Brian is going through a molt. When new feathers grow in, they have a sheath around them that is removed during preening. In the wild, mates/other flock members take care of the feathers the bird can't reach, such as head ones. But in captivity, solitary birds don't have that option.
Helping parrots preen their pin feathers can be a great bonding experience. I frequently do this with parrots at the rescue; however my greys and caiques are experts at getting their own head feathers -- they don't need any help. Rocky does need help, but obviously that task falls to Thomas as I would only upset him and get bit should I try!
Brian is another story. He obviously needs help, but tries to bite us when we offer aid. You can see how he has a ton of pin feathers on his head:
If he doesn't end up getting them soon, we may have no choice but to quickly preen them.
Of course, the other option would be to get him a budgie friend and they could take care of each other, but I might be looking at divorce if I brought someone else home at this point, so Brian is stuck with human help.
4 comments:
Yep my quakers are going through a molt also and they preen each other and im glad because it is one less job I have to do for them .
I adore helping my parrots rid themselves of the sheathes on their pinnies. Bandit, my Nanday, makes sure I know when he has new ones because he likes taking the little bits of sheath right out of my fingers and eats them right up.
Awwwww. I just want to pick him up and help him out with those things.
Do you have a friend with a budgie the two of you could visit from time to time ? , They might ge t along and they might not but it might be worth the effort.
PS; I missed you , Had no connection since the first of june
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