Tell him he can have street corn if he flies up here. In fact he can have his fill of elote and I’ll send him back with some palm seedlings so long as he doesn’t try to eat them.
@cengland0 Walter eats an egg every morning-is that considered dairy? He is going to the vet next week and they have recommended they do blood work on him to test for possible future issues. Preliminary estimate of BW costs was in excess of $ 200. That would bring his visit with wing and claw trimming plus yearly wellness visit to close to $ 400.
Certainly he is worth it, but have you ever had BW done on your bird?
@Felton10 eggs are sold in the dairy isle at the store but is not really dairy. Dairy is for products made from milk like cheese, butter, sour cream, cottage cheese, etc.
My precious jenday conure Emerald loves hard boiled eggs too. He won’t eat it unless I’m holding it though. Spoiled Brat!
I did have blood work performed on my bird one time. Had xrays and a full checkup. He had a runny nose shortly after I bought him and that initial vet visit was over $800. They kept him overnight in an incubator. Hope I never have to go through that again.
I don’t do the annual checkups just because the bird vet is about 20 miles away and it costs a lot of money and he appears healthy. If I notice him acting strange, I’ll make sure to rush him to the vet again.
I do not clip my bird’s wings so he is a full flight bird. He will fly from the Livingroom to his office when it’s bedtime and he will fly from the office to the bathroom whenever he wants a bath. Couldn’t do that with clipped wings.
I did have the vet clip his claws once but he didn’t like it. He could not stay on my shoulder without falling off. Now he seems to do a pretty good job keeping them short (but still sharp) himself. Mrs cengland0 cannot stand it when he lands on her because of the sharp claws but it doesn’t bother me at all.
@Felton10 FYI, the way they did the blood work is they trimmed his toenail really short to cause it to bleed. They captured several drops of blood in a tube. I initially didn’t want to have him sexed because they would have to draw blood but since they were already collecting it to see if he had any diseases, I used that same opportunity to collect an extra drop of blood to have him sexed so that’s how I know he’s a male. That was an extra $50 to know he’s male.
They stopped the bleeding by putting a white powder on his toe and it stopped the bleeding instantly. I think it was like a powder sceptic pencil like what you use to stop bleeding if you cut yourself shaving.
@callow I was surprised that we couldn’t tell the sex of my bird without a blood test too. You’d think the vet could tell after the xray or something. Apparently with this conure species both males and females look alike. Makes me wonder how the males and females find each other and make babies.
What I did find out is that only 3% of male birds have penises (I know ducks have them). That leaves 97% of them having to be sexed by other characteristics like color. I can look at an adult cardinal and tell if it’s male or female just by the color. I can look at the downy woodpecker and tell the sex by a red patch or lack of red patch on its head. Then there’s some species like the Jenday Conure where they don’t have a penis and the males and females look exactly alike. Weird.
A friend of mine has a cockatiel and when bringing it to the vet, she said it was a female immediately. Asking how she knew, she said that she didn’t know but the male cockatiel that was nearby knew and by the way he was acting, his bird must have been female.
I suppose if I waited a couple years, I could have deduced my was male by myself. Like a male dog, he occasionally humps my arm or leg grabbing on with his sharp claws – it actually hurts when he does this and I have to stop him from doing it or I will get scratched. I doubt a female would act this way.
@callow@cengland0 Birds are not like most pets for a number of reasons not the least of which being how long they live and the commitment required to own such a pet. I’ve always taken a common sense approached to dealing with Walter. If I was a bird what would I like both with regard to food (subject to stuff that is bad for him) and keeping him cooped up in cage (nobody would like that).
We had to have a DNA test on Walter to verify his sex, but most people looking at him figured he was a male due to his size.
Here is mine eating corn. He likes the corn that has been dried out so it’s very hard and crunchy. Tried to give him fresh corn and he doesn’t like it at all. He always uses his claws to hold the food while eating it.
@cengland0 That is the way they took blood from another bird I had, but since the vet uses a dremmel on his claws and beak-no clipping or cutting-only on the wings.
Its been a year since Walter’s wings were last trimmed so if he wanted to he could fly everywhere in the house he wanted to get which he does about twice a week. He prefers to walk-that is why we don’t think he is a bird.
First ten years we were down in FL, we took him to the pet store to get his wings clipped and when the pet store closed up figured we would take him to the vet to get it done and of course they wanted to do a wellness ck on a new patient. Asked me a number of questions and checked him over and said to keep doing what ever I had been doing-he was in perfect health. Figured he had earned a yearly wellness ck at his age and have had one done for about the past 8 years.
Only medical issues he had were both scary and had to rush him to the vet both times as he was bleeding-once from an artery in his beak and the other time from a broken blood feather.
@Felton10 blood feather? I didn’t think any of the feathers had a blood supply. Where are these blood feathers located?
A friend of mine had his cockatiel hit the ceiling fan and broke off her beak. The vet just super glued it back on and she’s been fine with that repair for at least 10 years that I know of. Not sure if her beak was bleeding or not because I didn’t witness the event.
It was in his tail-thought he was bleeding from his rear originally until they found the source was the feather and cauterized it. Did same thing to his beak where he bangs on things with his beak to kind of get a feel for what the things are?
Sis had a giant macaw for close to 20 years. Her hated everybody.
If he saw you with a banana he would scream until you shared with him. When he’d eaten his fill he’d spend the next two hours grooming his beak and rubbing it on his perch.
And yes, the powder is the same styptic that is in the shaving pencil to stop a shaving cut from bleeding. I had to trim his claws to keep them from curling all the war around. Doing little clips every couple of weeks we were finally able to get them to a reasonable and usable length. Just in case I clipped too short I made sis buy a bottle of the powder. Found out later that in a pinch you can use regular flour to stop them bleeding.
Tell him he can have street corn if he flies up here. In fact he can have his fill of elote and I’ll send him back with some palm seedlings so long as he doesn’t try to eat them.
@sillyheathen set a place for me too! That looks delicious
@tinamarie1974 I love making the foods!
I’m glad you told us that was an ear of corn otherwise I thought it was a bowl of macaroni and cheese and birds aren’t supposed to have dairy.
@cengland0 Walter eats an egg every morning-is that considered dairy? He is going to the vet next week and they have recommended they do blood work on him to test for possible future issues. Preliminary estimate of BW costs was in excess of $ 200. That would bring his visit with wing and claw trimming plus yearly wellness visit to close to $ 400.
Certainly he is worth it, but have you ever had BW done on your bird?
@Felton10 eggs are sold in the dairy isle at the store but is not really dairy. Dairy is for products made from milk like cheese, butter, sour cream, cottage cheese, etc.
My precious jenday conure Emerald loves hard boiled eggs too. He won’t eat it unless I’m holding it though. Spoiled Brat!
I did have blood work performed on my bird one time. Had xrays and a full checkup. He had a runny nose shortly after I bought him and that initial vet visit was over $800. They kept him overnight in an incubator. Hope I never have to go through that again.
I don’t do the annual checkups just because the bird vet is about 20 miles away and it costs a lot of money and he appears healthy. If I notice him acting strange, I’ll make sure to rush him to the vet again.
I do not clip my bird’s wings so he is a full flight bird. He will fly from the Livingroom to his office when it’s bedtime and he will fly from the office to the bathroom whenever he wants a bath. Couldn’t do that with clipped wings.
I did have the vet clip his claws once but he didn’t like it. He could not stay on my shoulder without falling off. Now he seems to do a pretty good job keeping them short (but still sharp) himself. Mrs cengland0 cannot stand it when he lands on her because of the sharp claws but it doesn’t bother me at all.
@Felton10 FYI, the way they did the blood work is they trimmed his toenail really short to cause it to bleed. They captured several drops of blood in a tube. I initially didn’t want to have him sexed because they would have to draw blood but since they were already collecting it to see if he had any diseases, I used that same opportunity to collect an extra drop of blood to have him sexed so that’s how I know he’s a male. That was an extra $50 to know he’s male.
They stopped the bleeding by putting a white powder on his toe and it stopped the bleeding instantly. I think it was like a powder sceptic pencil like what you use to stop bleeding if you cut yourself shaving.
@cengland0 @Felton10
This thread makes me realize how little I know about birds. I didn’t know you can’t tell the sex of some birds.
Taking blood from the nail sounds more painful than taking blood from a vein. Not really recommended either.
https://www.theveterinarynurse.com/review/article/practical-avian-venipuncture-how-to-take-blood-from-birds
@callow I was surprised that we couldn’t tell the sex of my bird without a blood test too. You’d think the vet could tell after the xray or something. Apparently with this conure species both males and females look alike. Makes me wonder how the males and females find each other and make babies.
What I did find out is that only 3% of male birds have penises (I know ducks have them). That leaves 97% of them having to be sexed by other characteristics like color. I can look at an adult cardinal and tell if it’s male or female just by the color. I can look at the downy woodpecker and tell the sex by a red patch or lack of red patch on its head. Then there’s some species like the Jenday Conure where they don’t have a penis and the males and females look exactly alike. Weird.
A friend of mine has a cockatiel and when bringing it to the vet, she said it was a female immediately. Asking how she knew, she said that she didn’t know but the male cockatiel that was nearby knew and by the way he was acting, his bird must have been female.
I suppose if I waited a couple years, I could have deduced my was male by myself. Like a male dog, he occasionally humps my arm or leg grabbing on with his sharp claws – it actually hurts when he does this and I have to stop him from doing it or I will get scratched. I doubt a female would act this way.
@callow @cengland0 Birds are not like most pets for a number of reasons not the least of which being how long they live and the commitment required to own such a pet. I’ve always taken a common sense approached to dealing with Walter. If I was a bird what would I like both with regard to food (subject to stuff that is bad for him) and keeping him cooped up in cage (nobody would like that).
We had to have a DNA test on Walter to verify his sex, but most people looking at him figured he was a male due to his size.
Here is mine eating corn. He likes the corn that has been dried out so it’s very hard and crunchy. Tried to give him fresh corn and he doesn’t like it at all. He always uses his claws to hold the food while eating it.
@cengland0 That is the way they took blood from another bird I had, but since the vet uses a dremmel on his claws and beak-no clipping or cutting-only on the wings.
Its been a year since Walter’s wings were last trimmed so if he wanted to he could fly everywhere in the house he wanted to get which he does about twice a week. He prefers to walk-that is why we don’t think he is a bird.
First ten years we were down in FL, we took him to the pet store to get his wings clipped and when the pet store closed up figured we would take him to the vet to get it done and of course they wanted to do a wellness ck on a new patient. Asked me a number of questions and checked him over and said to keep doing what ever I had been doing-he was in perfect health. Figured he had earned a yearly wellness ck at his age and have had one done for about the past 8 years.
Only medical issues he had were both scary and had to rush him to the vet both times as he was bleeding-once from an artery in his beak and the other time from a broken blood feather.
@Felton10 blood feather? I didn’t think any of the feathers had a blood supply. Where are these blood feathers located?
A friend of mine had his cockatiel hit the ceiling fan and broke off her beak. The vet just super glued it back on and she’s been fine with that repair for at least 10 years that I know of. Not sure if her beak was bleeding or not because I didn’t witness the event.
@cengland0 See post below
@cengland0 @Felton10
When I ran a 5th grade school camp we had quackester the attack duck who couldn’t swim. He’d sink. Not sure, therefore, he was a duck.
You’d have to really watch your ankles when he’d come running at you with his wings spread.
It was in his tail-thought he was bleeding from his rear originally until they found the source was the feather and cauterized it. Did same thing to his beak where he bangs on things with his beak to kind of get a feel for what the things are?
Sis had a giant macaw for close to 20 years. Her hated everybody.
If he saw you with a banana he would scream until you shared with him. When he’d eaten his fill he’d spend the next two hours grooming his beak and rubbing it on his perch.
And yes, the powder is the same styptic that is in the shaving pencil to stop a shaving cut from bleeding. I had to trim his claws to keep them from curling all the war around. Doing little clips every couple of weeks we were finally able to get them to a reasonable and usable length. Just in case I clipped too short I made sis buy a bottle of the powder. Found out later that in a pinch you can use regular flour to stop them bleeding.
@sarahsandroid My Jenday Conure likes bananas too especially if I spread peanut butter on it.