Posted by:
PHIggysbirds
at Sat Jan 31 11:04:09 2009 [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by PHIggysbirds ]
The patch on his neck could be due to him overpreening, an injury (banging on cage bars etc) or he could have had a molt and be regrowing in feathers. If he is allowing you to touch him such as rubbing his head etc you might slightly rub over the area to see if you feel any abnormal growths, skin problems. Just be careful because new feathers can be sensitive and have blood flow to them, some birds actually liked to be rubbed or preened around new feather growth because it helps the sheaths to release.
I would try to get a guarantee from the pet store that if you take him in for a vet check and he is not healthy that they will reimburse you for fees and take him back (even though if you are willing a lot of times it is much better on the bird to keep it and get it treated/cared for yourself so you know it gets better). I just never like seeing a pet store getting away with selling an unhealthy bird. Some bird stores with healthy animal guarantees will help pay for the initial vet visit if the animal is found sick and you agree to keep the animal and get treatment. It just all depends on their policies.
Yes some toys are toxic to birds and other animals. Even some cages can contain lead or zinc without you knowing and be sold specifically for birds. Some toys which birds play with that are actually childrens toys even contain lead. You just have to be careful and check to see if they are "good" companies through word of mouth and references. There are some great stores out there though that test their toys well and even sometimes help out rescues through their bird toy sales. You can actually buy lead test kits in many hardware stores but zinc is much harder to test for. I can suggest some toy stores online that both have good toys/safe toys/and possibly even help out rescues or others with their sales![](images/smiles/wink.gif)
[ Reply To This Message ] [ Subscribe to this Thread ] [ Hide Replies ]
|