Chantilly wrote:Pajarita wrote:He is doing VERY well, I am hoping he will start on his gloop today because I made a fresh batch and I saved some of the grains without any veggie for him so as to 'start' him off on the transition. I hardly ever bother to do this anymore but he is the only little one I have right now so I figured a bit of extra help was needed.
He chirps and chirps all the time, poor thing! Lovebirds that don't have mates or companions do that... But I have to sex him and wait until the quarantine is over to get him a mate.
Poor lil guy, do lovebirds accept friends easily?
Oh, yes, they certainly do! But you have to be careful as to the genders if they are caged - it doesn't matter if you keep them cage-free. You can house two males and one male/one female together but you can't house two females because, eventually, they will fight. And that's why I need to sex or, if at all possible, find a male because that would work no matter what Tomo is. BUT if I went by his size (a bit small) and his temperament (sweet), I would say he is a male (which means nothing because I've had small, sweet females, too).
Yesterday, when I came downstairs to feed everybody dinner, he was out of his cage! I don't know if I did not lock the door properly or if he figured out how to open it but he was out ansd perching on top of Sunny's cage. I had put his cage in the farthest corner away from the other birds I have downstairs to make a quarantine of sorts because I don't have any 'good' rooms where I could put him completely away from them where there would be people, too, but this kind of screwed up the whole thing so I will have to be very vigilant in terms of symptoms in any of them. I stopped in front of him to talk to him and, when I kept on going to the kitchen, he flew to my shoulder so I ended up starting my evening chores with him. Once I got to the point that it was time for me to feed the birds dinner, I put his bowl with seeds in my right hand and showed it to him (he was perching on my right shoulder). He immediately started going down my arm but I did not allow him to get to the bowl until I was standing in front of his cage when I placed the bowl at the open door but, smart thing that he is, he did not try to reach it so I just turned around and fed all the other birds first with him trying to get to the bowls and me preventing it. When I had finished, I went back to his cage and did the same thing but, this time, he did get close to the bowl and reaching out with one foot, grabbed the edge and stretching and leaning over A LOT
, he picked one seed. I did not move. He went back and took another seed (still with one foot on the bowl and the other on my hand) and I still did not move. But, when he went for the third seed, he put both his feet on the bowl and then VERY slowly and praising him all the time as well as saying Nite Nite, I put his bowl in his cage. And that was that! Easy piecey lemon squeezy!
Then, this morning, when I came downstairs, I opened his cage and asked him to step up. He didn't. I asked him again and, again, he didn't. I closed the door to the cage and walked away to let the other birds out. Five minutes later, I went back and asked him again and, this time, he did step up and quickly climbed to my shoulder. He spent about 1.5 hours riding my shoulder and flying here and there (I was always keeping my eye on him because he is so little that I was afraid I was going to lose sight of him) and, by the time I was putting his bowl with cooked cereals and a bit of seed mixed in, he must have been real hungry so he went back in without a single problem. I also got him to step up to my finger without biting three times! What a sweetheart!!! He, obviously, belonged to somebody who loved him and was patient with him because he trusts and likes people and he is used to riding people's shoulders - and although he did hanged on a bit too hard on my finger the first time I asked him to step up, he did not really bite me. AND he took a bit of a bath in the sink. He got all excited when I was washing the bowls so I turned down the faucet to a mere trickle and put one medium size bowl under it - which he did not like so I switched it for a shallower one and he went right for it! AND I just saw three half-eaten kernels of barley on the bottom of his cage so he already started trying them!
Between you and me, I hope I don't find the owner so I can keep him!