Monday, September 27, 2010

Give Us Us C!

Tonight during bird/hammock time, I noticed blood on Kawi's wings. When a bird's feathers are first coming in, they grow out of long, straw-like shafts. If one of these shafts breaks, the shaft acts like a needle drawing blood out of the bird until there isn't any left. Even if you catch it early, the bird may never recover from the blood loss, so blood on a bird isn't something to take lightly.

Kawi and I took a trip to his pet store where the owner, Esther, greeted him and he jabbered sweetly to her about some secret those two hold. It always turns out so badly, and yet each time he still loves her again. I pointed out the spotting and worried I had cut his wings too close, something I have never done before. Kawi is one of those rare birds who can still fly with his wings trimmed, so you have to keep them extra trim.

At first she didn't find anything, but something was causing him pain, so she looked closer. Sure enough, he had a new feather coming in that was broken and bleeding. She suspected that Kawi had been biting at it. In moments she pulled the two inch shaft out, covered in blood, and poor Kawi was so traumatized that not even a visit to the other birds snapped him out of it. I kept Penelope in her cage the rest of the night so he could be post-surgery-bird without any worries.

Earlier he wandered through the house searching for C. He searched the rooms, the closets, the bathrooms...  C will be home tomorrow, and we will all be so glad to have him home again. See a video of Penelope clowning around on the hammock today. Maybe someday she'll learn some moves like these:

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