Good news, Bad news!

The Good News - 
     I haven't posted in awhile.  The good news is that my baby Yellowsided Conure is doing great.  I think it might be a male and he is weaning now.  He is gorgeous and I hope to post photos of him soon.  He is so vibrantly colored!  He is super cuddly and craves my attention constantly.  This does not make my other green chhek happy  as she wants my attention too and this drives Riley my Wihite Wing Parakeet crazy as he thinks he is Number 1 so he is screaming a lot.  But I love all of my pets and that also includes 3 parrotlets plus 1 breeding pair in the same room right now. My other breeders are all outside getting ready to hopefully go to nest.
The Bad News -
  Which brings the bad news.  I lost my sweet little pied baby I was hoping to hand feed.  When I went to pull him for hand feeding at just under 2 weeks of age, I was shocked to discover that while he was the size of an almost 2 week old his development was retarded and he was still a pink rubber baby when he should have had down feather fluff and pins coming in.  I decided to pull him that day and try to save him but I have seen this before and I knew it was a losing battle.  I could see that he was severely dehydrated, and fairly thin.   
     When I set him up in the brooder I noticed that his feet were turned inward and twisted and that he could not support his own weight on his legs at all.  I put him a a snugly ring to help him support himself.  I fed him and while he didn't cry he did have a feeding response.  It broke my heart to see this as I knew the outcome would end sadly.
     I fed him every few hours , made sure the humidity levels were good, etc to try and keep him hydrated, but every time I checked him he just seemed a  tiny bit worse.
He was a little fighter, and would open his tiny eyes when I was there to feed him.  His whole body would shudder with the force he had to use to lift his little head.  His crop started to slow down.  I knew things were coming to an end. I am sad to say I lost him a couple of days later, but I was relieved that he did not suffer.
    Sometimes chicks are born and they have a failure to thrive.  It is sad to see and go through, but t is part of what comes with breeding birds.
     Our weather here has been odd.  One day super cold and windy, the next super hot and sunny, dry, etc!
I also had a pair sitting on a clutch of 5 fertile eggs.  I was sad to discover that when it came time to hatch none of the chicks made t out of the eggs.  This pair has bred before and given me beautiful babies, so I was shocked as they are very good parents as well.  I am guessing that the extreme changes in weather had something to do with it and the humidity level was probably not high enough for the eggs to hatch!  I am not giving up, but I have been sad and not wanting to post!

New Baby - Conure ☺

So...I went to the Bird Mart on Sunday.  I was on my way out and I bumped into a friend of mine who raises canaries, parrotlets & conures.  He said, come here I want to show you something and proceeded to plop this adorable yellow sided conure on my hand. 



Oh why oh why!!!!!  He was so fat and so cute and his coloring! Bright red, yellow green & blue!  So yes I left with him.  He is so sweet.  He just melts in my hand when I scratch his cheeks.  He is a color mutation of the normal green cheeked conure.  If you are looking for a parrot with a sweet temperament that loves to cuddle this is the type of bird for you.  They get very attached to their owners and some even learn to talk.  They require a lot of attention and will demand it, lol. My normal green cheek is talking and whistling now, he has a small squeaky voice.  He has been taking up some of my free time, but I love it.

The pied baby parrotlet is doing well.  I am planning to pull him from the nest the end of this week.  It looks to be a pied, but I cannot see any pin feathers yet (he is still a pink rubber ball), but his nails look clear.

Everybody's Birdmart in Pomona

Today I went to the birdmart in Pomona!  The show just keeps getting smaller and smaller.  There were some parrotlets there, but they looked small and so many people seemed to be putting blues with blues, yellow with yellow, white with yellow, white with blue etc. and that is a major no no if you want strong healthy birds!  It was sad to see some of the breeders practically giving away the plain green parrotlets that were too wild to be pets.  The problem is they don't keep proper records of their bird's genetics so they don't realize that some of these "plain green" birds could actually be split to blue, yellow, double split, or fallow, etc.  That would make them very valuable to breeders who are conscientious and breed the correct way.  It is so easy to keep records of the birds and banding is a must if you want to have solid records of which bird is which.  This means they most probably also breed brothers & sisters, or other related birds together! Ugh! 

It was a nice day at the bird show.  I met a lot of nice people, saw some old friends and the weather was even more beautiful in Pomona than I had hoped for.  I got lots of toys and things for the parrotlets to shred!  I also picked up my favorite egg food for the breeders "Silver Song Breeders Choice" .  My parrotlets love it!

Parrotlet chick is doing great!

The little pink fuzzy is doing great!  He is getting stronger everyday!  Looking forward to pulling him for handfeeding!

Babies First Picture - Awwwww!

Here is the first picture of what I am sure will be a pied parrotlet!  He is only 5 days old and an only chick!  The other eggs in the photo are infertile.  Oh well, maybe next time more siblings.

Here is a photo of him with his gorgeous father!  Mama got spooked my the camera and bailed but he stood his ground to protect his only chick!  So cute!

I hope to pull this baby for handfeeding in about 1 week if all goes well!  Fingers crossed!