thepawandfeatherplan

 Sweet Pea continues to interact more with her enrichment items and toys.      Her 1st week or so here she wouldn't even sit on the other perches we had bought her, and would only use the 2 that came with her cage.  She didn't interact with her bird toys, or sit on her rope swing.  She wasn't used to having items in her cage, and this 'stuff to do.'  Sweet Pea stepping out!     This is likely one reason she began plucking at some point- a bird will 'go to its body' to have something to do, with which to interact, to feel they have a job/purpose, when they don't have a lot of enrichment options.  -This is what we've learned from bird behaviorist videos and writings.        T he idea is for Sweet Pea to start interacting with, and enjoying, her environment more, and ideally: plucking less to not at all.  Sweet Pea hanging out on her rope swing     So it's a huge deal that she's playing with her toys... gr...

We heard about Sweet Pea while we were still on vacation, in late November.      Her owners had been tragically killed in a car crash on Thanksgiving Day.  The woman had bought Sweet Pea as a baby Macaw from a breeder in central Ky. 25 years ago.       When I spoke with the adult daughter of Sweet Pea's owners, naturally I asked lots of questions.      I found out that Sweet Pea's owner, we'll call her Debbie, had bottle-fed Sweet Pea as a baby macaw.  -Just an interesting tidbit.        Sweet Pea has chronically plucked her feathers for 20 + years.  Sweet Pea's first 'portrait' in our home, 4-5 days after her arrival        When we   found this out from Debbie's adult daughter, we were nervous.  -Could we take this on?       Yes, I do love birds, but the rescue has never had an exotic, large bird, and much-less one with a neurotic-plucking disorder.  I ...