Last Post For Awhile

Just wanted to let my readers know that this will be my last post for awhile.  Along with some other things going on in my life (nothing bad; just super-busy), it's time for me to take a break for the time being.  :-)

Update On The Four Crested Youngsters

They're all weaned now, and I just moved them to their own cage so that I can determine which are males and which are females.  The parents started laying eggs AGAIN before I was able to separate them, but I'll be moving the dad to the all-male cage shortly, to prevent any more chicks after this.  Prolific little stinkers! he he  If the eggs aren't viable, the two females will be moved to the all-female cage.

The youngster in the cage above them has one chick that's near fledgling.  It's white with a tan head.  I'll be separating them as soon as it's weaned.  Actually, I'll probably pull the two males shortly and let the moms take over, so they don't get any bright ideas about starting a new clutch.  ;-)

The parakeets and English budgies are all doing fine.  :-)

The Male Parakeet Is Singing His Little Heart Out :-)

As mentioned, we returned the female parakeet to the store.  Petsmart was very good with handling the return.  Sometimes pet stores, especially the big chains, get a lot of bad press, but the Hamilton Place Mall store in Chattanooga has been very helpful and knowledgeable.  Their animals always appear to be healthy and well-cared-for.  :-)

Now that he has some peace, the male parakeet is singing his little heart out!  Then he takes a nap for a little while ... and wakes up singing again.  He's probably still a little tired from all the chaos, but he sure seems happy that he's not being hen-pecked (ha) anymore.  :-)

The English budgies seem quite content as well, and they often sit snuggled up to each other.

My ears are happy, too, now that the screeching, screaming, squawking, and chasing has stopped.  LOL!  ;-)

Little Bird, Huge Attitude!

The English Budgies and the male parakeet are all doing great.

The female parakeet ... well ... we had to return her to the store.  :-(  She HATED the male parakeet with a PASSION, screaming at him and chasing him for hours on end.  We tried moving her into her own cage, but her hissy fits continued, apparently because she could still HEAR him, even in a different room.  The male was miserable; she was miserable; and the chaos was making all the other birds miserable as well.  :-(

We let the male have some out-of-cage time twice today.  Robert was able to get him to sit on his finger for a few seconds yesterday, and he ate some spray millet out of my hand today.  :-)  He's technically not tame (yet), but he's not totally terrified of us, either.

The budgies aren't showing any interest in their nest box yet ... or each other, really.  They're buddies, but so far it seems to be a platonic relationship, which is fine.  :-)  (I don't plan to try hand-taming them.  I want them to bond with each other, not with me.)

One of the four society babies fledged a couple of days ago.  The first time I put him back in the nest after an hour or so, but the second time, he "put himself up" when it was meal time.  LOL!  I'm sure they'll all be out of the nest by the weekend or so.

The surprise hatchling is doing well.  I visually checked on it two days ago, and I heard it begging today.  :-)

Newcomers To My Aviary! :-)

We took a trip to Canton, GA, yesterday to visit Shamrock Aviary, run by Kristin.  She breeds English Budgies, parakeets, and show pigeons.  We brought home a pair of English Budgies.  They're about 2 years old.  I'd intended to get just a young male, but when we saw how gorgeous her birds are, naturally (roll eyes!) we came home with a pair.  The blue one is the male, and the green one is the female.  They are STUNNING in person!  :-)  I haven't named them yet.  They're easily TWICE the size of a standard parakeet ... actually about the size of a cockatiel!

I also bought (from a pet store) a pair of regular parakeets.  The darker green one with the blue tail on the right is the male, and the softly-colored one on the left is the female.  They seem so tiny compared to the English Budgies!  :-)  I'm thinking I'll call the female Banana and the male Pickle, but I'll wait a few days and see if better names come to mind.  :-)

I have a new society finch hatchling in Cage #5 today!  I'd all but given up on the eggs, but one finally hatched.  So much for me moving those birds into separate male/female cages.  LOL!

Oopsie!

One of the 4 youngsters in Cage #3 just fell out of the nest.  They're starting to lean out to look at the big ol' world, and one leaned just a little too far.  Luckily I found him shortly afterwards, and put him back in the nest.  Then I had an idea of how to make the nest deeper, hopefully to prevent the chicks from falling out again.  I removed all the nesting materials and just put a folded paper towel in the bottom.  The nest needed cleaning anyway.  It's my (and their) bedtime now, so hopefully they'll all still be in the nest when I get up.  I wish that trio would accept an Abba nest box, but the only nest they'll use is a canary nest.  For small clutches, a canary nest is fine, but with four wiggly, curious babies, it's not the best in the world.  I'll be separating the parents after this clutch anyway, to give them a rest.  In fact, I'll most likely be separating all of my birds into separate male/female community cages for awhile, once this clutch is weaned and the single viable egg in Cage #1 hatches and weans.  Edit:  The parents ate the viable egg. ARGH! There are eggs in Cage #5, but I believe they're all duds. Edit: One finally hatched on 2/10.

Oh!  All the youngsters are crested.  All four of them.  :-)

Kenny, Elvis, and Lightning (all chocolate pied males) are going to a new home this morning.  They're extras, and will be living with Kevin and Michelle in Ooltewah, TN.  :-)

I *may* be getting a parakeet and a grasskeet this weekend from a guy in middle Tennessee.  It just depends on how far a drive it'll be.  The parakeet is a handfed, tame youngster.  The grasskeet is disabled (splayed legs), and depends on the parakeet for companionship, so assuming it's not too far a drive and that they're healthy, I should hopefully be getting them tomorrow.

(Splayed legs is a condition where a chick's legs are on a slippery surface in the nest box for a long period of time, and instead of the bones developing so that the chick can stand in an upright position, its legs are pointed outwards.  As I understand it, this condition can be cured using splints if caught in time, but I guess it was too late when the man discovered the problem.  The man said the bird does have use of one leg, so it's not totally disabled.  We'll see how things go when we get there.)

Edited to add:  The guy with the parakeet and grasskeet stopped communicating with me.  He was supposed to send me a photo of the grasskeet, but it never came through.  I texted him back to let him know it never arrived, and he said he'd send another, better photo ... which also never came through.  I suspect he got annoyed with me for asking lots of questions, but I'm not going to take in a bird (or birds) without knowing all about their ages, health, diet, etc.  He also would never tell me which city in "Middle Tennessee" that he lives in.  "Middle Tennessee" covers a lot of territory!  Just as well, really.  I, for one, LOVE it when potential adopters ask questions.  It shows that they genuinely want to care for the bird properly. Oh well.  I figure it's HIS loss, not mine.  But I feel a little bad about his birds, if you know what I mean.  :-/  I hope they get good homes.

In the meantime, I found a parakeet/budgie breeder in Georgia, about 2 hours from me.  We're supposed to go look at a just-weaned male English budgie tomorrow morning.  :-)

Just Banded The Chicks in Cage #3

Looks like at least 3 of the 4 are crested!  :-)  I used orange, red, pink, and green bands. All are chocolate pied.