Update :-)

Cage #1 - The two youngsters are doing great! They'll probably leave the nest within the next 7-10 days.  They're already peeking out of the nest box to see what the big ol' world is like!  ;-)

Cage #2 - There's only one possibly viable egg now.  There were two, but one of them somehow got a hole in it, possibly poked by one of the birds' toenails.  :-(  I believe the other egg is still viable, but I'm not 100% sure. The egg pocket is a little larger than usual.  It's due to hatch in a few days, so we'll see how it goes.

Cage #3 - The three youngsters are fully weaned now. I'll be moving them to their own cage within the next day or two.

Cage #4 - The owl finches are doing great!  The female laid another egg without difficulty, thanks to the calcium.  It fell in the cage floor and broke, which is a bummer, but at least she didn't have any trouble this time.

Cage #5 - The three youngsters are almost fully weaned.  I saw the slightly older baby feeding one of the younger babies yesterday.  It was ADORABLE!  (The older baby is the one that rehomed itself into the younger babies' nest box in order to enjoy the food delivery service a bit longer! ROFL!)

Cage #6 - Empty, but will soon be housing the youngsters from Cage #3.  Edit:  I've got the Cage #3 youngsters moved to Cage #6.  The next step is to determine which are males and which are females.  So far there hasn't been any practice singing going on. Update: The one with the yellow band is a boy! I just heard him learning to sing. :-)

Owl Finches!

Hubby and I met with Amy and Paul from Maryville this evening, and we brought home two gorgeous little owl fnches, Tootsie and Pop!  Here are some photos of the precious little darlings.  :-)  Like my other finches, they're in a 30x18 flight cage, with lots of plastic greenery and two nests to choose from, should they decide to have a family.  Since owl finches require privacy, I rigged each of the nests with a webcam so I can peek without disturbing them.  The hen had had a little trouble with eggbinding, so I've got her on some liquid calcium and one end of the cage has a heat lamp so she can snuggle up if she wants.  :-)  Thanks again to Amy and Paul.  We'll treasure them!  :-)

Above:  Cardboard tube nest behind the plastic leaves.  The perch leads right up to the entrance, so they can check it out before going in.

Above:  Tootsie and Pop

Above:  Cardboard tube nest again, with the camera visible

Above:  Back side of the cage

The other nest, hidden behind some greenery. It's a butter bowl (LOL!) but it was easy to rig the camera into the lid, and it's a good size for a finch nest.  They can choose whichever one they like best.  There's also greenery in front of the cage (not shown in the photo) to give them additional privacy.  Pardon my craft bins and my sewing machine box in the background. They're stacked on a shelf across the room, but showed up in my photo.  :-D

Another Fledgling! :-)

The red-banded, crested chick from Cage #5 has left the nest! :-)

I also have some news!  I'm supposed to be getting some owl finches this Sunday evening.  I'm so excited!  :-)

Fledgling!

One of the Cage #5's chicks just left the nest!  It's the one with the purple band.  It's almost solid white, except for a bit of very light tan around its lower face and chest. :-)

The youngsters in Cage #1 are being fed more consistently now.  I just gave them more eggfood with added handfeeding formula. :-)

Cage #1 Babies

The adults in Cage #1 happened to leave the nest just as I walked by, so I quickly slipped the nest box out of the cage and banded the youngsters.  One's banded with orange; the other with light blue.  I'm a little concerned that their crops aren't full, but I'm keeping as close an eye on them as humanly possible.  I'm fixing to give the parents some eggbread as soon as I get finished typing this, so hopefully they'll feed it to the babies shortly.  If not, I'm going to supplement hand-feed.  The parents are keeping them nice and warm, but their feeding skills have a bit to be desired! :-/

The babies look to be fawn pied.  Their eyes are open just a smidge.  Too soon to tell if either is crested.  (Their dad is.)

ETA:  Okay, the parents are pigging out on the eggbread.  I added some extra handfeeding formula to it, to give it even more nutritional value.

ETA:  I hear the babies begging now. I'll check their crops in a few minutes and see if they look any fuller.

ETA:  The babies are stuffed full! :-)

Note to self:  Available band colors: gray only.

Cage #3 Family Photo & Updates

Here's the family from Cage #3 ... my M/F/F chocolate pied trio and their three almost-weaned youngsters.  The three on the left are the youngsters (two are crested).  The fourth bird is the dad (crested), and the two on the right are the "moms". :-)  (One is behind the cage bar; sorry about that.)

The youngsters in Cage #1 are doing fine.  One of the youngsters was tossed early on; I'm not sure why.  But the others are doing great.  I haven't banded them yet as the parents are VERY protective and get annoyed with me just for peeking.  ;-)

The Cage #5 youngsters are doing great as well.  Turkey, the one who left his nest a bit early and rehomed himself with the other youngsters in the other nest (LOL!) is near weaning.  The other two youngsters are near fledging.  Should be sometime this week.  :-)  One looks to be almost solid white, and the other is very light tan crested.  Turkey is light tan crested as well.

Cage #2 has seven eggs that are being incubated.  I just candled them, and two are showing as being viable. There's one I'm not sure about, and the others don't yet show signs of being fertile.

Some of the extra youngsters will be available for adoption once they're fully weaned.  As of right now, there is no wait list, so if you're interested, please let me know ASAP.  I still need to copy my adoption information pages over to this new blog, but you can see the adoption application and process here:

Adoption Information
Available For Adoption
Adoption Application

Note to self:  Current available band colors are orange, light blue, and gray.

Baby Update! :-)

Cage #1 (F/F/M Trio) - There's at least one hatchling now! :-) I couldn't get a better peek without upsetting the parents, but I could see one pink wiggly for sure.

Cage #2 (Community) - Four newly-laid eggs! :-)

Cage #3 (F/F/M Trio) - The three chocolate pied youngsters have all fledged, and will soon be learning to eat on their own.  :-)

Cage #5 (Community) - The single hatchling with the pink band fledged yesterday.  I feel like it's a few days early, but apparently it had other ideas.  I gently scooped it up and put it back in the nest, but except for the last scoop-up at bedtime, it wouldn't stay put.  It learned to perch quickly, and the little stinker found the other nest box with the two chicks inside.  It managed to leap from the perch to their nest box, and happily joined that little family! ROFL!  Luckily it's not much larger than the other chicks, so I don't anticipate a problem. The other chicks are doing great.  All the adults in that cage are feeding all the chicks.  I guess it really does take a village to raise a child sometimes! ;-)

New Hatchlings Banded

I just banded the other two hatchlings in Cage #5. So far it looks like one will be chocolate and the other will be fawn. They're being well-fed, and are toasty warm. :-)  The other eggs were duds.

One of the four chicks in Cage #3 fell out of the nest two nights ago. :-(  The other three are doing great.  One of them fledged today.  It stayed out for a few minutes, then went back into the nest.  :-)

The eggs in Cage #1 should be hatching very soon.  I candled them just now, and they still look okay.

Note to self:  Current available band colors are light blue and gray.