Some Old Videos I Found On My Phone

Snuggly and Phoenix from earlier this year:

First Sleepy Phoenix

And.... Snuggly Being Fed

A couple of videos

Im Just posting a couple of videos of Snuggly and Phoenix.  The first one is Snuggly showing off his first and still only trick.

            

And this one is some simple instructions of how to make a small drum for your parrot to learn to play... only the learning to play bit is proving to be a long process.

Mr Snuggles and Phoenix Having Breakfast

Flock Dad got a new toy and tried it out while we were having breakfast with the Conures….

Please note …. Id just got out of the shower and…… I don’t usually talk like that….. that’s my birdy voice …. Hope you enjoy

PS….. Mr Snuggly is learning a trick….. video to follow

New Adventure for Big

I cant believe the last time I updated was Easter…. And my intension was to do this as a weekly blog…!!! My excuse is that I have been having health problems and coping with ME/CFS is not easy.  Just when you think you are getting better you do too much and crash again, and it takes a long time to get back on track….

Anyhow ….. to the Bird House Business….

I would dearly love to keep loads of birds but…. Due to the above mentioned illness its becoming apparent I have far too many…. I have pondered over it for a long time and finally decided I have to cut down the numbers to enable me to look after the ones I keep properly.   I have kept Kakarikis for quite a few years and although I will be very sad to see them go I have decided that I will now concentrate my efforts on the Green Cheek Conures.  I have advertised the kakarikis and hav had some interest but want them to go to new homes where they will be loved and looked after properly.

BIGS NEW ADVENTURE

After losing her mate Gilbert,  Big… the first Kakariki from the first clutch id bred has got a new mate and seems to be doing really well.  She now lives with Manu in an aviary and I have been getting updated on her progress from her new owner…. I was sad to see her go, but im pleased she is now in good hands and has a new mate.

Happy Easter

Well its now April... not sure where March went.... Rodents have been eradicated and a plan has been put in place to stop them returning....including getting rid of all the compost heaps.  The Bird House is looking good.... but quite full.  Oscar and Spud have moved in.... Oscar has moved in with Dave.... who doesnt exactly seem to be thrilled about it.... somehow I dont think they are going to bond, so I might move Oscar in with Big and Spud who have settled in together fine... Im pretty sure Spud is a girl and Big is her mum so all good there.  Petal has another clutch of eggs I havent candled them yet. And Pedro and Eva are moulting.  Mocha the Chocolate Rex Rabbit is hoping to pursue a carrier in acting and has his first video on youtube.


In the House the 1st eggs in the incubator didnt do to well but I think that is down to me not really knowing weather they had started to develop when I put them in.... so not knowing when they were due to hatch and not getting the humidity right...also i put 3 in then another 3 a week later...the 2nd lot started to develop but none made it to maturity.  only 2 hatched and one hadnt absorbed the yolk sack and died within a day. The other after hatching out the wrong end of the egg took a while to start feeding and unfortunately died about a week after..... so not a good start.  I have read lots of info from books and online and a lot of it is contradictory so its all a bit trial and error.  So going on what i have now learnt about the incubator i need to set a plan in order for the next attempt...... but i also want Pedro n Eva to have another go at hatching some eggs themselves!

 Phoenix and Snuggly are doing fab...... Phoenix started flying a couple of weeks ago and Snuggly has just made his first flight this week.... but as usuall is a bit accident prone.... he has had a few crashes including 1 into the washing up bowl this morning.... luckily i was washing up at the time so towelled him off n he sat on my shoulder till he dried off..... in fact he stayed there for most of the day.



 I got the DNA test results and certificates back a couple of weeks ago and surprisingly Phoenix is a Girl and Snuggly a Boy.... Phoenix is a Pineapple and Snuggly a rather special Blue Pineapple....

and we have come to the decision to keep them both......on one condition...... that we reduce the number of Kakarikies as its getting rather a lot of work for me.... and as I now have 4 who arnt in bonded pairs now would be a good time also maybe it is time to retire petal from breading as she wont stop laying and I dont think Bruce is very fertile so she is sitting on eggs a lot for no reason..... she does seem to like it tho.... She will probably stop laying if she doesnt have a nest box.  So if anyone is interested..... let me know!  

for some reason im having probs uploading pics ..... so will edit this later and add more pics then phoenix and Snuggly have changed sooo much over the last month its amazing!!!!

Unwanted wildlife and more Chick Pics

After thinking we had managed to thin the rodent population but wondering why the floor of the bird house was always in such a mess we found their back door...!!! they had chewed right through the wall behind a table.... and were coming and going day and night just as they pleased....!!! full scale manoeuvres ensued.  I moved the table and cleaned up the mess inside while Dan and Rich went round the entire outside and put concrete blocks up against the walls... we found an underground Rat base camp behind the bird house.... I hate using poison....... But..... I'm sorry Rats you are dirty vermin and you have pushed me too far...!!!  Dan put out some poison in bate boxes to stop the wild birds, cats, dogs etc getting at it... old drain pipe works well too.... and the next day it was almost all gone... we are replenishing it but it keeps going...... so they must be still about!!! We have tried Rat and Mouse traps...which have been set off but caught nothing and all we caught in the humane Rat traps was blackbirds..... which we let out and were fine.  So I'm afraid poison it has to be.

Other activity in the Bird House... Petal and Bruce are much the same as .... for ever..... Petal is sitting on 10 eggs all of which to me look clear..... feeling quite sad for Petal as this will be over 30 eggs she has brooded with just 1 resulting chick.... Oscar..(who is in fact a girl) with her previous mate she had hatched 10 chicks from 15 eggs so..... I'm thinking that it is probably down to Bruce.

 Big is still sitting on 4 eggs 1 of which is cracked and none of them look fertile..... I dont want to just take the eggs away so I am waiting for her to get fed up and bury them in the shavings before I give the whole cage a massive spring clean and remove the nest box.... She is still missing Gilbert so I dont want to stress her any more than needed.

Dave is calling a lot..... he is really missing Little... the obvious thing would be to try Dave and Big together but....... she was very annoyed when I let them out together and he popped into her cage.... he chased her about far to much which she took immediate offence too scolding him and chasing him out.

Oscar, who lives in the house with Spud is getting very hormonal and is doing the mating thing and wondering why nothing happens..... Spud and Oscar are not a bonded pair.... they are both young and get on ok but don't do the feeding thing or perch next to each other.  Spud may actually also be a girl....although the under wing markings look like male markings..... I took Oscar out to the bird house on the harness and introduced her to Dave.... he talked to her quietly and gently and she sat there and ignored him..... I'm going to do this a few more times and see how they get on.

Pedro and Eva have produced 4 more eggs but Eva hasn't started to brood them....they should start brooding from the second egg..... but they are still young and don't really know what they are doing... last time she had 6 eggs which is normal so I decided to take these first 4 and try incubating them in my newly arrived incubator and leave her to lay a couple more and see how she gets on.  She doesn't actually seem interested in the eggs at all after she has laid them..but she has to learn somehow!

Phoenix in his fleece

And now to the Babies..... Phoenix...... has been sat on my shoulder burrowed under my hoody while I have been typing all this and is loving the snuggles.....he now weighs 66grams.... his weight gain has slowed a bit and he is going off the formula a bit.... but still calling for food.  This usually means they are ready to start pecking at some real food so small seed like millet and finely chopped fruit n veg in small quantities are a good thing to offer.

Snuggly at 31grams...!!!

Snuggly is doing fab..... he is now up to an amazing 31 grams....!!!! He still needs the warmth of the brooder although Phoenix doesn't.... and could do with a whole lot more room to bumble about in... so i have put the brooder in the small cage (well cleaned and disinfected) and removed the door so Phoenix can come out to play while Snuggly.... Snuggles!

The Brooder set up in the weaning cage

Snuggly now has his leg ring on too and its stayed on fine..... and I'm thinking i really need to do DNA blood samples for sexing..... I keep calling them both HE..... but either could be either I don't want to cause any more gender crisis like with Oscar and Spud and do really need to know the sex of the chicks.

I was hoping one of the chicks would be a 'Blue' one either pineapple or yellowsided.... well its not going to be Phoenix..... he/she is showing some really green feathers beginning to come through on the wings and some bluish ones on the wing tips.... the tail feather colour is showing and looks more pineapple colour than yellowsided and there is the beginnings of some yellow and red feathers on the breast....and on the cheeks.  To start with i thought the head feathers looked dark but now they are growing through a bit they are looking lighter..... take a look at the pics and see what you think....

Phoenix showing colourfull cheek feathers and green on wings

Snuggly much bigger now :)

I cant decide if he is going to be Yellow sided or Pineapple

"Say Cheese Snuggly....!!"

"Cheese?.... what IS cheese Phoenix?"

"Phoenix... thanks loads for helping me out im....... just a little slow....dont tell anyone tho!"

Day 26 in the Big Mutha House!!

Well its 26 days since Phoenix hatched by the fire.... is it that long already its gone sooo quick... i seem to have done nothing else! I solved the ear query though..!!! yeah... they do have ear holes lol... just very small ones.... and lower down than Kakariki ear holes

Showing Ear hole of a Kakariki Chick about 2 weeks old

Showing Ear hole of a Green Cheek Conure Chick about 3 weeks old

Im thinking maybe the reason for smaller ears is so they dont go deaf when they are screaming for food....!!!

Phoenix's Tail feathers just showing through

So thats the Ear thing cleared up!! as for the Chicks progress you can see from the ear pic that Phoenix has grown somewhat... he weighed in at 35grams today his eyes are almost fully open and he's getting a lot more fluff and the start of some feathers.   You can just see some reddish tail feathers and some dark feathers beginning to show through the skin on the head.... im thinking he/she will be a yellowsided or a blue yellowsided as these look to be darker than on a pineapple.

Snuggly now a massive 10 grams

Snuggly on the other hand has not grown much.... and im not certain why... not showing any feathers coming through and eyes are not yet fully open today's weigh-in was 10grams so he is growing but not very quickly,  im thinking snuggly may be a bit stunted.  He/She is feeding much better now and i have been able to feed a mixture with less water added... therefore it has more nutrients.... so this is bound to help... i have also decreased the amount of feeds a day so im getting some sleep ...YAY... They are now going through the night. Its easy to check the crop to see if they have food in it still... the crop sort of acts like a fuel tank and drip feeds the food as they need it so a longer gap between feeds, now they can take more at a time, is fine.

Snuggly

Although Snuggly is small he is strong and gets about in the brooder and stands his ground up against Phoenix for the best snuggling spots. Snuggly does get a bit cold when hes not in the brooder which is now running between 30-35 C but he likes snuggling up in your hand.

"hello hand... can I get up on you please?"

Phoenix's eyes opened much wider this weeks and he can definitely see! he looks out of the window in the brooder when I come to feed them, and he looks about when hes out, taking in the surroundings.

"thanks hand...I like you :)"

"I can see my house from here"

Snuggly: "Oooops"        Phoenix: "Hehehehe"

Phoenix: "let me give you a hug little fella"

Snuggly: "Thanks big un your so sweet"