Maggie,
I have been without internet service for a while but I have to tell you that I finally got your book! I wish I had had it 9 months ago when I got Luna. It's the best I've read on greys and I've read 4 so far! I love that you delve into the importance of understanding the wild bird in order to understand the animal in your home! I totally agree and love your background info on wild greys.
Anyway, the tthing that took out my modem took out my bird's sanity as well. It was a huge lightening strike on TWO trees at the same time in the middle of hte night with no rumbling or warning of a storm, just suddenly KABOOM!!!. Luna fell off her perch, and then was clinking around her cage for quite a while, seemed sheh couldn't find her sleeping perch. She started plucking again the next day. It scared the heck out of our dog who yelped immediately, and my parents too, as it hit the trees about 14 yards from their windows and blew out a ton of dirt from underneath them. Very frightening for all of us.
I'd love to discuss that issue more with you in order to make her feel secure again, but for now I have a dilemma. Tomorrow, the carpenter finally arrrives at 8am to start her aviary on my balcony. He was contracted months ago! He is a nice, soft spoken man, but a stranger who will be carrying a bit of lumber through the studio apartment to the balcony and then hammering for about two hours, and i have a plucking nervous bird! I told her who he was and that he was a "nice busy noisy person" who had come to help her have a home outside. We call the other carpenters who have been working next door, "just busy, noisy people" to try to make them seem less frightening.
Do I 1. Move her to the bathroom windowsill where she will hear it but not see it? She has been plucking in there ever since I tried showering her on her shower perch. So doesn't seem the best idea
2. Leave her in the security of her cage, and cover most of it so she can see me, but not the worker and the balcony and play soothing music and give her her pasta that she is chewing instead of her feathers lately"
3. Do I put her in her familiar travel cage, as we do for vet visits, and make the trek to my mother's home and keep her in her travel cage or on my hand in a quiet, albeit, new home. She hates my mothe by the way. I wonder if she will sense or smell that that is my mother's home. I could bring Avi-Cakes, a book to read aloud to her ( that seems to stop the plucking) or let her observe a quiet visit with my grandmother since she is sometimes interested in new people if they are quiet and non-threatening. I could even put the grill of her cage against a window in a quiet room there where she could see birds but feeel secure in her cage. This is all IF Im physically able to trek to my mother's house tomorrrow.
He gets here at 8am! What do you think is best for a very insecure and nervous bird? She is ducking at shadows and freaking out at the slightest noises these days. I guess we can discuss the plucking issue later. I've been taking notes on what makes her better and what makes her worse.
thanks again for being here and helping our Greys! She is so special, and no matter how nervous and uncomfortable, won't even bite. She will only eat if I hand feed her in the evening and let me give her her first head scritch the other day! I had forgotten to tell you! She seems so needy of me, yet bothered by my presence at the same time. Oh well, for another post.
Allie and Luna