An Update on the Birds

All three birds are doing great!

Karl has finished his moulting, and he looks far better. He is still not tame, but I am not giving up and I have decided to go through a budgie taming process that I saw online.

He quickly learned to play with toys and chew on cuttle bone (his previous owner did not give him any). He still almost  never eats millet, although on one cute instance all three of them were eating together.

Kiki is doing quite well, and she gets along well, for the most part, with Karl (they now share a cage). I have given her a nest box, and she goes in and out, and has taken out most of the paper strips in it. Still no signs of eggs being on the way.

Kiki always hated swings until Karl showed her it was perfectly safe. Now they probably spend hours on their swing.

Tintin is not yet hand tame, but she is far more used to me. She will step onto a stick, and I plan on getting her to step onto my hand very soon. She's afraid of hands, for some reason. She has improved a lot in regards to hissing and snapping at me. She has a nice, medium sized cage. She can't fully fly in it, but she can stretch out and flap her wings.

She LOVES her cuttle bone and chewing up her toys. She still squawks.

All three of the birds tend to get along well together.

The main bird things I have to spend more time on are taming Karl and Tintin and working harder on getting them to eat fruits and vegetables. I have a feeling Tintin would be the most likely, and perhaps the keets could learn from her.

I was going to close with a very adorable picture of all three birds perched together, but for some reason I can't find the picture! I will post in when I can.

The Last Chapter in the Story of the Finches???

Well, I took down the hanging basket, as I often did, to check on the chicks. Immediately, all four of them hopped out, and started hopping around the yard pitifully.

I caught one chick and returned him to the nest. I also caught a chick that was in the garage, hiding. I put that one in the nest as well, and then left them alone, while I searched for the other two. I couldn't find them anywhere.

Eventually, the chicks hopped back out of the nest into the yard. It was obvious that they were fledglings now, meaning that they couldn't fly, but they could hop around while the mother watched and fed them.

I only handled the chicks one more time: one of them ran into the street while two large dogs headed straight for it.

I returned the (filthy) nest in the basket to the hanging place. I can only hope that the mother saw the chicks and knows where they are.

A note on the other birds:

I thought I saw a robin chick beak today, but I still can't get a good view of those chicks. I have not seen the mother cardinal for several days, and I can't find any eggs in the nest or on the ground. 

Birds, Birds, and more Birds!

There appears to be another chick in the finch nest! Of course, with them all writhing around, it's hard to be sure.

We also have a Robin's nest. It's on this ledge on our house right under the roof, behind the gutter drain pipe. The mother had been sitting for a long time now. I haven't seen any chicks, but sometimes it appears that the parents are feeding something.

I hope to be able to see the Robin chicks once they are bigger. They are just so small at first that it's hard to see. We had another Robin's nest last year, as some of my readers may recall. ( Robin Chicks! Robin Chick Learns to Fly (video) ).

We also have a Cardinal nest. The mother is so skittish it took me a while to confirm that it was a Cardinal nest, but I snuck up on her the other day.

There are two eggs in the nest and (sadly) one egg lying on the ground. The nest is in the same bush as the Mourning Dove nest last year (Mourning Dove Pics! The Moment You've All Been Waiting For! ), so the nest will be fairly easy to observe, although it's higher up then the doves were.

It will be so fun to watch them grow their feathers.

I'll keep you posted on the three nests.

More About Kiki and Oliver

Kiki and Ollie are virtually inseparable - literally. I sometimes have to actually 'towel' Ollie to put him in his own cage for the night.

They are very bonded. They preen each other and sing to each other a lot. Ollie even regurgitated for Kiki. Gross, but it's just a sign of bonding. Kiki's cere (like a nose) is changing from pale blue/white to brown, a sign of readiness to breed.

Now I'm worried that Kiki will start laying eggs without a proper nest box. When this happens, parakeet chicks often get a leg deformity called 'Splay Leg', described in this post on the 'Splendid Bourke Bird Blog' Splay Leg. I'm going to get a nest box when ever I can.

One strange behaviour I've noticed with the two birds is that Kiki will start pecking Ollie if I try to take him out of the cage.

A trip to the farm

A huge succulent plant.

Inside a Peewee's nest

A wildflower bouquet (sadly, the daylilies are dead).

Can you tell what the tiny creature on my arm is?

Barn swallow chicks inside their nest.

Those were several pictures of the flora and fauna around my grandparent's farm. I also have a video of their dog Stubby (10-year-old "Borgi" dog) eating pancakes (one of his favorite treats and the only 'human' food he ever gets.)

After this video was taken, Stubby buried the pancake that he didn't eat.

More Chicks

Since it's getting close to Easter, I'm celebrating by doing a post with pictures of chicks! Also, if you haven't already, watch my "Chicks!" video clip. With this link: Chicks! Video. It's really cute.

You have to handle chicks a lot, or else they could be mean when they grow up.

Chicks have proportionally large feet.

Not all chicks are yellow!

By the next day these chicks will be fluffy!

Chicks need to be with other chicks, so if you buy some, get at least 3 or 4.



 

Cockatiels

Do you want a pet Cockatoo, but don't want a large, difficult to keep parrot? The Cockatiel is the second most popular pet parrot (at least in the U.S.A.) They are small, cute, and very friendly birds that are not much bigger than a budgie.

Cockatiels love to be petted.

Cockatiels are one of the world's smallest parrots, as well as the smallest Cockatoo.

Like any parrot, if you keep one of these birds, you will have to give it regular care. They also need lots of attention and exercise.

How could you not love this beautiful cockatiel?

Cockatiels can live with budgies. The care for these two small parrots is basically the same.

Cockatiels are able to talk, but they are not all that good at it.

Like any parrot, cockatiels are messy birds. They can also be loud (but not nearly as loud as the larger cockatoos.)

I really would like to get a cockatiel. I've always liked them and they are one of my favorite birds.

My Bird Feeder

Last year my dad and I made a bird feeder out of some scrap wood and a piece of screen. The birds love it! Here are some pictures of animals that have come to my feeder this year.

Isn't this a cute chickadee?

My feeder gets lots of house finches and juncos!

This squirrel some how found a way to get into my feeder!

A Trip to the Humane Society of Missouri

When we first entered the Humane Society, it seemed like a nice place. Kittens climbed around in a spacious cage. A dog was exploring the lobby. Then we went into a small room. Two gerbils hid themselves. Some guinea pigs walked around in their cage. There were about a dozen dogs and cats in small cages. There was a 10-year- old Yorkie with some grey fur. A kitten pawed at the bars of its cage. A tiny chihuahua mix whimpered and shivered.

We then went into a room marked "dogs". The first thing we noticed was the noise! All the dogs were barking at once. The second thing we noticed was the smell. A beautiful husky mix jumped at the bars of his cage. Many of the cages were very dirty. We left that room quickly. We went into another dog room. It was quieter, but smellier than the first.

The "Cats and Critters" room housed a lot of cats. A large cage contained a large litter of black and white kittens. The rest of the cat cages were tiny. A movie about squirrels played on a t.v. in the room and many cats were watching it closely.  Three cages held rabbits. A cage smaller then the one I use for Kiki had three cockatiels in it.

In the hallway, a bulletin board was covered in papers about lost animals and animals that were being sold. A worker dragged "An aggressive dog" to the "Aggressive Dog Room". Outside a crying lady and her husband led a large dog up to the door.

After we left, my mom, (who is not an animal lover) remarked how the Humane Society made even her feel sad. This experience has made me a  lot more likely to rescue an animal from a shelter.

This link is to the Humane Society of Missouri's website.
 http://www.hsmo.org/

Chicks!

We saw these chicks at a library. You can tell by the feathers growing in that they are older chicks. They are still VERY cute!