Youngster Update :-)

Onyx and Blackie's "early bird" baby is still doing fine. It can fly now, and perches with its mom and dad. I see hints of black cheeks! :-D

Pearl and Smudge's two babies left the nest late last week, and are doing fine except for a little plucking from the parents. I suspect both parents are doing it, and are also plucking each other a bit. Not much I can do until the chicks are weaned, since it's most likely both parents doing it. I did remove the nest box to discourage them from wanting to start a new clutch.

Frostie and Streak's babies are most likely weaned now, but they're still with their parents for the time being. All are getting along just fine. :-)

Whisper and Creamsicle have an approximately-8-day-old hatchling! I didn't mention it for fear of jinxing it (LOL!), because it was the TINIEST baby I've EVER seen. They're feeding it, and it's growing like a weed, so perhaps it was just a "runt" even though the other eggs weren't viable. If it looks anything like it's older brother (Sprinkles), it'll be gorgeous! :-)

As soon as Pearl and Smudge's babies are weaned (2 weeks or so), I'll be able to move the huge double flight cage into my bird room and replace that wall of cages. :-)

I plan to replace my remaining 24" breeder cages with 30"-ers at the bird fair in March/April. The 24"-ers are fine, but 30"-ers give them much more room (length and depth) for just 6 more inches of wall space. Gotta save up some pennies! :-D

The "Early Bird" Is Doing Fine So Far! :-)

Onyx and Blackie's "early bird" baby is doing fine. It doesn't seem able to fly just yet, but it's testing its wings. :-)

Pearl and Smudge's two youngsters are very close to leaving the nest, too. Probably by the end of the week. :-)

An Early Fledgling

Onyx and Blackie's "surprise" baby fledged this morning. It's only about 14-15 days old, which is a tad early to be leaving the nest. The parents seem puzzled. I gently put it back in the nest, but it wouldn't stay. Hopefully the parents aren't too rattled by its early emergence, and will continue feeding it. I did pour out most of the water in the water cup, and added a second low-level cup just in case the fledgling lands in the water. Early fledgers can easily drown if they fall into a full cup of water. At least it's fully feathered, so unless it gets soaking wet, it can maintain its body heat on its own. I hope everything goes okay for it. It's a tiny little thing!

I updated the "Meet My Birds" page this morning as well, and added a few photos. :-)

Picture Day Again! :-)

Above: Sprinkles, Whisper and Creamsicle's son. Isn't he handsome? :-)



Above: The new trio, bought from a nice lady in Hixson. Her aviary is sooo pretty! :-)



Above: Pearl and Smudge's babies, sprouting little white feathers. :-) Pardon the poo.



Above: Onyx and Blackie's baby. They're keeping it well-fed. :-)



Above: A cool photo of Frostie in flight. She's semi-transparent! :-D



Above: Streak (dad) and one of the newly-fledged babies.



Above: Frostie (mom) and the other baby. :-)

New Double Flight Cage

Here's what the new-to-us double flight cage looks like:

http://www.amazon.com/16421-HQ-Double-Flight-64x21/dp/B005ZDR2GM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1326710404&sr=8-2



I banded Onyx and Blackie's youngster this morning. It got a hot pink band, which pretty much guarantees it'll end up being a boy. (ha ha) ;-) So far it's gray in color. The mom is a black-cheeked CFW and the dad is a black-cheeked normal, so hopefully it'll end up black-cheeked as well.

Pearl and Smudge's two babies are doing fine, and have white feathers coming in. :-)

I plan to move my non-breeding zebras into the new double flight cage once I have a wall open, which means I'll have to wait until some babies are weaned. That gives me plenty of time to get it set up just like I want, even though I'm anxious to see how much they love the extra flying space. :-)

Possibly A New Cage!

Instead of connecting three medium-sized cages together, we're supposed to go look at a double flight cage later this morning. It's around 64" long and about shoulder-high, so it's majorly HUGE. :-) It's a little out of the budget, but still cheaper than buying a new one, and it'll give my youngsters and "singles" plenty of flying room. I'll just have to make sure everyone is banded before putting them in the cage, or I'll never be able to tell them apart! LOL! We plan to eliminate one wall of medium-sized breeder cages and replace it with the double flight cage. I hope it's as nice as it sounds. :-) That'll leave one wall open for my large-sized breeder cages, and I can sell the extra medium-sized breeder cages.

Edited to add: We got the cage! :-)

Fledglings! :-)

Frostie and Streak's two babies fledged this morning! As with their last clutch, they're both normal gray pied. Will get a photo ASAP. They'll be very, very skittish for the next few days until they get used to being outside their nest. :-)

I went ahead and banded Pearl and Smudge's two chicks this morning ... one red, one white. :-) They weren't too thrilled at having their new "bracelets" applied, but once they were back in the nest, they forgot all about the Big Skeery Banding Tool. ;-)

Hope This Doesn't Jinx It!

I'm hesitant to even post this for fear of jinxing it, but Onyx and Blackie have a single hatchling! It's approximately 4-5 days old, just old enough that I can hear it softly begging for food. They're the pair that tossed a hatchling just a few days ago ... the one I found in the floor just in the nick of time. So far they're feeding the new baby, but I'm not holding my breath just yet. I'm keeping a close eye on it so that I can intervene if necessary.

I'm still keeping a close eye on Pearl and Smudge's two babies, too. I've been hand-feeding them once or twice a day as needed, plus they're feeding them too ... just not as much as I'd like to see. The babies are hanging in there. :-)

I think this weekend I'm going to try connecting three 24" breeding cages end to end, so that they make one very long cage, and put my non-breeding zebras in it. I can still slide the dividers in if need be, so I'll have plenty of flexibility, and the birds will have a VERY long distance they can fly. We'll see how it goes. :-)

{{{ Bangs Head }}}

Argh! First time parents!!! Pearl and Smudge tossed two of the chicks sometime after we went to bed, and it was too late when we got up and found them. Their crops were empty, so it appears that they failed to feed these two. :-( I'll never understand what goes on in their little bird-brains. Why take the time to incubate them, hatch them, feed them for several days, then suddenly decide that some of them need to go? Grrr! I check on them multiple times a day, but it's not humanly possible to watch them 24/7. It may just be a coincidence, but so far every one of my black-cheeks has had "parenting issues".

So far they're still feeding and caring for the remaining two chicks (pic below), which I'm keeping as close an eye on as I possibly can.

All Four Babies Are Doing Well :-)

Pearl and Smudge accepted the little "stranger", and all four babies are doing well. As expected, I can't even tell them apart now, so I'll have to be extra careful if I breed any of the offspring later on. But that's okay. I'd rather deal with a mixed clutch than have a non-surviving chick. :-)

Whisper and Creamsicle are on 4 eggs, and Shelly and Sunset are on 5 eggs. It's too soon to tell if they're viable, but both sets of parents seem to be incubating.

Frostie and Streak's 2 youngsters are doing fine, best as I can tell. They're at the age where I can't peek into the nest without risking them panicking and fledging too soon. I hear them begging LOUD AND CLEAR, though. LOL! They should be out of the nest very soon.

A Crazy Morning in the Bird Room!

Pearl and Smudge had 3 more eggs to hatch, for a total of 4 babies. >>shocker!<< One of the babies most likely tried to hatch before it was ready. It was smaller than usual, and was apparently too weak to fully free itself from the shell. I ever-so-gently chipped the rest of the shell away and put it back in the nest, but it didn't make it through the night. (They hadn't even removed it from the nest when I found it just now.) The other 3 are doing fine, though.

Onyx and Blackie also had an egg to hatch overnight. Blackie has been a good dad in the past, but it's been awhile since he's practiced his fathering skills. Onyx abandoned the nest last time, but after a long rest, I decided to let her try again. I just found a tiny hatching in the cage floor. I touched it, figuring it was too late, but to my surprise, it started wiggling! The poor thing was cold as ice, so I warmed it up with my hands, then took out Pearl and Smudge's hatched-too-soon baby, and replaced it with the tossed baby.

Pearl hopped right into the nest, none the wiser. ;-) So far she's proving herself to be a good mom, and although I hate to ask her to foster a "stranger" on her first go-around, I didn't have anywhere else to put the baby. Hopefully it'll work out okay. :-) (The only other option is to put the baby in a brooder and hand-feed it, but it's very, very difficult to feed a newly-hatched finch due to their tiny size. It's waaay too easy to accidently aspirate the poor thing! It's easier after the baby is a few days old, and is considerably larger.)

The bad thing is, the chicks are all too small to band, so it's unlikely I'll be able to tell the youngsters apart. Three of the four parents are black-cheeks, so the youngsters will probably look similar. Oh well. At least I was lucky enough to find the tossed baby in time, and it's alive and being cared for! :-)

Major Surprise!

Pearl (white female) and Smudge (BC-CFW male) totally surprised me! It's Pearl's very first time as a mom, and Smudge's second time as a dad, although the first time he and his previous mate abandoned the chicks. Iffy parents at best, as you can see, but they'll never learn if they're not given the opportunity.

Anyway, Pearl and Smudge have been "sort of" sitting on EIGHT eggs, 4 of which tested as being viable, and 4 of which appear to be infertile. They'd sit occasionally, then they'd go off and play in another part of the cage. I had little hope for the viable eggs to hatch, because the eggs were ice cold every time I checked them. I very nearly threw them out, but decided to wait a few days just in case.

You can imagine my surprise when I found that one of the eggs had hatched yesterday! So far, so good. It's warm and wiggly! I guess we'll find out soon if any of the other eggs hatch, and if they'll take care of the chick(s). I'm keeping an eye on them as best I can. :-)

In the meantime, Frostie and Streak's two chicks are growing like weeds! :-)