10 November 2018

Alder is still refusing food today. She is more active on the perch, turning and bating frequently. She does the same on the glove. Her posture hasn’t changed since day 3. When she is sitting on my fist, her wings are drooped and mouth is open. When offered food she ignores it, and won’t even take it if I touch it to her beak. I can touch her wings and chest without much reaction now. She once again jumped to the glove, but did not take the tidbit of meat offered.

11 November 2018

The bating has increased, but now Alder will regularly return herself to the bow perch instead of scrambling around. If I’m not “watching” she folds her wings back and looks around. She still refuses food, once again jumping to the glove and ignoring the tidbit. Her weight has only dropped down to 1145 grams.

This evening Shawn and I stopped by and took Alder for a walk. She was more relaxed but still a long way to go. Shawn commented that she seems much more comfortable than the last time he saw her. After our walk, while sitting in the office, she finally took a bite of mouse guts from my glove. She jumped onto my glove, footed the mouse, and ate the rest of it while standing on my fist. She ate a couple pieces of beef heart that I had out as well, so it didn’t go to waste. Hooray for progress!!

12 November 2018

I think the scale I am borrowing is broken. It is extremely touchy, the value bouncing more than makes sense. A slight change in how I hold the jesses makes an 80 gram difference, when the jesses only weigh 15 grams. I will have to find another scale. Alder ate a couple chunks of rabbit meat today reluctantly. The liver was the only part she really seemed to be interested in. Any pieces that had bone in it she would drop on the floor and ignore. Being that picky, she obviously needs to come down in weight more.

We spent some time outside today, her tethered to a perch and me cleaning out trucks at the office. She spent the whole time bating and did not want to get on my glove. She attacked my foot this morning, but I did not react. I stood there not moving and waited for her to back down and get back on her perch before I continued on with what I was doing. So far any time she has flown at me I’ve been able to “catch” her attempt on my glove. She is getting bolder.

I took her to the vet’s office for a base exam today. The exam went well, except for Alder footing the doctor badly in the fingers. Otherwise, the vet said she looks very healthy and beautiful. Dr. Vickstrom requested that I not feed whole quail necks due to the risk of getting caught in the throat and requiring surgery to remove. She also recommended an anti-fungal treatment due to Alder’s high stress levels and vulnerability to aspergillosis. I will have to bring in a fecal sample tomorrow morning.

13 November 2018

Alder kicked me hard while trying to get her out of the crate this morning, bruising my knuckle. I asked her to get on the glove and waited several minutes trying to get her out but she refused so I closed the crate and left her in it. I gave her about a 20 minute time-out. The second attempt she threw a tantrum coming out of the crate and it was a rough exit. I had to run an errand so put her back, and the next time taking her out went much more smoothly. I think she is not a morning bird.

When she bates now she returns almost immediately to her perch. Sometimes she hops off instead of bating. She has refused food this morning. At about 10:30 AM, I offered Alder another tidbit. She jumped onto my glove and ignored it. After a minute, she jumped back to the perch and then ate the tidbit off the glove. She refused another piece. Fifteen minutes later, she jumped to my glove again when offered a tidbit but ignored it and hopped back to the perch.

I dropped off the fecal sample at the vet’s office, along with a “we’re sorry, get well soon, thank you” gift for Dr. Vickstrom.