Magoo Chin Feathers Grow Back

As you can see from this picture, the fuzzy white down that grew back in a couple of days after the accident has fallen out from Magoo's chin. Now, s/he has new growth of body feathers-short and hard, rounded on the end, and green. It's rather cute, and also, a bit hideous at the same time. Magoo still has the remnant of goo on his/her forehead, as you can see. Trying to remove this didn't seem necessary, and we expect it to just fall off during molting. S/he also still has the white downy "temporary" feathers on the chest. Magoo seems respectful of Boo, and deferential, but is willing to fight Sutcliffe for perches and greens. Boo gladly will push Sutcliffe away from any desired perch or treat. Those two babies are not respectful enough of their dear old dad who has treated them so well!

Magoo Doing Great!

Magoo is doing great! His neck is still missing a few feathers, and his forehead still has some residual goo on it, but otherwise he seems happy and sassy! Sutcliffe remains the dedicated father.

Say Hello to Magoo!

The poll showed that Magoo is the winning name. Thanks to everyone who voted!
And as you can see, our baby bird is healing very nicely. You can see some white feathers on his/her chest: this is where feathers were pulled off and are regrowing. His/her muttonchops (my name for the feathery jowl area on a budgie) are growing back gradually. The chin remains a bit bare, and there are a couple of smudges remaining from the goo episode. However s/he is doing a good job rubbing sticks with his/her head and beak to clean these smudges. Otherwise our baby is doing great! MIlestones include her/his standing on both feet equally, eating with pleasure, biting us (the human guardians) and flying, once again, with reckless abandon. However, we will be keeping a close eye on this baby, and also, Magoo's compatriots.

Baby Close to Normal!

This morning, the baby was hopping from perch to perch without any problem, using both feet. When he was startled by me, he did stand on the right foot only, so he still favors it. However, the left is fully functional in a normal way. He was also flying around with apparent joy. He and Sutcliffe were generally having fun this morning flying, eating, and generally squawking to their neighbors. The baby is a little "wild one" again! Its good to see he's got his groove back (note, we realize, this baby could be female).
Lessons learned:
1. wing clipping IMHO is not cruel. it could be life saving as
2. there are many risks to a flying household budgie, and they get into those risks FAST!
3. Dilute vinegar solution is safe for budgies in small doses and effective at removing "goo".
4. Being young is good for your health. And I retract my remarks from yesterday: flying around as a baby budgie is not really foolish. He was just acting like a budgie when he got trapped in goo.

Doing Better

The baby seems a lot more perky. He still favors the left leg, and lists to the right, especially in the evening. Examination of his leg shows no obvious injury or deformity. He seems to have a normal range of motion, normal configuration of toes, feet, knees, legs. Its hard to see up into his feathers to see if his thigh might have an injury. Hopefully he will mend himself. However, he enjoys sitting in the food bowl, which must be a good way to rest his little drumsticks. He can fly. He and Sutcliffe have been moved to a "hospital flight cage" which is a long cage, where we have placed the perches extremely close to the floor so that if he falls off, he won't be hurt badly. The nest box is also in there, but chiefly, the baby and Sutcliffe use it as a lookout point (they stand on it) rather than go inside it.

Baby Getting Better

The baby is getting better. His chest almost has a full set of feathers again; only his mutton chop feathers (The fluffy feathers budgies have on the side of the cheeks) and a few patches under his chin remain a bit bald. His beak is working fine; he bit K last night with respectable malevolent intent it seemed. We were thrilled of course.

He does seem to be favoring the left leg: he doesn't stand on it as much as the right leg, and while budgie legs are always blue-ish, the left leg seems more blue-ish than the other. This seems to be new since yesterday. Nonetheless, all parts of that leg are moving normally in in a healthy configuration, it seems, even his toenails. He is eating, and Sutcliffe continues to feed him. He also took a crap on K, another glorious event.

As noted by yesterday's commentator (but also, a very special tator), C, the young have a tremendous capacity for recovery. Its a good thing, as they also tend to be somewhat foolish. (Wow, does that last remark mean that we human guardians are becoming old grouches?)