Has Sprite always known there was something wrong with her? Years ago, Sprite used to pluck out her own feathers. Vets thought it might just be nervous behavior. After all, she’d had a tough past. Born at a breeding facility, she was sold at a big pet store chain, only – as is all too common when a parrot is bought from a store – to be given up when it turned out that keeping a parrot is hard work. Next, she landed in a much better home. But she was plucking out her feathers. Was it simply because her life had been so unstable so far?

Today, years later, Sprite is suffering from a mysterious growth – in the exact same spot where she’d always picked at herself. The feather plucking seemed to have come to an end, but is it possible she’d been plucking there because she’d always sensed something was wrong with that spot? And what exactly is that growth?

Sprite’s person had to give her up for health reasons of his own. So with a medical mystery emerging, where was a parrot to go?

Sprite came to Best Friends, where she’s heading into the Guardian Angel program. Here, medical care once unheard-of for homeless pets is just a part of daily life. It could be very delicate trying to find out what’s causing this growth of hers, and treat it – birds are fragile! But now that she has Guardian Angels in her corner, there’s no telling what outcomes are possible for this beautiful bird.