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Emmy

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Everything posted by Emmy

  1. Hi Dave and Sarah, I'm beginning to think budgies are even more inquisitive than cockatiels. Love where it is sitting Dave. Sarah my cages are beginning to look as though they are waiting for the washing to be pegged up - using clothes pegs now to secure doors and hang millet spray. I have a toy budgie fixed on a perch and it whistles when Billie moves it and he sits cuddled up to it - it works with 2 small batteries. The toy budgie had stopped whistling so I thought it needed new batteries but when I went to remove the batteries Billie had already opened the battery section and had removed the batteries for me - so no more batteries going in!! Now Billie has a very quiet toy budgie. I can't understand how he managed to do that because I find it difficult to open the battery case Maybe be easier for us if we had beaks instead of noses Emmy
  2. Emmy

    3 weeks later

    Penny why don't you try removing the tiny chick and give it a little hand rearing formula then return it to the nest immediately after you feed it I know what you say about fostering eggs using Bengalese my pair that I foster eggs with must be wondering why they are producing all those different babies Hope it all works out for you. Emmy
  3. I must have missed this photo at the beginning of the post- lovely birds Dave. The blue and white one is something like the one I got but mine has a bit more light blue in it. Found out today my one should have been named Houdini. It's in the conservatory and I got a shock when I noticed it was sitting outside its cage waiting at the door to get back in but the door was closed. It had pushed its way out from where the feeders go - so now the cable ties are out once more Emmy
  4. I loved having rabbits Sarah. (I've got an empty hutch at the moment too) Thinking it's just a good job I don't live near you Emmy
  5. What a beautiful photograph Sarah. Last month guess what I bought? A budgie!! (Billy boy) just fell in love with it --I was at our bird sale last month. I was selling finches and the woman next table to me was selling budgies and I just fell in love with it - (I'm trying to convince my family its one of my young cockatiels but it's an unusual colour ) (It's light blue and a lot of white.)
  6. Hope all goes well for them Sarah bet the youngsters' colours could be a bit of a surprise. Emmy
  7. Read today Newark show has been cancelled because of the virus and new date for the show is in April. Emmy
  8. Why did I think you lived in Carlisle ? (we must have had a discussion about that at one time.) Only problem with the birds/hens is having to keep them locked up because of the bird flu virus- and the date for letting them out has been extended until the end of February Emmy
  9. Hi Allan, Missed you at the C.of B. bird show in November. Are you still in Carlisle (which use to be in Scotland ) Hope this will be a good year for you. Emmy
  10. Welcome to the Forum Shelley. What wonderful way to begin the New Year but could I please ask why you are getting two male finches? OK maybe you don't want to breed them but you will be missing out on a lot of excitement seeing them build their nest, then getting excited when they lay eggs and when they first hatch. There is a problem with that too though because it does become difficult to part with them when they have fledged. These are two photographs of Shadow one of my zebra finches that I hand reared ( hatched the egg out in my incubator.) This is Shadow at 1 hour old on the 3rd April 2016 and this is him this morning (9 months old) when he had a fly about in the shower room (There is my Blog on here about the stages when I was hand rearing him.--(Blog is "Hand Rearing Birds") Emmy
  11. Here's 2 youtube links - one is the cockatiel egg (nail varnish one) after 5 days in incubator https://youtu.be/Wbbj5y8ZzIk and the other is a zebra finch egg on its 5th day in the incubator https://youtu.be/Fn-8es89J1w you can see the heart beating Emmy
  12. Showing nail varnish on egg. Emmy
  13. 5 days ago I found one of the cockatiels had laid an egg on the ground in the outside flight (this is the first time this has happened) So I went in and picked up the egg only to find, although it wasn't broken, one of the other birds had pecked the shell and there was tiny hole in it. I decided to try the nail varnish trick and put a little bit nail varnish on the shell where the tiny hole was. (This reminded me of the post from a while back re all the things birds would use -lipstick etc etc-it was a good laugh) I let the nail varnish dry --(wasn't going to do this any more meantime, but once again- this egg found its way into the incubator. ) For 2 days nothing happened then the 3rd day the yolk of the egg expanded, usually when this happens, although at this point you don't see any veins inside the egg, just my opinion- it's the first sign the egg will be fertile, and tonight using the ovascope I found this egg is definitely fertile. This is the egg tonight on the 5th day of incubation: No idea which bird the egg belongs to-so if it hatches I'll be starting 2017 with anther baby to hand rear.
  14. Fantastic Trevor , You were lucky to get 3 females -are all three of them same colour with them coming from 2 different nests? Emmy
  15. A day to sit back and relax. Happy Birthday Wishes Dave. Emmy
  16. Welcome to the forum Angel You have 5 pairs all sitting on eggs - That's just great. Are you going to keep all the young ones? I always find it difficult to part with them but sometimes its necessary to part with some. Hope all goes well with the breeding. No matter how long you keep birds you will never know everything and new information is always being passed on so please just keep asking and also tell us how things are progressing. Emmy
  17. Hi Trevor - Were you out taking photographs on your birthday? Or did you just sit back and relax and let Angela fetch and carry for you How I wish your saying was true. but all my tomorrows are all filled in before they arrive Emmy
  18. Thanks Andy It didn't survive - really feel bad about this - happening. Emmy
  19. Disaster!!! When I was turning the above egg it slipped and cracked I put a little nail varnish over the tiny crack but I doubt very much if it will survive now. but I've left it in the incubator meantime. Emmy
  20. This is a short video clip of a Heck's egg in my incubator on the 8th day of incubation. Fascinating to see the limbs moving (at least I think that's what it is) (lol)
  21. HAWK!!! Had to put one of my young diamond doves in the hospital cage the other day I've had a hawk at the aviary for 3/4 days now and I think it had managed to get a hold of the young dove's tail feathers -must have happened 2 days ago and it had been bleeding and the blood had dried and a lot of tail feathers had been pulled but were stuck to the bird --by the time I was finished bathing it-- poor bird now had only one tail feather left. I was worried about the fright it has had . Reckon the shock could be worse than losing its tail feathers. Thankfully its back in the inside flight now and looks OK Emmy
  22. First Welcome tot he forum. I'm not saying this will work with your birds but it does work when a finch starts to pluck feathers from another in the cage Cut approx. 6/7 lengths of normal parcel string (Each about 12cms long) fold them in half and loop them through the bars of the cage this will keep the birds occupied. You could perhaps fix 2 or 3 to the cage to give them a choice. Hope it helps. Emmy
  23. Sadly the wee one died but the other two are just adorable - if they hadn't been ordered I think I would have kept them. They are still getting the formula but just 3 times a day now and they are eating seed and greens as well a cuttlefish plus the occasional bit of a rich tea biscuit. Guess they will soon be giving me lessons on the computer (lol) It's not ending with those two though, two other pairs have eggs in nest boxes one has 4 eggs and the other pair have 3 eggs (one of those three eggs hatched out today.) Cuddles the one I hand reared from when it hatched out in the incubator is whistling tunes now so it's going to be a 'talker' too. Mad house this is with Bobby the parrot chatting away, then Tiko the Baraband parrot joins in and now Cuddles! no need for CD's in my house Emmy
  24. Hi Barbara first -welcome to the forum I'm presuming that its zebra finches you have- but it doesn't really matter if its not because I think this would apply to all species. If you don't separate the males from the females you will eventually end up with more eggs - even if you remove the nest box there will still be the chance they will make a nest themselves (a pair of mine laid eggs in their feeding bowl ). If you want to keep them together you would have to remove any eggs that was laid but there would be the chance that the 'Mum and Dad' - if they were desperate to rear another clutch they could maybe start pecking the youngsters feathers to make a nest- one way to help stop this is to cut 8 or 10 -10cm lengths of normal parcel string fold them in half and loop it through the bars on the cage and they will peck away at that. That was good of you rescuing that pair. Hope it all works out for you. Maybe some other member will be able to give you some more ideas. Emmy