Baileybea
Meeting neighbors
- Joined
- 11/24/21
- Messages
- 31
- Real Name
- Bailey
Hey again. I know I’ve been posting here a lot lately, I’ve just been really worried about Momiji, my green cheek conure. I’ve had her for about 3 years now and her feather quality just seems to be looking pretty rough. She’s a pineapple-turquoise mutation.
I took her to her avian vet twice in the past couple months and he doesn’t seem to be concerned at all, but this just does not seem right to me. I wanted him to do blood tests to make sure she doesn’t have any vitamin/mineral deficiencies but he said the only way they can do that is to put her to sleep which comes with a risk of her not waking up. I have heard that before, but I’ve also heard that there’s ways to take blood that don’t actually involve taking it from the neck/being put to sleep? So I'm not sure what to believe.
He seems to be pretty knowledgeable, but I just think it’s kinda weird that he isn’t concerned about her appearance….wondering if I should start to look for a new vet or if I’m just worrying too much…I did just lose my nearly 12 year old cat, Bella, last month and it was extremely traumatic for me. I can’t help but worry that something will happen to Momo now and I’ll lose both of them, and it’s killing me.
The only things I can think of are she’s either not getting enough veggies, or her lack of baths. She used to be really good about bathing but she’s been going through this weird phase where she refuses to bathe in anything other than her drinking dish, which is way too small and she usually only gets her head/chest wet. She HATES being misted with a spray bottle and runs/flies away from me when I bring it out. I don’t wanna bring her into the shower or use the sink because our water quality isn’t too great (I give her bottled water).
For the veggie thing, she’s always been pretty picky. She loves red bell pepper, and I can get her to eat a bit of broccoli, spinach, kale, and she’s starting to like carrots more. This is gonna sound really silly, but I’ve been kinda scared to try other stuff…? I KNOW the things she cannot eat, but I have this irrational fear that I’ll get the wrong thing even if I know it’s safe or I won’t wash it right and she’ll get poisoned by pesticides or something. I know, it’s ridiculous. OCD really sucks…
She doesn’t really like chop, I have to pretty much hand feed her pieces of vegetables or she won’t eat them. She doesn’t eat much fruit, loves apples and sometimes I’ll give her a blueberry/other berries. She’s really good about eating her pellets (she’s on Zupreem naturals, I tried switching her to Harrison’s but she started getting really watery poops so I panicked and switched back. Wondering if I just have to transition slowly?) she rarely eats seeds, mostly just a sunflower seed or two every once in a while as a treat.
She does like to snuggle against our faces/hands so I’m wondering if that combined with her new terrible bathing habits could be part of the issue? But I’m still freaked out.
I included some pictures of her so you guys can see - the feather sticking out on her right side is bent from a struggle while the vet was holding her (she was NOT happy to be there lol.) so just waiting for it to fall out. That’s also the side that she snuggles with most and I noticed there’s a lot more brown spots in that side which is why I’m wondering if that could be the cause.
Being a first time bird owner is honestly just really hard. I love her so much but I’m constantly worried about her. It’s been affecting my mental health pretty badly and I think I’m starting to drive my family/bf crazy with all my rules
I took her to her avian vet twice in the past couple months and he doesn’t seem to be concerned at all, but this just does not seem right to me. I wanted him to do blood tests to make sure she doesn’t have any vitamin/mineral deficiencies but he said the only way they can do that is to put her to sleep which comes with a risk of her not waking up. I have heard that before, but I’ve also heard that there’s ways to take blood that don’t actually involve taking it from the neck/being put to sleep? So I'm not sure what to believe.
He seems to be pretty knowledgeable, but I just think it’s kinda weird that he isn’t concerned about her appearance….wondering if I should start to look for a new vet or if I’m just worrying too much…I did just lose my nearly 12 year old cat, Bella, last month and it was extremely traumatic for me. I can’t help but worry that something will happen to Momo now and I’ll lose both of them, and it’s killing me.
The only things I can think of are she’s either not getting enough veggies, or her lack of baths. She used to be really good about bathing but she’s been going through this weird phase where she refuses to bathe in anything other than her drinking dish, which is way too small and she usually only gets her head/chest wet. She HATES being misted with a spray bottle and runs/flies away from me when I bring it out. I don’t wanna bring her into the shower or use the sink because our water quality isn’t too great (I give her bottled water).
For the veggie thing, she’s always been pretty picky. She loves red bell pepper, and I can get her to eat a bit of broccoli, spinach, kale, and she’s starting to like carrots more. This is gonna sound really silly, but I’ve been kinda scared to try other stuff…? I KNOW the things she cannot eat, but I have this irrational fear that I’ll get the wrong thing even if I know it’s safe or I won’t wash it right and she’ll get poisoned by pesticides or something. I know, it’s ridiculous. OCD really sucks…
She doesn’t really like chop, I have to pretty much hand feed her pieces of vegetables or she won’t eat them. She doesn’t eat much fruit, loves apples and sometimes I’ll give her a blueberry/other berries. She’s really good about eating her pellets (she’s on Zupreem naturals, I tried switching her to Harrison’s but she started getting really watery poops so I panicked and switched back. Wondering if I just have to transition slowly?) she rarely eats seeds, mostly just a sunflower seed or two every once in a while as a treat.
She does like to snuggle against our faces/hands so I’m wondering if that combined with her new terrible bathing habits could be part of the issue? But I’m still freaked out.
I included some pictures of her so you guys can see - the feather sticking out on her right side is bent from a struggle while the vet was holding her (she was NOT happy to be there lol.) so just waiting for it to fall out. That’s also the side that she snuggles with most and I noticed there’s a lot more brown spots in that side which is why I’m wondering if that could be the cause.
Being a first time bird owner is honestly just really hard. I love her so much but I’m constantly worried about her. It’s been affecting my mental health pretty badly and I think I’m starting to drive my family/bf crazy with all my rules
