When I started my blog I had half a dozen finches (late last year). Emmy commented that 6 often turns into many more, well yesterday I had a count up - 84 plus 6 tiny chicks and several eggs being incubated! Hmm, time for a bit of a sort out methinks!
Our new bird house and aviary is taking shape in the garden, can't wait until it is up and running, we might need a bigger one before we move in if I'm not careful!
Peek-a-Boo everybody:
That's my latest game with 'mum'. but for the past 5 days I've been VERY worried - I doubt you will believe me when I tell you why
There have been two more additions to the family and their names are Piper and Darcy and they are 7years old, but the worrying thing is they are PARROTS!! and mum had said I was special and there would be no more!.
O K they are not the same as me they are orange winged Amazon Parrots and are 7 years old- They told m
29th April 2016
They are now 26 days old
This is them on the 19th April --16days old:
Cute -looks like Shadow is growing ears like a rabbit
There is a saying, "What a difference a day makes" well watching Shadow's and 1,2 & 3's (the Bengalese chicks) development nothing could be more true.
The last entry was what was happening to them from the 10th to the 15th April when they were 12 days old and when I had transferred them into a proper nest box
10th April 2016
I am now feeding them every 3 to 4 hours and every time they get fed their nest box gets cleaned before they are put back.
7days old:.10th April 2016
One thing for sure Shadow has a really good set of lungs when they are wanting fed he is louder than the other three put together. This is when I really noticed the difference in the sound they make. Fascinating.
Shadow is now 1 week old but the Bengalese are a few days older and I can see a difference in them
Well I never thought this would happen, guess 'mum' must really miss teaching because she has decided to start a beginners class, I'm sure she said it would be the same as being in Primary 1.- the first Infants BUT so far it seems I'm going to be the only pupil.!?!
I can't understand why Tika and Tiko and also the cockatiels are not being made go to school too?
Maybe it will help me to speak properly and stop me trying to say too many things at the same time.
She got a surprise to
The first thing I want to point out - This is what I believe - I would say only attempt hand rearing if the chick's life is in danger i.e if the parent birds die or if they stop feeding the chicks for some reason - please don't do it to get a tame zebra finch - the parent birds will make a far better job of rearing their young themselves.
I thought I would begin by telling you about my most recent hand rearing event:
This is Shadow's Story (Shadow's name was suggested by Clare (a me
Sorry I haven't let you know about my moving before now, but I'm just getting settled in.
My new cage is here and it has been built up and guess where it has been put??!! In the conservatory - (if you could call it that!), from what I see it is filled with boxes of all sorts of things to get sorted out -I think it's all the things the other birds use too. I think the next thing I'll be saying will be: "This must get done tomorrow" because 'Mum' has been saying this every day for a w
I thinking my 'mum' is neglecting telling you all about my progress so, as the title says from now on I'm taking over her Blog although I shouldn't say this I think she is on the 'Go-Slow' and shouldn't have so many birds (at least that's what I keep hearing her family say! - hope she doesn't read this or I may be the first to go- that's what I've heard people say, "The last one in is the first one out"
Well, never mind-- 'Mum' is really OK so let's get on with my progress.
I thin
Bearing in mind that 6 months ago I would never have believed that I would own zebra finches I am really please with the way my babies are colouring up, hopefully I can upload some pictures
it's been a while since I updated my blog.
I'm winding down on breeding now as we are away at the end of April and I don't want to have to ask the neighbour to have to check nest boxes. It's giving me a chance to take stock and work out what I have and what I want to keep. We seem to have ended up with an abundance of cages (a lot of which are flat packed in the loft at present) Last weekend, when it was the Stafford Sale we had arranged to buy a load of cages from a guy who was giving up t
I may be new to this game but I am trying to get on top of different mutations, I like the penguins, and have a pair, but they are both quite small so I have paired them with better sized birds with the view to next year crossing the babies and getting some bigger penguins (well, that is the plan). Last weekend I managed to acquire a large penguin cock and have paired him up - but so far, no eggs - we'll see. I also have several split black cheek chicks - with the intention of breeding some of m
Having moved house my body decided that the stresses involved in house moving were too much and my body has gone into meltdown. For the past week I have been almost bedridden with high fevers and feeling rubbish, when I have a window of feeling slightly better I pop out to the birds, check a few cages, then collapse back into my bed - it's rubbish! Steve has been working hard - at his job, then DIY around the new house and keeping on top of the birds, I just hope he doesn't catch this bug off me
Before I could transfer Bobby to a slightly larger cage (not his final one- still to order that yet) I had a few days making sure that the 3 plus 2 cockatiels would get on OK together in the same cage.
For almost a week I have had the 5 of them out together flying free and one of them was determined to be the Big Boss so I had to be certain there would be no fighting when they were all in the same cage! Bobby was patient and just sat in his cage and watched them -not sure about allowing Bo
10th February 2016
Thought I had better write this rather than 'Mum' because if I let her tell you she may use some words she shouldn't and get banned from the forum.
Yesterday when 'Mum' left me.in the shower room on my own I did some investigating. I thought a few things need to be sorted in the shower room but before I could get started 'Mum' was back with a rich tea biscuit and with me that definitely comes first before work!
So today I was allowed free flying time and Mum
Well, last week saw us moving house. No mean feat with a shed full of birds! Fortunately we were able to get access to the garage the night before the official moving date so we moved the birds then. That night I had a dream that one of the cages of budgies had managed to escape. My partner went to the new house with a van load of stuff, opened the garage door - and out flew a budgie! My dream had been true! The rest of the birds had survived the move and we even had 2 finches and 1 budgie ha
Rabelou (born 23rd June 2013) came here as a tiny puppy on August 21st 2013 when he was 9 weeks old. So many things have happened since it's difficult to know where to begin. So I guess the best place to start is at the beginning.
I have had many dogs before but this was the first time I had one that came as a trainee demolisher
(I think I'll change the word 'trainee' to 'highly experienced')
OK, all tiny dogs have sharp teeth, and need something to chew on, but most of them
This true story began on the 20th March 2015.
Just after 9 a.m. on the 20th March I received a 'phone call from my son. He said he had just taken my granddaughter up to her Primary School and he was having a chat with the Janitor whom I knew well and the Janitor wanted to know how I was and what I was doing now.
When my son told him I now had an aviary and had lots of birds and was even incubating eggs-- I'm sure that's when the two of them put their heads together and did some plotting .
As the title says this blog is about the new addition to my 'mini zoo'
Perhaps I should start off getting members to guess who/what Bobby is ? and that's what I'm going to do!
(After some good laughs, their comments/guesses were hilarious, It was Andyn who guessed correctly )
Is it an animal? Is it a bird? or is it something else?
One clue I'll give is I've always wanted this ? and I hope it will be happy living with me.
Now no cheating! some members will already know
My first proper round of babies are beginning to leave the nest now.
The chick in the picture is pure white (smudge from camera lens over left eye!) - no tear mark - parents are both CFW
(Shame my camera has a black mark in the centre of the lens!)
well, since the weekend there have been ups and downs - maybe more downs than ups :-(
One nest of 4 CFW chicks, nearly fledged, one died, it looked like it had moved away from its siblings and got cold?, its crop was full.
Of my 2 first chicks, today I noticed them feeding themselves which cheered me, 2 hours later when I went into the bird room, one of them was dead
A nest of 5 CFW chicks have all been plucked by one or both of their parents, the hen has also been plucked bald. I
This bird keeping hobby is taking over! Today we went to a bird sale and came back with a pair of Bicheno (owl) finches and a pair of firetails. Both beautiful birds, this is for our aviary scheduled to be up and running this spring, oh, and I managed to acquire 6 more zebras - not quite sure how ;-)
The pair of finches I put down as I left for holiday had one egg (from 5) hatch yesterday - no others have hatched so I'm thinking they may be no good - well, one baby, 2 parents, it should be
Got back from holiday today. My ZFS rings had arrived - and so had several chicks! I ordered my rings when I had just 2 cocks and 4 hens, so thought 20 rings would be plenty for my first year - how wrong can a person be?? I now have 22 chicks - from 5 pairs (9 pairs were put down). 2 of the chicks are too big for 2016 ZFS rings but the remaining 20 were all rung tonight! Now to order more as I have another pair sitting! My CFWs are very prolific. My light backs did not seem to know what to do wi
I'm on holiday, left my birds with my stepson. Today he sent me a picture of my first 2 babies with their parents, fledged and doing well. Very pleased with them. My partner thinks probably clock birds, how long before this is obvious?
