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Emmy

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Blog Entries posted by Emmy

  1. Emmy
    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 are content chewing the new toys they get bought for them --but toys were not good enough for Rabelou -- he decided from day one the first thing he would use to extend his skills would be  MY FURNITURE!
    The very first thing was the dining room table,  now this had been in our home for over 40 years without a scratch on it!
    The table legs must have been a real temptation for him because that's where he started.  (sounds silly to say this but apart from the damage he was doing I was afraid he was going to hurt his mouth! - That NEVER happened, he must have been born with a mouth that had been reinforced with steel!
    I was given lots of advice how to stop him doing this and I eventually decided to try things out.
    Goodness knows what people must have thought when they came to visit and noticed that one of the dining table legs that was being chewed, was now  sitting inside a plastic tumbler  ( Glad to say this actually worked - at least with that table leg)
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Caught in the Act
    As soon as Rabelou  realised he couldn't chew through the plastic tumbler on the dining table --  he just changed tables!
    Obvious with what happened next - the tumbler was only going to work on one table at a time so it didn't have they desired outcome I had hoped for.
     This tiny little 'Ninja'  decided there was plenty other things available.  Because I was keeping a closer watch on him he was caught in the act - no need to send him to trial - he was GUILTY.!
             
                         Demolisher at Work                                                     Oh!!    I've been caught!                           I'm sorry I won't do it again.
    Question now was did Rabelou mean what he said in the 3rd photo.?
  2. Emmy
    Reading over the Blog 'Hand Rearing Birds' which featured Shadow & Co. it was hard to believe that was in May 2016 and its now February 2018.   Shadow is still with me and he is still in the house ()
      Shadow January 2018
     
    He now has a mate (a white zebra finch) and they have just finished rearing these 6 lovely little chicks. 

     
    A 'Family' photo  left to right: Shadow, two of the chicks , Snowy (the mum) and the other 4 chicks. 
    Guess there's no chance of Shadow and Snowy going out to the aviary now
    Emmy
  3. Emmy
    The owners of the shop/post office in the village keep ducks and one day when I was in the shop they were telling me their ducks had eggs but as they didn't want the eggs to hatch --they pierce the eggs with a pin and this stops them hatching but they hadn't done that yet.
     
    Then they remembered that a few years ago I had been given a duck egg from their dad and I had hatched out that duck egg in my incubator.  
     
    Next question was "Do you want any eggs to put in your incubator before we pierce them?" 
     
    My answer was "NO thank you-- I'll be in big trouble if I put duck eggs in the incubator" but after we had chatted for a while I agreed to take just ONE egg.
     
    Now I didn't get back to the shop for a few days and the next time I was there the owners were out, so now it was over two weeks since I had agreed to take an egg.
     
    Next time I was in the shop (May 4th ) I apologised and said maybe it was just as well I hadn’t managed to collect the egg then came the bombshell! He told me he still had the FOUR eggs in the shop for me but he also told me that he had read that after eggs had been away from the nest for 7 days there would be little chance of them developing. and those 4 eggs had been away from the nest for almost 3 weeks so feeling relieved that they wouldn't hatch I said "OK I'll pop them in the incubator and let you know"
     
     
     
    After a few days it was obvious nothing was happening with the eggs so early next morning I decided to put one of them into the bin in the kitchen, then later on in the afternoon I binned two more, I don't know why I still left one in the incubator but that night about 11pm I made up my mind that  I would switch off the incubator  and bin the fourth egg but for some reason unknown to me I decided to check it with the ovascope before I binned it and that's when I got a shock this egg was showing the first signs of being fertile!!  Without a moment to lose it was quickly returned to the incubator. 
     
    Now it was panic stations what if those other two eggs that had been binned in the afternoon had been fertile too? 
     
    Very carefully I searched the bin found the two eggs I had binned in the afternoon (they hadn't broken) I washed them and then checked them and Yes they were showing signs of being fertile too. Very quickly those two eggs were back in the incubator too.
     
    I felt there was no sense looking for the egg I had binned early that morning because it had been without heat for over 16 hours so I went to bed -- but all night I couldn't settle thinking about that other egg still in the bin so I got up at 6am and eventually found the 4th egg at the bottom of the bin and it too was still intact but cold. So it got washed and when I tested it? Yes!  Unbelievable it too was showing signs of being fertile so it went back into the incubator too. 
     
    The surprising thing was all 4 eggs were developing normally so I numbered the eggs 1 to 4 (number 1 being the one that never left the incubator, 2& 3 were the two that had been binned in the afternoon and No 4 was the egg that had spent 16 hours in the bin! -- they have been named already
     
    No .1 -  is  Lucky
     
    No. 2 -  is Binny
     
    No. 3 -  is Bucket 
     
    and no. 4.- is Miracle because it is a miracle it has survived and developed.
    First signs of development in the egg
     
    A few days later.
     
    Showing heart beat in one of the eggs 28th May 2018
    Those ducklings will definitely have a story to tell if they hatch out and survive - They not only beat the deadline of 7 days but had a short holiday in the kitchen bin before getting down to the job in hand (lol)
  4. Emmy
    As the title says "Well I'd Never have believed this!!" I really mean that 100%.
    Just take a look at this:    https://youtu.be/vTWs3BN0_NA
    I think this says it all!
    I'm really trying my hardest to improve my speech and 'Mum' seemed to be very pleased with me. Now she has she remembered she had a 'parrot' that talked - didn't need a cage, didn't need to be fed and didn't need to be cleaned !
    Now please tell me how can I compete with that!!!
    Mum doesn't say very much about the other two in front of me but I heard her telling a neighbour she thought the female (Piper) would soon be getting charged with 'domestic abuse'  It seemed that Darcy the male was wanting to feed Piper and she was having none of it -she lifted her leg stretched out her 'foot' and hit him in the stomach, guess she caught him off balance  because it seems he fell off the perch. Mum was annoyed that she didn't have her camera with her when that happened.
    I am saying a lot more things now and I had a laugh yesterday - 'mum' had never heard me saying 'Hiya!' before. She always says this to my pals (her grandchildren) when the come and they shout that to her - but 'mum' always says 'Hallo' to me. 
    So I tried out saying 'Hiya' as loud as I could and Mum answered, " I'll be there in a minute I'm getting the keys, the doors locked"
    -you should have seen her face when she opened the door and there was nobody there!!!
    So I did it again and she thought they were playing 'hide&seek' with her.  By then I think she was thinking it must have been her imagination then when she came in to see me later I greeted her with a loud, 'Hiya'  No I didn't get a telling off she just looked at me and said, "What a clever boy you are"  I was really 'chuffed' because  she gave e a tiny bit of a crisp 

    The she let me out from my cage and played with me for a while and I also got my favourite biscuit - a custard cream!

    While 'mum' is busy hand feeding the five cockatiel chicks I'm going to do some more work on increasing my vocabulary to give her some more surprises.
    Bye for now
    Bobby
     
     
  5. Emmy

    What An End To 2014

    By Emmy,

    As the title says 'What an end to 2014! Not only have I crashed my car (black ice on road) but my cockatiels have decided to follow my example and as the photo above shows, crash some eggs!!

    This is the 2nd egg they have broken they still have two eggs left in the nest that, so far, are OK. (edited to say she has laid another egg- so that's 3 eggs in nest now)

    This blog is about what I've decide to try to do with the broken egg but I will be very surprised if it works.

    I really don't know if the yolk of the egg has been damaged but I have patched the egg up using micropore to cover the missing part of the shell. If it had been only a crack I know nail varnish would have worked.
    Before I attached the micropore to the egg I made sure I covered the part of the micropore that would be next to the contents of the egg so that nothing inside the egg would get stuck to the micropore.
    It's now inside the incubator next problem will be how to turn the egg without causing further damage.
    My other problem is - should I take another egg from their nest and incubate it too just in case this broken one does survive?. I feel its always easier to rear two chicks rather than one.

    I've still to examine the photos I've taken today to find out if any damage has been done to the yolk.
    (update: The yolk of the egg had been punctured so egg has been removed from the incubator and destroyed.)

    Update January 3rd 2015:
    This morning when I checked the cockatiel's nest when they were out feeding I was knocked for six - I found more eggs broken in the nest box, only one whole egg left. I've removed the last whole egg and put it into the incubator beside the previous one I had removed the other day.

    I have since checked the egg removed today and it definitely is not fertile but the one I removed the previous day is showing veins inside the egg. I have put two false eggs into the nest- but I am very concerned with this happening, they have had 3 broods before and no eggs damaged.

    At the moment I cannot make up my mind whether to remove the false eggs and the nest box or leave it as it is just in case the one egg left in the incubator does hatch out and then take the false eggs out and put the chick in- worry then would be-- would they kill the chick?!!

    (Update: decided to remove the false eggs and the nest box. If the egg in the incubator hatches I'm not chancing putting it in with the parent birds knowing their past history. The Parent birds seem to be more settled now)

    This is something I didn't know- I intend to weigh the egg that is in the incubator to check if everything is OK. I would have expected the egg to gain weight getting close to hatching.

    This is what I discovered :