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RAPP SUPPORT, as part of the QPSRAPP (Quaker Parakeet Society Rescue & Placement Program, offers mentoring guidence to the Quaker owner who wish to establish a better relationship with their Quaker, or to those who may be experiencing behavioral difficulties with their Quakers.
To learn more about QPSRAPP, RAPP Support, to volunteer, seek RAPP assistance, or to donate to Pennies For Placement, click HERE
As Lucky and Mary have pointed out, plucking behavior in Quakers, or any avian, may not be due solely to stress. Underlying medical causes may be the cause. If your Quaker exhibits plucking behavior, consult with your avian vet to help determine the cause.
To learn more about plucking behavior, go to: Information On Plucking
THE QPLIST QUAKER OF THE MONTH
Through posts to the QPList, we learn a lot about our fellow member's Quakers. Those Quakers make up our online flock. Each month, this page will feature the QPList Quaker of the Month. If there is a Quaker you would like to see as Quaker of the month, please write to QPSERC (QPS Education & Research)
Three cheers for MAY! And the flurry of molting feathers it brings! To celebrate the new month, we'd like to introduce you to a little fellow that lives up to his name; Lucky!
What a handsome and bright-eyed boy he is! Lucky lives with QPList member, Mary. Mary is also co-chairperson of QPS' Fundraising Committee and a committee member of the Education and Reseaerch Committee. She tells us Lucky's fasinating story:
"Lucky is 2 years old. He was only a few days old when he was rescued from a nest that FPL (Florida Power & Light) was set to destroy. The crew's orders were to destroy (shred) the nest & any contents. But when the FPL crew saw the babies, they couldn't bring themselves to follow their orders. Each baby was rescued by a crew-member before the nest was destroyed. Lucky's foster mom hand fed him until he was fully weaned at 8 weeks old, at which time he came to live with me. The day I brought him home just happened to be my birthday!"
Lucky was diagnosed with a staph infection back in the winter. I took him to the vet because he kept plucking & biting his tail blood-feathers. For a whole year prior to that I had assumed his feather destruction was due to the stress of me returning to school & 18 hour days when he was only a few months old. After 9 weeks of antibiotics, and daily mistings, the staph infection is no longer detectable (vet won't say he's cured because staph seems to lurk, sometimes) Lucky's tail feathers are just now starting to grow back. He has also returned to his original sweet-but-Quaker disposition! Even if he never has a full Quaker tail again, I love him to bits! "
Mary is getting used to, and even like the "hatchback look" of Lucky's tail!
Mary adds importantly, "In a way, Lucky has become the poster-bird for ruling out medical causes of feather destruction before assuming it is stress-related. At least, that's what a few of the folks on the QPList have expressed to me."
We are fortunate to be able to share experiences like Lucky and Mary's, on the QPList. Each time we do so, we may able to help not only our own Quaker, but our fellow list members Quakers as well, now, and in the future.
