Kendi’s molting. This is her first molt, so I don’t think she knows what’s going on. Except that she itches…or something. I imagine it itches, or certainly feels weird to get a lot of new feathers in all at once. Last night one of her tail feathers fell out and she looked a little alarmed by it. (though not nearly as alarmed The Hub looked!)....

So she wants to be “petted” more than ever. To pet a parrot, you a) wait for the parrot to invite you to do it, if you don’t know the parrot well. You can tell they are inviting you if they lower their heads toward you and look down. The looking down part is very important. If they’re looking up, they may just want to bite your finger! B)Gently stroke the parrots feather in the opposite way from the way they lay when they are flat – that is, not like you would pet a cat or dog. You can sometimes go in sort of circular motion, and some parrots like for you to rub the area under their beak as well. Kendi does.

These are areas that the bird has a hard time self grooming, and that another parrot in the wild (or in the house, if there was one) would groom in an “I’ll groom your head if you groom mine” kind of social compact. This would be called allopreening if it were being done by another bird – I guess it’s called interspecies allopreening when I do it. Kendi has a lot of pin feathers on her neck. They feel sort of sharp to the touch, because they are still in their keratin sheaths. It’s helpful if a person gently pushes away the sheath, allowing the new feather to “unroll”. The trouble is that you have to look and make sure that it really is a pin feather – the sheath is white- and not a blood feather. A blood feather is one where the blood supply has not receded. Fooling with them is uncomfortable for the bird. It’s kind of like the difference between the relief you feel when you scratch away dead skin from a sunburn vs the agony you feel when you first GET sunburned and somebody touches the sunburned spot. Ouch!

Of course, parrots can’t say ouch. However they can bite. As one of my old co-workers used to say “A word to the wise is sufficient”

The consequence of all of this is that Kendi wishes enthusiastically to return the favor. After all, allopreening among bird species strengthens social bonds. But she hasn’t had the benefit of reading any articles on what feels good to humans (at least I don’t think she has!) so she pretty much goes after anything that looks like it might be extraneous. So far I’ve lost one earring, a necklace, and three buttons to this process. I also think she is unsure about The Hub’s arm hair. She keeps eyeballing it like it might be the next to go, but then she decides that since there’s a lot of it maybe it’s supposed to be there.

Winston remains quite fond of her, especially since she drops a lot of food on the floor. Bonanza! If it’s on the floor it’s fair game – I only hope cereal fortified to meet the nutritional needs of parrots is okay for dogs to eat. Oh well. He’s a big dog, and he only gets one or two little pieces.