Suki the Beloved

We have a new family member; Suki (Japanese for beloved), a baby scaly breasted lorikeet. He came into work on Monday. Unfortunately he's a runner. Fortunately someone found him. He was the most terrified lorikeet I've ever seen, even more terrified than adults that have been brought in. I caught him in a hand towel to feed him and transfer him to a cage and he got me. Boy, did he bite and hang on. Took all my willpower not to shake him off or try and pry him loose. When I tried to feed him with a syringe he would go backwards so far he was hanging beneath the perch. He'd scream as soon as someone came in the room even with the cage mostly covered (had to keep him in the kennel room as if he is infected with PBFD he can't share the same air space with Tony).

N forgot to ring a carer and then when a carer did come on Tuesday to pick up a possum N forgot Suki was there. Lucky for me. I was a little concerned about his behaviour as he would hang upside down from the cage top then turn his body through his legs as though his leg joints were double jointed. He was such a pretzel. I'd never seen any bird do that and wondered if there was something neurological going on as well as the possible PBFD (PBFD signs in greenies can also be poor nutrition. When I had a chance to feel his keel bone he was rather thin).

By Wednesday I decided he would come home with me. Today is Saturday. He has gone from this wild-eyed screaming bundle of terror to a tame, semi-cuddly little friend. He fell asleep in my lap yesterday half wrapped in my sweatshirt. Today I got him out twice and although when we are outside I am nervous about him taking a sudden flying leap and don't keep him out long, inside the house he is quite content to sit on my arm. I've put him on coccivet as he wasn't eating very well; half a ml here, a quarter of a ml there. Not nearly enough. Today the medication finally kicked in and he is eating 2 to 4 mls at a time.

He is a typical greenie, that bright spring green with blue green feathering (wonder if it would glow under a black light) on the crown of his head. His breast is flecked with yellow feathers. The first few days he was still dropping flight feathers (all his tail feathers were already missing) but that has stopped. He has a dark brown beak and very brown, very baby eyes.

At night he lives in the spare room. During the day he hangs on the deck. We've made a little igloo type house out of cardboard for him which he uses. Eventually, when Felicity goes to P & Gs for flight training, and if he grows his feathers back, he can move in with Byron. In the reading I've done the jury seems to be out whether juvenile sufferers of PBFD are carriers when they are adult. Also, it appears that once a lorikeet has reached adulthood they don't seem to succumb to the virus.

I've written to the bird click blog as I am stuck with Dimitri and the retrieve. I inadvertently click just as he's picked up the peg and flung it out of the bowl and getting him to return the peg to the bowl just isn’t working. When he touches it he always seems to push it further away.