Pookey and the lovebirds were delivered to their new home Saturday and they are doing very well. The lady that I adopted them to will become a member of this site so she can keep me updated on their progress so I will leave the details for her.
The two new cages came in and they are now put together. I already set up Pablo PFC and Codee GCC's with all kinds of platforms, ladders, boing, etc and moved them to it this morning. Codee is nesting for the first time in her life (she is now 6, I think -I have to look at her band]. I had noticed that she did not want to come out to spend time with me a few days and she even grabbed my finger and applied a bit of pressure to it (not a bite, not even a nip -she just squeezed a bit to let me know she wasn't pleased with my insistence] and, the days that she did come out, she seemed to be in a hurry to go back to her cage so I figured she was getting nesty and gave her three different kinds of 'nest', a hut, a long square 'tube-like' cardboard box and another more 'rectangular' in shape (it's actually a 12 beer bottle one laid on its side] and she chose the last one where she sleeps every night with Pablo and goes in for longer and longer hours every day to scratch and brood -but no eggs yet. Poor Pablo is his usual mess only now his entire tail is broken from his climbing up and down the sides of the bigger cage -I hope this smaller one will do the trick and his tail grows back during molt.
Zoey and Sweetpea Senegal are busy looking to build a nest behind my draperies and have chewed the back of them something terrible as well as the sheers (with the corresponding complaints by my husband]. I gave them a wooden nest and a couple of different cardboard boxes but Zoey chose the back of the draperies and that's where you can find her every single morning until she is put back in her cage. Sweetpea is stills plucking although I have never, ever, seen him doing it and I think it could be due to the fact that Zoey does not 'put out' and hardly ever allows him to preen her (talk about 'playing hard to get'!]. But she has become more and more independent and has, pretty much, 'abandoned' me -which is fine with me as it is her own choice.
Davy and Isis Redbelly are both doing very well - eating well, pooping well, bathing, etc. I am always in awe at how well they eat! These birds will go for their leafy greens every single day while the sennies, which are also pois, would not touch them! Davy has become much more comfortable with me and often perches on my shoulder -well, if he can find an empty place because Isis and Sunny are constantly vying for the VIP spot.
Sunny now flies almost as well as the best of them! She has also become terribly attached to me and wants to be on me (chewing my clothes!
] all the time (she is on my shoulder right now] but she has also learned the "GO!" command and takes off whenever I tell her to so we are good. She is eating well and bathing almost every day (which she never used to do before].
Mami and Naida Zon are looking TERRIBLE! Their chests and bellies are all plucked, Naida has a large strip plucked on the back of her head and poor Mami no longer has a tail at all! This is all the handiwork of Mami which plucks herself AND Naida. I took Naida to the vet for a CBC because she had taken to spending her days in a nest (another cardboard box]. I was sure it was that she was brooding but, just in case, I wanted to make sure there was nothing else. Her white cell count came back the tiniest bit elevated but as she did not have any symptom whatsoever (good appetite, good weight, no diarrhea, no discharge anywhere, etc] the vet and I decided not to do the differential to see if it was just inflammation (which would be consistent with her broodiness] and put her on some antibiotics just to be extra careful.
Paquita and Rajah Plet are doing great! She is now fully feathered and hasn't plucked once since she got here. They get along very well and are eating like champions! Paquita LOVES greens and usually ends up eating almost the entire thing by herself even though I keep on putting a larger and larger portion in their cage so he can also get some. We call her Her Nastiness because she is the meanest little thing ever!
All you have to do is look at her and she attacks anything she can reach just to let you know what she would like to do to you if you would only give her a chance. My husband adores her and is always laughing and calling me to show me how mad she is when he looks at her - and I keep on telling him to leave her alone to which he always replies that he is not doing anything but looking
They will be moved to the living room and have more exposure to us which I hope will help her to calm down.
The budgies are as happy as they can be. Everybody gets along very well, they all eat together from the same plate and chill together but there are obvious individual preferences. Tweety and Luna still stay together most of the time although I saw Tweety this morning hanging his head down to look at Harley and Blue -which were perching on a lower branch- more closely - and Harley continues his campaign of conquering Blue (!] so poor Chloe seems to be a bit on her own -which doesn't seem to bother her much because, whenever she chooses to, she simply sticks herself between Harley and Blue so they have to move apart to make room for her
. I will be cleaning the big flight cage tomorrow morning and setting up for them so I can move them to it - and I am still looking for a single female to 'finish up' the little flock.
Precie and Zeus YNA abandoned the nest completely and I am just waiting for Sophie to abandon hers so I can let them out of their cage all the time. I am afraid that if I do it now, they might approach her nest and Linus Too might get into a fight with them. Linus continues to watch over Sophie and the eggs faithfully and he has metamorphosed into a 'normal' too (read, a pain in the butt!]. Whereas before he never made a peep, he now screams like a maniac at dawn and dusk and sometimes in between, too! And, whereas before he was the sweetest thing on earth, he now goes after my feet and bites. He has also taken to hating the broom with a passion. I actually have to put him in a cage when I sweep the birdroom because he would attack it. I left it in there by mistake one day and he 'killed' it
I am not unhappy about this, mind you! Quite the contrary! I am very pleased about it because it tells me he is feeling stronger and happier than he has been for a long time and, possibly, in his entire life. But he keeps on plucking and barbering... This morning, I saw a beautiful primary that was almost fully grown on his left wing chewed up at the root, where it was still a blood feather. He didn't break it off completely but it's gonna fall for sure... Ay ay ay! I have been considering putting a cone on his head when molt starts to see if I can get as many feathers as possible to grow normally before I take the cone out to see if he would leave them alone - but I still haven't decided. I don't want him stressed out and it's not as if I care if he plucks or not... I mean, of course that I would love for him to stop but when birds have been plucking for years and years they will continue to do it even when the reason why they started has disappeared so, although it is not something that I prefer, I don't mind if it's nothing but a matter of aesthetics and nothing else.
Finches, canaries, cardinal and quail doing well -I am still looking for a female quail for poor Itsy but have not seen any offered in CL so I will keep on looking.