bird update

The vet seemed happy with Aziza's progress. I was startled to see that she has lost 10 more grams in 12 days since her last visit, but the vet said this was typical for birds when they are on antibiotics. They took more blood (boy, does 'Ziz' get mad!) and I'll get the results tomorrow. Hopefully there won't be any elevated cell counts (her white count was borderline high when I first took her in) or abnormal-looking cells (some of the white cells looked like they had been busy).

She is still sneezing, though. She did it a lot in the car, on the way to the vet. The vet didn't see any wetness around her nostrils, and said she might just be sneezing from an allergic reaction to something; I'm wondering if it wasn't a manefestation of the Pionus wheeze. She has been sneezing periodically at home, but not all that frequently.

She has been wanting out nearly every day, and now that I'm only medicating her once a day, she is better about stepping onto my hand.

Yesterday, I made some bird bread from a recipe the vet gave me. It's like a low-cal cornbread, with added veggies. It called for 2 cups of thawed frozen vegetables; I cooked up some black-eyed peas and also threw in some lentils. They seem to like it, though they like my soak-and-cook too, so I will probably alternate them some so they don't get too bored. Tonight for dinner I roasted some carrots and parsnips (though it is a little late in the season for those, and they were a bit past their prime), so they got some of those as well.

If nothing else, this will turn them all into good eaters - I'd like them to at least try anything I put into their dishes (I sound like the mother of toddler, don't I - make that 5 toddlers!).

I also gave the birds a bath yesterday, using a plant mister filled with hot water (it cools as it expands into mist, so the mist is just a little warm). Kianga and Ti'ki didn't want anything to do with it, but Aziza and Koga allowed me to get them pretty wet. Kelele, on the other hand, just went wild - he kept walking towards me with his feathers up, begging for more, then going down to his water dish and splashing in that; he was really enjoying himself, though he seemed genuinely puzzled that a human would be doing something that he enjoyed. He is still quite a "wild" bird - it took a long time until he would even take food from our hands, and he still doesn't quite trust people, but it seems he is really getting better. He always watches closely as I scratch Koga's head, which she very obviously enjoys, and I wonder what he's thinking. I know he would like to get those head feathers (the ones he can't quite reach) scratched as well, he just can't bring himself to allow The Evil Hand close enough. Sometimes he picks up feathers or sticks from toys and tries to scratch himself - I know greys do this in the wild as well, but it's so cute, I just want to reach over and give him a really good scratch, the poor thing. But I know that The Hand is just too scary!