I couldn't BELIEVE how much he molted, either! Like, holy cats!! I thought he might be sick, or that he was molting way too much! Maybe he was malnourished (somehow!?), and he was plucking. I stressed and my own hair started shedding more than usual, too. Now that I know what to expect, I'll be better prepared for his next major molt. I've saved most of his molted feathers for ...well, just because! They're so gorgeous and amazing to look at - the different shapes, sizes, softness, everything! It's not hard to be entranced by the perfect lines and the structure of feathers, really.
I was worried that Kai was plucking for a long time, because he had a few stubborn flight feathers - which had been clipped at the store - that weren't coming out. So he chewed the ends of the clipped feathers until they were frayed. Then he started pulling the whole shredded feather out. I upped his protein a little with extra chicken, hardboiled egg, and edamame, added coconut oil to his diet, just in case. I'm sure I had nothing to worry about, but New Mommy Syndrome is strong in me...I'm also a huge worry wort if one of my loved ones isn't feeling well. (eg: B-kun has been having an ongoing headache for the entirety of the past two weeks, so I rode his butt until he agreed to see the doctor.)
There was one point where Kai was acting like he wasn't feeling well, was in a lot of pain, and became extra bitchy and bitey. He wanted to be held, but he didn't want to be held. He really wanted me to allopreen him, but it bothered him, and he didn't want me to allopreen him. He wanted to sit on my arm after dinner - no, wait, he didn't afterall. I thought his wings were hurt or broken, because he would cry out if he bumped his wings against things and bite, but Peaches came over and checked him out for me. He seemed fine to her, even if he was favouring one side. I hadn't bathed him in a while, because I thought it would stress him out too much, but after Peaches' reassurance, I totally soaked him. What I saw when Kai was wet down to the skin amazed me - he looked worse than Pinhead from Clive Barker's Hellraiser movies on his wings and under his wings!. Since I knew all his itchy pin feathers were coming in, I ignored his moodiness as best I could, and moved his dinner perch closer to the arm of the chair so he could be near me, but not within biting range of me. Being close was enough, and he was happy not to hurt me, and I was happy to give him lots of crunchy things to snap and break so he could take out his bitchiness on other things that weren't covered in flesh.
Since our relationship has deepened and strengthened over the year he's lived with me, he no longer bites me as hard as those few times in the past. I have come to recognize when his pinfeather isn't ready to be preened yet, when I shouldn't try to pick him up, not to stick my hand into his cage, or push my hand against his chest, and other things that set him off. In exchange, he knows that he doesn't need to bite me to shave flesh off my body in order to get my attention or make me stop what I'm doing if he doesn't like it. Now, my poor husband on the other hand...well....I have devised a wooden perch with a cardboard handguard for him if he absolutely needs to pick Kai up.
Kai's territorial behaviour towards B-kun only really occurs when we're on the couch or if he's on his house in my craft room, though. I'm going to start using his house in my craft room as his play house only, again, and have him sleep in his boarding house as his bedroom so he may feel less territorial. I'm going to change Kai's routine a little and have him in a different location when B-kun comes home from work, which is away from me, so he doesn't feel like he needs to protect me or his space, either. I have shown B-kun how to give Kai treats from a spoon, so he doesn't get bitten, either. B-kun had slacked off on that, as well as not taking showers with Kai like he used to, so I think Kai feels a little upset about that, as well. I realize the err in my request to have B-kun take Kai to bed, as well, because Kai bit him twice for putting him to bed. Why? Well, Kai probably didn't want to go to bed, and he saw B-kun as the Not-Mom who was making him do something he didn't want to do....
That's the sort of hindsight that makes me facepalm myself, but I learn and help B-kun try to understand, too.
A lot of the time, because my husband has never really had an animal of his own - cats don't count... - he doesn't know what to do or how to act around them. I, on the other hand, have lived around and worked with animals all of my life. I associate better with animals than I do people, for the most part, so I find myself explaining things to B-kun a lot, because he just doesn't see things from an animal's point of view, and he doesn't understand why they're acting a certain way. I'm often confused as to why people act so irrationally, lie, cheat, and treat others so horribly, though occasionally I can break it down into instincts, such as reward-seeking behaviour, territorial behaviour, flock behaviour, etcetera. A lot of the time I attribute people acting like jackasses to boredom and a lack of proper mental stimulation and exercise...
On that note on behaviours, I'm not looking forward to spring mating hormones, but if other people can endure it - if Paul and his staff at Birds Unlimited can handle all of their parrots during spring!! - then I can handle it. I've done lots of reading on how to minimize his hormones, like keeping his light on a timer, not feeding certain foods, and not encouraging mating or courtship rituals. I'll admit that I'm nervous that Kai will be flying over to attack B-kun once his hormones are in full gear. So far, Kai has only shown an interest in flying to his house - not to me, and not towards B-kun to scare him away or to bite him. That was Kai's doctor's main concern where parrots being flighted were considered. He said that parrots should be clipped to prevent them from acting out their aggression and to keep them from being territorial. I believe that it depends on the parrot, like any other person or animal, but we'll see. If Kai does get out of hand, I'll opt for him to be only partially clipped during the spring, and he'll be fully flighted during fall and winter.
I'm doing more reading now on how to encourage Kai to fly, along with a few other things that I feel may be important to his good health. For a while, he really didn't seem able to fly - or maybe it was just because he lacked the self-confidence to push himself to let go of my finger. There were a few times where he had taken one foot off my finger as I walked forward and said my usual, "Let's go, Kai, WHEE!!!" as he flapped his wings for exercises...but he would always hold on. Now, he feels much more confident, I think, so much so that he flew from my husband's hand in the living room, through the foyer, around the slight corner, and right onto his house!! It was such an eventful night...
It's now 1:00 am and Kai and I are hungry! It's time for "lunch"...I feel a little bad for turning Kai into a night owl like me, but he has adjusted to my schedule easily enough! I think it helps that my room is completely dark, even with the sun shining outside, unless I have my full spectrum lights on.
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Chirp!