Advice, Please!
I've got several things on my mind today regarding Banjo's care and general health. These are issues about which I've done general research but which I would love to get some specific advice about if anyone has some.
1. Banjo needs a nail trim, and I really have no idea how to do that without totally pissing her off. I know about only cutting off the tip and avoiding the quick, what I don't know is how to get her to calm down and hold still. She had one nail in particular that was especially sharp, with which she recently punctured my finger, and today I did manage to get the tip of that one off without damage to either of us, but she wasn't happy with me at ALL. She was growling and biting me the whole time, and she spit out the treat I gave her afterward. I don't want to make her hate me, but obviously I'll have to find a better way to deal with her nails.
2. I know what foods to feed Banjo, what I don't know is how much I should be giving her, both in general and of any one thing. Most of the time I have no way of knowing how much she's eating of any of the things I give her, of course, because it's darned hard to tell what goes into the bird and what just gets shredded and thrown around. All I know is not to give her too many grape tomatoes, because she'll eat those to the exclusion of everything else. I only give her one of those a day, and I usually hide it so she has to work for it. I guess she must be eating enough, because her weight has been steady for the two-plus months we've been together, but I fret about whether she's eating enough of the right things. Is there any kind of rule of thumb here, any way to tell whether she's eating a healthy diet other than waiting to see if she loses weight or gets sick? Being that I am totally inexperienced and mostly unable to read her moods beyond her obvious "happy mellow" in which she looks like every single "This is a happy mellow Amazon" picture I've ever seen, and the "Get the eff away from me!" that is conveyed effectively by her backing up and growling and aggressively pecking my hand when I reach for her, I live in terror of the whole "birds can be sick and not show it" thing. How would I even know if she wasn't eating right? How would I know if she was sick? I've had actual nightmares about this!
Related to the above, I've read about "watery poops" being a sign of illness, but I'm not sure what constitutes a watery poop. It seems like each day some of her poops are mostly clear liquid with a scattering of solids in it, and some are mostly solids with plenty of moisture but no identifiable water (if that makes sense!). Her morning poop is a big wet messy pile of everything.
Also regarding her health, she sneezes sometimes. I don't know if she sneezes "a lot," because I don't know what "a lot" would be for a bird, and of course I don't know how much she does it when I'm not around. A few days ago, I saw her do it three or four times during the course of the day. Today I haven't seen her do it at all. I just don't know whether to be concerned about it or not. She doesn't wheeze or seem to have any trouble breathing, and her nares are clean and clear and, as far as I know, the colour they should be, but I'm wondering if this is an incipient problem. Any thoughts? I'll certainly take her to the vet if she needs to go, I have money put aside for those kinds of expenses, but I would always rather spare her the stress of a vet visit if it isn't necessary.
3. Yesterday afternoon she got into a really ornery mood when I was trying to practise stick step-ups with her. Usually she's patient for several repetitions, but yesterday she only stepped up nicely once, and then she started fighting -- running away, growling, biting the stick instead of stepping up onto it. Then she was pissy to everyone for the whole rest of the day. I'm wondering for one if that was a taste of what she'll be like when she's hormonal, and for another, how to deal with the fact that now that she's used to our household and familiar with us, she's starting to learn some self-determination and get a little feisty. I don't mind her having self-determination or even being a little feisty, but I don't want her to figure out that at this point I'm pretty much helpless and so far have been getting by on her apparently exceptionally good nature.
4. I've read a lot about the flighted vs non-flighted debate. Banjo was raised with clipped wings, so she doesn't know how to fly, but of course, she's a parrot so that doesn't stop her from trying. She's quite awkward at it. She hasn't had any serious crashes, but it's always a bit harrowing when she does take off and no one knows where or how she'll come down. Up to now I've been taking the "try to distract her" approach when I see that she wants to fly (oh, that's the other thing I've figured out body-language-wise -- it's quite easy to tell when she's getting ready to take off!), but I know that distracting her from flying isn't a long-term solution. I haven't made a decision about flighted or non-flighted for her in the long term, but from my readings I've become convinced that it's a good idea to let her flight feathers grow out so that she can at least learn how to fly safely before being clipped again. With that said, though, I'm very trepidatious about the "learning to fly" stage. I don't have a safe room in my house where she can practise, and don't have the space to make one.
Sorry this post got so long, and thank you for reading! Any ideas or advice about these matters would be tremendously appreciated.
(x-posted to parrot_lovers)
1. Banjo needs a nail trim, and I really have no idea how to do that without totally pissing her off. I know about only cutting off the tip and avoiding the quick, what I don't know is how to get her to calm down and hold still. She had one nail in particular that was especially sharp, with which she recently punctured my finger, and today I did manage to get the tip of that one off without damage to either of us, but she wasn't happy with me at ALL. She was growling and biting me the whole time, and she spit out the treat I gave her afterward. I don't want to make her hate me, but obviously I'll have to find a better way to deal with her nails.
2. I know what foods to feed Banjo, what I don't know is how much I should be giving her, both in general and of any one thing. Most of the time I have no way of knowing how much she's eating of any of the things I give her, of course, because it's darned hard to tell what goes into the bird and what just gets shredded and thrown around. All I know is not to give her too many grape tomatoes, because she'll eat those to the exclusion of everything else. I only give her one of those a day, and I usually hide it so she has to work for it. I guess she must be eating enough, because her weight has been steady for the two-plus months we've been together, but I fret about whether she's eating enough of the right things. Is there any kind of rule of thumb here, any way to tell whether she's eating a healthy diet other than waiting to see if she loses weight or gets sick? Being that I am totally inexperienced and mostly unable to read her moods beyond her obvious "happy mellow" in which she looks like every single "This is a happy mellow Amazon" picture I've ever seen, and the "Get the eff away from me!" that is conveyed effectively by her backing up and growling and aggressively pecking my hand when I reach for her, I live in terror of the whole "birds can be sick and not show it" thing. How would I even know if she wasn't eating right? How would I know if she was sick? I've had actual nightmares about this!
Related to the above, I've read about "watery poops" being a sign of illness, but I'm not sure what constitutes a watery poop. It seems like each day some of her poops are mostly clear liquid with a scattering of solids in it, and some are mostly solids with plenty of moisture but no identifiable water (if that makes sense!). Her morning poop is a big wet messy pile of everything.
Also regarding her health, she sneezes sometimes. I don't know if she sneezes "a lot," because I don't know what "a lot" would be for a bird, and of course I don't know how much she does it when I'm not around. A few days ago, I saw her do it three or four times during the course of the day. Today I haven't seen her do it at all. I just don't know whether to be concerned about it or not. She doesn't wheeze or seem to have any trouble breathing, and her nares are clean and clear and, as far as I know, the colour they should be, but I'm wondering if this is an incipient problem. Any thoughts? I'll certainly take her to the vet if she needs to go, I have money put aside for those kinds of expenses, but I would always rather spare her the stress of a vet visit if it isn't necessary.
3. Yesterday afternoon she got into a really ornery mood when I was trying to practise stick step-ups with her. Usually she's patient for several repetitions, but yesterday she only stepped up nicely once, and then she started fighting -- running away, growling, biting the stick instead of stepping up onto it. Then she was pissy to everyone for the whole rest of the day. I'm wondering for one if that was a taste of what she'll be like when she's hormonal, and for another, how to deal with the fact that now that she's used to our household and familiar with us, she's starting to learn some self-determination and get a little feisty. I don't mind her having self-determination or even being a little feisty, but I don't want her to figure out that at this point I'm pretty much helpless and so far have been getting by on her apparently exceptionally good nature.
4. I've read a lot about the flighted vs non-flighted debate. Banjo was raised with clipped wings, so she doesn't know how to fly, but of course, she's a parrot so that doesn't stop her from trying. She's quite awkward at it. She hasn't had any serious crashes, but it's always a bit harrowing when she does take off and no one knows where or how she'll come down. Up to now I've been taking the "try to distract her" approach when I see that she wants to fly (oh, that's the other thing I've figured out body-language-wise -- it's quite easy to tell when she's getting ready to take off!), but I know that distracting her from flying isn't a long-term solution. I haven't made a decision about flighted or non-flighted for her in the long term, but from my readings I've become convinced that it's a good idea to let her flight feathers grow out so that she can at least learn how to fly safely before being clipped again. With that said, though, I'm very trepidatious about the "learning to fly" stage. I don't have a safe room in my house where she can practise, and don't have the space to make one.
Sorry this post got so long, and thank you for reading! Any ideas or advice about these matters would be tremendously appreciated.
(x-posted to parrot_lovers)