Glad to be here (long posting sorry)

[rosie]

Hello everyone, and thank you for allowing me to join your forum. My name is Vickie, I live in NJ. with my 9 yr. old daughter, husband and 10 feathered friends. My flock started out with a grey cockatiel, and a timneh african grey. They were both my husbands. Then I rescued or rather rehomed a Patagonian conure from a friend of mine. That was just the beginning to my love for birds. In March we lost our beloved dog of almost 12 years. I had him sence he was a pup. Opps forgot We lost the grey cockatiel., not sure what happened. and rescued 2 other grey cockatiels in between that time. After Brut died I had to get another pet to love. So I started looking into Cockatoos. Started out wanting a Umbie, but after reading all the cockatoo forums, I ened up getting a 5 week old Bare eyed, also bought daughter a Lutino cockatiel. Then while my daughter and I were at the pet store buying toys the sales lady heard us and asked if I would like to home a lovebird. Then went on to tell me that something was wrong with it. Thought it was scale face but then said that it may of been over preened by the others in the cage. They had Rosie and Blossom both in a cage in the back room. Rosie had most of her head feathers gone and Blossom had some missing on just one side. After talking to my husband and our vet we brought the 2 brids home. Vet visit was the same day. Didn't want to let them near the rest of our flock. Vet took smears, scrappings and blood work, also want DNA. Over 3 1/2 weeks of quarantine test came back all was well. They were given the OK to join the rest of the flock. We also bought 2 parakeets Skie and Dasie. The 2 lovies are like little beavers. I put Fruit Kracker Sticks in their cage and within about half an hour they have the stick at the top about destrod (sp) then when all the seed is gone they go to town with the stick. I have put other wood toys in their cage but the like the fruit sticks the best. Any sugestions for this problem? DNA came back both of them are girls. Again sorry so long. Vickie
:happy:

[linda040899]

Hi Vickie and welcome to our community!
Sorry you had problems with registration. I'm glad you sent me an e-mail regarding the problem.

Sounds like you've got quite a flock there! As for the lovebirds, I'm wondering if they are not just overpreening each other. If the vet has tested the area and tests returned nothing, it could be that they are doing this to themselves. I have one male lovebird whose mate looks all the world like a lovie vulcher! She has no headfeathers from the neck up. Her mate will sit an remove her head feathering and she doesn't seem to mind it. Every once in a while, her headfeathers grow back and then begin to disappear again. Nothing wrong, just a mate that overpreens.

At one time, I had a pair of breeding Tiels. Daddy Tiel had a problem with crest feathers and his mate never had a crest. He would walk over to her, grab a feather and yank!

[bellarains]

Hi Vickie,

Welcome to the board. Sounds like you have quiet the menagerie there, and they all tease me here for asking all the time, but I really would love to see pictures of your flock. I love the Too's, so I really wanna see pics of that baby :)

I agree with Linda on the overpreening theory. If you can just sit and watch them for awhile, that might help answer the question though. You can rub a little pure aloe on the bare spot to help soothe the skin, and it might also deter the preening. It may not, but pure aloe won't hurt them, so it's fine. I will pull off a piece from my aloe plant and squeeze some in a warm bottle of water and mist my birds a bit when they are molting, and this helps soothe and soften the keratin around the feather shaft.

I look forward to seeing you around the board, and hearing all about your flock.

[rosie]

Thank you both lori and linda . I will post pictures of all of my flock for you too see. I just uploaded Imagestation so i could do so. :D But first I have to figure out how and where to do so :rolleyes: Vickie

[Sparkette65]

Hi Vicki, and welcome to the boards, Sounds like you have your hands full!

I have 10 lovebirds, with two pairs who are nesting, one has 4 eggs so far and the other has 2. I am new to all of this as I only bought my first pair of lovebirds in Feb of 05...so I have learned alot and am sitll learning...this forum is fanstastic!! Everyone is so helpful and understanding! I dont know what I would do without everyone here!

Im glad you found your way here and I look forward to seeing the pics of your birds and hearing all about them and how they interact with your family!
Good luck with the pluckers, and I hope you find a remedy soon.

Take care, and see you around the boards!
Lori

[sdgilley]

Wow Vickie, you have quite a flock there! Welcome to the community. There is quite a bit of information here and you will find some great articles posted in Useful Links.
We look forward to getting to know you & your birds better!

[Janie]

Hi Vicki and welcome! WOW, you have quite a flock there! :D You are obviously an animal/bird lover as I guess all of us here are.

I have a single male lovie that we adopted almost 2 years ago. We think he's around 9 years old but aren't sure. When he came to us, he had a bare spot under his neck and the vet assumed it was from a long time ago accident, possibly that he almost hanged himself on a toy. He will not get near a swing or any toy that moves in the cage. He will play with some toys if I put them on top of his cage. He has one spot, left side of his vent area, that he picks. He was picking at that area when we got him and continues to do that but that is the only place. He's been vet checked several times and we still don't know why he picks that one area. Linda and Lori have suggested that your birds might be over preening and that sounds right to me, with all I've read on previous post here and especially coming from them.

Hope all goes well with your new "girls" and that the picking issues get better soon. :)

[Mummieeva]

Hello Vicki and welcome. You have a zoo like alot of us..lol. I am Steph from Georgia. I am owed by 2 lovies Baggy and her baby Whisper. We also have 5 fish,a hamster,and about 10 outside cats. Plus 3 kids and a husband. :confused: and I wonder why my house is never quiet. I look forward to getting to know you and your birds. This is a wonderful board.



Steph

[shylevon]

Hi Vicki

Welcome to our board. We have lots of useful information here, we are all very friendly, like a big ole family, and we love to answer questions and share all the information that we have. Our specialty is lovies, but our board in not just about lovies, but most other birds too.

My own flock has recently expanded to eight peachies and all are well. Overpreeners can be a bit of a problem, but quite often the issue of overpreening comes from their environment, perhaps they were unhappy, and that is what started it. A good home, well balance meals and lots of toys and exercise will oftentimes take care of the problem.

As for the photos, which we all love to see... You can upload your photos to imagestation and post the link to the album in our photo forum.

Again, welcome aboard.

[Jezz]

Welcome to the forum Vicki, i am Jeremy and i live in Australia. I have Peachface and Mask Lovebirds, Indian Ringnecks, Sun Conures and Green Cheek Conures.
At the moment one pair of Peachfaces have 5 babies and another pair are sitting on 3 eggs. Also, my Green Cheek Conures just laid 9 eggs, but the male was taking them out of the nest box and destroying them. I seperated them and the Hen has 1 egg in her box and she looks like is going to lay another one in about 2 days.

[kiwilovies]

Hey there Vicki :D
Welcome to our second home ;)

I am from New Zealand and have a large family, a cat, 6 adult lovies, 4 babies.. and our 2 family budgies that we all are share custody of.
Lokking forward to seing you around!

[rosie]

Thank you all for your warm welcome. I have been crushing around the different forums doing a lot of reading, and looking at pictures. I feel very welcome to the lovies fourm, thanks again Vickie :grouphug:

[Paulette]

Hi Vickie......look forward to visiting with you from Missouri......my dutch hen from my first adopted pair came nearly bald.....the shelter said she was ready to nest....she'd pulled all of her body feathers and only had head, wing and a sparse few tail feathers....I've started giving her a bath every day as well as my other birds....and some items that she can chew on instead of herself......like strips of white paper that I tie onto the cage or swing (about 5 or 6 - 1/2 inch wide strips)....and I made her a tassle out of hemp string.....and she has quit pulling feathers....and is filling in nicely....still has a bare spot on one shoulder......good luck.

[Angelwing]

Hey Vicky, welcome to the forums. I just recently joined as well, and have been loving it so far. The people here are quite knowledgeable, as well as very friendly. It's a good place for seeking advice. :)

I own two dogs, two lovebirds, two budgies, and a multitude of walking sticks. The two lovebirds are my most recent pets, and hopefully someday, they'll have babies.

Anyways, hope you have fun here.