Posted by karen on Sat, 06/24/2006 - 09:27
About a month ago, I took the birds along with me on vacation... 1200 miles each way to North Carolina. We rented a large beach house for a week and the birds enjoyed the extra flying space. They seemed to do great on the trip and got to be out of their carrier during most of the car ride (we made window screens so we could have windows open).
Unfortunately I think the trip might have stressed Pippin out a bit. And in Chico's case... traveling around to different places where the main familiar thing was 'his' cage maybe made him think of the cage a bit more as a nest.
Because soon after getting home, Pippin started having watery droppings and Chico started obsessively eating cuttlebone and soil.
Turns out, Chico is really a Chica; she's laid 2 eggs so far in the foot toy bowl I keep in her cage. I don't exactly WANT her laying, but she's in good health so it's not a big problem... and she just looks so sweet in there all fluffed up to cover her eggs. She's not at all protective or aggressive around the eggs either; I can reach in and scratch her neck or look at the eggs all I want.
Now, Pippin had been looking a bit depressed since Chico started laying. The two are sort-of friends and I just figured that with Chico not coming out to play much, Pippin just didn't want to either. Pippin has a particular large mirror he loves and can't fly to so as a treat I held him up to the mirror in the hopes of cheering him up. He got very excited about his reflection... and then went stiff and wide-eyed and then took off suddenly at high speed... sort of gliding to the ground but very fast and awkward. Worried about him and not thinking I scooped him up and when he was maybe 3-4 feet off the ground he suddenly managed to squirm or jump from my hand and FELL like a little rock right to the floor (and he is a good strong flier normally). Well he lay for a moment, dazed, head tilted, almost looking like he was going to die... but he slowly started to come out of it, first standing up, then looking around a little, finally getting on my finger. He still looked fluffed up and frightened, but no worse than when he had blood drawn at the vet, so I figured it was most likely shock and what he needed most was quiet time to settle down, so I put him to bed and got him to the vet as early as I could this morning. Vet drew blood to test for possible zinc/lead poisoning or other causes of a seizure, but thinks it was just an epileptic seizure, from the excitement coupled with maybe not being in 100% health, and might not ever happen again. Managed to charge $198 for everything... but I guess it is worth it to have them fit him in on a Saturday when they're busy. I just do not trust the 24 hour emergency vet that does exotics because they essentially killed a wonderful iguana I had years ago.
Unfortunately I think the trip might have stressed Pippin out a bit. And in Chico's case... traveling around to different places where the main familiar thing was 'his' cage maybe made him think of the cage a bit more as a nest.
Because soon after getting home, Pippin started having watery droppings and Chico started obsessively eating cuttlebone and soil.
Turns out, Chico is really a Chica; she's laid 2 eggs so far in the foot toy bowl I keep in her cage. I don't exactly WANT her laying, but she's in good health so it's not a big problem... and she just looks so sweet in there all fluffed up to cover her eggs. She's not at all protective or aggressive around the eggs either; I can reach in and scratch her neck or look at the eggs all I want.
Now, Pippin had been looking a bit depressed since Chico started laying. The two are sort-of friends and I just figured that with Chico not coming out to play much, Pippin just didn't want to either. Pippin has a particular large mirror he loves and can't fly to so as a treat I held him up to the mirror in the hopes of cheering him up. He got very excited about his reflection... and then went stiff and wide-eyed and then took off suddenly at high speed... sort of gliding to the ground but very fast and awkward. Worried about him and not thinking I scooped him up and when he was maybe 3-4 feet off the ground he suddenly managed to squirm or jump from my hand and FELL like a little rock right to the floor (and he is a good strong flier normally). Well he lay for a moment, dazed, head tilted, almost looking like he was going to die... but he slowly started to come out of it, first standing up, then looking around a little, finally getting on my finger. He still looked fluffed up and frightened, but no worse than when he had blood drawn at the vet, so I figured it was most likely shock and what he needed most was quiet time to settle down, so I put him to bed and got him to the vet as early as I could this morning. Vet drew blood to test for possible zinc/lead poisoning or other causes of a seizure, but thinks it was just an epileptic seizure, from the excitement coupled with maybe not being in 100% health, and might not ever happen again. Managed to charge $198 for everything... but I guess it is worth it to have them fit him in on a Saturday when they're busy. I just do not trust the 24 hour emergency vet that does exotics because they essentially killed a wonderful iguana I had years ago.