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.

Four Hatchlings In Cage #3!

All four eggs in Cage #3 have hatched!  The chicks look great, and are being well-fed. :-)

Hatchling In Cage #3!

There's one brand new pink wiggly in Cage #3, and three more eggs to go. :-)

Funny Pics

Group Photo!

New Page Added

I've added a new page ... "The Birds of Moonrise Aviary".  It contains photos and details of all my birds.  The link is over on the right, near the top of the page.  :-)

Four Good Eggs! :-)

The chocolate trio in Cage #3 are incubating 4 viable eggs.  :-)

It Didn't Make It :-(

The little non-growing chick didn't make it, as I expected.  The foster parents fed it and kept it warm, but there was obviously something wrong with the little fellow.  :-(

The foster parents tried so hard that they were still keeping it warm even after it passed away.  They didn't remove it from the nest as many finches normally do.  They just kept right on trying to be good parents.  Sweet little things. <3  I removed it and changed out the nesting materials.

Chick Update

The mom in Cage #2 tossed the chick, however, I believe it was an accident because she flew out of the nest in a rush when I was giving them fresh food.  The baby fell through the cage floor and into the seed tray.  Since I was standing right there when it happened, I quickly rescued the chick.  After seeing that the chick only had a tiny bit of food in its crop again, I handfed it.  It ate very well this time, thankfully.  I then moved it to the nest in Cage #5, where there are already eggs being incubated.  Edit: Those eggs turned out to be duds/DIS.

The foster parents hopped right into the nest within 30 seconds of me putting the chick in, and started warming it back up.  They're very experienced parents and have raised quite a few chicks, so I'm confident in their abilities.  I'll still keep a close eye on it to make sure it's being fed.  I feel like this is its best chance for survival.

ETA:  I hear it begging for food, even though I just fed it.  LOL!  Little piggy.  :-)

11:30pm Update:  I hear it begging loud and clear! :-D  I haven't disturbed the foster parents to check on it (they're sitting TIGHT and give me "The Look" if I walk past their cage), but as long as I can hear it begging and the intermittent pauses as it's being fed, all is well.

Concerned About The Chick In Cage #2 :-/

This chick hatched on approximately January 1 or 2, but is much too small to be 7-8 days old.  The parents are feeding it, and are keeping it warm, and it's begging much louder than it was a few days ago, but its physical development is too slow.  I've started handfeeding it supplementally, while letting the parents continue to care for it.  Good thing it's the only hatchling in the nest, or its siblings would've outgrown it.  I don't see anything physically wrong with it, but that doesn't mean there's nothing internally wrong.  Unless it starts gaining some size in the next couple of days, I'm afraid it's not going to make it.  :-(

Update 8:30am - I went to feed it again before going to bed, but this time it didn't want to eat. It had completely digested the handfeeding formula from earlier, and had a tiny bit of food from its mom in its crop, but I could only get a very small amount of handfeeding formula in it.  It should have been eager to eat.  Maybe it'll surprise me, but I'm not optimistic. :-/

Update 7pm - It had a tiny bit of food in its crop from its parents, but its skin looks dry-ish.  I tried to handfeed it again, thinking it was becoming dehydrated.  I was only able to get a little into it, about half as much as the photo above.  The parents are still feeding it, although I wish they'd feed it more, and they're keeping it warm, but I'm still worried.

Cage #1 & #6 Babies Update

The light blue-banded youngster in Cage #1 is a boy. I just heard him practice-singing.  That was fast!  :-)  I'm not sure about the other youngster yet (orange band).

The purple-banded white youngster in Cage #6 is a boy.

The white-banded chocolate pied youngster in Cage #6 is a boy.

Update

Haven't posted in a few days.  Been sick with the flu. :-(

Cage #1 - The two youngsters have left the nest.  The parents should start to wean them soon.

Cage #2 - A single baby hatched on approximately New Year's Day.  :-)

Cage #3 - Nothing new to report.

Cage #4 - Owl finches; they're doing fine.

Cage #5 - Incubating ELEVEN!!! eggs!  A few were duds, so I removed them.  At least 4 candled as being viable.  Should be due to hatch in roughly 9-12 days.  (Edit: They turned out to be DIS.) It looks like two hens were laying at the same time.   I removed the three weaned youngsters and put them in Cage #6, along with the three youngsters from Cage #3.

Cage #6 - Three fawn pied youngsters from Cage #5 and three chocolate pied youngsters from Cage #3.

Breakdown:
From Cage #5 - Fawn Pied Youngsters

Red Band - Crested, Gender Unknown
Purple Band - Non-Crested, Almost Solid White, Male
Hot Pink Band - Crested, Gender Unknown

From Cage #3 - Chocolate Pied Youngsters

Yellow Band - Crested, Male
Black Band - Crested, Probably Male
White Band - Non-Crested, Gender Unknown


Here are some photos: