Friday 3 August 2012

Chewie update, 14weeks, 5 days

Sorry that I haven't been able to do a update for some time.  Life has been very hectic and any spare time we have is spent with Chewie.
Chewie loves his bigger cage, I made sure everything was close to the previous set up and after a few weeks he stopped only sitting on his ladders and now sits on his calcium perch.
I am still very concerned about his feet cramping as he does sit on the ladders alot more than any other perch, so I purchased a bird gym made with native branches and have placed it infront of the window as I had noticed he liked to sit infront of the window and feel the warm sun.  But he gets distressed if alone in any room and out of his cage so someone sits at the piano and talks while he is excising his feet on the branches.
I unfortunately don't think he will ever be able to have a cage mate.  We believe he has a small amount of sight in his right eye but none in his left as we have noticed that we can get our hand close enough to touch his head if we come from the left (we will not touch his head as he hates it, except for a medical reason), but coming from the right when we get within 2 inches he tries to bite, it is clear he has no idea the exact position or what it is coming near him as he misses most of the time, but is clearly scared.  So when I get the budgies out to spend time with him he is fine until they get within 2 inches on his right then he tries to bite them, note if they make noise on their approach from any direction he will try to bite.  His bites are not hard they are just a warning.
So I stress again the importance of human contact, as he can't play with toys or spend time with another bird he really needs human interaction.  My son gets up an hour earlier than he needs to each morning so he is ready early for school or his weekend activities and from between 7 and 730am spends 45mins to a hour with Chewie.  Chewie now goes to the calcium perch near his door and calls for him at this time every day.
His crest has now nearly fully regrown, which is lovely to see.
He still tries to fly and crashes into everything, but he also likes when he is on your hand to grip his claws in and spread his wings and flap like mad.
He wont eat anything but seed, I put sprouts, assorted fruit and veg in his cage everyday (I bought multiple identical bowls for this purpose) and he searches for the seed and then walks away.  Frustration to the max, he is young so I will continue to persevere on this.
He is very happy and makes us soooo happy.
The rule in the house is if you are watching TV or listening to Music get Chewie out and have him on your hand as he loves to feel us.  And if you are practicing piano get him out onto his Gym or the pot of herbs infront of the window to enjoy the sun.
Also though he loves to be on your shoulder, if your hair brushes him he gives his warning bite so I have banned anyone having him on their should incase one day his gentle warning comes into contact with a face and his harder than normal.
We finally have a solution to bathing him, I bought a foot soaking tub and I fill it to about 2-3cm deep warm water and put it infront of the window in the sun and then place him in it saying splashes and dripping the water all over him, he isn't as stressed by this as any other method I have tried and the resulting preening of his entire self instead of just his wings and chest results in a clean tail, etc.  I have started putting the budgies in with him and he doesn't bite during this like other shared time.
Photos to follow of his crest and Gym, as I am uploading them from my phone the will be in a seperate post.

3 comments:

  1. Just wondering how Chewie is doing?

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  2. Hi
    Chewie is doing great. For his humans thought it has been a very hard time recently, my Mum died while my daughter was in Hospital. Our dog has gone a little more crazy lol, I guess all the crying really confused her.
    My response was so long I have cut and pasted it as a new post. :)

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