A Few Pics of Stormy

Above: Nom nom nom! Corn and peas are my favorites. Green beans get ignored, and carrots go flying! LOL!



Above: Okay, pet me now! :-)



Above: Oh, yeah! :-)



Above: Hey, are those pics of me? I wanna see! :-D

Two More Pics :-)

Above: Tangerine and Echo's baby



Above: Frostie and Streak's babies, and Muffin (Whisper and Ghost's "runt" baby). I think Muffin is the one in the middle (can't see its leg band in the photo).

Picture Day! :-)

Above: Biscuit, one of Whisper and Ghost's babies, just fledged. :-)



Above: New cockatiel youngster, Storm. We don't know if it's male or female, but it's sweet as can be. :-)



Above: Our four new canaries.



Above: Close-up of red factor canaries. The one with the funny "hair do" (aka crested) is the female. :-)



Above: Close-up of one of the yellow canaries.

At the bird fair, we also picked up five of the large divided breeder cages, some bulk bags of food, some replacement seed trays, and lots of misc. supplies and bird toys. Robert found a shelving unit for the cages at Lowes this morning. :-)

Foster Mom For Muffin

Frostie and Streak's two babies (hatched approximately 8/20/11) are close to the same size as Muffin (hatched approximately 8/12/11). They're the same color as well.

Since one of Whisper's two larger babies has now fledged, and the other will be right behind it, I decided not to risk Whisper inadvertently abandoning Muffin, so I moved Muffin to Frostie's nest. Frostie had an infertile egg, so I removed the egg, which should cause her to think the egg finally hatched. ;-) She's fostered for me in the past (even without having to do the egg "trick"), so I feel like Muffin will be in good hands. I put the divider up between her and Streak, since sometimes males are less tolerant of "strangers" being in or near the nest.

I watched Frostie a little while after I slipped Muffin into the nest box. She looked in to check on her babies, tilted her head in a puzzled manner, studied them a bit, then basically shrugged her shoulders and headed for the food cup to load up on food for the little ones. :-) I'll check on them again as soon as I get up later. Edited at 10pm at add: Frostie has accepted Muffin, and is feeding him/her. :-)

It's always best for the parent(s) (or foster parents) to feed the babies. Handfeeding forumula does the job, but the babies seem to grow and develop better with the parent(s) feeding them naturally.

The new canaries and cockatiel are all doing fine. The cockatiel is soooo, soooo sweet. :-)

Pics of Robert and The New Cockatiel

The Two Diamond Dove Youngsters Have A New Home :-)

The two diamond dove youngsters have a new home with Christopher in Brainerd. Hope he enjoys them as much as we have! :-)

We brought home a pair of red factor canaries (one of which is crested :-D ), a pair of yellow canaries, and Robert found a precious little cockatiel youngster that he just HAD to have. When he walked up to the table where they were being displayed, the cockatiel happily walked over to him and bowed his head so Robert could pet him. Now who could resist something as sweet as that? :-) I'll get some photos of the new birdies ASAP.

They had some REALLY good deals on breeder cages. We may go back tomorrow and get a couple more for spares. We also picked up a 25 pound bag of finch food for under $1 a pound. The canaries were about half the price I expected them to be, so in a sense I got two pairs for the price of one. :-)

The "Runt" Is Growing! :-)

Above: "I can't eat another bite!!!" :-)


Above: Muffin with its siblings. The little squirt is growing! :-) The two larger siblings are >>thisclose<< to leaving the nest. I'm guessing it'll be early next week, if not sooner.


Above: Updated photo of the diamond dove youngsters.

The bird fair will be at Camp Jordan in Chattanooga this weekend. Woo hoo! I'm hoping to bring home a pair of red factor canaries. I've been eyeballing them for ages. They're soooo pretty. :-)

Lots of Pics! :-)

I snapped quite a few new pics this morning. :-)


Above: Muffin, just after s/he was handfed. :-)


Above: Muffin, Bagel, and Biscuit. You can see how Muffin gets squooshed down under the bigger birds, causing Whisper to accidentally miss feeding him/her. I can't wait until they fledge so I can clean their icky nest box! :-) Chances are, it would be okay to do it now, but too much interference can cause the parent(s) to abandon the nest. Except in extreme cases, I try to wait until the babies fledge.


Above: Smoky, Tangerine and Echo's son. Yep, it's a boy! You can tell from the speckled brown feathers coming in on his sides, and also the hint of orange starting to show up in his cheeks. His mom plucked him quite a bit, plus he's molting, but he's starting to fill back in nicely now. He's up for adoption if anyone is interested in taking the cute l'il fellow home with them. :-) See my adoption pages for details.


Above: Lily and Blackie. Blackie is the one whose foot got tangled in the hair that was mixed in the bag of nesting materials. He's doing considerably better now. :-) The hurt foot is the one in the front (his left foot).


Above: Blackie again.


Above: Frostie and Streak's new babies. They're about 4-6 days old here.

Whisper and Ghost's "Runt" :-)

Whisper and Ghost's "runt" baby is making a lot of progress! I can see that it's grown a bit, and it's pin feathers are getting longer. Yay! I've named it Muffin, and its larger siblings are Biscuit and Bagel. ha ha :-)

I'm not 100% sure that Whisper is feeding Muffin. If she is, it's probably not enough to survive, much less thrive. The handfeeding supplements are definitely helping, and are probably the only reason the little thing is still hanging in there. :-) I just "topped of its tank" for the night ... it's one stuffed little bird right now! ... and will feed it again at 5am and 9am. Luckily it's old enough that it can make it without us having to wake up and feed it. Whisper *may* be feeding it a little during the day, too, while we're asleep, but I'm not sure. :-)

It's two larger siblings should be leaving the nest within a week or so, and I'm not sure how Whisper will handle feeding Muffin after that. On one hand, the larger siblings being out of the nest will eliminate the problem of Muffin being accidentally overlooked at mealtime. Its siblings out-beg it and it gets squooshed down to the bottom of the nest. Without them in there, Whisper will be able to see and feed Muffin. On the other hand, once the others are out of the nest, Whisper may think her job is all-but-done, and may forget that there's still a baby in the nest.

I guess we'll just have to see how it goes. For now, I'm leaving Muffin in the nest box, since its feathered siblings are keeping it warm. Once they leave the nest, if Muffin's not feathered enough to maintain its body temperature, I'll have to keep it warm in an incubator or under a light bulb until its feathers fully come in. :-)

It sounds like a lot of trouble, but it's very rewarding to see that little nekkid baby eating like a little piggy and starting to grow feathers. It's very much worth it! :-)

Today's Updates :-)

Blackie, the zebra finch who somehow got his foot tangled in some hair, is doing a bit better now. :-) He's using his foot more, and he even managed a bit of romance with his lady friend. (How's that for putting it politely? he he)

I thought about contacting the company I bought the nesting materials from, to let them know that there was apparently several strands of black hair in the bag, but I really feel like it was just a fluke. Perhaps whoever mixed up the assortment of nesting materials somehow got several strands of their hair in the bag. I've bought their nesting material mixes multiple times without a problem, so I'll just start checking it thoroughly before giving it to the birds.

Whisper and Ghost's baby is doing okay. I've handfed him (her?) 4 or 5 times today, just to be sure. The little squirt sure can eat! :-) It's larger siblings are doing fine. They're more leery of me, but once they saw me feeding their little brother (sister?), they had to sample the handfeeding formula too. :-)

Tangerine and Echo have a hatchling now, hatched about 2 days ago. Their older baby is officially weaned, just in time. I named it Smoky, and moved it to a cage by itself. It *may* be a boy, but I'm not sure yet. :-)

Frostie and Streak also have two babies, hatched about 3 days ago. :-)

I'll be separating most of my pairs very soon (some are already separated) so that I don't end up with a gazillion birdies! ;-)

Sad News :-(

Whisper & Ghost's littlest baby didn't make it. :-( It just wasn't growing as it should have, despite supplementing its feedings. It happens occasionally ... just "one of those things". :-( The next-littlest baby is doing fair. It's still smaller than it's earlier-hatching siblings, but is larger than the baby that didn't make it. I've been supplementing its feedings too, to give it a boost. Hopefully it'll catch up. The two larger nestings are almost fully-feathered now. It won't be long until they leave the nest. :-) Pic below. Pardon the poop. It happens! ;-)



Blackie, the zebra finch whose foot got tangled, is doing about the same as yesterday. It's still a little puffy but still has good color.

A Birdie With A BooBoo :-(

Yesterday I noticed one of my black-cheek zebra finch males sitting on the perch in a strange manner. Upon closer inspection, I saw that he wasn't using one of his feet properly, so I caught him to see what was wrong. He had some kind of fine black hair wrapped around his toes, binding them together!

With Robert's help, I managed to get him untangled and cut free. The foot is swollen and he's still not using it properly, but it has good color and there are no visible injuries or irritation. I hope it's just sore. Poor little guy. :-(

The black hair had to have been mixed in with a bag of nesting materials I'd bought. It was much darker than Robert's or my hair (ours is both light brown). Hair isn't supposed to be in a bag of nesting material at all, for that exact reason. Looks like I'll be throwing that bag out!

Just A Funny :-)

Baby #3 Is Banded! :-)

Baby #3 has a pretty pink "bracelet" now. I snapped some pics while I had it out of the nest. :-)



Above: Pretty pink "bracelet". :-)



Above: Just banded. :-) The metal thingy is the banding tool. The band slides onto it, which opens the band up. Then you put the baby's leg into the groove, and slide the band right onto the baby's leg. That's the easy part. The hard part is keeping the little wiggleworm still long enough to get its leg into the groove! LOL!



Above: All four babies. :-)

L'il Feathers! :-)

Above: Whisper and Ghost's babies' feathers are really coming in now! :-)



Above: Five societies in a canary nest. Beats the previous record of four! LOL! :-)

We Have Eyes! 8-)

The two older babies have opened their eyes! I banded them this morning ... one orange, and one black. I didn't even get pooped on like I normally do! LOL! The other two are a smidge too small to band yet, but I'll do that in a few days. They should be getting their eyes open very shortly. :-)

Feathers Are Starting To Come In! :-)

Whisper and Ghost's babies' feathers are starting to come in! All are being well-fed. I'll band the two larger chicks very soon, and the two smaller chicks in 4-5 days. :-)

Whisper and Ghost's Hatchlings

New pic as of tonight. :-) They've pushed the dud egg down underneath them.

Busted! ;-)

Speaking of "Sardines" ...

Check out this video on YouTube, showing lots of Society Finches piled into a nest box! LOL! (These are someone else's finches, not mine. ;-) )

A Cup Full Of Societies!

Above: Four of my society finches, piled up in a canary nest. I'm beginning to wonder if they're finches or sardines! ;-) The three in the front are the rescued societies mentioned in my August 5th post below.

New Photos! :-)

Above: Two of the three owl finch babies and their parents. Hope the babies' chest feathers grow (re-grow?) soon! The third baby was sitting in the floor instead of on the perch, and didn't show up in the photo. :-)


Above: Two of the three owl babies again, and their parents


Above: Whisper and Ghost's babies as of this morning. Can you tell they've grown since Friday morning? :-D

Four New Little Surprises! :-)

Good news! I just did a nest-check, and Whisper and Ghost have four hatchlings (zebra finches)! :-) This is Whisper's first time as a mom. She's a white female, and Ghost is a pied normal male. Looks like two of them hatched about 3 days ago, and the other two hatched within the last 24 hours. The older ones are quite a bit larger than the younger ones, so I'll have to keep an eye on them to make sure the little ones don't get "lost" in the bottom of the nest. Unfortunately I don't have another pair of birds with similarly-aged chicks this time, so if the little ones do get accidentally skipped over at meal time, I'll be handfeeding. :-) I may have to remove Ghost from the cage. He's spied "the girl next door", and keeps trying to chase Whisper away so he can flirt with his neighbor. Boys! ;-) Here is a photo of their babies, taken today, 8/12/11. I didn't candle the remaining egg, but just from looking at it, it appears to be a dud.



The owl babies are all doing fine. Two of them have a small bald areas on their chests. Not sure if the parents are picking at them, or if their feathers are just slower coming in, but I'm keeping an eye on them too.

Tangerine pulled a "sneaky" on me. Her and Echo's baby isn't weaned yet, and a several days ago right after the baby fledged, I put the divider in their cage to prevent them from starting a new clutch. Apparently they had other plans ... very FAST plans ... because she's got new eggs, and at least 2 of them are viable. Talk about not wasting any time! She's plucked the fledgling's back a little bit probably in an attempt to get it to "move along" so she can raise her new clutch. Hopefully the baby will be weaned before the new eggs hatch. Since the nest box was dirty from raising the first baby, I changed it out for a clean one and moved the eggs into it after I candled them. Here's a photo of Tangerine "levitating" (LOL - she's about to land) and the older chick in the nest box. The eggs are down inside the box.



They never let me get bored, do they? he he

Assuming there are no mishaps (you know the expression "Don't count your chickens before they hatch"), I should have some new youngsters up for adoption soon. :-)

Lastly, here's a quick photo of 3 of my 4 spice finches. The fourth one wouldn't sit still! ;-)

Frostie and Streak's Babies Have A New Home! :-)

Frostie and Streak's babies went to live with Jennifer in Cleveland, TN this morning. I hope she enjoys them as much as we have. :-)

Pics and An Update! :-)

One of the baby owl finches fledged this morning! We were finally able to get a good peek into the nest, and there are three babies in total. So cute! :-)

Here are some updated photos. I didn't try to take any of the baby owls, since I didn't want to risk the camera flash disturbing them.


Above: Baby Doves. They're not babies anymore, and are fully weaned and on their own. I don't yet know their genders.


Above: Zebra finch youngsters (Frostie and Streak's babies) that are up for adoption. See my adoption page for more information. :-)


Above: Zebra finch youngsters (Frostie and Streak's babies)


Above: Zebra finch youngsters (Frostie and Streak's babies)


Above: A pair of my shaft-tail finches



Above: Fawn Cheek Black Breast x Fawn Black Breast Zebra Finch Pair (from Singing Wings Aviary)


Above: Close-up of Male (from Singing Wings Aviary)


Above: Black-Cheek Chestnut-Flanked White Pair (from Singing Wings Aviary). The female still has small bald spots under her wings from her injury during shipping, but she's healing quickly.


Above: Black-Cheek Chestnut-Flanked White Male (from Singing Wings Aviary)

A Recent Rescue Situation

Back in June, I answered an ad for some finches and a cage. I could see in the picture that one of the finches was a black-cheek zebra, one of my favorite mutations. After the seller stood us up the first day (grrr!), Robert went to look at the birds the following day.

When Robert got there, he was appalled at the birds' living conditions. The cage was absolutely filthy. The nests were nasty and falling apart. The perches (and underneath them) were piled with poop. Worst of all, the birds' two water cups contained only 1/4" of "poop soup" ... nasty, filthy, undrinkable water that was more poop than it was water. The food cups looked like they'd JUST been refilled, based on the lack of seed hulls in them. (I got the impression that they'd seen Robert in the driveway, and hurriedly tried to make the cage presentable, but only got as far as the food cups when he knocked on the door!) There was a cuttlebone in the cage, but it was upside down (making it useless) in the cage floor, covered in poop.

The cage was sitting right in front of the air conditioner, with cold air blowing on them, and a very loud TV right beside them.

One of the woman's kids stuck his hand in the cage, and poked at the black-cheek zebra, saying "Look! You can TOUCH this one!"

Well, it's no wonder the bird could be easily touched. It was obviously sick ... weak, droopy-winged, unable to fly well, and wobbly. The woman mentioned that there was a 5th bird, and that it passed away, but I don't know what happened to it. It was useless asking her anything.

Although I was originally interested in just the zebra finch, and didn't really "need" any more societies, there was no way any decent human being could have left those birds in the care of those "people". Robert brought them all home, hoping we could do something for the little zebra. Thankfully the societies seemed no worse for the wear, other than having overgrown toenails.

We immediately put the societies in quarantine in the bedroom, in a clean cage with fresh food and water, and put the zebra in a hospital cage with a heat lamp, vitamins, food, and water. Unfortunately it was already too late, and it passed away shortly afterwards. :-(

On the good side, the societies are happy and healthy, and are doing fine. All three of them are best buddies. :-)

Those "people" don't know how close we came to reporting them for animal neglect! :-(

Tangerine and Echo's Baby :-)

Their single hatchling fledged yesterday! :-) Soon it will begin learning to eat on its own, which will take 2-3 weeks. They sure grow up quickly! :-)