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"

Bad news 1st..... Gilbert hasnt really improved.... and im not sure what to do... i dont want him to suffer but dont want to lose him either! Im not going to dwel on it too much will give him a bit more time....

The meepers....

I didnt get round to typing anymore.... and 2 days later Gilbert died... It was for the best but sad, he was a fighter to the end.  Big is still sitting on their eggs but unfortunatly they dont look fertile...

Fly free Gilbert

Little Bird House 4 My Soul: Gilbert Fighting and Biting and Meeper Update

Little Bird House 4 My Soul: Gilbert Fighting and Biting and Meeper Update

Gilbert Fighting and Biting and Meeper Update

Well Gilbert seems to be getting a little bit better..... hes getting some of his spirit back cuz he bit me today..!! Ive been keeping him away from the other birds incase he is contagious and feeding him baby bird food formula to try get some food down him. Ive seen him drinking and hes been pecking at some finely chopped broccoli shelled sunflower seeds some bits of egg biscuit and lots of grit.  Today i mixed a tiny bit of garlic oil and cider vinigar in the formula these are both supposed to be natural antibiotics and hopefully will help him fight off any bacterial infection.  All the birds in the Bird House look fine Big is still brooding her 5 eggs and nipping out for food n water when she needs to.  Im giving her extra egg food along with her veggies to try to keep her healthy without her man to feed her.  Dave is calling for Little..... but what can i do? He is close by the others but Petal and Big are both in the nest box most of the time so he only really has Bruce for company as well as Pedro and Eva the Conures....But he doesnt like them much since the fight!!

Pedro and Eva are eating loads and getting through a lot of oyster shell .... so maybe coming up to lay again.... i might have to invest in an incubator in case they dont brood properly again.... to have 6 fertile eggs the first time round was amazing.... and to actually manage to save 2 chicks without an incubator after the trauma the eggs went through is close to a miracle..... so id like to be prepared.  The chicks are doing well they weighed in at 7 and 14 grams on Wednesday Phoenix the big one has had his eyes beginning to open for a couple of days and Snuggly the little ones eyes just started today..... one thing i noticed tho...... they dont appear to have ear holes ..... and Kakariki ear hole are quite noticeable at a few days old.... i will keep an eye on the ear thing..!!! Phoenix has had a bit of a voice breaking thing and now squeeks more than meeps..... and has some tuffty fluff breaking through on his crop.... he still has a bald head tho and veins on it a bit like a Klingon... hes looking very dinosaurish! Snuggly is still looking sweet... but can stand up now and is feeding real well and likes curling up on my hand after a feed. Phoenix is very lively but also curls up for a sleep on me when he has worn himself out climbing about.  I caught Snuggly giving Phoenix a bunk up yesterday and he almost managed to escape the plastic tray they have been in inside the brooder...it might be time to rearrange it and give them a bit more room.  Will try to take some more photos later ... they are growing sooo fast!

Sad Day

Well for the last few days iv been trying to find the time to update the Blog with all the good news about how the Conure chicks are doing and then yesterday bad stuff kicked off again.  Firstly i went out to the Bird House to discover Gilbert sitting on the bottom of the cage... not that strange, he had been behaving a bit different over the last week by spending a lot of time in the nest box with Big who is sitting on 5 eggs.  I had thought that was because her last clutch hadnt been that successful losing 2 of her 4 chicks she hatched, and thought he was keeping an eye on her.... or that it has been really cold over the last week and he was helping her brood. Gilbert is normally a timid bird, well he doesnt like humans much but we have a mutual understanding .... he knows when im going to put something in the cage and moves out of the way and i speak to him respectfully (he is the Don of the bird house) but not try too hard to get him on side, and all was good.  His favorite place to sit looking all buff n hardcore was at the top of the cage quietly looking out checking every thing out.  So... on the floor? and not checking out his minions...? when i approached his penthouse he did nothing.... not complying to our mutual understanding.... I opened the big door and talking to him reached in expecting him to fly up .....but he didnt!  I picked him up and he didnt even bite..... now Gilbert has a good bite.... and as he doesnt like humans he lets you know... every time i have had to handle him he has managed to draw blood..... but this time ... nothing..... Realising something was badly wrong i wrapped him up in a bit of fleece i keep in the bird house for emergencies or covering nest boxes for extra warmth, and set up the travel cage one-handed... popped him in on a layer of fleece and whisked him off to the house.... moved the mountain of washing from the top of the dryer and snuggled him next to the radiator for warmth with water and some warm eggfood (his fav). 

So.... what was i doing? oh yeah i was going to clean out Big n Gilbert n Dave n Little's cages.... Back out to the bird house and when little comes out of the nest box to say hi, im really not very happy about how she looks.....Her abdomen is very red and very swollen to me obviously not right... she chats to me quietly n pops back into the nest box... Im worried ... so i go and check out a couple of books and look online reading about egg binding and start to worry even more .... to me it looked like 3 lumps... surly she couldnt have 3 eggs stuck inside ? I decide to bring her in check her out more closely and make her safe in the small pet pod... this is not good.... we decide to take her up to the Avian Vet call and get an appointment in a couple of hours time.... The Vet is lovely and takes a look at her and then starts to explain whats wrong..... its Acute Egg Peritonitis.... i wasnt sure what it was but it sounded bad..... as he explains it slowly sinks in that this is really bad and i start to anticipate that hes going to advise me to have her put to sleep... Basically she had an egg blocking her egg duct which had then filled up with partially formed eggs...and then still producing eggs her abdomen had filled up with what he described as scrambled egg... Little had nibbled a bit of cream cheese before we left and was chatting back to the phone in the waiting room... she was nibbling my finger through the holes in the pet pod and although she was obviously ill she seemed her normal self... so the decision to have her put to sleep was hard... she and her sister Big were my 1st ever chicks and Little had always been cheeky and tame..... but i had to do it... She would get worse and suffer and couldnt get better.  The Vet said he would giver her some gas before the injection and she wouldnt feel anything he brought her back wrapped in tissue and we buried her in the garden under a hibiscus bush.... Sad...

Little After A Bath

Little Being a bit nosey and checking out my camera

Little Trying her first call

Little such a character

Little was my only bird not to take off her plastic split leg ring.  She loved jewelry and nail varnish.