News

Well, unfortunately the second Parrotlet baby passed away because the parents stopped feeding it and the third baby never hatched, which I believe may have been due to such low humidity in the house. Baby number 1 is doing great though and I will be banding him shortly and then pulling him for handfeeding. There are already 2 people waiting for this baby- the first person on the list and someone in case the first person decides not to get the baby.

Freya and Loki, one of my Lovebird pairs, look to have 6 fertile eggs and if they all hatch, it will be the largest clutch they have ever had.

Rowan and Fletcher have 3 fertile eggs and if they hatch, it should be any day now.

Isis and Osiris have 3 eggs but it looks like only one may be fertile as of yet though it is hard to tell.

Yin and Seible’s egg that was looking fertile stopped developing but they are fostering a fertile egg from my rescue pair (Sunny and Marvin). This rescue pair has never laid a fertile egg in the many clutches they have laid at their previous home, so it was a complete surprise. I put it under Seible and Yin so that Sunny and Marvin do not waste energy trying to raise a baby.

Baby Parrotlets

I was able to snap a couple of pics of the baby Parrotlets.  2 have hatched so far and the third is due to hatch at the end of the week.

Parrotlets!

The Parrotlets have hatched their first baby today!  This makes the baby extra special because of the Leap Year!  I am hoping it is an American Yellow male, because I may end up keeping it if it is.  The next baby should hatch on Sunday or Monday and the third baby should hatch on Thursday or Friday!

Another Day Goes By

So on Sunday, I had a great family come over and pick up my last little Lovebird I had available.  They named her Baby, which is great because I call all of the babies I handfeed “Baby” until their new parents name them (like little Julius who is sitting in my sweater right now while I try to bond a little with him).

The weekend of the Stillwater sale, I was going to be picking up a special little female Lovebird.  A little handicapped American Cinnamon girl who was going to be roommates with my little handicapped boy Shamus.  Unfortunately, I got the news a couple of days ago that she sadly passed away.  So now I am on the lookout for another handicapped Lovebird in need.  Thankfully there are not too many handicapped Lovebirds in need, but I hope that one day I will find the right friend for Shamus.  I may even be willing to get a non-handicapped girl for him if I can find the right one.

Lovebirds

Being the start of spring, the Lovebirds have all decided to nest at once.

Freya and Loki are back on eggs.  They have at least 2 now, and I am hoping for at least one normal green and one green pied, though the chances of that are rather slim.

Isis and Osiris are either on one egg or still trying to lay it. Unfortunately, the last clutch from Isis and Osiris did not hatch so I am hoping this clutch makes it. They have such beautiful babies!

My new girl Rowan has taken it upon herself to lay eggs as well, which was a concern of mine being she is so young. Now that she has laid eggs, I am not going to be able to prevent her from laying more this time, but so far she seems to be doing it well. Her mate Fletcher is taking great care of her, feeding her, protecting their cage, and just being a great father-to-be. After this clutch, they will be resting for at least 4 months so she doesn’t get stressed out or malnourished.

Seible and his girl Yin are on 4 eggs, though only one looks fertile and I don’t know if it will hatch. It seems to have stopped developing, which would be common for a young male and first time female. Seible is still young, though Yin is at least 3 now.

With this boom in babies (maybe), I may be lowering my prices for this spring season. I hope to not always have this many birds nesting at a time, though they do tend to like to nest all at the same time. If this keeps up, I may lower my prices indefinitely on Lovebirds, but this is just a guess, maybe a little too early to even think about. I could potentially have 12 babies this spring, but we will come to that when we do.

I still have one baby waiting for her new home, my little Seagreen American Cinnamon Pied Violet female. She is such a sweetie. She flies to me for snuggles and to sleep in my shirt. She also loves to give kisses and would make a great first Lovebird for any family/person. I have lowered her price until March 9th to $70 with free delivery (within reason) from $80 plus delivery fee. If you are interested in her, please email me. brimonster111@barefootaviary.com

Egg News

The fourth egg came on Saturday night (the 16th), following a series of Caique moaning. Zorro tends to screech for about 4 hours before and after she lays an egg so the arrivals of the eggs are now more predictable. Yesterday I gave them a dish of veggies in the nest box, fearing Zorro maybe losing weight since Dweezel does not appear to be feeding her. The dish was empty when I arrived home from work last night so I know she was hungry. She does come out periodically during the day to eat and drink but even with these short sessions, I think she is losing weight. I did weigh her and tried to compare her current weight to her weight from a month or so ago, but that proved impossible. With her ‘baby fat’ she is carrying from laying eggs, I can’t really compare the weights. I did give her some handfeeding formula in the hopes that she will keep the same weight at the very least.

Simon and Doe, the Parrotlets, now have 3 eggs and I do believe the third is fertile as well. I still only have on person on the waiting list so at the very least, I should have 2 babies available from this clutch. I really hope I get at least one American Yellow in this clutch!

Egg News

The Caiques have laid their third egg on the 13th.  They are getting increasingly aggressive over the nest box, which is a good sign.  Zorro sits on them so well, it is adorable!  I candled them again but there is still no sign of them being fertile.

Simon and Doe (Pacific Parrotlets) have 2 eggs only, both are fertile though!  I have one person on the waiting list for sure so far.

Heavy Heart

I write this with a heavy heart. Baby Re has passed away.  I could barely sleep last night so I am up early this morning. Yesterday I heard a horrible noise from the bird room so I rushed in to find Baby Re getting attacked by Zorro. I yelled at Zorro and she stopped. Baby Re was alive, but in shock. Shamus also got attacked but he got away with just a chunk taken out of his toe.

I took Baby Re out and cuddled her and since there were no obvious wounds, I thought she was alright (despite a hurt foot). She was not bleeding, but she was wheezing. At first I thought, “She must have a punctured lung” but then after she calmed down, she stopped wheezing so bad, so I thought maybe she had gotten her crop squeezed and had aspirated a little. I put her in a hospital tank with some heat and food and water. I had 2 hours before I went to work. I watched her the whole time and she didn’t get worse or get better.

I had to leave for work (I would have called in but it was my third day only) and I just prayed she would be better when I got home. So after work I went straight home and she was still in the same condition, no worse and no better. She was still wheezing, but the same amount. I didn’t even take off my coat, scarf or hat, I opened the tank and picked her up. She automatically jumped onto my shoulder and I could tell she wanted to go back in the bird room with her family so I made my way down the hall. I got just in front of the door and she either had a seizure, lost balance, or just freaked out and she fell to the ground. I picked her up and headed back into the kitchen to put her back in the hospital tank. I then noticed she had one of her legs stiff so I knew it was time. And right them she died in my hands.

I know I am so stupid for again thinking that I had solved the problem between the Caiques and the Lovebirds. This is the last bird that has this fate, I promise myself, my birds, and all of you. I just want to kick myself in the face for this. I know it was all my fault. It is almost as if you love them too much and that is why they have to go.

There will be no “out of cage time” without direct supervision. We are moving in a few months (well, hopefully in April or so) and when we do, the Caiques will be nowhere near the Lovebirds. If we do not move like planned (if we cannot sell our current home right away), I will move the Caiques out of the bird room, but right now I can’t. With them on eggs, I can’t move the cage. Moving the cage consists of taking it apart and I can’t do that when they are this nesty.

I will be adding pictures here of Baby Re later today.

Egg News

The Caiques have laid their second egg now. With each day, they get more and more protective of the nest box, the cage and the nest. Each day is a new adventure with the Caiques and each day I learn something new. There are no websites or books that can tell you exactly what a female Caique sounds like when she is laying an egg. Well, I had to learn that one first hand. When laying this second egg (since I have been watching her like a hawk to make sure I didn’t miss this one), Zorro made a noise I had never heard before. She also now uses this noise to protect her eggs from me and Dweezel (sometimes he is permitted to view and fondle the eggs, but other times he is not even permitted in the nest box). the noise is similar to the “trying to scare you away” noise, but quieter, higher pitched, and in short bursts rather than one drawn out note. She tilts her head to watch me, keeping the egg(s) under her neck for warmth, and makes this sound. Then she will raise her rump, in an effort to protect the egg(s) even more. She will even grab my hand gently and move it away or sometimes give me a small nip to get her point across. I was able to keep them out of the nest box for a minute tonight (by shoving a t-shirt in the entrance hole and praying it held its ground) so I could candle the eggs to see if they had any striations on the inside. Unfortunately, I did see striations in both eggs. Striations can be a sign of infertility, but I will keep my hopes up. Stranger things have happened, so I am not going to assume anymore that all the eggs will be infertile for sure.

The eggs:

Zorro warning Dweezel to stay away from the eggs:

The Parrotlets have laid another egg but there will be no pictures for a couple weeks. I am hoping that they take good care of this one and I am going to really limit the amount of times I check the box. I am so anxious to see babies from this pair, but I know I need to have patience and leave them alone so they can do what they do best.

**More Breaking News!!**

Zorro laid her first egg! I admit, I was getting worried as she has had an “egg bum” for a long time and if she hadn’t laid an egg by tomorrow, she was going to the vet.  I was in the nest box tonight, moving bedding around when I felt something solid in the pine shavings.  Lo and behold, it was an egg!  I am pretty sure that an eggs she lays this time will not be fertile, but I may be surprised.  I guess deep down, I hope I am wrong and all the eggs are fertile, but that just seems highly unlikely since I don’t think they have ever mated.

But since Zorro has been acting very “nesty”, I hope Dweezel will get a clue and start to at least try to mate with her (if he hasn’t already).

Here are some pics:

The egg:

Zorro in the box with her egg:

The happy couple and the egg:

I have to say that I had expected the egg to be much larger, but I guess they are not that big of birds