I am sorry that I went for so long without an update but spring is a terribly busy time for me what with the feral kittens - I have 8 of them ready for adoption as I took them to the vet yesterday and almost $400 later [OUCH!], got all the health certificates for them so they are now ready to go BUT, just this morning, I brought in a teeny tiny one 9maybe a week old] that had been abandoned by the mother [we kept on finding two of them left alone and kept on putting them with the others but, this morning, one of them was dead and the other had been moved to the other end of the basement and was meowing desperately, all alone, cold and covered in wet mud and fleas so I brought him in, bathed him, took the fleas out, dried him out, gave him antibiotic and warm formula and he is now wrapped up in a baby blanket, sleeping in a box in my bathroom on top of a heating pad [let's hope he makes it because when the mothers abandon them like that, is because they are too sick to make it]. And now this means that, again, I won't be able to go out of my house for more than an hour or two at a time which is so very inconvenient for me because I was waiting for the kittens to grow up so I could go visit my 92 year old mother in law and to go to Connecticut with my husband for a day and a half so I could 'try out' my neighbor taking care of my animals [I am going back home for a family reunion in February next year and I wanted my husband to come so we could both attend the party and be together for 3 days -we haven't gone anywhere together for more than a few hours for years and years]. But I can't just let them die without trying. I will try to post pictures of some of them so you can see the little cuties.
Now, on to the parrots. Javi Caique is patrolling the kitchen counter while preening himself after taking a 'kitchen towel bath' - there is nothing he likes better than a clean kitchen towel that has been wet under the faucet, loosely wrung and left in a pile on a flat surface so he can rub and rub and rub his entire body on it -kind of what budgies do with leafy greens but he ends up completely wet while budgies don't. Aside from that, he is doing great and the big news is that I am pretty sure that I have [FINALLY!] gotten him over the soft molt [I've been trying since I got him in late October or early November]. He doesn't have any more pins around his face and his belly, which had such thin contours that looked almost grey [because his skin is dark and his down is a very dark grey] now looks a nice solid white. It would be great if he molted his primaries [his remiges are so worn out from not molting that they are literally half of what they should be] but I doubt it will happen this summer so his plumage is not going to be good for another year but, at least, we are on our way now and his wings have gotten stronger with the exercise so, even though his remiges are not whole, he can now fly better [took a perfectly horizontal 8 ft flight yesterday and landed on top of Mami's and Naida's cage]. He has also stopped having his 'angry fits'. He has never, ever bit me or even nipped me hard but he had this habit of making angry noises and pecking my hand over and over really quick-like whenever I would ask him to step up. I am pretty sure he was doing it because he thought that I was going to put him in his cage every time but as the months went by and he realized that this was not the case and that he would spend a lot of time out-of-cage [right now, they are spending 10 hours, from 5 am to 3 pm], he gradually decreased the habit until it disappeared.
Keku Quaker is also doing wonderfully! Her wings have gotten so strong [quakers are EXCELLENT fliers] that she can now fly up and down the stairs and make 90 degree turns without hesitating. She has such good vertical flight that, the other day, I couldn't find her even though I could hear her answering me when I called and I finally discovered her perched on the side of my living room ceiling fixture which is ten feet up! She is also on her way to becoming one of my best eaters - she has not only enlarged the range of produce she eats, she is even eating leafy greens now! AND, I think she is trying to learn to talk.
Mami and Naida Zon finally abandoned their nest for good and I saw some feathers coming out on their naked chests so here is hoping they will allow them to grow. I have been thinking of trying a tube collar on them but I haven't acted on it yet... let's see what happens with these new feathers. On a sad note, Mami's arthritis seems to be a bit worse so I think I am going to start her on flax seed meal and some glucosamine.
Zoey and Sweetpea Senegal are doing very well. This spring has kind of cemented their relationship. I see them perching and sleeping side by side and I saw Zoey preening Sweets' head so even though they don't have sex, they both seem quite content with each other.
Davy and Isis Redbelly are, definitely, not an item -but, of course, I don't lose hope and will keep on trying. They are still in separate cages and Davy is still the Casanova of the parrot world and tries to woo all females - including Keku who would, sometimes, ask him to fed her in her beak. Davy gave me a nip the other day when I tried to scratch his head after he had asked me for it -little stinker!
Paquita and Rajah Plet are doing well. I make sure she gets stuff that she can eat every day by not only giving her the special gloop but also by grating or mashing veggies and fruits so she can eat them on her own [the only thing I can't give her is leafy greens but she can eat grated broccoli and celery]. At night, for dinner, I give her a very plain birdy bread on which I smear a tiny bit of almond or peanut butter [the kind that is just peanuts and nothing else] or baby bird formula. I check her breast once a week to make sure she is not losing or gaining weight and so far, so good.
Codee GCC and Pablo Peachfront are also doing well. Poor Pablo looks to be on his last legs but he has looked like this for years so it's not anything that worries me overmuch although I do keep closer tabs on him than on the other birds. Everything comes hard for poor Pablo - it took him all this time to learn to use the ladders I put for him in the cage [he learned to use them to climb up fast but, for some reason, he did not seem to be able to learn to climb down until now]. But he eats like a champ, takes baths regularly, sleeps in his little hut with Codee and is no longer terrified of me so I guess this is as good as it can get for him, poor thing! Codee is, as always, the sweetest and easiest bird to keep: great eater, good bather, good flier and always and without exception, the sweetest things with wings!
The budgie flock is doing very well. I put the male I got last in with the others yesterday and, as soon as I did, the other males rushed over to check him out and talk to him [they are soooo cute!] while the hens pretty much ignored him -as it should be. They are eating very well and Duchess' beak seems to be beginning to take longer in overgrowing so we are good there. They also have started their molt so their endocrine systems are now in tune with the seasons [well, with the exception of Duke, which hasn't been here long enough]. Now to find two more males and we will be done. But I wanted to share a curious thing with you, guys. Susan, the budgie that came in with Duchess [the one that has the liver problems] is a puzzle to me because I don't even know if it's a male or a female. His or her eyes are all black [meaning no grey iris] but that can be because it's a recessive pied - the thing that puzzles me is that his/her cere is flesh colored [thus my thinking that it was female and why I named it 'Susan' as in Black-eyed Susan] and has not changed color at all -meaning, no brown, crusty cere. All the other females got their 'breeding ceres' but not this little bird... It doesn't seem to be sick or on any kind of stress though so I guess I will wait for next spring and see what is what then.
Precie and Zeus Zon have also abandoned any breeding behavior and are now molting. They are a very stable, very easy pair of birds to care for... always entirely predictable in their behaviors and exact on their seasons, they love one another and keep each other happy so it's just a matter of putting food and water for them and nothing else. Like all zons, they are excellent eaters and today they got all favorites: broccoli for greens, white cherries for fruit and sugar snaps for veggie so they did not know which one to start with
Linus Too is, I am afraid, a lost cause when it comes to make him stop plucking. He has gotten better because now, with the exception of his chest, his body is covered in feathers whereas, when he first came, he had more naked skin that anything else. But whatever feathers he has are a royal mess because of his severe barbering habit which has not abated much. He does seem to be quite content, he eats well [loves his 'salad' and goes for his leafy greens first thing every morning], doesn't scream, doesn't bite, watches over Sophie CAG and goes crazy when she flies to my shoulder [rushes to get as close as he can and screams like a maniac] so, all in all, he is a real good boy. Of course, he chews and chews and chews but that's what toos do. He is going to be very happy next week when my husband comes back home because a storm knocked down a LARGE [I am talking a diameter of 12 inches or more] dead branch from a tree in the backyard and I asked Robert to chop it into large pieces so I can give them to Linus for chewing -he will think he has died and gone to heaven
Sophie CAG is, as always, the best little girl ever. Never a problem from this bird... good eater, great flier, sweet-tempered, affectionate, perfect plumage, etc.
Dogs and cats all doing OK. Got two more cats to get spayed which will be done next month [too many extra expenses this one because both my husband and I needed dentist work and there's the kittens expenses plus I will start bringing ferals to get done before they get to breeding again in the late summer - gotta wait in between litters because you don't want to trap a lactating mother and leave the kittens to starve to death]. Baby canaries were put in a flight cage of their own so I can now determine which is male and which is female [I think I got two males and one female but we will see] and because their mother ppears to have decided to lay another clutch [two eggs so far]. I normally would not allow them to have a second clutch but I have a couple of people waiting for babies and I want to keep all the females and maybe one male. In any case, it might be too late in the season and the whole thing might turn out to be a dud so we will see.
I will post some pix tomorrow.