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multiple questions

23 9:30:07

Question
I actually have a few questions on my Cockateil . One is behavioral and the others deal with health.
The behavioral one is that my cockateil, Kiwi, has become selective and hates being on anyone else for more than five minutes. What can I do to change that? School's coming up and she hates her cage.
Health questions:
1. Lately I have been making breakfasts that involve syrup and Kiwi has developed a taste for it. Is that alright or should I keep her away from it?
2. I have been trying to come up with a healthy treat for her. In the garden there is some lettuce, peas, strawberries, rasberries, potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, apples, and of course dandilons. What out of those can I can I use?
3. She has been scratching one spot above her left eye so much that she had broken off the feathers. She hasn't scratched that spot so much anymore but the bald spot is still there. What should I do?
4. Kiwi's wings were clipped when I first bought her and I am letting her wings grow out. What can I do to strengthen her wings without straining the muscles?

Answer
First of all, to get her into her cage, put a few brightly colored toys in her cage, and some of her favorite treats.  It'll take some coaxing at first, but she will learn that her cage will have fun and delicious things and she will soon look foward to going into her cage.  Cockateils are by nature one-person birds usually.  Once they have "picked their person", there's not much you can do about that.  Just make sure that other people spend a lot of time with her, and although you may still be "her person", she may eventually come around to letting others handle her.
Kwiw can have things like eggs, french toast, bacon if she will eat it, even french toast and pancakes, but the syrup is not good for to have ain large amounts.  Once every couple of weeks a little bit won't hurt her, but remember that syrup is loaded with suger, and that the effects will be much like a child on a sugar high.
The items that you have listed in your garden are fine if she will eat them, especially the dandelions.  Lettuce is fine, but there is not much nutritional value to it as it is mostly water.  Spinach or collard greens is a much better alternative.  You can also give her millet spray.  It is a sweet alternitative to syrup, and the birds really love it.  I will give you a list of what she should NOT have under any circumstances, as they are very toxic to a bird: avacados, onions, caffine in any form, chocolate, pretzles, unless they are unsalted.  You can also go to the National Cockateil Soceity home page and follow the links for nutrition.  They are very informative.
As far as her scratching, do you smoke or use any kind of chemicals around her?  If you do, it may be irritating her skin.  Try spraying her with a msit of water from a water bottle, or get a shower perch for her and take her into the shower with you.  This may help with the irritation on her skin, if that doesn't seem to help, then take her to the vet as she may have mites.  It is a simple test, and the test will not hurt her at all.  If you are concerned anout the bald spot on her face, rest assured, her feathers will grow back, it'll just take some time.  
And now for the last question, her wings.  Make sure that her cage is large enough for her to spread her wings.  She willl exercise them as they need to be.  Just be careful not to put too many hanging toys in her cage as she might hit her wings the wrong way on one of them.  Make sure that she has at least an hour a day outside of her cage too.  She will stretch her wings, and even fly (be sure to turn off any ceiling fans, cover any windows that she might fly into, and have no fires or water boiling on the stove).
Please keep me informed on how Kiwi is doing.

Good luck and God Bless.