Hi All.
Some weeks ago I got a call from a friend who had 'rescued' a young king parrot from a farmer who had caught her in his peanut field. I was told that they thought she had eaten too many peanuts and was losing feathers because of it and was unable to fly. I was also told that the farmer has stepped on her tail feathers pulling them out.[not sure now if this wasn't just a story]
I thought perhaps there was some truth to the peanut story as I know they are very rich food for parrots and could seee that the tail feathers were missing. I could also see and still can the yellow feathers on the back of this bird. In fact nearly 8 weeks later she is still quite colourful green and some red and yellow feathers that still look as though she is a juvenile.Will get a photo asap.
I thought it simply a matter of giving her time on a good diet or at least a better one to allow her tail feathers to grow out and we would return her to the place she was captured and let her fly free.
We kept her is a largish aviary and twice over the time brought her into the house to have a fly arpound or at least to see if she would. Nothing doing. She flutters to the ground and climbs up everything to get height. It never occured to me that she might have a broken wing as she flutters without too much trouble and I thought it must be the lack of tail feathers that was the cause of her not flying. However her tail feathers do not seem to be growing and she is definitely not flying. She lives each day in a large wattle tree above the aviary and comes down into the aviary to feed. The bird bath nearby attracts lots of birds and once she responded to a flock of redwings as though she was a baby wanting to be fed.
I am feeding her wild bird mix which she eats happily though I am told that she should not have too many sunflower seeds which of course she favours and i am not sure who is getting the bulk of the other grains, her or the mice? I have recently added fresh corn and some commercial parrot mix, called Parrott Essentials by Veta Farm which is not cheap.
I would appreciate any help anyone could give me on this matter as i would love to see her flying free.
Thank you
Angela
Note 2 possibilities to consider are Spironucleosis (have you weighed it?) which would need medication, and PBFD which is incurable and if the latter is the case, it may need to be put down.
Theoretically it should be with a registered wildlife carer. See this link for contacts: http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/help/faq#faq-13174 You seem pretty keen so you could always join a group and complete training and care for injured birds in your area.
Ryu
Canberra
Aiming for DSLR-quality shots with a bridge camera
Hey Ryu
Thanks for your help. I do not feel that either of these prognosis are correct. No symptoms that I can see of either. She has been with us at least 12 weeks and shows no sign of wasting or diarhrea.
I am a reluctant wildlife carer for macropods but have had injured birds and free 'pet' galah's much of my younger years. I prefer to spend my time now working to restore habitat rather than looking after individual animals.
cheers
Angela
Good on you, Angela. Habitat restoration is critical to Australia's future health, environmental & economic, in my opinion. Look for your name in the 2017 New Year's honours list!