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Hector Update and NEW fosters!

Heard from the vet yesterday regarding Hector’s blood tests. He said for the most part they were “unremarkable” which is good, but her fat levels were a bit high. I had been feeding her a bit more seed than usual with Magoo here, so we are wondering if (hopefully) it is just a result of that.

He wants Hector on a very restricted diet for 30 days. Basically she can eat non-starchy veggies and parrot pellets. No nuts! She is not a happy girl, but I’m trying. I bought a ton of fresh veggies today and made her a fresh chop. She at least picked at it. I feel bad she doesn’t understand what is going on. Hopefully, blood work in 30 days will be back to normal and I can adjust her diet and give her back some fun treats!

In other news, I picked up new fosters this afternoon! I was supposed to foster a rat that needed some extra TLC, but apparently the poor rat was in worse shape than they originally thought and he had to be euthanized. The shelter asked if I would be willing to take on some mice. Apparently over 1000 mice were just taken in by another local shelter, and the other shelters in the area are all trying to take some to help.

Thelma and Louise are on pregnancy watch, so they can’t be adopted yet. One of them looks pretty round to me, the other not so much. We’ll see what happens. I wouldn’t be surprised to see baby mice any day now, exciting! Of course I’ll share more info as I have it.

Hector Goes to the Vet

It’s been too long since Hector has had a check up. I’ve known this for a while, but have hesitated for various reasons, my Avian vet is an hour away, the mobile vet I found is super expensive, she seems fine and healthy, I don’t want to put her through the stress of a vet visit, etc.

With having two foster birds in the last few months, it made me think about the fact that Hector isn’t getting any younger. In fact, she’ll be 32 in January.

When I met the adoptive parents for the last cockatoo I had, they mentioned an Avian vet that is only 20 minutes from me. I decided it was time Hector had a check up. After having that thought, I also started realizing that Hector was drinking a bit more than usual.

I called the new vet earlier this week, and they were able to get me in this morning. The vet was awesome! I am shocked at how well behaved Hector was for him. Hector steps up for me, when she feels like it. She lets me scratch her head, when she feels like it. Today she just did whatever that vet asked of her like it was nothing. It was almost like she realized there was no point in fighting this guy. He was going to do what he wanted, and she should just cooperate. I half expected the poor vet to end up with bloody fingers, but no, Hector was an angel.

The vet said she looked great from the visual exam, but birds are good at hiding things. Considering how long it had been since she had a check up (about 10 years) we decided to do blood work, and a urinalysis. The vet said they usually have to do a mild tranquilizer to do the blood draw, but Hector was perfect for that as well and didn’t have to be sedated!

It turns out the Bird Street Bistro food that I’ve been feeding might not be the best base food for Hector now that she is getting older. The vet wants to wait until we get all the test results back, and then he will give me more specific diet feedback. As she is getting older, less grains and pastas is probably going to be a healthier choice for Hector. She’s not going to be happy about that!

Books say captive grays average life expectancy is about 50 years, but I’ve always found that a bit hard to believe in my personal experience. I asked this vet what he thought about average life expectancy for greys. The first thing he asked me was if I knew about Dr. Pepperberg and Alex the parrot and if I had read her book, which I have. He reminded me that Alex had the very best of care all his life, and he lived to be 34. He said in his experience anything beyond the 30s is rare. He said a 40 year old African Grey is like a 90 year old man. It happens, but it’s not the most common thing. I’m having a really hard time processing that thought.

I’ll update when I get test results.

The Hardest Part of Fostering…

I think any foster parent would agree that the hardest part of fostering is saying good bye!

The house is really quiet today. The extra cage has been cleaned and moved to the garage to be returned to the shelter. Spare toys and perches are drying on a towel after being cleaned.

On Saturday, I brought Magoo back to the shelter to go home with his new parents. They seem like lovely people, and Magoo really seemed to like them. I was able to meet them and introduce them to Magoo a couple of weeks ago. I miss his little baby voice yelling “hello” and “Scratch Head!” but I do feel like I did the right thing letting him go.

We like to travel, and we are very lucky that Hector D. Byrd does OK with alone time. She enjoys our company, no doubt about that, but she is also fine with daily visits and background music when we go away for a few days. With Magoo already being nervous and plucking, us traveling isn’t great for him. His new home has people that are home a lot and other birds to keep him company.

Another reason I feel good about him moving on, I didn’t realize until his new people picked him up. Apparently, he stepped right up for the new people, and he never really wanted to step up for me. He liked me, he let me pat his head, but I realized when I saw him with his new people, that he hadn’t chosen me. Birds are really picky, and they know who they like.

When the new people came to meet Magoo, he really liked them. He talked to them, he had them scratch his head, and he even kept yelling “Bye Bye” when they left.

I really enjoy fostering. I get to know different animals, and I get to help them acclimate to home life. It frees up shelter space for another animal in need. With Magoo being adopted, I’ve got room for another foster whenever the right new friend comes along! I miss you already Magoo, but I’m so happy that you seem to have found new people to spend the rest of your life with!

One other note, parrot food related. I have talked about Bird Street Bistro, a food I use daily and love. The people that adopted Magoo introduced me to a new parrot food that I’m really excited about called Avian Naturals. They make several different mixes, some can just be fed straight from the bag, others you add an equal amount of hot water, let it sit, and feed when it cools a bit. The thing I love about these mixes is that they are full of dried veggies, fruits, nuts, seeds. Bird Street Bistro is awesome, but it is very grain-heavy. I always supplement it with other fruits and veggies. My plan now is to use both of these foods, so that Hector gets a nice balanced mix of fruits and veggies instead of me just feeding her whatever we have. Avian Naturals has great deals on their samples. You can order 1/4 baggies of their mixes to try out. I ordered four of their mix with water blends, and 4 of the just feed it straight blends. So far Hector’s favorite is the “Comet’s Grain Free Mix” which is one of the mixes that is fed directly, and it is full of bits of nuts, veggies, fruits, and seeds. It’s a perfect addition to her normal Bird Street Bistro mix.

I usually feed Hector in the morning, then she has free choice pellets always available, and she gets bites of any fruits and veggies that I’m eating or cooking with throughout the day. The mix with water blend from Avian Naturals feels like it could be a great afternoon snack since I can just mix up a tablespoon of it anytime and give Hector a nice, warm treat!

What do you feed your pet birds? I’m always interested in trying new things!

What Happened to Summer?!?

I guess the summer got away from me! I can’t believe I haven’t written since June! I definitely have some news to share.

A couple of weeks ago I got a call from a shelter I volunteer at. They had another Cockatoo in need of foster. How could I say no?

This guy has been through a lot. I don’t know very much about him, I just know that he is currently in the care of the shelter and not available for adoption. He wasn’t doing well at the shelter and had been plucking his feathers, so now he is with me. Still plucking his feathers, but I think to a lesser extent. He’s a really good boy. He doesn’t scream much, he loves to have his head scratched, and he talks in the cutest little baby voice. I’m not sure how long he will be staying with me, but I’m in no rush to give him back!

I did another Humane Education event on National Cat Day, August 8th. I got to bring three adorable six week old kittens to a library story time. The librarian read a story about cats, I talked about the shelter, and then I told the kids and parents about taking care of kittens. After that, we brought the kittens out for everyone to pat and visit with. The kittens did a great job! I love bringing shelter animals out to meet the public!

Another fun thing this summer, I went to a Renaissance Festival and got to watch a Hawk Talk. He had a Harris Hawk and a Red tailed Hawk with him. So cool to see these birds up close! Dave knew how much I liked it, and signed us up to go on a Hawk Walk! I’m so excited! We will basically get to go out with a trainer and a hawk while the bird hunts. We’ll learn about all things hawk. I can’t wait!

The house pets are mostly doing OK. Cali had terrible allergies a couple of weeks ago. I had scheduled her allergy shot and the night before she was due to go to the vet, she woke me up at 3AM. The poor thing was scratching at her ears and crying. I was able to clean her ears a bit, and apply some Animax wound cream that I had. I also gave her a Benadryl. It all helped and she was fine for the rest of the night. She got her ears checked and her allergy shot the next day and she has been fine since.

While she was at the vet, we did her routine bloodwork that would have been due next month. I was really hoping her Kidney values had improved, but they basically stayed the same. The vet was happy that they hadn’t gotten worse, so that’s a good thing. She did have a bit of protein in her urine which may be nothing or maybe something we need to dig into further. For now, we are going to keep doing what we are doing with the low protein diet and the same medication, and we will retest her urine in a couple of months.

Puck and Bean are doing well. They just didn’t want to be left out of the update!

My son’s cat Martin has been having a rough time lately. He pees on the couch sometimes. It happened a few months ago, then didn’t happen for a long time, and then started happening again a bit more regularly. I took Martin to the vet last week to make sure he didn’t have a UTI or anything health-related going on, and the vet couldn’t find anything. They suggested a kidney-friendly food with some calming ingredients in it, and some other things like Feliway diffusers to help with stress.

Martin had a good week at my son’s, but has been acting strangely since he came back here a few days ago. He’s been a bit quiet, hiding more than usual, and we did find a bit of urine on the couch. Last night, Puck and Bean went after Martin. These cats have always gotten along. Puck and Martin have been playing together for years with no issues, so this was really strange behavior. I separated Martin and Martha from my two cats for the night. This morning, I let everyone out together again, and they gave each other a sniff, but there hasn’t been any fighting. A strange thing happened, I noticed the upstairs litter box was super smelly, and there was a HUGE pee puddle in there. I cleaned the box out well, but I did mention it to my husband wondering if it was related to Martin’s issues. My husband said he had noticed the exact same thing in our downstairs litter box this morning. Since finding the really big spots, Martin has been acting better. He’s been out and friendly and seeking pats like he usually does. He ate a bunch of canned food, and the other cats are acting normally around him again.

I’m wondering if it is possible that maybe he had some kind of blockage that was bothering him, and now he was able to release it, but I’m not a vet. We’ll keep an eye on him and I have a follow up vet appointment scheduled for Friday. Of course I’ll get him looked at sooner if something changes.

I think that’s all my updates for now. I do have a new pet water fountain that I want to review here, but I’ll save that for later this week after I’ve had a little more time to use it.

Happy Labor Day weekend! Are you doing anything special with your pets this long weekend?

Foster Update

Foster puppy was adorable, but I decided I couldn’t keep up. I’m dealing with a pinched nerve, and not sleeping well. Maybe it’s me and I’m just not cut out to foster. It’s hard to say since I haven’t been feeling well.

I took her to an adoption event last Thursday night. She was great! She greeted all the strange people and other dogs with enthusiasm. She ate all the treats everyone offered her and even posed for pictures.

Keeping her through her adoption was really my goal, but I found my patience was thin. I enjoyed all the daily walks for the most part, but the early morning and late night walks got old when I wasn’t feeling well. I reached out to our foster network and thankfully another family was willing to take her on. I delivered her to them last Saturday, and I feel like it was the right decision for me. I hope she gets adopted soon!

I am definitely not giving up on volunteering. I have another shift scheduled to help out at the rescue next week, but I think fostering is a bit too much of a full time job for me right now. My plan will be to try fostering again when I’m feeling better, but maybe a short term foster to see how it goes.

Our son was home with his two cats last weekend. I love how bonded these two cats are! We joke that the new kitten was a birthday present for his cat Martin, but it really seems like Martin appreciates the gift! It has worked out beautifully! The cats entertain each other and my son doesn’t get woken up in the middle of the night.

They sleep snuggled like this all the time. Martin grooms her and takes great care of her! I’m so glad it has worked out well for my son, and also very thankful that our two cats are fine with the new addition and all four cats get along great when they come to visit.

Happy Summer everyone! Stay cool and enjoy your pets!

Foster Puppy #2 – Venus!

I brought home a foster puppy on Sunday. So far so good! Yes, I almost sent her back yesterday when I woke up really sore and cranky, didn’t want to get out of bed, and then was greeted with a crate of puppy and poop, but I stuck it out.

Her name is Venus. I’m fostering through Mary’s Dogs in Northwood, NH. She’s about 4 months old, and a typical Southern Mutt Mix. She mostly keeps her crate clean, and she asks to go out. Knocking on some wood, but so far no accidents other than her crate, and only first thing in the morning. She sleeps through the night without making a peep. She’s really a model puppy.

She does well on a leash, she loves everyone she has met human and canine, and she especially seems to love kids. She’s learning “sit,” “off” and “no,” and she mostly comes when she is called. She will probably grow up to be a medium size dog. I don’t think she she will be huge. She’s interested in our cats, but not aggressive so I think with some training she could live with cats just fine.

The ears are too cute!

She loves being outside.

She’s learning to be a pretty good work at home buddy. She does get a little antsy after an hour or so of self play, but she is a baby.

Puck and Cali aren’t impressed. Hector likes to laugh at her. I forgot how much work puppies are, but I’m enjoying the required multiple walks per day!

We took her to an outdoor food truck park last night and she was amazing! She sat quietly while we chatted with friends. She was great greeting humans and canines and especially loved all the kids that wanted to pat her. I hope someone scoops her up soon.

She is a little timid about new things. She shook the first time we turned on TV, and she didn’t like walking on our wood floors. Stairs were scary, but she is figuring them out.

Anyone else ever foster? It’s a lot of work, but so rewarding!

When to add a new puppy?

As the nice weather finally approaches here in New England, I find myself wanting to add a puppy to the family more and more.

When is the right time? Do I want a second dog? I liked having two dogs when I’ve done it in the past, but right now, dealing with two dogs sometimes seems a bit overwhelming.

The other day I ordered flea, tick, and heart worm preventative from my vet. Granted, I ordered six months worth, but it cost me almost $200. Maybe I don’t want a second dog?

I was pouring over Facebook pictures looking at all the cute adoptable puppies in the world, and then Cali started peeing in the house. The vet wanted to do a urine test. Another $100 on testing an antibiotics, do I want a second dog?

As Cali gets older, I think about how fun it would be to train a new puppy, then I got injured. Now I’m not even volunteering currently. It’s taking everything I’ve got to keep up with what I have to do, and there isn’t room for anything extra. Maybe a second dog isn’t a good idea.

I was chatting with my daughter, and mentioned wanting a second dog. She suggested maybe this Fall would be a good time, once all the crazy summer happenings are over, but then I realized that I’m out of the house a ton in October.

Today I was talking to my Dad and he mentioned how his puppy is driving his older dog a little crazy. Maybe Cali would hate having a puppy in the house?

Cali is pretty high maintenance right now. She’s got kidney disease and has daily medication along with special food needs. It feels like she ends up at the vet almost monthly with something. She’s still recovering from the torn ligament in her hind leg and needs monitoring when she exercises, so playing with a puppy might be too much for her even if she wants to play with it.

It feels like the universe is telling me that now isn’t the time. Will I stop looking at adoptable dogs online? Never? I think for now I stick with fostering, volunteering, and enjoy Cali’s senior years with her.

With all the time I spend volunteering, maybe the right dog will fall into my arms at the right time and I won’t have to look too hard.

How do you decide when it is the right time to add a new pet to your family? Let me know in the comments.

Volunteering Update

Puck says TGIF! He’s bit tired today, who knows why. Our son got a new kitten and he is home for the weekend with his cat and the new kitten. Strangely, my two cats are so excited to see their friend Martin, that they haven’t really paid any attention to the new kitten. It’s been a nice and uneventful introduction.

Here’s Martin and the yet-unnamed girl kitten. She’s tiny and sweet.

Cali is doing so much better! She’s still eating the Dr. Harvey’s food that I mentioned in a previous post. I think we have found a winner! I’ve cut her pain meds down to once a day, and I’m slowly backing off of them all together. We took her hiking last weekend and she did great! I was a little nervous about her over doing it, so I did pick her up and carry her a couple of times, but that was more me than her. We hiked about 2 miles, and she came home and slept well, but it didn’t seem to bother her leg any more than usual.

I enjoyed pulling out my old baby sling for her, and it worked great!

My foster friend Kanga the cockatoo, now hates me. I’ve volunteered at the shelter to take care of the parrots a few times since I had to bring him back, and he just ignores me. He won’t dance or interact with me at all. This week, he just went to the back of his cage and wouldn’t even take a treat when I offered it. I think it’s really me that he is upset with. Parrots are so smart. I see videos of him dancing and playing with our volunteers and staff members. Sorry I had to bring you back Kanga, you were just too loud for our house!

I have been making progress with some of the other birds at the shelter. There is one macaw left and he is huge! No denying that I’m a bit intimidated by him. He has tried to step up on to my arm a few times in past visits and I just wasn’t comfortable with it. That beak is huge!

This week I got brave and let him step up. He was great! We walked across the room and got a treat which I gave him as soon as he stepped back on to his cage. I picked him up again a little while later and we went and sat in a chair. I talked to him and scratched his head for a bit. He’s heavy! I had to rest my arm on my knee so that I could hold him up after a while. He got another treat when he stepped back on his cage. It was all very uneventful, in a good way. It’s such a cool opportunity to be able to spend quality time with these big birds!

I also made friends with an Amazon parrot. He won’t step up for me, but he is taking treats from my hand now, definite progress.

I’m really going to miss these birds when they all get adopted! Of course, I’ll be very happy when they all have permanent homes, but I have really enjoyed the experience of working with them and having a foster parrot.

New for me, I started training as a Lobby Greeter at the shelter this week. I think I’m going to love this position. I meet people as they come in to the shelter and help point them in the right direction for whatever animal they are looking for. While I was there this week, I saw two dogs, a cat, and a bunny get adopted! So rewarding to see excited people and happy animals leaving the shelter!

The dragon realized there is sunshine on the cat bed next to her cage, so I let her come out and hang there while I worked the other day, she loved it! She spent some time in the actual cat bed, then wandered over to stare at me for a bit. The cats aren’t sure they like sharing their bed, but they can share for a short time in the afternoon once in a while. Once it warms up outside, I’ll bring the dragon outside for some real sunshine. She even has a little harness and leash!

Have a great weekend. I’m hoping to get Cali out for another short hike, and also hoping the cat introductions continue to go peacefully. Comment and let me know what you are up to this weekend.

Foster Return & Cali Update

Sadly, I had to return the foster bird on Monday. When I was home alone, he was lovely. He was sweet and fun. We danced together, he loved his toys and his treats. He called to me in his sweet little voice when I was out of sight, “hey, hi, hey baby.”

Sadly, Monster bird showed up whenever anyone else dared to come in the house. The screaming was horrific whenever my husband or niece were around. He even flew at my niece and landed on her, scary! Having my husband feed him treats didn’t seem to help at all. He would take the treats, some times he would try to bite the hand that fed him, and he still screamed.

I miss the morning dance parties, and that sweet little voice, but the screaming was making our house a very stressful place to be!

Hector D. Byrd was not the least bit interested in her foster friend. They barely looked at each other in the weeks K was here. Hector is very happy to once again rule the roost!

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Cali is doing OK. I tried to wean her off the pain meds, but it was clear that she still needs them. Another laser treatment today, hopefully it continues to help.

It has been a real challenge to find a kidney-friendly food that Cali will eat. I’ve probably gone through half a dozen of them. She eats for a couple of days, I order more of the expensive prescription food, and then she stops eating it.

Thankfully, she has been eating Dr. Harvey’s food pretty well for a couple of weeks now. I’m working with them to customize some kidney friendly food for her. They make an easy to use dry mix that just requires fresh protein, water and oil. Dr. Harvey’s even offers an amazing, free service to help customize their diets. They have a nutritionist on staff who called me to help me work out the healthiest diet for Cali. She even had me send in a copy of Cali’s blood test results so she could see everything that was going on with her.

Cali is eating the Canine Health formula and they are sending me a trial of their Paradigm food as well. The plan is to very slowly add some of the Paradigm to the Canine Health formula to see if we can get my picky eater to accept it. The food is super easy to use. Cali’s recipe is 2.5 oz of protein per day. I froze a bunch of different types of protein, chicken, ground turkey, ground pork, in 2.5 oz portions so I can just grab a protein from the freezer, steam it while the dry mix sits with warm water in it, add the protein and feed half to Cali for each of her meals.

Dr. Harvey’s also makes a Kidney supplement that I’m adding to Cali’s meals on the recommendation of their dietician.

From Cali’s blood work the dietician also noticed her blood sugar was a bit high, so she suggested I stop feeding Cali carrots as treats, and adding the vegetable-heavy Paradigm food to the Canine Health formula should help as well. I thought with her kidney issues I was doing a good thing with carrots, but they are too starchy. I even got advice on the best ways to give Cali her pills since commercial pill pockets I had been using also have a bunch of protein. Now I’m trying little bread balls to hide her pills, and baby food green beans and broccoli that don’t have protein or high starch. With a little luck all this healthy food will help, and it may even help the allergies Cali has always had!

Cali and Kanga and Hector!

Puck wanted to make sure he wasn’t forgotten when I blogged today! He’s such a thoughtful boy!

Cali is still really enjoying this cat bed! She’s had three laser treatments now and I really think they are helping. She’s starting to use her injured leg much more regularly. I’ve noticed her using it quite a bit when she is walking, but she still holds it up when she runs. She is going to have her 4th laser treatment tomorrow, and then we will go to once a week treatments for a couple of weeks to see how she does. I happened to notice on Amazon yesterday that it is possible to buy a cold laser treatment tool to use at home. I’m thinking this might be a good thing to invest in, not just for Cali, but also for me! Does anyone own a home laser tool? If so, let me know how you like it.

Hector seems to be developing a little curiosity about Kanga. I keep a dog pen around the two bird cages to keep the cats from getting too close to my feathered friends. Yesterday, Hector climbed onto the top of the pen and climbed her way over by Kanga’s cage. Neither bird has shown any signs of aggression towards each other’s but obviously I haven’t allowed them to touch. Hector just “walked” the entire length of the fence, checked out Kanga and headed back to her own side. She did that back and forth a few times, never trying to climb onto Kanga’s cage, just looking curiously.

Hector has never been a super destructive bird. Her favorite is really cardboard. She loves to chew up boxes. She chews on soft wood toys, but she nibbles, and doesn’t destroy things like Kanga. Kanga is a machine when it comes to destroying toys! Give him a wood block and I’m lucky it if entertains him for 10 minutes.

I have noticed some really interesting behavior in Kanga over the last couple of days. I’ve learned Kanga doesn’t really like men. He gets nervous and aggressive when my son or husband are around. Last week my son was back at his place and my husband was traveling so it was just me. Kanga was great, no screaming issues, he played and did his thing. As soon as my husband got home on Sunday, the screaming started again. I had to close him in his cage a couple of times because the screaming just wouldn’t stop. Yesterday, my husband started feeding Kanga his favorite Nutriberri treats. The screaming was better last night. I’m hoping if my husband keeps offering treats that maybe K will learn he’s OK and he isn’t going to hurt him.

I volunteered at Mary’s Dogs in Northwood, New Hampshire again this past weekend. They just got in a new batch of puppies from the South and they are all so cute! What could be a better volunteer job than snuggling and playing with puppies! I love it!

Enjoy the puppy pictures and have a pet-friendly day!