My Parrot’s First Day Home: Our Harlequin Macaw Baby

A Harlequin Macaw Baby! 🦜

It was a long day, long drive to The Aviary –exotic parrot store in Miami– where we got Kamuela (Kami for short) and a long drive back…🥱

But it was one of THE ☀️ BEST DAYS, Ever!

This beautiful, handsome and sweet seven week-old old parrot is a gem!

🦜What Is A Harlequin Macaws

Harlequin Macaws are a cross between a Greenwing Macaw and a Blue & Gold Macaw — and both these parrots are said to have great personalities and make great companions.

From Spruce Pets: https://www.thesprucepets.com/harlequin-macaws-390836

COMMON NAME: Harlequin macaw

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Hybrid Ara chloropterus x Ara ararauna

ADULT SIZE: 35 and 40 inches long, weighing 2 to 3 1/2 pounds

LIFE EXPECTANCY: 50 years, some may reach up to 80

😱 Me: 3 1/2 pounds? My Catalina Macaw is 2 pounds and she gets heavy on my arm!

🐣 BEAK This!

We have added a new member to the family! This Macaw could outlive me or maybe we’ll spend the next 50 years together! It is special to be a part of his young life. He still has the 🥄 spoon-shaped lower mandible which baby parrots have for catching food more easily when being fed. As he grows over the next months, his beak will bring itself in, matching the top beak.

He still shows his down feathers (light grey) and has several pin feathers (which look like 🦔porcupine quills) sprouting! He’ll never look like this again. Once he is fully-feathered, he will molt feathers once or twice a year, but like our hair that is constantly being replaced, his feather growth won’t show ‘bald’ spots. It will be unnoticeable, with new pin feathers sprouting through.

🔊 That Sound!

He hasn’t been too loud, and ‘croaks!’ Too cute.

On our drive home my husband commented on how quiet he had been, so Kami then sqwacked loudly in the car!

Oh no! He’s already louder than our Catalina Macaw and he already weighs as much as she does!

The breeder did meet us at the store and he said that Kami will likely be BIG! He pointed to the Hyacinth Macaw in the store, illustrating Kami’s future size. 😱

Mind you, Greenwing Macaws are the second largest macaws, right after Hyacinth Macaws, and the breeder said that this is the size these parrots of his make!

Should I hope that Kami will be a monster big bird (go big or go home!) or should I hope he is a smaller size, like Kailani, so that I can handle him?

☕ My Baby Harlequin Macaw’s Personality

Harlequin Macaws are said to have the mellow, relaxed personality of a Greenwing Macaw and the fun-loving side of a Blue & Gold Macaw, their parents. They are button fanatics, so button-ups beware! You will be hunted down for fun, pulled and — killed!

As with any Macaw, I will need to provide Kami with a steady stream of enrichment (natural branches or palm nuts to beak, brutalize and beat to death) and toys, to do the same.

🐐 Similar to goats that chew the cud, Macaws must beak a branch in order to be maintain their well-being. Since there is no forest in my back yard, my second-best choice is raw, untreated wood from the home-improvement store. I’m getting too comfortable at the home-improvement store, who would have guessed that they would have so many things for my parrots? Wood, PVC, plants…

🧸 Keeping My Macaw Company

The truth is that we love animals, and I’m crazy about parrots 🦜

Parrots are highly intelligent and they look at you. They take it all in and Kami is already doing that.

Kami is accustomed to being in a “nesting box” with his sibling. Birds of a feather are always together, so I hate to have him sleep alone, but Kailani can’t be his cage-mate yet. For one thing, she needs to get to know him. Also, his feet aren’t ready to perch or to handle a cage, not yet. Developmentally he is still in his nesting-box phase and needs to have a clean, flat surface that is warm and protective.

No, I don’t expect to be able to put them in the same cage for six to nine months. She’s about one year old, and right now that is too much of an age difference.

So I kept Kami with me for a while tonight. I wanted him to feel the warmth of another body next to him. So that he is safe for the night, he’ll have to sleep alone in his new “nesting box” (a bin), but I’ll put a teddy bear in with him. Tomorrow I will try to spend time with him, again offering a warm body next to him. I’m also going to start to introduce he and Kailani. I’ll go slowly, allowing them to just see each other and hear each-other at first. Kami is still young and is still developing his immune system, so I won’t let anybird in contact with him or his ‘nursery’ for a while. Besides, it would probably just scare him.

No, for now brining Kami home is like bringing home a new baby. There will be feedings multiple times a day and bin cleanings multiple times per day for at least another two or three months. However, babies are harder, can’t leave them alone for two minutes! Still, Macaws are work and baby Macaws are more… but also deeply rewarding, not as rewarding as a baby, but similar 💙

And a new adventure begins…

By Kalyn
Author, The Parrot Bliss Bond, available on Amazon Books & Kindle
Join Us on FB at https://www.facebook.com/ParrotBliss/
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🧰 Make Your Parrot A 🦜 Perch

A Perch – AKA, A Parrot Playground 🦜

🌴 How about some fun for your parrot?

I made this perch for my Catalina Macaw, Kailani; I wanted her to have a place to “hang out” that wasn’t quite as big as her cage, giving everyone in the family room more space.

What The Perch Has

The perch has 5 ‘branches.’ If you start with the branch that Kailani is on now, this is the “Enrichment Branch” meaning that it has a PVC “T” at the end. That means that I can place a small tree branch or a flower stem in here for her to play with or eat – a non-toxic plant.

Next, above her, the “Toy Branch” is made to hold a toy, which shows in the photo. This branch is not parallel to the branch she is on, so that she can step up from one branch to the other. In the middle there is a small, thicker branch. It is the highest point for her, “The High Branch.” To the right of that is another, longer thick branch on the right. This “Thick Branch” offers her another place to perch that has more twine on it and gives her feet a larger place to be, if she likes. Finally, the lower, right-hand branch will be the “Food Branch.” I am in the process of seeing if I can get the PVC to make cup-holders for her food and water.

My goal is for Kailani to have a full-service place to be with us, be happy, be out of her cage — and have space for her future macaw-companion.

🧰 Materials Used

All of my materials came from the home-improvement store with the exception of the umbrella stand.

Materials:

1 1/2″ PVC pipe

1″ PVC pipe

Jute & Natural Rope

PVC pieces:

3 Elbows (2 are 1″, 1 is 1 1/2″)
2 of 1 1/2″ Cross piece (connects 4 pipes)
1 of 1″ “T” piece (left on the side to hold enrichment)
PVC Cement (PVC glue)
1 of 1″ cap

Power Tools Used: Saw and Drill

The Method To My Un-calculated Madness

I didn’t make a diagram ahead of time because I knew what I wanted to include (a place for food, a place for a toy, a place for enrichment) I couldn’t guess the sizing because I had to get the pipe and “feel” how high I wanted the ‘tree’ and how wide I wanted the branches. Some of the plan was pragmatic according to what would or would not work. That is why I haven’t finished the food dishes yet, I’ve got my base working, but I need to go back (for a 4th time!) to the hardware store and get my pieces/see how it will work out.

So, I started by running back and forward between the parts I’d laid out and the garage, where I was cutting. I put the perch together (without glue) to make everything work and fit.

Once I was happy with the design, I drilled holes in the pipes that were meant for Kailani to stand on. I drilled two holes, one at each end, so that I could tie the rope on the pipe and then wrap it, and tie the other end off. I’ve seen videos where people rough up the PVC pipe to have more of a natural wood feel, and they smooth it too, ensuring there are no sharp or rough edges left. However, I those tools are beyond me 🤭 and this was (I am guessing) faster and easier.

I chose PVC over wood because I can easily clean and disinfect the PVC. Of course, the rope may be harder to get clean. I plan on taking it outside, hosing it down and then spraying a disinfectant on the rope. I like the rope because I find that my parrots like biting it, plus my renowned veterinarian, Dr Susan Clubb, recommended rope perches for their feet. She has told me that cement or metal perches can be hard on a parrot’s ‘palm’ (not that their feet have palms, but I mean that palm-like skin on their feet). My Amazon’s feet are scared (I adopted her this way), which is what brought the conversation up, and Dr Clubb says that this skin of theirs does not grow back. So, rope it is!

Finally, once I was happy with everything and the perches had their rope, I glued all the pieces together and, although it dries fast, I let it sit out in the fresh air for a while before letting my feathered monkey-parrot on! Kailani is young, so she took to it right away, whereas Venus, my African Grey, is thinking about. Typical parrot, she’ll need to adjust and then I’m sure she’ll love it!

Timeline

Another great thing about this project is that I already had the umbrella stands, so that made it easy. I made two perches, one for my African Grey – her perch’s tree ‘trunk’ is also 1 1/2″ PVC, but her branches are 3/4″ since she has smaller feet. All together, the two perches have taken me 2 days. Both perches are basically the same and they both still need the food bowls, but since I think I have that figured out, I don’t think finishing these will take more than a couple hours.

If you want to see my video ‘tour’ on the perches, watch this:

How to Tell If a Parrot Is Male or Female

What Gender Is Your Parrot?

Monophonic parrots are parrots that physically look the same, you can’t tell the gender difference by looking at them.

Dimorphic parrots are parrots that display their gender difference in their plumage.

DNA Your Monomorphic Parrot

Finding out what gender your monophonic parrot is can be easy, though I was confused until I did it. In this video you’ll see where to take feather samples from on your parrot and you can see how we have one person hold Milo, our Indian Ringneck (note: Indian Ringnecks are dimorphic, we just had Milo close by and she volunteered to be in the video! An Indian Ringneck who is a year or two old will show their gender in the neck: males have a beautiful ring, female hens have no ring).

Of course, if a sexually dimorphic parrot is young, you may want to DNA the parrot to find out if it is the gender you are after. You may not want to wait until all his/her feathers grow or until he/she matures. Cockatiels, for example, don’t show their gender (in their tail feathers) until they are around 8 months. So, DNA-ing a dimorphic parrot may be to your advantage too.

Pulling Feathers To DNA Test

It is important to note that you must pull the feathers from your parrot; generally samples require 4 to 6 feathers. Pulled feathers have DNA at the follicle, which is what is tested. A feather that has fallen out on its own won’t have the DNA needed. Make sure to pull. It is said that pulling a couple feathers doesn’t hurt your parrot (I don’t know if that’s true or not) and it seems less intrusive. Consider using tweezers to pull the feathers because you want to pull the shaft (the middle ‘trunk’ if that helps). Pulling the barbs doesn’t always work, sometimes it just separates the barbs from the rest of that feather. Tweezers allow you to get a strong hold on the shaft and quickly/easily pull the feather out, minimizing how long and how many times you have to pull.

Another method is to use blood — 🧛 You can also cut a nail high enough to get your parrot to bleed. I’m not a vampire, I don’t seek my parrot’s blood 😉, so…

I prefer pulling feathers because cutting a nail to get the parrot to bleed doesn’t sit right with me. An open wound in a human always opens you up to possible infection. I know it is unlikely to happen to your parrot, but as of now, I think pulling is easier on your bird. I don’t know why, but cutting a nail is common, it is the way most pet shops seems to get a sample. That leads me to believe that cutting can’t be all that bad…

Why Would You Want To Know Your Parrot’s Gender?

Mature female parrots can lay eggs, even when they have no male companion. Without a male, the eggs will be infertile. As you can imagine, laying eggs can be hard on a hen and sometimes they can run into difficulties.

If your parrot is exhibiting signs of illness, it is good to know whether or not you have a hen. Hens can become egg-bound and this can be serious enough to lead to their death. For this reason it is good to know whether being egg-bound is a possible cause of illness.

Another benefit to knowing whether your parrot is male or female is that you’ll know where you cannot pet them. The back of a mature hen should be off limits and the vent area on a male should be as well. These areas are reserved for their mates and can sexually stimulate them. A sexually frustrated and hormonal parrot can be difficult to deal with. To avoid being bitten or having your parrot bliss bond broken do to a drastic change in your parrot’s personality, avoid exacerbating hormonal issues by knowing where not to touch your parrot.

Surgical Sexing

There is a third way of finding out your parrot’s gender which requires a minor surgery. Avian veterinarians can perform surgical sexing, a procedure in which they make a small cut to look in at your parrot’s reproductive organs to document their gender. I understand this is done infrequently since it is a surgery, which always has some risk, and sending a blood or feather sample to be tested is a fraction of the cost.

—

Working To Stop My African Greys From Plucking Using CBD Oil

A Zeus and Hera- Feather Plucking Update: CBD Oil

🙉 Ah, Pluck It!

Sorry about the pun, how could I resist? Besides, I adopted pluckers and — they pluck! Who would have thought?

Ok, yes, I knew 2 things when I adopted Zeus and Hera: 1) Once an African Grey has plucked for a month, it is extremely difficult to get them to stop. 2) Once an African Grey has plucked enough for feathers to come in as red feathers, as in Hera’s case, they are NOT red factors. They have sustained enough damage to their follicles that the color alters. Unfortunately, I was correct, Hera had plucked long enough to have damaged her follicles, my distinguished avian veterinarian agreed.

🌴Nevertheless, I Try!

Am I a glutton for punishment? I did have to consider this possibility… I’m asking the impossible, or close to it. But, life is short and it stirs my soul to think that I am helping heal my parrots. What if I could help Zeus and Hera stop plucking? How amazing would that be? I’d feel like a million feathers!

And, as long as I am a parrot-person, as long as I’m passionate about parrots and I’m writing about them, I’m going to work towards helping them out.

So, I’m Trying CBD Oil 🕶️

We’ve created Tink’s CBD Oil because our Green-cheeked Conure had seizures (caused by nerve damage, which is why she was given to us). You can read about Tink and how the CBD oil has helped minimize her seizures here.

CBD oil is to be good for helping parrots that are hyper or nervous: maybe they have separation anxiety when you go to work the way some cockatoos can. The idea is to give them just a drop or three, depending on the parrot’s size/weight, in order to assist their coming back to balance.

Tony Silva Has Found That CBD Oil Is Helping His Hyacinth

This is a photo of my mentor, Tony Silva, my daughter Xelha and I. Tony is using Tink’s CBD on his Hyacinth Macaw, who he rescued and who had plucked his feathers. Now, if I was as good as Tony then I’d probably have more parrot magic ✨ and my African Greys wouldn’t be plucking – his Hyacinty is doing well! He looks pretty close to ‘normal!’

One of the things that I like about the CBD oil is that African Greys and Macaws require oil in their diet anyway, so using the correct, indicated amounts can compliment their diet. Oil is not beneficial for parrots who are prone to Fatty Liver Disease and should avoid fats or oils. However, if you are having issues with your Cockatoo, Galah, Quaker or Eclectus, you may decide that getting your parrot to stop plucking or reducing their anxiety is, temporarily, more important. In small amounts the effect of the oil should not be huge or too noticeable and you can correct their diet once they are emotionally healthier. In the meantime, an anxious or plucking parrot should be put on a strict diet anyway to help them balance as much as possible.

Need to get some CBD oil for your parrot? Please be sure to follow the directions – CBD oil is not the same as hemp oil, which is beneficial as well but not medicinal, the way CBD is. Message me and let me know that you need to get some and we’ll arrange it for you.

Here’s to happy, healthy parrots!

🦜Cage Review -4 Things To Look For In a Parrot Cage for Caiques & Crimson & Green-Cheeked Conures

What Do You Want To Look 👀 For In Your Parrot’s Cage?

In this video I’m reviewing an A&E cage and a flight cage (no brand); I’ll also tell you a bit about Caiques and Crimson Conures, which are in the two cages I reviewed.

The four –most important– things you want to look for:

1) Cage Size There are some basic rule-of-thumbs to look for in a cage:

A cage needs to be double your parrot’s wingspan in length and triple in width and depth

2) Bar Size

Specifically, you parrot should not be able to put their head through the bars. If they can, they can get stuck and injure themselves. This is why minimum size requirements are given in LxWxH but also in bar spacing distance.

3) Rail & Tray

Easy Removal For all their beauty, intelligence and splendor, parrots are the messiest animals! They get their poop EVERYWHERE! On the side of the cage, the bottom and outside the cage- no exaggeration. In order to keep a healthy parrot, so that you have the best-behaved and most loving parrot possible, you have to keep their home clean. A cage that allows you to slide the rail and bottom tray out makes most of your cleaning a lot easier. If these don’t slide out then you either have to remove your parrot to clean their cage or you have to hope you can work around them.

4) Your Parrot’s Activity Level & Tail Length

A little parrot, like a Budgie, is active. They are balls of energy and, even though they are small, they need lots of room to jump around or fly around their cage, generally speaking. I have a Yellow-naped Amazon; she is not as active. She spends all day on two perches in our living space (unless she is with me), so giving her a cage that allows her to hop around and fly is pointless. I adopted her as an adult bird, so I don’t know her history, I don’t know why she doesn’t fly.

While it is still best to give your parrot the most space possible, how active they are and how long their tail is should be factored into their cage size. Some parrots have long tails, like my Indian Ringneck in the video. She needs plenty of space so that she can easily move around and turn around without squishing her tail.

Additional Things You Might Want In A Cage:

Being able to place a nesting box on the cage:

Some parrots, like Conures, like to sleep in nesting boxes. Even if you aren’t breeding, boxes can provide a wonderful place to sleep, depending on the species and the number of parrots in your cage (cockatoos can get aggressive over the “territory”).

Easy food/water access:

Some cages require that you ‘enter’ the cage to place food and water inside. Ideally, you want to be able to open a door and easily replace these dishes so that your bird doesn’t escape, if you have a new bird or have issues with this. You also want to not get bitten if you have a parrot who is territorial about ‘their space,’ which can be common with some species.

Raised Rail:

Some cages don’l leave much space between the rail and the bottom tray. Parrots are smart and they will put a foot through the railing to try to reach something below. Offering enough space so that you parrot cannot reach the bottom of the cage where old food and droppings are, which collect bacteria, will help avoid health issues. All parrots can reach, so even small parrots can reach. Make sure the bottom tray is deep enough that they won’t grab anything below.

— Have a questions about parrots?

As the author of “The Parrot Bliss Bond,” I love and welcome questions about having a parrot and creating one of the best experiences of your life!

Comment below;

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Feeding 🦜 Parrotlet Babies – How Do You Feed Parrot Babies?

Parrotlet Babies Are The Cutest!

How Do You Learn To Feed Parrot Babies?

Man, that is a hard question! Anyone in the aviculture community will tell you that you should learn to feed parrot babies from someone who knows how to feed them. However, I had no luck at all finding anyone.

The first time I fed a parrot I was worried and scared. My girl was a Cockatiel and was already eating on her own. She also had enough experience being fed; fortunately, she was able to handle MY NOT KNOWING how to feed her! I was patient (with myself) and, truly, she was patient with me too. It would take 15 to 30 minutes to feed her, which is now done in a minute. It was hard, fun, hard, rewarding and frustrating. Oh, and arduous. Ugh!

Start With Human Help Or Parrot Help

Working with my Luna Love, my Cockatiel, was a great first experience because she ‘trained’ me. Actually, the first handful of parrots I hand-fed trained me, they had all been fed already, I’d just taken over the last couple of weeks of feeding.

There’s no substitute for practice and everyone will tell you that you’ll lose a baby, that even the best of them do. However, life means so much to me that I’m not ok with letting any baby in my care pay for my lessons this way.

Instead, I suggest that you let your parrot babies show you how to feed them. The most important thing is to hold them properly and to let them step forward to be fed or to back off when they step back and away.

I also suggest you start with a spoon, and parrot-feeding spoons, which are a funny shape to bring the food down to the middle of the spoon, is perfect. This makes it hard to force food down a parrot’s throat and cause harm. Instead, as you hold your baby parrot and your spoon, they can eat for themselves. Gently hold your parrot’s mouth, a finger supporting them under their head at their neck initially. You can soon back your fingers/hand away or barely hold your hand in place so that the parrot can move around.

Successfully feeding a baby parrot is exhilarating! Your parrot’s happiness at getting a full crop is contagious and adding to the miracle of life in this way is intoxicating!

✂️How To Cut Your Parrot’s Claws & Clip Nails

✂️ What I Like About Cutting My Parrot’s Nail/Claws

First, I’ll say that we call them talons– and then my mentor and my veterinarian correct me and say, “They are nails!”

Ha! They dig in like ice picks, like talons!

Ok, all joking aside, there are 3 reasons I like to take care of my parrots at home:

It reduces the stress of going to a groomer
Saves 💰 (money) that I can use for other things for my parrots
I can adjust the amount of cutting/clipping

One thing that rubs me the wrong way is taking my parrot to be professionally groomed to a 🧛. It’s not really that I think that the groomers are vampires, but they are too ready and comfortable pulling out a powder to stop bleeding for when they cut a parrot’s nail too much and make it bleed. I’m guessing they do this because they want to make sure their clients don’t return in a week or two saying that their parrot’s nails are too sharp again.

Maybe I’m old-fashioned: I think my parrot’s blood should stay in their bodies. I also understand that any time a body has an open wound, it is susceptible to outside germs getting in. Why make my Caique or my Green-cheeked Conure bleed?

You Can Learn To Cut Your Budgie or Your Macaw’s Nails, Claws Or – If They Are Sharp- Talons!

Tools You’ll Need

To cut your parrot’s nails:

A dremel – A dremel is like an electronic nail file. We got ours on Amazon.com; it was under $20 and is made for cats and dogs. In the future, I’d like to get a more professional one that files more finely for my parrot’s beaks
Nail cutters – Our heavy-duty human nail cutters, which we got at Target and are made for toe nails (thicker than your hand’s nails) are great at cutting our parrot’s nails. These toe nail cutters work on our medium and large parrots; a cuticle nail cutter is a better tool for small parrots, like Budgies or Parrotlets, whose nails are thinner. The nail cutters often leave sharp edges, so it’s nice to have the dremel too. The cutters quickly cut off the end of the nail and then the dremel can round sharp edges.
PLEASE NOTE: Parrot’s talons (nails) are like your nails. They have “pink” and white parts. The pink bed is connected and bleeds, just like it does for you if you cut your nail below the white and into the pink area. With some parrots, like my Indian Ringneck who is Palid-colored (almost white), you can see the pink area in her claw. However, for most parrots, their claws are all black, so it is hard to see where to cut. If you cut too high, your parrot will bleed. You may want to have flour or corn starch on-hand to clot the bleeding – or you may want some honey water (literally a little water with honey in it, a natural antibiotic you can use on parrots) in case you cut too high.
You really only want to cut the sharp tip. You can always cut or file more down with the dremel. Most of the curve of their nail should be left; only the very pointed end should require cutting/filing.
Towel- Having a towel on hand is always handy with a parrot when you are grooming them. If you have a helper to hold your parrot for you, they can use the towel to hold your bird, but if you are doing it alone, you may find that the towel makes it easier to “burrito” your parrot for an easier hold.
Scissors – For wing-clipping.

How To Safely Hold Your Parrot

PLEASE NOTE: I make a point of illustrating how my daugher holds our Budgie and our Caique in the videos on nail and wing grooming because you DO NOT want to hold your parrot in such a way that constricts their breathing. You hand or fingers should NOT go over their throat or chest, as this can make it hard or not possible for them to breathe. The same is true if you place your parrot in a towel. Practice with a stuffed animal: I like to cover their eyes gently so that they struggle less, but leave their nose uncovered; I also try to wrap my parrot at their ‘middle,’ around their wings, so that they can’t get away but I can get to their feet/nails. If I’m clipping their wings, then I let one side of the towel go, which means they can wiggle more, so that I can access their wings.

Granted, groomers have more practice and are better at cutting nails and clipping wings that you and I are. Still, I tend to be more gentle and loving with my parrots than a stranger and cause them to bleed a lot less. Use common sense when it comes to making sure to stop your grooming session of your parrot is stressing out, if he starts breathing too hard, and keep his safety in mind first.

🦜 Wings! Controversy! Why Would You Clip Your Parrot’s Wings?

The only reason we clip wings is for our parrot’s safety. Some of the most bedazzling colors. I hate clipping their wings.

However, some of my parrots walk and fly into trouble. They go harass other parrots. So, we clip their wings so that they don’t fly onto another parrot’s cage/home, which is their safe space. I am a strong believer that each one of my parrots (actually, every creature in my home) has the right to have a hassle-free safe space all their own.

Other parrots, like my Catalina Macaw, are too big to fly around and I walk her- she loves going out on my arm to see what’s up with the sky! She is not trained to free-fly, nor am I willing to take on the inherent free-fly risks at this time, so for her safety and enjoyment, she’s clipped at this time. Things change and their flight feathers grow out, so who knows what to tomorrow will bring, but for now, this is where I feel the best, safest choice is for her.

What Feathers To Clip? 🦜

Your parrot has three rows of feathers. In trying to make our videos, which were requested by some of our FB fans (our FB page is at: https://www.facebook.com/ParrotBliss/) we had to re-do the video a couple times. In doing so, I saw that it was harder to see the three rows of feathers on our Green-cheeked Conure than it was on our Caique – it’s a little hard to see on our budgie too, since she is smaller, and our Indian Ringneck had bathed, so her feathers were wet!

Look For Feathers You Can Put Your Fingers Through

The lowest and longest row of feathers on your parrot’s wing are the flight feathers. These you can put your finger through. The next row up gets into some wing skin, so you can’t put your finger through these; finally, the first row at the top has the most bone and is the most solid.

You only need to clip the end of a few feathers, maybe 4 feathers, to keep your parrot from flying up. In other words, you can choose to only clip the very end of the arc of your parrot’s 4 feathers furthest from their body if you just want to keep them from flying up. If they are still flying up too much, clip a little more and then a little more. If they are still flying more than you want them to fly or if you are clipping them so that you can have them stay on a perch for training, you may choose to clip more feathers – but never go too high on this third row of feathers, it isn’t necessary and you can get into the thicker part of the feather’s core, which may have some blood in it.

The best reasons to clip your parrot’s feathers are so that your parrot can’t fly up to a ceiling fan, into a window, onto the stove or other such places. Of course, parrot’s are so intelligent that you may be able to show them that your window is solid by hitting the glass, but I don’t know that you can teach them to watch out for other problems, such as someone suddenly opening the front door or a window.

Learn how to take fantastic care of your parrot- purchase your copy of The Parrot Bliss Bond on Amazon today!

Plucking Saga Continued: Using Different Strategies To Stop My African Greys From Plucking

How Parrots Are Like Goats – What?

They say ruminants “chew the cud” – well, parrots bite the wood. It IS what parrots do.

That makes my parrot-keeper life challenging. I don’t have a lot of trees around me… I’m in a neighborhood. There are houses, not fruit trees. Bummer. Here in Florida a lot of houses have fruit trees in their back yard, but not here…

Foiled!

Actually, It’s A Frond, A Palm ‘Leaf.’ So, AGs 🦜 Were Fronded!

Today I cut a frond from our front yard for Zeus and Hera – at first I think they were taken by surprise, but then they did some killing of the frond!

If you didn’t catch my earlier blogs, you can start with Why Do African Grey Parrots Pluck Their Feathers or Different Thing To Try If Your Parrot Plucks Feathers, Like My African Greys

Trying to get Zeus and Hera to stop plucking their feathers is like trying to keep people from eating sugar! 🍬

It’s A Hard Habit To Beak, Oh, Break!

It is said that once a parrot has been plucking for about a month… they generally don’t stop. Interesting when you consider that humans are said to develop habits when they do the same thing for about a month and a half – sounds like parrots are the same.

Why it is that they, my African Grey, parrots will let their feathers grow out and then pluck them I’m not sure… I guess it doesn’t matter. They pluck!

Mine may be an uphill battle because I adopted them this way. I can’t guess how long they have been plucking or what their previous experiences were like. Instead, I’m just doing what I can. I’m working on providing enrichment, the palm frond. I’m giving them CBD and hemp oil, since hemp has the right balance of omega 3:6 (for humans, I’m guessing the same is true for parrots) and CBD is supposed to help calm them. My mentor said that, since Zeus plucked some of Hera’s feathers (No! don’t pluck her! She doesn’t need more feathers taken out!), he’s probably stressed out. Ugh!

I’m doing what I can, but I have some circumstances I can’t remedy at this time:

Their cage is the minimum size, or larger, but I dream of providing them with an aviary or at least a lot more space. I give them the option to come out during the day, but I have a Macaw.
African Greys like peace and quiet, not Macaws. In case you aren’t familiar, Macaws are the exact opposite of ‘peace and quiet.’ I exaggerate, but not much. African Greys are chill, mellow. Macaws are not.
Like any other parrot, African Greys love natural things: branches, palm seeds/pods (and I’ve got little palms, but not much- mostly grassy lawns, of course)

It may be that they will always pluck. This is one problem with getting adult parrots, their ways could already be set in stone. Still, we try. And work on it. And try again.

Different Things To Try If Your Parrot Plucks Feathers, Like My African Grey

A Couple Things You Can Try If Your Parrot Plucks It’s Feathers

Zeus and his feather plucking update:

I still haven’t ruled out that Zeus may be plucking due to medical-skin issues (read about the different reasons African Greys pluck: https://parrotbliss.com/why-do-african-grey-parrots-pluck-their-feathers/).

The vet had said to give it a while – so I’m focusing on two things: CBD oil and giving him more things to focus his beakly interest towards!

See the box with the hole and bites on it behind him in the picture of him on his cage?

Plucking is hard to break, but we’re trying!

The idea behind the box is that they are similar to ruminants who like to chew the cud; parrots like to peal branches. Often.

We don’t have a lot of branches and trees available — branches should be pesticide-free, should be non-toxic plants/branches and I’m not comfortable with “dirty” wood or plants that have mold or anything on them.This limits what I have for them– greatly.

Have you ever seen a cat play with a paper bag? The parrots seem like this, but with cardboard boxes. I try to make sure they don’t have ink/labels with tape or anything that may be toxic if they bite it. I try to give them “clean” boxes…

If nothing else, between the CBD oil and a focus on engagement via something to peal and peck, we’ll be giving them more engagement!

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Read Why Do African Grey Parrots Pluck Their Feathers to learn more about why African Grey’s Pluck.

By Kalyn
Author, The Parrot Bliss Bond, available on Amazon Books & Kindle

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Senegal Heromione Injured Her Wing But Now She’s Fine – What Are The Signs?

How Did My Senegal Get Hurt?

How do parrots get into trouble sometimes? I don’t know!

They are little monkeys and even though we avoid plastic toys, rope/yarn that they can get tangled in, and we even try to stay away from colored toys (we don’t believe that even FDA approved colorants can be beneficial and we do all we can to offer our VERY BEST to our flock), they still sometimes get in trouble.

I noticed Heromione at the bottom of her cage with blood around the crook of her shoulder yesterday – freak out! We immediately washed our hands and then held her to wash the blood away and see the damage. I called the vet, but it was her day off, so no-go! Good thing I called from the car when I first got in before I’d driven there!

Lucky me, my dad (bovine veterinarian professor) knows nothing about birds, but was visiting. So he gave us a magic potion – but frankly it was already fine. We checked her wing every day, but as you see in the video, my monkey with wings wants to be with me – and not on camera! She didn’t want to be picked up and taken off her shoulder.

What do you do when your parrot is injured?

First I remain calm! Sometimes I have to stop and center myself to get to calm when I see something’s gone awry!

Have a “hospital cage”

Have a “hospital cage” or bin (with breathing holes) for your parrot, a smaller space that helps them relax. You want to be able to make it warmer than their normal cage by using a heating pad (which you can place under half the cage so they can choose to be warmer or go to the cooler side) in case they aren’t keeping warm enough; you want to cover it with a blanket so that they aren’t stressed by anything going on around them and they can sleep. Giving your parrot a home-hospital space will allow them to ‘go in’ – they can relax, unseen and warm to aid their healing. Of course, be sure to offer food and water too.

Heromione did amazingly well. She was chill the whole time, let me examine her wing and hold her – never tried to bite me. Within a couple of days I could no longer find the injury, it has healed. We’ve returned her to her cage with her partner and kept our eye on her. We did apply my dad’s magic potion once or twice and some antiseptic – trying to avoid an infection. Parrots are delicate but as long as they have something treatable, if you keep your eye on your parrot you should be able to take care of what is needed and have a happy, healthy parrot.