|
 |
|
| Name: |
Lucia
|
Age: |
Eight and a half years old
|
| Gender: |
Female
|
Kind: |
Sun Conure
|
| Home: |
Woodstock, Illinois, USA
|
Lucia had a really rough start in life. I remember the first time I saw her. I went to a local pet shop and, as I always do, started looking at and playing with the birds. Well one sun conure was really playful for a while before he lost all interest in me and ran to a cage corner. Taking a closer look I saw why. There was Lucia, at the time very weak, huddled in the corner, and the first sun conure literally pushed her out the corner and to the front of the cage so I could see her.
She was underweight, sluggish and overall, in really bad shape. Now I don't believe in supporting bad breeders but I know that, if I didn't take her, she would die. The pet shop owner was more than happy to give me her breeder's information because he knew I use to foster abandoned birds and had the connections to actually do something about it. Well, I got her breeder shut down, he can't have another animal for the rest of his life.
Back to Lucia's struggle, though. I brought her to my vet. Now, my vet at the time hated putting an animal to sleep, he felt like a failure when he had to do so. However, after examining Lucia, he realized just how bad of shape she was in. She was undernourished, had crop burn from being machine fed too hot of a mash, didn't know how to eat on her own due to being force weaned and the breeder had cut her wings so short that the jerk actually damaged the feather cuticles. To this day her wing feathers don't grow right but at least it's a lot better than before.
My vet reluctantly told me the best thing he could do for Lucia was put her to sleep because his office couldn't provide the around the clock care she needed and, without that care, she would slowly and painfully starve to death. I then looked at him and asked him what kind of care she needed because, being disabled, I could be there for her around the clock.
So, for the next two months I gave her the care she needed. Every half hour or so I would put a little veggie mash in the underside of my fingernail and feed Lucia those small bits, using my nail because she was scared of spoons and feeding syringes. The amount of food she got was very controlled so it didn't stretch her burned crop in order to let it heal. Day and night I would do this, for two months I woke up every half hour to feed this little baby. Once the crop scar was healed enough, I had to teach her how to eat on her own. I did this by using my nails, again, and picking up seeds from her food dish with them, encouraging her to mimic the action with her beak. It worked! As she got better with eating I adjusted her food mix to give her less seeds and more good stuff.
Then there was the flying fiasco. I love Lucia, but she flies with all the grace of a drunken paper airplane and that's now after having some practice! Back when she was learning, well, her horridly cut wings made her learning experience a bit unpleasant. Her flight attempts for her first three years pretty much consisted of jump, flail, fall, look at daddy to save her from the floor. Even with her wings in better shape and not hurting her now, which required sedated removal of the feathers multiple times followed by using a special oil and technique to coax the shafts to come out right, I know she'll never be able to fly properly but at least she can get some lift and no longer hits the floor with a squeak.
These days you would never guess she had such a rough start by looking at her. She is a happy, healthy, playful girl with a major snuggle addiction. He nickname is "Baby Girl" or, when she's in trouble, "Lil Miss." She loves talking and is actually very polite. She says "Please" when she wants something and "Thank you" when you give her a treat. I never taught her that, she just started doing it all by herself.
Her favorite treat in the world is cashews. We can't even say the word without her flipping out and begging for one! She even knows what we mean when we spell it out and starts to pick up all out nicknames for the nut that we use to try to not say the word! Lucia is a very clever lil girl, there is no doubt about that!
Her start may have been rough but she's an amazing feathered daughter and, even with her special needs (I still have to make sure she doesn't eat too much at once and she has some allergies) I love every day I get with her. Now if only she got along with the other flock members! She always wants daddy all to herself!
Talk about Lucia in Pet Talk!
|
|
|
|
