Post by Casey on Sept 20, 2012 11:55:33 GMT -8
ok few things first....
one, YES she will be going to the vet IF nothing else works, i dont have quite enough saved up in the fund for extensive testing, however i want to try other things first while i save up. then if nothing else works, i should have enough to test her for a few things....
so... her history:
her and mango are siblings, brought out by a related sibling pair (their parents were siblings, not intentionally done, but whatever past is past) and came from a home where they were plucked, and they were housed in an old wood and wire antique decorative cage, and they were in a home where the owners had kids who smoked in the home--and not just cigarettes. they also burned incense and let their dog lick them....
they were just babies when i brought them home...
diet:
seeds, tropical fruit parrot nutriberries, veggies, and some small amount of pellets (only munch so far).
she gets red palm oil on her nutriberries, eats veggies VERY well, she loves broccoli and carrots the best but also eats corn, peas, blackberries, kale, romaine lettuce, strawberries... she does not eat egg or rice or pasta, she does not like them. she is a very hearty eater for her veggies, plus she LOVES the dried fruit chunks in the nutriberries and those are usually consumed with great enthusiasm. she likes her mash and will generally eat most of whatever is thrown in it. they also like birdie bread. she has just recently started eating the pellets and she has chewed her feet before the pellets were even touched (it took me a year to convince her to eat those darned things!) and now i catch her early in the morning crunching them when she thinks i am not looking.
proportion wise to food, she gets 1.5 tablespoons of seed daily, then 2 tablespoons of veggies (she will eat a whole carrot if you let her), 1 nutriberry a day, and free fed the pellets, she maybe eats half a tablespoon a day.
she is a healthy weight at 60-64 grams which is large for a lovebird.
munch has always seemed to nibble her feet, we thought at first maybe it was dry skin. we put aloe on the feet, she'd stop chewing for about 2 hours but then she would chew again. we tried more baths. didnt help. we tried coconut oil, it worked a bit better than the aloe but still didnt work.
she sits and chews at her feet for maybe 30 minutes at a time 6 times a day. up til now, shes hardly done any damage, so i figured maybe it was just the dry scales she had an obsession with. i have also seen her chew MANGO's feet too! as she also goes after the dead skin on my fingers, especially around my nails. she chews it the same way she chews her feet, which makes me think its an obsessive compulsive disorder behaviour.
today i noticed her leg had a raw patch. she has chewed her leg raw. this has now become a concern.
she has a 50"Lx19"Dx19"H cage, she has toys to preen and destroy, she especially enjoys the preening toys, i make them out of molted feathers and she likes chewing on those, often as if in a trance...
she has done this regardless of being flighted or clipped... so thats ruled out. she is currently clipped. they get out of cage time (supervised as munch often attacks mango and that is when out of cage time ENDS for their safety). she gets a lot of attention by both me and my husband daily, whether through step up with me or talking from both of us.
so is it behavioural, dietary, health, or something else?
here are photos of her leg
this is what she does... (older photo)
if it is an added info of interest, her brother mango plucks when restrained for nail clipping and keelchecks....
question is... what do any of you suggest?
if it is obsessive compulsive behaviour, i am thinking an anti-pick collar would help, but would it work for her FEET? she is starting to chew her skin off on her feet.
if dietary, do you think increasing the fresh veggies would be a better option? or work on getting her to eat more pellets in case of deficiency? she also gets cuttlebone and she has a calcium perch. shes not a fan of mineral blocks.
i doubt it is hormones, as she has done this since she was a baby.
this is miss munch here
plus her most recent videos (so you can see behaviour)
and this is her current cage set up (she is not housed with mango)
one, YES she will be going to the vet IF nothing else works, i dont have quite enough saved up in the fund for extensive testing, however i want to try other things first while i save up. then if nothing else works, i should have enough to test her for a few things....
so... her history:
her and mango are siblings, brought out by a related sibling pair (their parents were siblings, not intentionally done, but whatever past is past) and came from a home where they were plucked, and they were housed in an old wood and wire antique decorative cage, and they were in a home where the owners had kids who smoked in the home--and not just cigarettes. they also burned incense and let their dog lick them....
they were just babies when i brought them home...
diet:
seeds, tropical fruit parrot nutriberries, veggies, and some small amount of pellets (only munch so far).
she gets red palm oil on her nutriberries, eats veggies VERY well, she loves broccoli and carrots the best but also eats corn, peas, blackberries, kale, romaine lettuce, strawberries... she does not eat egg or rice or pasta, she does not like them. she is a very hearty eater for her veggies, plus she LOVES the dried fruit chunks in the nutriberries and those are usually consumed with great enthusiasm. she likes her mash and will generally eat most of whatever is thrown in it. they also like birdie bread. she has just recently started eating the pellets and she has chewed her feet before the pellets were even touched (it took me a year to convince her to eat those darned things!) and now i catch her early in the morning crunching them when she thinks i am not looking.
proportion wise to food, she gets 1.5 tablespoons of seed daily, then 2 tablespoons of veggies (she will eat a whole carrot if you let her), 1 nutriberry a day, and free fed the pellets, she maybe eats half a tablespoon a day.
she is a healthy weight at 60-64 grams which is large for a lovebird.
munch has always seemed to nibble her feet, we thought at first maybe it was dry skin. we put aloe on the feet, she'd stop chewing for about 2 hours but then she would chew again. we tried more baths. didnt help. we tried coconut oil, it worked a bit better than the aloe but still didnt work.
she sits and chews at her feet for maybe 30 minutes at a time 6 times a day. up til now, shes hardly done any damage, so i figured maybe it was just the dry scales she had an obsession with. i have also seen her chew MANGO's feet too! as she also goes after the dead skin on my fingers, especially around my nails. she chews it the same way she chews her feet, which makes me think its an obsessive compulsive disorder behaviour.
today i noticed her leg had a raw patch. she has chewed her leg raw. this has now become a concern.
she has a 50"Lx19"Dx19"H cage, she has toys to preen and destroy, she especially enjoys the preening toys, i make them out of molted feathers and she likes chewing on those, often as if in a trance...
she has done this regardless of being flighted or clipped... so thats ruled out. she is currently clipped. they get out of cage time (supervised as munch often attacks mango and that is when out of cage time ENDS for their safety). she gets a lot of attention by both me and my husband daily, whether through step up with me or talking from both of us.
so is it behavioural, dietary, health, or something else?
here are photos of her leg
this is what she does... (older photo)
if it is an added info of interest, her brother mango plucks when restrained for nail clipping and keelchecks....
question is... what do any of you suggest?
if it is obsessive compulsive behaviour, i am thinking an anti-pick collar would help, but would it work for her FEET? she is starting to chew her skin off on her feet.
if dietary, do you think increasing the fresh veggies would be a better option? or work on getting her to eat more pellets in case of deficiency? she also gets cuttlebone and she has a calcium perch. shes not a fan of mineral blocks.
i doubt it is hormones, as she has done this since she was a baby.
this is miss munch here
plus her most recent videos (so you can see behaviour)
and this is her current cage set up (she is not housed with mango)
