Pat

Penny is one of our Rescue African Greys, she hates me! We have had her for 10 months now, I started to do training with her when she first arrived here but it was obvious that she didn’t like me, so I left her, just did the normal everyday things with her and talked to her lots.

Now, 10 months down the line she still hates me, so I thought I’d try training again to maybe build a bond…this is her first training session in 10 months, so we’ll see how she goes. As you can see, she is a plucker, she started growing her feathers back after arriving here and a change of diet, toys etc etc. Then my other Grey escaped from his cage one day when she was out playing and dive bombed her, she nipped her lovely new feathers off and we are back to square one, but…there is hope, she is healthy and it is just a habit, so she might stop it one day.

Even if she doesn’t….I still love her to bits.

Penny’s stick training Session –

After doing so well on her new Animal Zone pellets and growing back quite a few feathers, we have had a major setback with Penny. Her and Charlie my other Grey don’t get on and I can’t let them out together, it stresses Penny out but a couple of weeks ago Penny was out and Charlie undid his catch on his food dish door and got out, before I could get him back in he dive bombed Penny and as she ran to get in her cage, he did it again.

Poor Penny, for the next couple of days she bit off all the lovely feathers that she had grown back. It’s such a shame and I blame myself for not making sure all his food doors were done up extra tight,I just hope that she will calm down again and let her feathers grow back, we have gone right back to basics with her, just giving her Animal Zone plumage enhancer for a few days to boost up the feathers and we’ll take it from there.

Penny continues to love Darryl and hate me, she would strip the skin of any part of me that she can grab, so I try hard to keep out of lunging distance lol. Bless her little heart, I love her to bits, she is quite happy playing with a telephone directory, ripping it up or preening her toys in her cage. I can’t believe it’s 10 months since we had Penny, she came to us as Ben and had been called a he for the first six years of her life, DNA gave us a surprise when it came back that Ben was actually a girl, so Ben became Penny.

She continues to whistle and beep rather than talk, but knows exactly what you are saying to her. she is a crafty little mare hahaha. That just makes her all the more lovely, it’s a battle of wills.

Well six months down the line and Penny, who used to be Ben but surprised us by being a girl, is doing really well. We went through a bit of a time with her after she met Charlie (our other AG) they seemed to be ok together at first, but then I think Charlie realised that Penny can’t fly and so he bullied her a little bit and it obviously upset Penny because she pulled out some of her chest feathers. Not down to the skin, but certainly down to the fluffy bits. So, they now get let out at separate times and all is well. However I really didn’t want her to start plucking properly and I read about Animalzone Parrot Foods, the one that caught my eye was the Plumage Enhancer. I phoned Animalzone and spoke to a nice guy called Phil who explained about the Plumage Enhancer and the good reports that they have had about parrots feathers growing back, less plucking noticed and the general well being of the parrot would be better. Yeah, yeah, heard it all before. Penny isn’t one for playing with toys, she is quite happy sitting on her perch and whistling the A Team theme tune, calling like a seagull and beeping like a smoke alarm, so what could the Plumage Enhancer do for her? Phil said to give it six weeks, give it a fair trial and see what happens. This is an excerpt from her diary:-

Tuesday 25th October Day 1

Today is day one of the new Animalzone diet for Penny, Charlie is on it as well but it’s Penny who is the subject of this diet change to see if it can help her with her feathers. So, today no other food given and she treated all the new food with her usual suspicious attitude, picking through it to try and see if I’d hidden any of her usual pellets in there, no such luck though, it’s all Animalzone food. I put in a handful of Plumage Enhancer, a handful of Muesli and half a handful of Fruit Sticks…I don’t think she ate much more than a few tiny pieces from the Museli.

Wednesday 26th October Day 2

Not much eaten on Tuesday at all, certainly none of the Plumage Enhancer and a fair bit was on the floor of the cage. I emptied what was left out of the bowl and put it in a container (it will do for birdy bread) refilled her bowl with the same quantities as yesterday. Again, she picked a bit at the museli and not a lot else when I first put it in. By midday she was a little bit more inquisitive about the food and picked at a fruit stick or two. At supper time…..she ate and ate and ate the Plumage Enhancer, Museli bits and Fruit Sticks, so we are on our way!

Thursday 27th October Day 3

Wow, she has eaten loads overnight, still a bit left in her bowl so that’s gone to the container for the birdy bread. I filled her bowl and she couldn’t wait, straight in and eating the Plumage Enhancer first. So, we have success, now it’s a matter of keeping it up and taking photos to see if there is any improvement like Animalzone claim. I’m very sceptical to be honest, Penny is the kind of bird that lets her feathers (flight & tail feathers) grow to about an inch long and then nips them right back. She doesn’t pluck out the entire feather and doesn’t have bald patches, but she nips at her feathers so much. I’m not sure if the wing feather follicles have been damaged, so maybe those flight feathers will never grow. Only time will tell.

Tuesday 1st November Day 8

Penny continues to eat almost everything I put in her dish for her from Animalzone, so I know she is getting all the nutrients, vitamins etc that she needs. I don’t know if I’m looking too hard but I can see a difference in her in general, not with her feathers yet because that is very early days although the ones that she has look better. She seems to be more alert, more active and more like a parrot. It’s very hard to describe unless you knew her before the pellets.

Monday 14th November Day 21

I know it has been a while since I did this diary, but really there has been nothing of significance to report, Penny continues to eat the food given to her and she is looking a lot better. I noticed over the past week that she has let two wing feathers grow. One is the longest she has ever let it grow, it’s about 3 inches in length and not been nipped!!! On her other wing there is another feather growing which is about 2 inches in length and not been nipped! I am keeping everything crossed in the hope that she leaves them alone. So, three weeks into the new Animalzone diet and yes, I can see a big difference from when she first started.

Wednesday 30th November Day 37

We have had the painters decorating the outside of our house and it has freaked Penny out. I haven’t been able to move her to different rooms because her cage is way too big. I’ve done all I can to minimize the trauma for her. However, she has still found it necessary to pluck at one of her feathers and make it bleed. As you may or may not know, Penny absolutely hates me, she can’t be handled by me or my partner although she allows him to scratch her head, I can’t even walk too closely to the cage without getting lunged at. So, if she bleeds we just have to keep a really close eye on it and hope and pray that it stops. So far so good, we have only seen three drops and then it seems to stop. If I thought for one minute that there was any danger for her, no matter what, I would get in the cage and towel her and rush her to the vets, there is no two ways about it. I just don’t do it immediately because the stress of that would make her pluck even more. Sometimes it’s best to let them get on with it before rushing in and doing what we think is the right thing to do.

Saturday 3rd December Day 40

Well here we are on day 40, that is almost six weeks since starting Penny on Animalzone food. When I first put her on the food, I was told by Phil of Animalzone to give it six weeks and I should see a difference. Well…there are an awful lot of foodstuff, lotions and potions that claim to be the cure for plucking out there on the market, so why should Animalzone be any different but I was willing to give it a go and to keep this diary to prove a point either way. This morning I had a look at Penny, usually it’s a look to see how she is doing, has she plucked, has she made herself bleed, etc etc. this morning however, I had a look, a really good look and wow!!! We have pin feathers on her throat and neck, we have feathers growing nicely on her wings (I know if these are flight feathers I’m going to be in trouble when she flies hahaha) we have tail feathers growing! Her general appearance is looking good, yes we have nipped feathers that still need to moult out and yes she has nipped a few more while the painters have been around but all in all, Penny is looking so much better than she did six weeks ago! I am really hoping that she lets these feathers grow, in the past she has let them get to a certain length and then nips them off, only time will tell I guess, but all in all, Animalzone Parrot Foods seems to do what it claims to do and even if we have the odd set back and a quick pluck or nip, the food is well received by both of my African Greys, they love it and therefore I will continue to feed it to them.

Penny is coming along nicely, she has settled in so well that we thought it was about time we let them out together to see what happens. Well, they had a bit of a beaking session, nothing too serious and they went on their merry way, doing whatever they wanted to do. So that was good, now they come out to play together all the time and so far so good, no nastiness at all. Penny let her tail feathers grow, she had four lovely long feathers unfortunately…..they got nipped off.

She continues to nip her feathers but as I’ve said before, what will be will be, I’m not going to try and stop her because I think that will put more pressure and stress on her and as long as she doesn’t start to mutilate herself by biting her skin, then maybe one day she will give up. When that day comes and if she ever flies, I will be running for cover, she absolutely hates me with every feather on her body hahaha. It’s a good job I love her to bits otherwise I could be offended by her continually lunging at me to take a chunk out of the nearest bit of my flesh.

My partner Darryl on the other hand is a different thing all together, she loves him so much she regurgitates her food (yukky) obviously not a thing to be encouraged but it is nice to know that she trusts him so much and has someone who can actually give her head scratches. I don’t quite know what I’ve done that was so wrong for her, maybe I just exist and that’s enough hahaha.

All in all Penny is doing really well, she is eating well and using some of her toys to preen, she doesn’t play with an awful lot, but just the preening part will give her feathers a bit of a rest. She’s a little darling that’s for sure, I love her to bits and I think it’s because to me she is really fiesty and stroppy that makes her so much more appealing, she is certainly her own bird and I don’t think she will be changing in a hurry.