NO MORE COLLAR

Beignet has been without a collar for over a year now and is doing as well as can be expected. We found that her feathers on her tail were growing in with a hooked end to them.  It has to be painful because she plucks them out as soon as they are long enough to reach.  I now understand that she/we have two choices in her life: leave the collar on and have a poor quality of life or leave the collar off and let her go back to her pre-New family plucking.  When we got her she did fine, but had a history of plucking.  She did find until she injured her tail.  Now she plucks and digs at her tail which has a constant scab on it.  It looks awful, but she is happy.  She also began plucking where the collar used to be.  I've been praising her for getting pretty new feathers and that seems to be helping a wee bit.  

A few weeks ago I noticed that Beignet talks in her sleep.  She was on her little perch on a cart next to my desk and I heard her and looked, but she was sleeping.  I watched her for a little while and sure enough I heard her say, "love" in her sleep.  Not only does she speak English/human, but she dreams in English/human.  

Beignet and I came to an agreement in regards to biting.  I will only pick her up for good things and she won't bite anymore.  It works and she now looks forward to getting picked up, even resisting going to bed some nights because she wants to cuddle longer.  This is very new behavior for her.  

Over the summer I was hospitalized with a severe infection and Beignet had to live with someone else.  She lived with Bob's sister and her husband (Margie and Brian).  They provided her with a great view of Elliott Bay and of their sidewalk and street.  She adapted very well and so did they.  She has a long and dear memory and remembers people from her past.  I thought only elephants did that.  

We still count it one of life's blessings to live with this sweet manner little girl.  I'm so glad that parrots live a long time.  

THE NEED TO SPELL

The other night Bob and I were talking about Beignet. She has been out of her collar for nearly two weeks without picking until she bleeds. That is a new record for her. It seems that she now understands that when she makes herself bleed she has to be in the COLLAR.

So...we were talking about her progress and what might happen if the collar needed to go back on and I realized that Beignet was listening to us. She knows the word collar very well so when I said it I had to whisper it to Bob. After I did we both started laughing. This is what you do with a six year old child. By seven they can spell.

We were also talking about the ways that Beignet understands languages. She knows body language, sign language, English, Parrot, and a few mechanical sounds. The actually knows two kinds of body language - hers and ours. That is a lot for an animal to understand and I am always stunned by her intelligence. Recently she has been learning the days of the week. Amazing!

BEYOND UNDERSTANDING

I have an itchy red rash on my head that is hard not to scratch. Beignet has a similar problem with her tail and has had for sometime. She will pick at it until it bleeds. One night I tried to explain to her that she should not pick at her tail. I told her I had an itchy spot on my head that I couldn't pick at either. I showed her what I meant. Six weeks later I was sitting watching a movie and scratching my head :(. All of a sudden Beignet said, "No scratch head!" She was telling me that I shouldn't do that. Bob and I were both amazed at the understanding of action/consequence and the ability to convey what she thought to me. There is always a new surprise around the corner with her.

Oh, my rash is from a medication that I HAVE to take. Her problem stems from a fall nearly two years ago after which she had four surgeries. I think the area is numb.

PLEASE

For more than a year we have tried to teach Beignet the word please. She has now said it one time. I was eating breakfast and in a hurry, so hadn't given her lots of bites. In a quiet little pleading voice she said, "please, more cracker:(" We had been saying, "More cracker, Please.", but even in this she used her own personality and put it in her own wording. How could I resist. She got more cereal.

The other day she said, "Step up, more kiss?" Of course I had to yield to that one too. She is such a sweet parrot and loving to the nth degree. She kisses us both good night and will even offer Google the cat a kiss, though he is wary of accepting it. Both cats are afraid of her, as they should be.

We are applying for a service dog for me to help in my balance. It could be from two to five years before it arrives, but we think it will help to prevent falls for me. They come trained to exercise on a treadmill. It will probably be Golden Retriever or Goldendoodle.

MORE CONVERSATION

Recently Beignet has figured out how to request things that she wants. She will say, "Step up, cracker?" and that means that she is hungry. She is still in a collar and going to the feeding perch is difficult for her, so we always help her down. By learning how to let us know she is hungry, she is now eating more and hopefully gaining weight. She will ask, "Step up?" and that means she just wants some attention. I am careful to honor that, even if it is brief. If she changes the tone of her voice and volume, the same remark means she wants to play games.

Beignet also announces what she is doing such as eating, getting a drink or such.

A nightly practice of mine is singing a special song I made up for Beignet. We talk about what happened during the day and what will happen the next day. It is a way I have found to help Beignet feel assured about the happenings in our lives.

Recently I had to go by ambulance to the emergency room. By letting Beignet know what was happening before the medics came, she was able to be calm and assured about me leaving. I told the medics that she had a high IQ and that what was going on was frightening to her. After I came home we talked about it to her. I always ask if she understands and she indicated that she did. Using hand signals for words like understand has been very effective.

Beignet has also learned her body parts. She is very reluctant to have her wings, tail, belly, or feet touched, but she knows what they are. When trying to teach her the names of the parts I realized that nose would sound like "no's" to her, so we call it her nostril. I hold my finger up and ask her to show me the particular part I ask for. She is very correct in her answers. She now holds her foot up when I ask her where her toes are.

Her math skills are still impressive. She has learned the days of the week and I can ask her a question such as, "If I give you two seeds on Monday and Wednesday and Friday, how many seeds will you get?" and she always answers correctly. That means she understands the number, the word seeds, and the days of the week and how many are named. She is always surprising me with her intelligence. Her skills aren't strong in speaking, but her skills in understanding are phenomenal.

TOILET TRAINING

This photo was taken at the Vet and isn't what her current collar looks like.

Okay, I know this topic isn't a favorite for people, but for the owner of a bird that likes to be around us throughout the house, it is a critical topic. Diapers are out of the question. When I first had Beignet come to live with us we began toilet training. When she would go we would tell her good girl, DROP! Now that she has been with us 5 1/2 years, the message has sunk in. I will ask if she needs to drop before she leaves her cage and most of the time she either will, or will try very hard. Either way she gets a verbal reward. I've taught her that there appropriate places to Drop and they include anything porcelain (not the kitchen sink) or on her perches or in her house. Currently I would rate her 95% toilet trained. It is so nice when your pet knows proper toilet manners.

Beignet doesn't like us to watch, so I back up and give her a moment and then I hear the tell tale sign, a dropping sound in her house. She is such a well behaved girl.

Today was bath day and I had to take her collar off. We have built a removable collar that doesn't constantly have to be rebuilt. She is an angel when I'm taking it off, and very well behaved when it has to go back on. I have the process down now so that I can do it by myself. Beignet LOVES her bath so we gave her time to preen her feathers before and after her bath. She was so happy, and didn't complain too bad when it was time to wear the collar again. She has finally accepted that this is a way of life and has become a happy bird again.

Our only problem with the collar is that it is a bit heavy and it uses her energy to wear it. She is woefully thin and we are eager to get it off her and get her fattened up. Despite her grueling year in a collar and with four surgeries, she is a light in our life.

COLLAR STILL ON

My dear Beignet has been wearing a collar (collar of shame) since mid December (I think). At first she just chewed on it randomly. However, because she has such a high IQ it wasn't long before she figured where the collar came together and she worked furiously on that spot. It took her four days, but she got it off. She can now get the collar off in four days and sometimes less. That means a vet appointment almost every time. Bob and I are learning the skills to put it back on. She will be wearing the collar at least until the end of March, maybe longer. All of her tail feathers have to grow back in and be very healthy before we can take it off. Then it will be a careful watching time with me setting the timer to look at her and make sure she is doing no damage.

Beignet has been such a good patient the entire time, and seems to have held no animosity toward me for the things I have needed to do for her. To say it lightly, it has been a horrible experience for us both. She maintains her cheerful self and despite the fact that the collar prevents her from talking, she whistles to me regularly.

When Beignet is having something uncomfortable done to her at the vet she just relaxes her eyes and seems to leave her body so that she can get through the experience. It has been a revealing experience to see how well she does with these things.

She has had two surgeries and I have watched both. During the first one she quit breathing and there was a quick ER type episode of getting her breathing again. I was amazed at their efficiency. They said most birds don't make it when that happens but they thought that since she knew I was in the room she "tried" harder to live. I don't know, except that she started breathing and I quit holding my breath.

We went to Hawaii during this time and she stayed with the vet who has four birds, so Beignet had lots of company. It was the safest way to work things so that she could get immediate care if she needed it. I love our vet. She is absolutely the greatest and is always happy. She works really hard to make sure that the animals and birds she treats are always healthy. It is an avian and exotic animal clinic, so I get to see a lot of different types of animals when I go there. Fun!