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Noticing differences in photos

Xoetix

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When looking at cockatoos in the photos here and online, vs Isadora, I’m noticing some major differences in the feathers.

A lot of hers are sort of… frazzled? Frayed? She’s not a smooth fluffy cloud. I knew her shoulder feathers (top of the wings) were funky when I got her - per the previous owner, she “sucks” them for comfort.

But all over her chest and everything, they’re also sort of weird. I’ve not seen her pluck, and I don’t find any feathers anywhere while cleaning, either in the cage or on the floor. And I’ve been looking for them too, because I’ve been concerned about plucking from the get go just due to how her feathers look. She doesn’t appear to excessively/aggressively groom either - Tteok cleans himself more than she does.

Can y’all look at these? Am I just crazy? I know her shoulders look weird, I stop her from messing with them when she’s out but I’m not sure how to break this habit.
 

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Shezbug

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Not certain but to me it looks as though she either chews on them a bit or she has older poorer quality feathers.
@Macawnutz should be able to tell you what the most likely cause for Isa’s fluffy feathers might be.
 

Xoetix

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Not certain but to me it looks as though she either chews on them a bit or she has older poorer quality feathers.
@Macawnutz should be able to tell you what the most likely cause for Isa’s fluffy feathers might be.
She definitely chews her shoulders. I haven’t seen her chew anywhere else, but obviously she could do it before sleeping after I’ve put them up for the night, or in the morning before I come get her. Hopefully it’s nothing permanent and they’ll molt out, but I’d love to know how to get her to stop
 

Pixiebeak

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I had noticed, as well as changes from first pictures

You will rarely see a plucker or barber in action. Many times can happen at night .

She has had a lot of changes in short order, loss of flight , loss of bonded cage mate, new home, new cage.

I still think she "looks" thin ..when you look at her body straight on you see so much upper leg and thigh. parrots thighs are usually more obscured by body's mass. But this is from looking, I can be completely wrong! And the changes in feathers might add to this illusion of thin..

Things to try. Increased out of cage time aim for 6 hours or more.

Increase light..the cage placement is kind of cave like. 3 sides are obscured? Against a 2 walls and the other cage? it looks like at previous home she spent a lot of time on her stand in the open with big windows?

Add lots of frilly paper, and preen like toys. . Take a brown grocery bag, cut from.the bottom 3/4 to the top in strips so it looks like a grass skirt the bunch together like an octopus. Buy a role of the parrot leather and add knots and beads spread out along length make it like a mop..a cascade of strip and worry beads to pick at. Get one of those rolls of cage weavers and weave in cage bars or turn them into hanging strip. Make some corn husk toys. ( im try to think of cheap and interesting preen toys.) Coconut toys take big birds longer to rip up.

Foot toys seem well enjoyed by 2s.

Increases foraging. Also good to do together as fun activities other than just sitting on you for luv . Use the sea grass mats like I shared picture of with all kinds of veggies and nuts or little toys shoved in.

Because she can't fly now. Provide some connected rope highways so she has more self directed movements. Connect to her stand ir other created areas for her to go. Increasing self directed movements and independent choices lowers frustrations. Use thst wasted vertical space above her csge for swings and bungee ropes.

Horse large rubber feed bowls are perfect to turn into a place she csn bathe by free choice. Also great as enrichment to float toys.
 

Xoetix

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She’s not thin - touching her chest, I don’t feel her keel bone, and her weight hasn’t changed beyond the fluctuations of a few grams up/down daily, but she’s constantly within the same 5-8g.

She’s already out for 7 hours total, all day with the two hour “nap” in the afternoon. Her previous owners had she and the Lorikeet in a home office type room most of the day, and she was out about 2 hours daily.

Her massive play stand they gave me is in the living room now, and she’ll be out on that or in the kitchen with me, or attempting to teach her tricks in the bird room (more open area). The bird room also has a large window, as well as four lamps, so it’s super well lit in there.

She’s got sea grass mats - we’re on our fourth already. I’ll try some “preening” type toys as well and see what that does.
 

Pixiebeak

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Don't feel like suggestions are attacks on you. Without knowing all details , I just give the ones thst are likely to have a postive impact. At least they are there for other readers to get ideas.

It certainly makes it more difficult to address and improve! Yay 7 hours!

Do some e observations, see if you notice anything during the day that might be a source of anxiety.

Im glad weight hadn't changed an excellent that you are monitoring. There is always the possibility she came to you already slightly under weight. But if keel feels good and you are in better place to determine all this. And the weight you shared seems well in the normal range I think..

Training sessions were something I left out. Fabulous that's already part of routine.

Food is a big source of enrichment and entertainment here. A whole artichoke if fun for them to rip up..peppers I cut a tiny hole then stuff lots of other stuff inside . You can give your size girl some whole squashes to dismantle. My parrots feel like Sherlock when they hunt down the weird places I put their veggies. I'm always striving to bet tge most interactive environments I can..tho I feel @Wardy is killing it!
 

Pixiebeak

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barbering often evolves to plucking. So its best to do as much intervention now.

With many 2 members im sure they will have thoughts sbd ideas to share.
 

Pixiebeak

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Or check her down feathers? Are they missing or look broken and odd?
In the scary PBFD
" Cockatoos and parrots often show loss of the powder down first since powder down is replaced often; it may take a few molts to see changes in coverlets and other feathers."
Just to cover all bases
 

Xoetix

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Don't feel like suggestions are attacks on you. Without knowing all details , I just give the ones thst are likely to have a postive impact. At least they are there for other readers to get ideas.
Oh I know! I hope my reply didn’t come off snarky :o: It is so hard to tell tone from text - I’m just sort of trying to give the run down. I know you’re coming from love (like telling my my flying rat was tubby:roflmao:)

I’m fighting with matching bird colors on a doodle on my tablet, it might take me a minute to reply. I didn’t realize my ADHD might hinder me by requiring perfect matches :meh:
 

Pixiebeak

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its certainly going to be harder to find what works when you have indeed already covered all the good parrot care issues.

Awww mr.Tubby is so cute! You said it's just fluffy ;).
 

Xoetix

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Yeah he’s like 90% fluff held together by dander. The other 10% is just main character syndrome. (You can guess how his attitude has been this morning based on that description :shifty:)

I have to take a break from my winged blobs before I go bananas, so I’m going to try to go through your responses :roflmao:

So far the only things I can definitely pinpoint as sources of anxiety are any new objects that she’s decided are terrifying - yesterday I moved the vacuum from one spot to another, literally a 3ft difference, and she’s decided that is just a bridge too far. I moved it back :rolleyes: But I’ll keep a close eye on things just in case.

You mentioned a roll of cage weaver - what’s that?

She’s generally out of the cage from 9-930am to 130-2pm, then in for “nap time,” then back out from say 4pm to about 8pm for bedtime. In that out time, I’ve been working on tricks (wings up/pretty bird/eagle, French fries [we’re so close on that I can taste it], trying to get her to walk on the floor/flat surfaces, and hopping), as well as slowly bringing her into other areas of the house - initially, she hated coming out of the quarantine room, then she would get anxious if we left the bird room at all, so I’ve been slowly adding in a new room when she seems ready. We’ve made it to the living room now! Next step is the bathroom for a shower.

Floating toys sound fun, I wonder if she’d enjoy that. If not, my son would :roflmao:

On the tray of her play stand, I’ve laid out a ton of those crinkly paper strips and then I hide stuff in it, plus she has a hanging toy (or what remains of it) on the hook. I got the impression that when she was put on the stand at her previous owners, she was just sort of left to her own devices with a few toys in that sun room - she doesn’t seem to know what to do with herself on it, and they mentioned she screamed a lot.

I hadn’t considered artichoke, that could be a fun one. She’s never seen a raw squash before, I might start off with figuring out how to hang a slice and see what she does with that.

Right this second, I have a cookie sheet out with shredded packing paper, with a scoop of Tteok’s pellet/seed mix sprinkled through it which she seems to love. She doesn’t look like she knows what to do with it yet :roflmao: she’s just kind of walking around, eyeballing it.
 

Xoetix

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Oh, you’d mentioned checking her down feathers - I just did, and from what I can tell they look pretty normal. I’ll see if I can get the Jay to take a pic while I do it, I need both hands to be able to fully check her.
 

Toy

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One thing not touched on yet is humidity in your home. If the humidity is low due to winter heat it can cause them to pick at their feathers. You can also try additional showers or misting.
 

Xoetix

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When was her last bath or shower?
That's where I'd start.
I’m not sure. So far I’ve tried misting a few times and she was 100% not having it, and started to get pretty stressed out. I’ve also tried large and small bowls and dishes, deep and shallow, bowls and dishes, as well as wet, leafy greens. I’ve not had any luck with any of those, so my next attempt is going to be in the shower with me to see if maybe that will work without stressing her out too much.
 

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The thing I notice in my Jericho (aka Pigpen), since he doesn't like showers as much as the other two, is the barbules don't seem to interlock as well when has hasn't showered in a while. This is exceptionally obvious if he has a new flight feather coming in -- the barbs clump together like the tines on a comb until his next shower and then immediately normalize upon drying.

FEATHER STRUCTURE

Although feathers come in an incredible diversity of forms, they are all composed of the protein beta-keratin and made up of the same basic parts, arranged in a branching structure. In the most complex feathers, the calamus extends into a central rachis which branches into barbs, and then into barbules with small hooks that interlock with nearby barbules.

1673892446427.png
(source)​
 

Xoetix

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One thing not touched on yet is humidity in your home. If the humidity is low due to winter heat it can cause them to pick at their feathers. You can also try additional showers or misting.
The rest of the house is not particularly humid. The bird room is usually a higher humidity, because it’s the warmest room in the house and we don’t have a dryer, so that’s where I hang wet laundry. With the heat and the circulation from a desk fan, the room stays pretty humid. Should I try making it less humid?
 

Xoetix

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The thing I notice in my Jericho (aka Pigpen), since he doesn't like showers as much as the other two, is the barbules don't seem to interlock as well when has hasn't showered in a while. This is exceptionally obvious if he has a new flight feather coming in -- the barbs clump together like the tines on a comb until his next shower and then immediately normalize upon drying.

FEATHER STRUCTURE

Although feathers come in an incredible diversity of forms, they are all composed of the protein beta-keratin and made up of the same basic parts, arranged in a branching structure. In the most complex feathers, the calamus extends into a central rachis which branches into barbs, and then into barbules with small hooks that interlock with nearby barbules.

I’ll see if we can try a shower this afternoon after her nap time, hopefully it’s something that simple.
 

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Does Isadora get any soft foods such as beans, legumes, veggies and or fruit? Bebe's feathers were hot mess when I got him (seed only diet), after talking with the avian vet about his crappy nutrition. And getting him to try soft foods, a feat in it's self. Beans & legumes are great protein for feathers. With my little guy they have to be well cooked and somewhat mashed. But his feathers look so much better.
 

Xoetix

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No dice on any legumes yet, and I’ve tried a few. @Kassiani was looking for protein suggestions, and I’d suggested the protein pastas that are out, but I haven’t tried it myself so that’s my next one I think.
 
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