Nape scruffiness

[BayuCah'ya]

Ernie has this adorable way of letting me know that he wants head scritches: he scratches the nape of his neck first, then he tilts his head towards me so I can scritch him. Because of that habit, the feathers at his nape are always scraggly and look flea-bitten. His other feathers are beautiful, and he isn't itchy anywhere else on his body. When he's gone without a bath for a while they get dusty, of course, but a shower takes care of that. I've read that some of your Pi's will also do the "demo scritch" thing when asking for scritches, too, so I was wondering if your Pi's also have those scraggly nape feathers as a result, too?

 

[wonderb]

Olive does this too! Or if I want to scritch her, we have a system. I put my finger about an inch away and wiggle it. Most of the time she'll move in for a scritch. Or just look at me like I'm crazy I don't notice any differnce in her nape feathers though. They are a bit less shiny there, maybe from the oils in my skin or something?

 

[Pumpkin]

Jewel does get scruffy looking about once a week until she takes her shower. lol So it could be just all the scritches your baby gets.

 

[BayuCah'ya]

Interesting. Well, I'll try adding a little Vitamin E to his diet to see if that helps with the scruffy feathers. I don't mind, but if I can easily improve the feather quality there, I will. Thanks for the feedback!

 

[Pumpkin]

I meant too add that Jewel gets tons of scritches so that's probably why she gets "greasy" looking.

 

[Flit]

Olive does this too! Or if I want to scritch her, we have a system. I put my finger about an inch away and wiggle it. Most of the time she'll move in for a scritch. Or just look at me like I'm crazy I don't notice any differnce in her nape feathers though. They are a bit less shiny there, maybe from the oils in my skin or something?

I do the finger-wiggle, too, when asking if she wants scritches. She doesn't usually scratch her nape to let me know; she just swings her head down with a thunk and waits for me to get to it.

 

[BayuCah'ya]

I do the finger wiggle, too! It must be that our Pi's mind-control us into doing the same thing.

 

[TikiLola]

I do the finger wiggle too, except with my only male chi, Tiki. He was always the skittish one (hence his nickname 'ChickenDog')
He would watch longingly while we petted and rubbed his sister, my sweet Lola, but if we tried to pet him, he'd flinch and hide,(broke my heart)
Then one day I started the finger wiggle thing and eventually he started leaning into it. Wasn't long before we could rub him down, like the rest of them.

 

[BayuCah'ya]

I just wanted to say that I'm obviously extremely tired right now, because I sat there staring at your post for a good five minutes going, " What kind of bird is a 'chi'? And why can't I remember?!?!" It wasn't until I looked at your signature that I was like, "Oh. Chihuahua. Duh, Emily." I need to go to bed.

 

[TikiLola]

^^^^^^Awesome!