Mysterious Happenings

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Recently Spike acquired a dark spot above her nostrils – it looked like she’d been playing in newsprint. The problem with that assumption was we never saw her playing with her papers. We just couldn’t think of any other reason for the dirty spot. I kept trying to wash it off her feathers and it would get lighter, then a few days later it was dark again. Weird.
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Finally Mark saw what was happening. Spike likes to chew rawhide. We take 6 strands of leather strips and tie them in to a huge knot ball and she unites and chews it until there’s almost nothing left. The knot ball is hung with a quick link to a plastic chain that’s in her cage. Spike had the ball down to just a few knots and strands and as she was chewing at what was left, she was leaning her head against the quick link – the metal was leaving a grey stain on her white feathers. Mark made her a new knot ball and hung it up a little higher. Problem solved.

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We went out to dinner a few nights ago, then did a few errands and stopped to visit some friends. We were gone about 4 hours. When we got home we went upstairs to watch TV and hold the birds. Emelio was happily strutting around on the top of his cage!

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I had been in the bird room just before we left to change water. Every time I do that Emelio has to come out of his cage and go to the counter until I’m done. It’s one of his favorite things to do. I know I shut his cage door, but I must not have put the latch down properly, which allowed him to open the door. He did stay on his cage – which was good – but it made me nervous anyway.
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There’s a ceiling fan in the bird room because the ceilings are high and it helps keep the room warm. The switches for the lights and the fan are on the outside of the door, so the fan gets turned off before we enter – some of our birds are fully flighted and a collision with a running fan would be awful. We try to anticipate these kinds of dangers and eliminate them, but man, sometimes you just can’t.
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Cathy


PS –If you have a bird please do not use regular leather for his toys. In order for leather to be safe for birds it must be vegetable tanned. It can be purchased on line.

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