Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Update on Parasites

Fig has been parasite free-ish for months. I'll pick up a feather lice once or twice a week at most. She picks them up from bushes and trees. But I am proud to say she has remained nearly parasite free, especially because I have managed to do that without the use of anything other than my hands and bathing her with warm water, no easy task.

I go through Fig's feathers with my finger tips to frighten any hangers-on out into the open where they can be spotted on a white tee-shirt easily. Thankfully she loves being massaged all over.  And she takes a few baths and showers each day, a couple on her own, and a couple with me. She's a water buffalo with feathers. She uses a whooooole lot of very expensive water. A hippo could get by on less.

But summer is almost here, and that is going to be hot and humid, and really test my all natural parasite management approach, as feather mites absolutely thrive in the hot, humid air in Japan. I have no idea how wild birds tolerate the relentless little buggers, but I suspect being out in direct sunlight all day, taking dust baths, ant baths, and water baths is their strategy. In large part, Pigeons and Doves, Sparrows, and White Cheeked Starling and Crows are what you see in Fukuoka on land in summer, and these birds have the advantage of being darkly colored, dust bathers, or practically semi-aquatic water bathing fanatics.

I keep studied up on parasites of both the inside and out sorts, and regularly check for external, and internal parasites to the best of my knowledge and ability which continues to expand. I am very proud that Fig is healthy, and not riddled with nibbling blood thirsty pests. Feather mites are a major irritation to anyone who has to handle a bird. They get up in your hair and walk around like they've had ten cups of coffee and can't find a comfortable chair. Being able to hold Fig, kiss and cuddle her, and carry her around for hours at a time without lousy louses scampering off onto me is great, but admittedly it took me a good year and a half to learn how to...preen like a bird, literally. It is an odd skill which I suspect I will never need to put on a resume.

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