I had to take my poor old cockatiel, Da Vinci, to the vet today because he's been pulling out feathers and I needed to know why.  But transporting Da Vinci to the vet was quite the challenge, as he doesn't willingly come out of his cage.  I ended up catching him in a small towel and putting him into a shoe box, and let me tell you, he was not happy.

He was even less happy when the vet's assistant caught him exactly the same way and held him up so the vet could poke and prod at him.

There was good news and bad news.  The good news is that he doesn't have any obvious disease or parasites, he looks healthy, he's a good weight.  The bad new is he's old.  Really, really old.  He's near the very top end of lifespan for a cockatiel (he's 20.5 years old).  And that is probably the problem.  He probably has nutritional deficiencies, he's not grooming himself properly, and he might be going senile, too.

More good news, though, is that the vet said I was already taking the right steps in getting him off seed and onto bird pellets and more fruits and vegetables and "people food."  Also giving him toys and keeping him stimulated is good. The one thing I wasn't doing was "misting" him to help him clean his feathers, which I did today and it was hilarious.  At first he HATED IT.  He was terrified.  But then he suddenly realized it felt pretty good, and he spread out his wings and puffed out his feathers and turned this way and that so I could really saturate him.

In other news--Rob and I had a nice walk to the library with Sally (his mother) and then we fixed hamburgers and corn-on-the-cob for dinner.  Afterward we went to a neighborhood Happy Hour at a little coffee shop/bar.  It was loads of fun.

Oh, yes, I did write today.  Ten pages.  This book is a mess so far, I don't know what I'm doing.

Have a great weekend,

Kara

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