Timneh African Grey Experience

[Kiwi and Mitch]

That's a great idea about car rides, I will definitely try that! We can start with short trips around the neighborhood first while offering his favorite food-pine nuts. I think I saw somewhere online where you can buy little bird-backpacks, where they sit on a perch in a translucent backpack like thing. Wonder if I can find that and if so, if he would like to go to the park in that eventually, after lots of desensitization. In fact that would be great for the whole flock.

I wish they could have taken the blood today, but I forgot about the long weekend. I guess they did too, since they said no problem for blood work when I first scheduled the appointment. Really hoping blood work comes back alright, as it always makes me nervous. He wasn't on the best diet for the first eighteen years of his life so you never know what they might find. I'm hopeful though and thinking positive thoughts.

He was so sweet on the way home, it was adorable. He hasn't bitten me yet (knock on wood), but has gotten my girlfriend pretty good. Regardless the bites don't really bother me, and I figured even if I did get bit it was worth the risk to comfort him. He's not a very touchy bird and has only let me scritch his head a few times. The first was when I saw him at the rescue meeting and he wanted scritches for three hours. I think he's still settling in though, so we'll see. I loved how he just wanted to hold my finger though on the way home.

Thanks for the update! Sorry to hear that the vet couldn't do the blood work but the beak holding in the car is awesome! If I tried that with my fella I would be bleeding.

 

[BirdGuy21]

Thanks for the update! Sorry to hear that the vet couldn't do the blood work but the beak holding in the car is awesome! If I tried that with my fella I would be bleeding.

I was kinda surprised he was ok with it. He's not a very touchy bird, but I had a feeling he wanted some comfort.

 

[sunnysmom]

Aww, Harley is a sweetie. Sorry you have to go back for the blood work. Hopefully, he will start to like car rides.

 

[Tyrion]

That's a great idea about car rides, I will definitely try that! We can start with short trips around the neighborhood first while offering his favorite food-pine nuts. I think I saw somewhere online where you can buy little bird-backpacks, where they sit on a perch in a translucent backpack like thing. Wonder if I can find that and if so, if he would like to go to the park in that eventually, after lots of desensitization. In fact that would be great for the whole flock.

I wish they could have taken the blood today, but I forgot about the long weekend. I guess they did too, since they said no problem for blood work when I first scheduled the appointment. Really hoping blood work comes back alright, as it always makes me nervous. He wasn't on the best diet for the first eighteen years of his life so you never know what they might find. I'm hopeful though and thinking positive thoughts.

He was so sweet on the way home, it was adorable. He hasn't bitten me yet (knock on wood), but has gotten my girlfriend pretty good. Regardless the bites don't really bother me, and I figured even if I did get bit it was worth the risk to comfort him. He's not a very touchy bird and has only let me scritch his head a few times. The first was when I saw him at the rescue meeting and he wanted scritches for three hours. I think he's still settling in though, so we'll see. I loved how he just wanted to hold my finger though on the way home.

Sounds like he had a good experience at the vets ..to bad about the blood work ..I always hate doing several trips because of the stress my vet is an hour away ...Harley sounds like a sweetie ...I hope the plucking isnt due to a medical issue yet if it was maybe you could treat it ..its so hard to know why they pluck and even harder to treat it ..you almost want to pull out your own hair trying to figure out ways to help them ...I do know it takes time allot of time to over come a plucking issue and you may never fully do it but if you can make them some what comfortable you have won the biggest part of the battle ...my heart goes out to you and Harley and best wishes for over coming this terrible issue

 

[BirdGuy21]

I definitely am feeling a pull my own hair out type of feeling from time to time, that is for sure. Especially after I think we had a good day or he is doing better and I see him snip off a feather. He has a good number of new ones coming in on his chest and it's an anxiety game waiting to see if he snips them off.

I'm feeling the same way regarding a medical issue for the plucking. If it is medical I hope it is easily treatable and nothing too severe for his long term health. I am thinking it will be a combination of a not so great diet (lots of dried sugary fruits and tons of nuts, little veggies and fruits) and stress. He was fully feathered when he was surrendered but has a history of stress plucking. Obviously going into a rescue and then being rehomed to a foster and then me is quite traumatic.

My plan is to continue working on getting him settled with regular bathing and training sessions- he has already picked up on target training and is doing quite well at it. My challenge I think will be to continue to challenge him! I can tell he is a smart boy and sometimes gets bored with target training. Any suggestions for training that have worked well with your grey? I want to keep him active and his mind busy so I have been stuffing his cage with foraging toys. His favorite are paper cups with treats and pieces of wood in them, and I placed a large order for more shreddables and foragers, along with the herb salad (thanks @sunnysmom!). He was quite enthralled with a pen this evening as I was writing in my "Harley Journal". From observing him I feel he gets bored pretty easy and that is when he resorts to feather destructive behavior. I also have been trying to introduce him to new toys, including new pieces of wood in different shapes, plastic toys, etc. I play with them for a few minutes myself and then offer to him, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

 

[BirdGuy21]

Wanted to give a light hearted Harley update this morning. I found a great deal on a home security camera so I set it up and trained it on Harley's cage. It has audio so I can hear all the noises he makes when I turn it on. Well I was working the late shift this weekend and I turn it on to see how he was doing. What do I hear but him practicing some words and phrases that I've never heard him say before. He goes "hello, what are ya doing, step up, good boy [insert whistle]". He does this two or three times, adding in random whistles and noises between words.

 

[faislaq]

That is so cool! That was a great deal.

 

[BirdGuy21]

He's a chatterbox when he thinks no one is listening. I was pretty excited though, as I had heard him say quiet, apple, and hello before. He's very vocal with noises but not so much with words yet.

Today is his follow up vet appointment to draw blood to be sent out for a CBC, hoping all goes well....as he sits here with me on the table making his fire alarm noise.

 

[faislaq]

 

[sunnysmom]

I bought a foraging wheel for Elvis but haven't put it in his cage yet. I've also been looking at some more complicated toys for him as I think Elvis is really smart too.

Things like this: Amazon.com : Creative Foraging Systems Foraging Carousel, 6-Inch W by 6-Inch L : Pet Toys : Pet Supplies

And I also thought about maybe ordering this toy: Amazon.com : Gooday Parrot Bird Color Fencing Toy Training Interactive Intelligence Development Puzzle Toy : Pet Supplies

I think we just have really smart birds.

I hope the vet appointment goes well.

 

[BirdGuy21]

I had two of those foraging wheels for the GCC's and they really liked them. Unfortunately I broke them because I dropped them one too many times. I will have to buy another one for Harley and see if he likes it. I think our two are really smart as well! Those two links you posted are great ideas, I will order them this evening. We just got our order from MySafeBirdStore of foot toys, shreddables, and the herb salad you mentioned @sunnysmom.

The vet visit didn't go very well unfortunately . He knew once he saw the carrier that it was time to go to the vet, so he wasn't too thrilled about going in. I try to work with my flock on carrier training, but since he's so new I haven't had the chance. Well when we got to the vet they were unable to draw blood because he was so worked up. It had something to do with the vein not being visible due to an air sac on his shoulder being puffed up due to stress. We sat there and I held him and pet him for forty minutes trying to calm him down, but to no avail. So it was a pointless trip to the vet that caused a lot of stress and a lot of feather plucking when we got home. He's getting an extra special dinner of Higgins African Sunset tonight.

I will have to try and reschedule but I don't want to put him through that again for a third time so soon. One good thing that came out of it was they said I can use the Avicalm and Featherific before he blood tests and it won't affect any results. Ordered off Amazon so it should be here by Thursday or Friday.

 

[faislaq]

Shoot! I left the Herb Salad off of my order from MyBirdStore today. Their sale runs through tonight, but I don't want to pay shipping again. Thanks for the reminder; I'll see if they can add it to my order.

I've been meaning to order some since @sunnysmom mentioned it 2 weeks ago. I was just waiting for the Memorial Day sales to come and then... I got distracted by all of the toys on sale.

 

[sunnysmom]

Sorry the vet visit didn't go better. Poor Harley.

 

[BirdGuy21]

Thanks Michelle, good news is he seems to be settled down. He's still pretty sleepy though. Another good thing is he is starting to take to his herb salad already, along with his Pretty Plume tea by Greywood Manor. I've never seen him drink so much water or be interested in his bowl as his is now with the herb salad. My GCC's love the salad as well.

 

[faislaq]

I'm glad to hear he can have the Avicalm before his visits. I haven't tried it yet, but I've read some good things from other members on here.

 

[jmfleish]

Jake, I haven't gotten back to your thread until today. There are a zillion and one reasons for picking. You need to take a deep breathe and just not worry so much. The first thing you need to do is make sure that it isn't medical. Medical issues you absolutely need to rule out are giardia, heavy metal poisoning, specifically zinc because if it were lead, Harley woudn't be with us now. Those are the two that come to mind right away. I did a search and there is a whole list of things that one web site lists if you want to run them down. At the very least, I would have those two tests done. They are both blood tests. If you want to read up on some of the other things you can test for here is a great web site for you to take a look at:

Plucking

Skin tests can also be done but I would start with the blood tests as they are easy and you can rule those things out.

The second thing you need to remember if you rule out all medical issues is that picking is a multi-layered issue and it probably is not just one thing that is causing Harley to pick, it's probably several things. The best you can do is give him the best life you can and love him and not worry about the picking because until you can truly just let it go, he's going to pick up on your worrying! Make sure he's getting a good diet, lots of toys, and lots of love and just let it go unless he's mutilating. Trying to figure it out is only going to drive you and him crazy!

As for his fear at the vet's office. I go to the UW Vet School where they use a sedative that is given through the nares. It's called Midazolam and it's incredibly safe and it makes birds much easier to handle and it makes them forget the experience. It almost puts them to sleep but not quite and when the exam is over, they give them something else that brings them back into the land of the living. I've been using this on my birds whenever I go in and in their teaching labs two to three times a year with incredible success for the last four to five years and it makes exams incredibly easy. If your vet would like to talk to either one of the vets at the vet school who use this, I can give you their contact information. They co-wrote a paper on it with several other vets at the UW at the time. Here is the information for it below:

1. Mans C, Guzman DMS, Lahner L, Paul-Murphy J, Sladky KK. Intranasal midazolam induces conscious sedation and attenuates the acute stress response in manually restrained Hispaniolan Amazon parrots (Amazona ventralis). J Avian Med Surg. 26(3): 130-139, 2012.

 

[BirdGuy21]

@jmfleish sorry it has taken me so long to reply to your post, things have been pretty active over here and I haven't been online much. Things are picking up with summer events at the rescue and my Alex baby (GCC) injured her leg- thankfully everything is okay, just a little sore.

I appreciate your thoughtful post for Harley. I will be scheduling another vet appointment to attempt the blood work again, so fingers crossed it will come back alright. Plucking and feather destructive behavior is definitely a difficult issue and not easy to pin down, but I think your advice is the best way to start- to take a deep breath and calm down. It's easy to forget how emotionally intelligent and empathetic these wonderful animals are and I think Harley was picking up on some of my emotions. And you are so right in saying trying to figure it all out was only driving both of us crazy!

He has continued to transition onto a better diet and is eating much more readily. Since his chest is bare I can easily see how full his crop is. I can tell he has really started to enjoy his food and is eating much more at dinner time now. I redid his cage and added a few new perches and toys. He enjoys toys he can shred or chew up easily so I have a bunch of those in there. He has even started taking to chewing his wood toys more. He's been on AviCalm and Featherific since last Thursday. He doesn't seem to mind the taste of it. I can't say if its helped yet or not as its too early to tell. Overall though I think he is doing alright. Someone from the rescue came over last night and remarked at how much better he looked than a month ago. This shocked me because I was so busy stressing over the barbering that I "couldn't see the forest through the trees". Yes he is still plucking and barbering a little but he is also making a lot of progress in other areas. His overall feather condition has improved and he is actually playing with toys instead of going straight for the feathers.

Thats awesome that you are working it's the vets who are studying Midazolam. I will definitely mention it to my vet the next time I speak with her. I would like something like that for myself for doctors appointments.

 

[atomicfriday]

Harley is adorable, there is nothing cuter than a sleepy grey struggling to keep their eyes open. My Toby in the beginning was very difficult to get into his travel carrier, I'm assuming because the only times he had gone anywhere in the past was to have his wings clipped or the vet. I'm also assuming he had to be toweled because he is absolutely petrified of towels. Once he found out with me where he was going involved no towels, and instead was to visit a fun new place he jumps into his carrier now.

Also mine is a plucker/shredder. I have had him four years but adopted him when he was 12 and had lived with the same couple since a baby. From my understanding they became bored of Toby (don't ask me how!) and neglected him. He became aggressive and unhappy, thus began to pluck for how long I don't know. When he does it it's almost like he gets some sort of high, like he doesn't want to do it but can't help himself. He is otherwise a happy, healthy, wonderful parrot albeit slightly scraggly. I love him regardless.

 

[BirdGuy21]

We were finally able to get Harley in for blood work, albeit to a different vet. Results came back all in the normal range except for low calcium, phosphorus, and some electrolytes. Vet said electroyltes probably due to stress. All other readings thankfully in the normal range. While it doesn't really provide a medical explanation for the plucking at least we can rule out serious health issues. I was particularly worried about cholesterol as he was fed a good bit of nuts in his previous home. Vet recommends something called Hagen Prime as a multivitamin to increase his calcium levels. She said the low calcium could possibly result in some feather destructive issues, but its nothing conclusive. We went ahead with a DNA sexing just to be sure and should get that back within the week.

So overall I am very glad my Harley is healthy after we finally got him in for blood work. He has gone through some ups and downs with his feather issues but right now is in a good place. Hoping that he continues leaving them alone and they can all grow in.


Sleepy bird after his vet visit.


Taste testing ingredients for chop this past weekend.

 

[Sweet Louise]

Handsome bird. so cool he landed with you!