimmed tail, so the growth is much faster than I expected.
But now a parrot doesn't stuck onto anything and he can move and climb without difficulties.
This is a short video of him today when I attached his millet on top of his cage. He didn't wanted to climb, but I gave him no option. So he finally got up there and had his treat. I am still finding the ingenious way how to contain his seed crunching, so I either place a box under the platform or a paper bag and later dispose it to the trash.
He still likes to destroy things like the pieces of paper, cardboard, he inspects cotton pads, for some reason he find cotton pads to be just amazing. He doesn't try to eat them, he is just ... looking at them for some reason. Maybe he has a cotton obsession... He also steals my note stickers and vandalize them. I just hope he will not find out how to pick my keyboard...
Previous posts about our parrot
- GIFTS OF KARMA - INTRODUCING OUR NEW FAMILY PET - LUTINO COCKATIEL (5/1/2018)
- OUR COCKATIEL PAL IS GETTING USED TO THE NEW HOME(5/2/2018)
- PARROT'S LIFE - LEARNING ROPES AND NEW THINGS(5/4/2018)
- PARROT'S LIFE - GALS AND GENTS I THINK WE MIGHT HAVE A NAME(5/6/2018)
- PARROT'S LIFE - PESKY ... LITTLE ... FATHERLY ... NASTY ... FLYING ... MINI... ROOSTER (5/10/2018)
- PARROT'S LIFE - SO, HE CAN EAT OUT OF A HAND, RIGHT! (5/14/2018)
- PARROT'S LIFE - COACKATIEL, ALLERGIES AND SOME OTHER DETAILS (5/15/2018)
- PARROT'S LIFE - AFTER 26 DAYS WITH US PREVIOUSLY MISTREATED PARROT IS EATING OUTSIDE OF A CAGE(5/26/2018)
- PARROT'S LIFE - FIRST FLIGHT WAS ALL I EXPECTED... HE'S FURIOUS (5/27/2018)
- PARROT'S LIFE - WALK AWAY AND LET ME SLEEP HUMAN!! (5/28/2018)
- PARROT'S LIFE - ONE MONTH AFTER - PREVIOUSLY MISTREATED PARROT FINALLY CALM SPENDING DAYS OUTSIDE (5/28/2018)
Thank you for reading and visiting my blog!
