Saturday, June 2, 2012

It's Raining Tail Feathers!!!

Thunderstorms don't scare me... until the other night!  We've had a drought here in Texas and we've been with out thunder for a very long time.  The other night we had a really LOUD clap of thunder and it literally scared the TAIL FEATHERS out of me!!!  I was all comfy cozy in my cage with my cage cover on dreaming birdie dreams.  Then WAMO! I thought I was a Goner!  My instincts kicked in and I automatically released all but 3 of my tail feathers!  



You may not know this, but birds have a built in defense mechanism where we release our feathers when we feel threatened. Better for the predator to get a mouth full of feathers than get us! I lost 9 that night and molted 2 the previous week end. As a result the back of the bus has very few passengers! (If you know what I mean.)  Oh, don't worry... the feathers will grow back! I am fine and acting perfectly normal. No other feathers are ruffled.

All of my Facebook friends have been so nice and supportive of me.  Here are a few of the comments I have received:
    Can I have your feathers? :) ♥
    Aw, you're cute with short hair. :)
    Aww poor buttless birdy.
    Poor, poor E! Ask your humans for some knickers or coveralls!

They also asked some really good questions:
When you feather come back in does it itch or hurt. I guess what I'm trying to say is, is it uncomfortable?
Good question! Last time this happened, I didn't like my tail stroked. Marcia pets me with a long stroke
from head to tails with her hand cupped. When her hand got to the tail, I didn't like it and moved my tail
out of the way. My tail was sore. She will not be stroking my tail for a couple of months!
Does this affect your balance at all?
You would think it would affect my balance, but I still get around just as well as I did before. 
I can still fly-hop from my perch to the kitchen counter and to the table. I perch just fine, no problems!
Why is your cage so clean?
Ha! My cage got cleaned the night before. This picture was taken first thing this morning. My morning bomb was done on my play perch. Also, if the humans are home I'm usually out of my cage, hence a neat and tidy cage, but BIG messes around the play perches!

This has happened to me before.  Once, in September 2010 I was in my cage sleeping and all was quiet.  No thunderstorms that night.  Can't tell you what scared me exactly, might have been a bad dream or it may of been a Gecko. They come into the house during the summer. They are tiny little guys and don't hurt anything but to eat an occasional spider they find here and there.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_House_Gecko
Morning After: September 14, 2010 

Thinner, but still Pretty!  September 2010

Re-growth after  4 weeks

Re-growth after 6 1/2 weeks
Now, if you will excuse me... I have some feather making to do!