New Addition to the Flock

Please meet the new member of the flock, Olive, the Peach-faced,Dutch Blue Mutation, Lovebird.The birdshop owner who sold Olive to me said that it was about 5 months old. That simply means it takes longer to tame it.

As you can see, Olive has no ring on its eyes, but it does have eyelids and cute, big black eyes.

It loves to sleep inside a towel too..

Don't you agree it's charming? Well yeah,except that it's quite aggressive that in the first week it had bitten Elmo's toe twice, Goldie's thrice and Baby Blue's once. It bit Baby Blue's toe until it bled a couple of days ago, and just last night, near bed time it bit Goldie's toe until it bled too, even when it was locked out of their cage.

Wondering why it behaves this way...

I've been noticing that it has been preying upon the two keets and always trying to find an opening into their cage. One time I saw it perched on Godie's nest box inside the cage and as usual, Goldie defended its property.

Wondering, if it was being territorial, I mean, I wonder if Olive wants the nest box. Could it be possible when it hasn't even reached maturity??

Rascal

After four days of pain and mostly spent snuggling in his blanket, sometimes in my arms, Elmo decided that he's too bored. So, he sneaked into his neighbor's cage and planned on an ambush. LOL

  

It's my  day to day entertainment and chaos... LOL 

Sometimes, I need to intervene in breaking up their fights. Many times it's between Goldie and Elmo since Elmo is very curious and loves to have a peek over Goldie's nest. 

Goldie has been quite territorial lately, since she is sitting on her eggs for over 3 weeks now.

Unfortunate Accident

Lately, it has been eventful for Elmo... 

Just days after he was infected with Snot, he got into an accident. 

As usual, I took him with me to the garden that afternoon. 

I was watering the plants when I decided to propagate my Wizard Jade Coleus plant. By that time Elmo was still standing on my shoulder but all of a sudden he flew to my hand while I was cutting the stems of the plant using my garden sears. 

I was not aware that his finger had been cut until I saw some drops of blood on the floor.

Imagine how panicked I was! I checked his finger and blood started to flow out and his claw were wet so I was not really sure how deep the wound was. 

The first thing I do was washing his claw with water, dried it and put some Betadine solution over the wound. 

But his finger was still bleeding. 

 So, I called an Avian Vet who's been advertising his service on the newspaper. He was such a kind man. I thought I could bring Elmo to his clinic but he said I needn't to. He calmed me and guided me via telephone on what I should do.

Basically, I must clean the wound with alcohol solution and apply antiseptic and some anti-fungal cream. 

I bandaged his finger but he hated it and no matter what I did to stop him from removing it, he did eventually.

So I let his wounded finger opened but keep applying the betadine solution several times a day.

For days days he stood one-legged. That's because his wound is very close to the base of his middle finger, it must been sore. And for the first couple of days, he was not very comfortable sleeping inside her blanket because he literally bending his body while sleeping so I guess it's painful for him to do so. I often found him back on his perch or swing not long after I put him to bed. But praise God, his wound is not serious and he recovered within a week.

Snot Coryza

If you're a bird lover and you have bird as pet, you know how dangerous Snot or Coryza disease is, especially on budgies/parakeets and lovebirds because snot is rampant in these two species. 

Remember Barney, the orange faced lovebird I found and died just several days after? I lost him because of

this disease! 

Snot or Coryza is a usually acute,highly infectious disease of fowl characterized by inflammation of the upper respiratory tract, especially nasal and sinus mucosae. It is caused by the bacterium Haemophilus paragallinarum. The route of infection is conjunctival or nasal with incubation period 1-3 days followed by rapid onset of disease over a 2-3 day period with the whole flock affected within 10 days. Transmission is usually by direct contact.

Symptoms that may occur : facial swelling,nasal discharge, swollen wattles, sneezing, dyspnoea,lose weight, in-appetite, drop in egg production of 10-40%.

From the information I got, untreated birds suffering from Snot Coryza will die within 2 weeks time.

Last month I noticed red flecks on Elmo's upper and lower right eye ring. At first, I thought his eye was injured when we were playing the other day. But the next day, the flecks become redder, as if he was having internal bleeding on his right eye. I had noticed that he liked to scratch his eye lately and then rubbed his eyes on his wooden perch. And he blinked his right eye quite often.

Suddenly, it dawned on me that he must be having snot!! Several weeks before, Baby Blue also suffered from this disease. I believe Baby Blue had infected Elmo since I let them play together every day and I didn't quarantined Baby Blue when he was on medication. Thank God he was finally healed by an eye-drop medicine called BioSnot.

BioSnot is a product of Indonesian Bird Farm, Ebod Jaya, who have diversified their products from birds to bird feed to various multivitamins and 

medicines for birds. 

BioSnot is a back-to-nature eyedrop made from flowers: Isotoma Longiflora (Star of Bethlehem)combined with Clitorian Ternatea (Blue Pea Vine or Butterfly Pea)which contains riglucoside, saponin, fenol, kaemferol, and delphinidhin which produce significant efect for eyes. In order to accelerate healing it is added with honey which is very effective to kill bacteria. It is only for external usage. So, I quickly gave him the eye drop for 3 times a day for about 5 days and ordered another snot medicine that I must feed him in order to clear the bacteria in his stomach. 

Well, thank God I have stock of BioSnot at home though it's a bit expired but still good to use. And luckily I discovered the symptoms at the early stage so he's healed in a matter of days. Less than a week! 

My New Babies Part 3

Hello, back with Baby Blue and Elmo again!

During daytime, I let them out to play and socialize. During this time also, I introduce them to different food besides their staple 'mixed seeds'. I let them try sweet corn, broccoli, beans, long beans, carrots and apples. They don't really eat much but my mission is to get them familiar with fresh veggies and fruit. And I think this mission was accomplished.

My other mission was to make them get along to each other. 

Look at how cute they are in the above pictures. 

At the same time that also expresses how they  sometimes turned their faces away from each other. 

Actually, I have felt content with only two birds, 

Baby Blue and Elmo. Though, they sometimes fight but so far I can see that they're quite connected to each other. 

Until one day I saw something inappropriate...

Baby Blue was trying to mount Elmo!!!

I've seen from the Internet that a parakeet can practically mate a Lovebird but they are unlikely to have offspring out of that relationship since they are different species. 

I was really perplexed. 

Could it be that Elmo is actually a female? 

I don't have the answer.

But I know what I should do...

And after several days... 

taaaa daaaaa....

I bring Goldie home!

I've noticed Goldie at the Bird Seller for sometime. She is a quite active and cheerful female among others. She's also younger than her peers in the cage. She has only one shortfall, one of her toes is deformed. It could be a birth defect or caused by an assault 

from other birds. 

But the point is, this defect will prohibit her from being purchased as she is not considered impeccable.

This was one of the determining factors which led me to decide to purchase her, besides her personal characters which I believe will be compatible with Baby Blue who is a gentle and kind bird.

See, I act like a mother, picking her daughter in law!

 Haha... just kidding! :-)

But surely, choosing your pet carefully(which is translated into their characters)is an unwritten laws, since I have had a not so good experience with Snowy before!

You better make sure that they have good characters and can get along with others, including their masters! 

So, here is Baby Blue with her new Bride. And Goldie was the name that popped up in my mind the first time I brought her home. I also called her Chica, 'cause her face and color reminds me of a chick. And Chica also a word in Spanish which means girl.

Surely Baby Blue is the happiest Parakeet on earth right now. 

Ever since Goldie was brought home, he was very clingy to her, always trying to feed or preen her.
He's such a good gentleman. 

He did try to mate her, but she refused... 

and she still refuses until now. 

Maybe she needs time, or maybe she's not mature enough yet. 

And I see that Baby Blue has been kind and gracious. 

He didn't force himself on her, but make an effort to bond with her.

What a sweet guy! :-)

My New Babies Part 2

After Barney passed, I always wanted to buy another Lovebird. But because I had no experience keeping birds as pets before, I decided to buy a keet which is cheaper than a Lovie. I guess, I was giving a shot with the keet and planned to see how it went.

I never imagined how much joy a bird could bring into my life. Baby Blue is a really good, friendly and entertaining bird. I always make sure that he is well-fed, his water changed every morning, cage cleaned several times a day, and shower with baby shampoo once a week and play with him several times a day. Still, I can't see him spaced out in his cage, lonely, after Snowy's gone.

 So, one day I went to a bird store away from home and scored the cutest and most timid Lovebird among others in the cage.

Last time, Baby Blue and Snowy was put into a box with small holes when I bought them, and ever since they were traumatic with darkness. They will freeze and quack unceasingly every time 

I put them into a sleeping box or under a blanket 

or cup them in my palms. 

So this time, I decided to buy a small cage which is usually used for cicadas. It's a small wooden box with iron screen on both sides, enough for one or two birds. At least they can look out of the box, and wouldn't be traumatic.

The man who sold the Lovebird said that it's a male and still young, about 2 or 3 months. I just accept what he said since it's not easy to distinguish a Lovebird age, because once they're weaned in about 2 months, they will look like an adult lovebird. So you can't really tell their age anymore unless the breeder reveal it. At least you can observe its eye ring, if the ring is narrow, then it's a young bird.

All I want is a young bird, so I can train them to stand on my finger and hopefully to talk...

Another problem was distinguishing whether it is a male or female. It's also not easy to know the sex of lovebirds since they look the same. I found from the internet several characteristic that differentiate male to female Lovies, one of it is that female Lovies usually have bigger bodies. Another characteristic we can observe is that the tails end of male Lovie crosses while the female's tails are straight on. Finally, when they reach the age of 1 year old, female Lovies tend to stuff her underside with pieces of newspaper that she tear off from the bottom of her cage or else she'll be busy building a nest.

If we don't want to bother observing all these, we can just take them to the vet to have a DNA test. Fast and Easy. But since we don't really have avian vet in my town, I only have the earlier option.

Despite the unknown sex, I named it Elmo because his eyes ring reminded me of Elmo. I also called him 'Bibi' in case it's a female.  So I tried to make him familiar with these names. I know it's a bit crazy.  Well, anyway, Elmo is also an addition of joy at home. He's really cute. Despite Lovies love to be cuddled, Elmo who is still a baby loves to sleep inside a fluffy towel. 

Look at how cute he is while sleeping!

The next problem is that I don't really know what variety of Lovebirds he belongs to. We don't really have certificate for the bird we buy from the bird store. So I search through the Internet, and found that he might be a Blue Masked Lovebird, though he might also be a mix-breed.

Anyway, Elmo is not so easy to tame. It seems that he's a bit traumatic to be hand-handled. Every time I insert my hand into the cage to train him to stand on my finger he will fly frantically with his wings flapping against the iron bars and finally fall down to the bottom of the cage. It's sometimes frustrating trying to earn his trust. Since he loves the towel, I usually cover my hand with the towel when I try to persuade him to come down to my hand, so I can put him to sleep.

At playing time, I usually takes both Baby Blue and Elmo out of the cage and let them play outside. I let them perch on the aluminium rack for hanging clothes. Elmo and Baby Blue has been good friends though at times they fight over food and Elmo's mischief. Elmo likes to elbowed Baby Blue down from the perch and sometimes biting on Baby Blue's claws where he will mostly get his head pecked in return. What a funny bird!

My New Babies part 1

Still remember Barney—my deceased Lutino Lovebird? So what happened since then was... I went to get myself a new bird! I bought a parakeet this time because they are smart and can be trained to speak (coping sound). So I went to a bird store nearby and was fallen in love with the angel-look of Baby Blue, that's how I named him. This time I knew it's a him, cause he has a blue cere (the area above its beak). Parakeets are a bit different from Lovebirds, we can distinguish their sex through the color of their cere. If it's whitish, brown or pink it's usually a female parakeet and if it's deep blue or blue/purple tinted then it's a male.

When I saw him among other parakeets in the cage, I was at once attracted to its soft color of baby blue and turquoise, but above all it's his friendly and loving characters that had attracted me the most. I could see how he played and treated his fellow cage-mates. And how he diligently offered himself to preen his friend's feathers and shared food by regurgitating to his mate's mouth. He is a nice guy after all and it's obvious that I couldn't take my eyes off him! 

Baby Blue definitely brings a lot of joy, he's also very docile. Only within several hours after I brought him home and he having acclimated with his new cage and home, I had managed to coax him to stand on my finger! He even stayed on my finger when I swung him while following September by Earth, Wind and Fire. :-) He also started to show off his trick to entertain me. By holding on the iron bar of the cage he turned his body. He's totally cute!! :-D

Then, after a couple weeks or so, I started to realize that I need to spend a lot of time entertaining the bird or else it will be bored, just standing on his perch oozing out... but of course I don't have that much of time, so I went back to the bird store and scored another parakeet for Baby Blue's companion. And I bought Snowy, the combination of white and blue keet. Snowy is different from Baby Blue, he's not tame at all, but he looks smart and sharp. Anyway, they finally bonded though they sometimes fought for territory since I put them in the same cage. I learned that each had to have its own food and water container and perch. Still Snowy was more dominant. Baby Blue was more pacific but at times fought back to defend its territory.

Efforts to tame Snowy seemed to hit the walls. He kept distanced away and refused to stand on my fingers. And he's also very fierce and offensive, he bit me several times. Maybe I was wrong to put them in the same cage, it made it difficult to train him then. Since he became more clingy to Baby Blue as they had bonded to each other. It got worse when Baby Blue started to distance away from me and refused to step up on my finger anymore. Then, I knew I had to do something about it...

I gave up Snowy for adoption! I gave him to a friend who also owns a female parakeet. It's a bit difficult to separate them though, it broke my heart too. I had to take Baby Blue away to another room before I put Snowy into a temporary cage to be taken to his new home. I had to turn my eyes away as he frantically scratched his temporary cage, trying to get out of it...

I could see that it was also hard on Baby Blue as he is a friendly bird and enjoy companions very much. Many times I saw him calling for Snowy and at other times stood silently and spaced out. It is understandable as it's not easy for parakeet to find a mate and bond. Though Snowy is a male keet, they can still bond. But after sometime, Baby Blue was back to itself and become bonded with me back.