Bill Update
As some may recall, Bootstrap Bill (AKA Bilbo Baggins) my female maroon bellied conure started plucking her belly and under her wings around a month ago.
Her feathers haven't grown back in yet - but I haven't noticed her pulling out any new feathers, or seen any pin-feathers peeking out on her chest. I'm not quite sure what that all means. She has a scattered feather here and there that she hasn't pulled out - so maybe she has stopped and I just need to be patient for them to grow back in?
I spoke with Dr. Chris Sanders today - another local avian vet - to discuss Bill. He agreed that sleep-cages in the closet were indeed a great idea, but that I need to have them in two /seperate/ sleep cages. It's a bit of a hassle, but it's done. He wasn't as concerned as Dr. Van Sant about the shreddable toys. He thinks it's an important part of their natural behavior and as long as they're not trying to make a nest out of the bits then they should have /some/ access to shredderable stuff. I'm going to start re-introducing shreddables on play areas away from their cage.
He also suggested that a shot of lupron might knock Bill out of her hormonal phase and help some of my efforts take greater affect. I'm still holding off, though, to see if environmental management alone can pull it off. I just hope that, if she is still plucking, my delay isn't causing the behavior to get engrained enough to become habit.
Duck and Bill's diet is still offered as 100% foraging - which is a pain in the ass, but important, I think. I picked up a few new foraging toys today that should work well with their fresh-foods. None of my other toys were really suitable for fresh-foods (other than the skewers) so I'm excited to try them. I've also installed some quality fluorescent UV bulbs and filed it under 'well, it can't hurt' and I've stepped-up on my clicker training efforts on both birds. Duck in particular is excelling at his training. We've got 'turn in a circle' on a better cue, he's mastered 'ring a bell,' we're working on 'crawl through a tube' and even 'let me touch your head.'
He's starting to be really calm and accepting of touch that comes from above - but I still need to figure out how to get him to stop lunging at fingers that come from the sides or below. He demonstrates that he can clearly learn how to behave without bitting of his own volition, so I just need to figure out how to get him to generalize that behavior.
I still wish there was an easy answer to this plucking thing - but I think every owner of a plucking bird feels the same way.
Her feathers haven't grown back in yet - but I haven't noticed her pulling out any new feathers, or seen any pin-feathers peeking out on her chest. I'm not quite sure what that all means. She has a scattered feather here and there that she hasn't pulled out - so maybe she has stopped and I just need to be patient for them to grow back in?
I spoke with Dr. Chris Sanders today - another local avian vet - to discuss Bill. He agreed that sleep-cages in the closet were indeed a great idea, but that I need to have them in two /seperate/ sleep cages. It's a bit of a hassle, but it's done. He wasn't as concerned as Dr. Van Sant about the shreddable toys. He thinks it's an important part of their natural behavior and as long as they're not trying to make a nest out of the bits then they should have /some/ access to shredderable stuff. I'm going to start re-introducing shreddables on play areas away from their cage.
He also suggested that a shot of lupron might knock Bill out of her hormonal phase and help some of my efforts take greater affect. I'm still holding off, though, to see if environmental management alone can pull it off. I just hope that, if she is still plucking, my delay isn't causing the behavior to get engrained enough to become habit.
Duck and Bill's diet is still offered as 100% foraging - which is a pain in the ass, but important, I think. I picked up a few new foraging toys today that should work well with their fresh-foods. None of my other toys were really suitable for fresh-foods (other than the skewers) so I'm excited to try them. I've also installed some quality fluorescent UV bulbs and filed it under 'well, it can't hurt' and I've stepped-up on my clicker training efforts on both birds. Duck in particular is excelling at his training. We've got 'turn in a circle' on a better cue, he's mastered 'ring a bell,' we're working on 'crawl through a tube' and even 'let me touch your head.'
He's starting to be really calm and accepting of touch that comes from above - but I still need to figure out how to get him to stop lunging at fingers that come from the sides or below. He demonstrates that he can clearly learn how to behave without bitting of his own volition, so I just need to figure out how to get him to generalize that behavior.
I still wish there was an easy answer to this plucking thing - but I think every owner of a plucking bird feels the same way.