Romeo & Juliet

Romeo is a Whiteface Pied.  Juliet is a Whiteface Pearl.  The people we got them from claim that they have had 3 clutches in the past. However, in the little more than a year since we've had them, they haven't laid anything.  They use the nest box for a private apartment only.

Adrian thought it might be that the living room was too busy for them.

So a couple of days ago, I put them on the porch in a small cage.  An hour or so ago I put a small cardboard box in the cage to use as a nest box. They are already scoping it out.  I hope eggs come.  They have reportedly had a pure white baby in each of their previous clutches so I'm crossing my fingers.

Juliet

Romeo

Games

The babies in the small cage - Bobbie Jo & Ulysses' first clutch of five plus Ginger's last baby.



So this morning, after feeding, I was sitting at my work table in the kitchen, eating my Pop Tarts, drinking my goat milk & reading an old Piecework magazine. I happened to look up and noticed the babies clustered together. Curious, I watched, then started laughing.




Someone had lost a tail feather and they were all playing Keep Away, a cockatial baby's favorite game. One baby would get a good grip on the feather and try to fight his/her way out of the crowd. If s/he succeeded, they'd run to a corner and chew madly, while everyone else ran behind them, trying to get the feather. The next one to grab it would repeat the performance - grab, duck and run.


Cheep amusement.

Adventures in Handfeeding - Day #4

Babies are coming along great.  Weighed them this morning and the weights looked good.  I'm still keeping my fingers crossed, but it looks like they may make it.  Now I have to figure out how to work around my dr's appointments Thursday in Key West, a 45-60 minute drive each way.

Rico Displays for Mickey's Benefit

I noticed Rico doing this interesting display when I was feeding the babies.  He was still doing it when I finished so I grabbed my camera & decided to try the video feature.  There is supposed to be sound but I cna't tell as the sound on my computer is dead.

This is my first attempt at uploading video so I hope it works OK.

Boxed Babies

Here they are.  Right after feeding. I can't get the regurgitated food off them as it's glued on, but I work at it a little more each time. 

New Pairing

Since Spike & Uncle are done for the year, I had an available breeding cage.  Who to choose??  Not much really as I only have 2 hens old enough.  So I put Mickey, a beautiful dark pearl from Buddy & Ginger's first clutch last year, in with Rico, a Normal Grey split pied (I think) that I got off Craigslist.  He's a very dark grey but looks like he may be pearl. We'll find out if & when babies appear.  Rico was instantly interested in Mickey.  So we'll see what happens. Rico is at the far left.  The right pic is Mickey.

Day 3 of hand feeding

It's day 3 of hand feeding Spike & Uncle's remaining 3 babies.  They recognize the syringe as the Giver-of-Goodies so it's not nearly as messy as the first time.  Although Baby #2 feeds so vigorously that s/he has a tendency to drop the tip so I have to gently hold his head still so he gets the food IN instead of ON.

Time to write

So much goes on with the birds that I thought it was past time to create a blog about them.  So here we are.