A Lesson In Trust or Morning Has Broken the Pin Feathers!

Good morning!  Am I exaggerating?  Not one iota, my friends!

The day started off as usual; kissed Rob goodbye and uncovered Daisy's cage.  I got my coffee, revved up the laptop and opened Daisy's door.  I head to Facebook and I hear a sleepy 'Peeeeer.'  I look over and see her yawn.  She scratches her head and proceeds to then hop out of her cage to come and greet me.  She takes a short flight over to the arm of my recliner.

"Good Morning, Birdie Lou~Who!" Okay... first I should explain. I call her that.   I don't know why.  Why is it that we think so hard for the perfect name for our children; both human and otherwise, and yet after all of that careful weighing of family tradition, and the way the names sound, and even if they fit the individual that by the time they are a few months old, we call them something else?  I feel another blog coming on! Anyway I'm rambling, once again...  back to the subject.

She then does her usual;  She hops down onto the keyboard of my laptop.  I read through the 300+ new postings on Facebook and sip my delicious Kona Extra Bold coffee. She starts nibbling at my nails.  I pull them away, telling her,

"No, my Darling, you can't do that as Momma just did them... maybe tomorrow..." Yes, I still reason with her. I swear she understands me, though.  She stops and kind of just sits there.  She is still very close to my index finger.  I have to be very careful when she is on my keyboard.   There have been a few instances of me typing away and then "BWAAAAAAAAK!" I have typed on her tiny toe! And with nails like mine, that HURTS!  So, I begin to ease up on my WPM, and kind of slide her out of my way.  She's not having that. Back she comes, and sits by my index finger.  I stop typing.  I watch her. Her little head fluffs up.  Aha.  She wants me to scratch her head.  I begin and suddenly her head goes almost limp.  I pull it away. She straightens up, but then quickly fluffs up again.  I repeat scratching her, but soon she inches closer into my hand and literally puts the top of her head against my fingers.  I had read years ago that some keet owners are actually allowed by their birdies to massage the pin feathers and remove the hard shells.  I tried this, ever so gently.  She let me do it and she relaxed even more, so I began doing it with a bit more gusto.  This is huge, folks;  She 'asked me' to help her!

Daisy allowing me to 'roll' the pin feathers so they'll break. (for a closer look, just click on the photos!)

Outer shells of her pin fathers scattered on my laptop.

Soon I had this in my hand: Those are the outer shells of her brand-new feathers! I could not believe she was allowing me to do this. I decided to stop to see what she would do; she did nothing, although she did look at me as if to say, "You ARE going to continue, right?" Sure enough, slowly she began walking back into my hand. I began again. I put these pin feathers between my thumb and fingers and would 'roll' them, causing the hard, brittle shells of the pins to crack and split. Her head totally relaxed. I think she even sighed a few times. I tried to photograph her as I did this... it's not easy when your camera is a huge Nikon DSLR, but I got these:

"A little more to the right..."

I did this for about ten minutes; scratching and rolling.    I looked and saw that none of those ugly, itchy pins were left! WOW. Suddenly, Daisy shook her head (normal shaking...she does it all the time), and then started with the scratching. I know it still itched and I know that a bunch of leftover pin husks were all over her little head and sure enough, off they flew as she wildly scratched!

More pin shells flying!

Those two circles show where the pin feather were... and where the new yellow feathers are!  Gone are the baby 'black bar' feathers! 

You can see the brand-newborn yellow feathers atop her head;  they are bright yellow!  Here, she is scratching again!

She scratched and scratched... and scratched some more. With one final shake, she was satisfied. She fluffed up her head as if to check to see if those annoying pin feathers were really and truly gone. She relaxed her head and then a perfect wolf-call whistle. Darn tootin! You are beautiful!

Throughout this entire process, I was again so amazed with this bird. I'm not lying when I say that she truly amazes and surprises me, every single day. I found it so ... sweet? Is that the correct word? No. It sounds silly (why do I feel I need to say that about taking about my birdie all the time), but I felt so honored. She trusted me enough to, in her own birdie way, ask me to help her. She trusted me to manipulate her so that I could help her. That's big, folks. I truly feel loved by her. And it's not silly, damnit. I love her too.

As I went into the kitchen to make another cuppa, she started what I call her 'Toddler Whine" The "Mommy, mommy, mommy!" squawk. I knew immediately what she wanted. I got out the eggs and made us breakfast. She can tell what's coming by the sounds of my whipping the eggs up. She sings happily. Here she is with her favorite meal of the day:

The "Which came first" riddle is SO not breakfast conversation!

As I type, she is still on my keyboard, away from my tapping nails, and sound asleep. It's so nice to know that I am trusted and that I am her friend. It's an honor; being welcomed into her flock.

As promised, I will post photos of her bathing, as now it is truly necessary. Until then;

Keep rufflin' those feathers!

Peace.

Daisy's First Molt!

Very first pin feather; January 11, 2011

Hello, again!

Yesterday, Rob took a sweet photo of Daisy and I noticed something: see that 'quill?' That is a called a "pin feather" and it is the very first one that Daisy has had. This photo was taken yesterday. I wasn't exactly sure that it was a pin feather until I realized she's four months old; aha!  It's that time; it is a pin feather!

Nine more in just a matter of hours!

Today, I noticed more! I could not believe how many popped up overnight! I think I counted nine more!

Well, she's right on schedule. Parakeets usually have their first molt, or "Baby Molt" at about twelve weeks old. I did notice that two of her wing feathers had fallen out. Yes, the baby is molting!

So far, she is fine and has shown no real signs of distress. Molting is very itchy, and I have noticed in the days prior to seeing these pin feather that she has wanted me to scratch her head a lot more than normal. I have noticed also, that she has become very clingy; not just to me, but to her entire 'flock' -- that being Aaron, Alex and Rob.

Looking at her more closely, I discovered one more pin feather: This one was right below her cheek in her necklace.  So in total, I counted eleven
pin feathers.  Many more will follow and soon her
cage will be covered in the lost feathers.  As I type,
Daisy is preening.  She is oiling her feathers.  I

Pin Feather near necklace.

honestly don't know if this is due to her molting or not.

She does seem to be eating more.  Molting birds tend to eat more, and she tends to hoard her seeds, so I will be feeding her foods more than seeds for the duration of her molting period, which usually varies bird to bird.  She loves eggs and as they are great sources of protein for 'keets, she'll have them daily (as weird as it sounds for a bird to consume eggs).

She has just finished preening and has flown down onto the keyboard and is all fluffed up. " Peer!"  She says proudly!  She happily pecks my nails and peeps cheerfully, so I don't think she is too bothered with the itching at the moment.  Tomorrow, I will let her have a shower in the kitchen sink (photos included), so she can ease her itching and wash away some of that flaky skin.

Hey!  Who you callin' 'Pin~Head?'

So, her baby black 'bars' will soon be replaced with yellow feathers.  I'll miss those baby feathers, but it's okay.  She is growing up to be the sweetest birdie I've ever had.  "PEER!" She says, as if she knows that I'm braggin' on her.  No longer the timid, shy baby, but now a curious, funny and affectionate friend.

Until next time ~

Keep ruffling your feathers!

Peace ♥