2 More Tail Feathers

Katana is now back in the air conditioning, and fully recovered from the other day. When I came home last night, I put her in the weathering area for a few hours. Around 6 I went out to feed her, and surprise! 2 more tail feathers! When I brought her back inside after eating, she bated and played dead bird. I took the opportunity to check her out. The tail is not poking in yet, but her secondaries are almost in. They are a beautiful dark and silver. She is definitely going to be stunning when she is done!

A Little Scare

Well, I got off work yesterday and went over to Krys's house to pick up Katana. She was in the weathering area outside as I had asked Krys, the same weathering area she spent the weekend in while we were doing some work. When I arrived, she was bating like crazy. I went over to pick her up, and noticed that she was panting, she had stringy saliva coming out of her open mouth, and she seemed very weak on the fist. I immediately soaked her down with a water bottle and took her inside to cool. After she was thoroughly wet and was starting to calm, I took her home. It is about a 10 minute trip. When I got home and pulled her out of the box, she was drooping her wings, and panting even harder. It seemed that she could barely stand on the fist. I immediately soaked her again and took her inside to the perch in the living room. After turning the A/C on, I refilled her bath pan with cool water. Before I even had it halfway full, she was in it. I continued to fill it as she spent the next 10 minutes drinking. When she was done, she returned to the perch, and sat there mouth open, wings hanging. Needless to say, I was very concerned. Over the next few hours, I continued to keep her wet, and to spray water into her mouth until her disposition returned to normal. By the evening, she was back to her usual self, and I fed her a quail that I plucked for her, taking away all the casting material. It just goes to show that even the same situation (the weathering area) can cause different results, even in the small span of a few days. I will not put her in the weathering area again while it is hot, unless I can remain and supervise her. Fortunately, all is fine now, and I am glad I was able to get off work early yesterday.
However, when I entered the weathering area yesterday, I did find another surprise: HER FIRST TAIL FEATHER!!!!! YEA!!!!!

A Trip to the Vet

Well, since the last entry, Katana has dropped 2 primaries. Over the weekend, I noticed a discoloration on the top of her mouth, and Krys took her to visit Dr. Moore yesterday. Turns out that it was probably just some dried food, but I guess it was better to have it checked out than to just let it go. While she was there, she received a coping. Krys told me he can now see her feathers coming in, as he had her casted, and they are much darker than her immature plumage. Now I want to rush home and cast her, something I have been hesitant to do in hopes of keeping her calm.
So, all is well! Katana is in perfect health, and the molt is progressing nicely. :)

So you had a bad day...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uUz9AxfT8U

So, I had a REALLY bad day at work yesterday. Not going to go into that. My back is hurting more and more each day, and yesterday was exceptionally bad. I took a History Final last night, and that is where my day started turning around. I am sure I aced it. When I got home, to my dismay, Katana had not dropped any new feathers. Oh, well...it is only one day right?? Wrong!! I went to the bathroom and when I came back she had dropped her 4th secondary and another body feather for me. It was as if she knew I needed something to cheer me up! Yea!
So far, I think the molt is going well. Still waiting on that tail feather tho...

Something's Afoot

Kylie and I were getting ready to head out to an education program at Greystone Castle in Mingus Saturday morning. Kylie is obsessed with her bird starting the molt and finding out what she is going to look like next year since it is a dark morph. When I say obsessed I mean on an unhealthy almost commitable level. Anyway she picked her bird up off the perch and it bated dropping a secondary. Bates again and drops the matching secondary on the other side. (or did they drop....) Neither feather drifting lazily to the ground were seen by Kylie. She did however actually see the bird drop a body feather while doing the program. Everything is right with the world now that Katana has started the molt right? Or so I thought until I got a phone call from Kylie the other night accusing me of planting the feathers to mess with her head. She had a tone to start off the conversation so I immediately knew something was up. I must have reacted with a tone of my own only causing Kylie's suspicions to increase thinking I knew I had been caught. Nothing I could say or do could convince her that the feathers belonged to her bird. She said "The pattern does not match that of the remaining feathers." and she"can't find a gap where feathers are missing." At this point I am laughing hysterically, and not doing myself any favors trying to defend myself. I just think its too funny that she thinks I would actually do that....however it is a great idea. By the way you may want to look up turkey feathers on the web since they look stunningly similar to those of a dark morph passage red tailed hawk.
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More Feathers!!

Well, this weekend we all loaded up and headed out to Brandi's ranch for a camp out. It was a blast! Brandi and her family roasted a pig and everyone ate very well that night. there was even a live performance by Elvis! Brandi's dad is an Elvis tribute artist, and really knows how to put on a show. One of the highlights of the evening was watching Krys get hugged by Elvis, stiffening as he always does when touched.
When I returned home on Sun, I found another secondary and a bunch of body feathers. The molt definitely under way, and progressing nicely!