News From The Birdie World :-)

The fostered hatchling is still doing okay. Pearl and Smudge usually feed it, but I still am having to check to be sure, and supplement when necessary. It's so adorable when it begs while I'm holding it! :-) Its feathers are starting to come in, and although it's small for its age, it's growing steadily.

Patches and Sugar's other egg hatched a day or two ago, so now they have two hatchlings. Both are being very well taken care of, and the parents are pretty protective of them. I had to add a little nesting materials underneath the chicks earlier. They'd wallowed the nesting materials towards the edges of the nest box, leaving nothing but hard, slick plastic for the chicks to lay on. The lack of traction can cause splayed legs, so I had to add some nesting materials. The parents sure didn't like me taking the nest box away briefly, but settled back in once I brought their babies back. :-)

Shelly and Ghost have 3 eggs. Blackie and Onyx have 2 or 3 eggs. And I believe Tip and Echo have a couple of eggs as well. Whisper laid an egg in her food cup during the day, but it's unlikely to be viable since she and Creamsicle have been separated awhile. Since their fledgling is now weaned, I put the egg into a nest box, moved the youngster out, and put the parents back together. I'll let them have one more clutch if they want, and then they're up for a rest. :-)

I've got a wait list for youngsters right now, so if anyone is wanting to adopt sooner than April or May, it might be best for me to refer you to the Chattanooga Bird Fair, which is March 31-April 1 at Camp Jordan.

I'm also going to start enforcing the completion of adoption applications. Awhile back, I had someone adopt some of my birds that seemed knowledgeable and responsible at the time, but it turned out that the person apparently has "animal acquisition issues". (I'm being polite. A more blunt word is HOARDER, with FLIPPER/SWAPPER tendencies, as well as borderline MISTREATMENT of their precious pets!) I'm almost finished with the adoption application and will post it soon.