The Splendid Bourke Bird Blog

Grasskeet Questions and Answers

2012-01-27T12:01:00.000-08:00

All Grasskeets typically get along well with one another.

David in the UK asks:

“I have a pair of Rosie Bourkes and one of them has just started to crouch down and spread its wings a little. It still moves around when doing it. WHY?”

Answer: Probably to entice the other bird ... Hens will crouch down, spread their wings slightly and raise their tale when ready to mate. They usually stand still, however. Males stand up straight and flair the shoulders of their wings ... this is done to challenge other males and to show off in front of hens.

Both will sometimes flair their wings out low to the ground, although hens seem to do it more than males do. Even young birds not ready to mate will show these male or female behaviors. If you have a male and female over a year old, "she" might be looking for a place to lay eggs and it could be time to add a nest box. Birds will rarely lay without a nest box, but it has happened. One of mine laid in egg in her seed cup ... I quickly added a nest box and put the egg in it. She went on to lay and raise a clutch. It was February and not when I'd have wanted her to raise young, but it was about 9 months since her last batch and she decided she was ready in spite of everything.

The behavior you describe is not unusual. Best of luck. Aren't Bourkes wonderful? They're my favorite birds.

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Karen asked:

Male & female Splendid pair.
© Gail Lewis

“Just had a quick question about Splendids. Mine has a tendancy to make loud screeching noises in the morning and not sure why. He gets very excited then and just starts making very loud short screeches. He was raised in the same place as Sun Conures and was wondering if he has picked that sound up or is it a normal for them. He does have a very pretty little song during the day off and on, but the other noise is entirely different. I don't know whether to cover the cage at night or not. The bourkes are in there with him and they don't seem to mind, but it is very loud and I hope he is happy in there. Maybe he needs more space. Not sure. Any input would be greatly appreciated.”

Answer: I've not had as many Splendids as Bourkes, but mine didn't/don't screech. I've not seen anything that says they mimic the way budgies do, but maybe the Sun Conures had some effect...? Not sure about that.

Could he be trying to get your attention? You're busy in the kitchen, but not paying him any attention? Another thought might be that he hopes if he's loud enough it might reach the ears of a female Splendid. My guess is that if he had a female present, he'd quit screeching and do more chirping/singing. ;-)

As for covering the cage, that's your call. I don't ever cover mine, but if the noise was excessive, I might. Not fair to your Bourkes though, is it? Yet, Bourkes rise early and can annoy some people when close to a bedroom. We keep our bedroom door closed so their morning songs before sunrise are muted and pleasant. As a retiree, I seldom rise while it's still dark any longer. ;-)

About space ... all birds like as much space as possible ... again, your call. Most of my pairs are housed in a cage that is 18" high, 18" wide and 30" long. They like width so they can fly in circles to exercise. Wide cages are more important than tall cages. My tame birds get to come outside and fly around, but those that aren't tame have to fly in circles in their cages.

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Ron in Delaware asks:

Mixed grasskeets.

“I have 2 female Rosy Bourkes and 1 male Splendid. I got them at different times to make taming easier, I keep them in 3 separate cages next to each other. When I let them out, they all come out together so they can interact like a little flock. They don’t fight but none seems to like it when another bird goes in their cage. I was wondering if I could get them to all live together in one large cage or do you think it’s too late for that? I was thinking if I got a new larger cage and put them all in it at the same time, it might work out. What do you think?”

Answer: I think your idea of adding them all to a larger cage at the same time is excellent. Bourkes and Splendids normally get along just fine together.

As for taming them, being in separate cages probably won't help any. In fact, if one is "tamer" than the others, it might help reassure the others that you are no threat. I have hand fed Bourkes in cages with young parent fed Bourkes and the very tame birds help tame down the others.

Bourkes can be territorial about their own cages when of breeding age ... especially male Bourkes with other male Bourkes and/or Bourke hens being protective of their territory against other hens (or even their adult children). Since your Bourkes are both female, they should get along fine in the new cage as long as there's no nest box and no male Bourke.

If, however, one is actually male, he might chase the Splendid ... Or not. The younger they are, the better your chances at perfect harmony.

I once had a Normal Bourke hen ask a male Splendid to mate with her (there were no male Bourkes available at the time). When he pulled a feather out, she attacked him and they no longer had any interest in each other. He was an unusual Splendid in that he pulled feathers from his Splendid mate too (who had died a few months earlier)... None of my other Splendids have ever pulled feathers.

All the material about Bourkes indicates they are a species unto themselves and won't interbreed with other varieties of birds. Splendids, however, will. They've successfully mated with Turks.

Good luck with your birds. Talking sweetly to them and offering treats by hand might help tame them. Also, keeping them near you while you're working at a desk, or near the kitchen table while you eat ... things like that help too.

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More from Ron:

Young Splendids, a sister and two brothers.

“…this male Splendid is fully-flighted and fairly tame but is afraid of my hands and will not perch. I let him out with my two female Bourkes for free flight time. They are both tame and will fly to me on their own – especially my original Bourke. Also, both Bourkes were initially wing-clipped by their breeders so they are not afraid to perch on my finger. My male splendid seems like he wants to be friends. He lands on me sometimes when they are with me but is skittish and flies off if I try to get him to perch on my finger. I am currently trying to bribe him with food – millet spray. The two Bourkes like to eat that if I hold it or drape a millet spray over my shoulder. The splendid will sometimes come over and land on me for a few bites. Is this how I should train him? i.e. be very patient and let him gradually come to me?

A friend has suggested that I wing-clip him once to sort of force hand-taming but I am reluctant to do that because he loves flying and is very good at it (doesn’t crash into anything) – and he is manageable right now – he’s not super tame but he knows how to fly back to his cage by himself, is not terrified of me, and is no “problem” – he’s just not super tame yet. What do you think? Should I just keep going like I am with the millet spray or should I wing-clip him once to tame him down? He is about 8 months old now.”

Answer: I don't know what to suggest about the wing clipping. I don't like clipping my birds ... seems kind of mean, yet I've nothing against it either. It might help, or might be resented...? I've no recommendation on that score. Although, if you have cats or dogs ... clipping wouldn't be wise. And, I have both.

I have found that my male Bourkes (who aren't hand fed) will get on my arm, but not on my hand. There seems to be something safer about an arm, especially if there are other birds on it. Those same males will put themselves away even before I put the tame birds back in their cage. So, like your Splendid, they aren't any problem.

I find Bourkes easier to tame than Splendids. One of my hand fed Splendid males didn't get handled regularly and quit being finger tame. He didn't bite if picked up, but quit "kissing" and climbing up on my hand. The affection was gone. My fault, I think, because I just got too busy to let him out of his cage often enough ... that, and he was busy with his exciting new hen.

His hen has since died and someone begged to buy him from me. She now has him and is giving him lots of attention, along with a tame Bourke hen. He's maybe not as tame as he once was as a youngster, but he's been tamer with her recently than he'd been with me in a long time. I believe the key is "lots of attention."

My two favorite hand fed Bourke hens don't like each other when they come out together any longer. They used to be great pals, but they've since had clutches and are more feisty. I tend to let them out to fly on different days or at different times. Of course, they each have a male who comes out with them, so they are protective of their mates too. The males might pick at one another, but one is not hand fed and he keeps his distance from the other three. He's one of those who puts himself back in the cage.

Best of luck taming your Splendid.

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Jay in Oregon writes:

Young Rosy Bourkes. Parents in cage in back.

“I've been admiring your blog pages and your parakeets. I am in the process of building two large aviaries to start breeding grass parakeets.

Could you please share with me the size of your breeding cages for splendids and bourkes? Also, do you or any other breeders you know sell grass keets; I am mostly interested in turks and splendids. I've had a hard time finding breeders of these species in Oregon.

Thank you kindly!”

Answer: I'm glad you like my blog. Most of my breeding cages are 30 inches long, 18 inches high and 18 inches deep.

My favorite grass keets are Bourkes, so that's primarily what I have ... mostly Rosies of different shades of pink, rose and pink & white. I'm trying for lutino as some of mine carry yellow. This year I had three pairs produce some babies with pink eyes and am eager to see what sort of youngsters they will produce next spring or summer when paired together.

Don't know anyone with Turks, sorry. As for the Splendids ... I've raised them, but never more than a few at a time and have none for sale just now. I do have some young Rosies and can put pairs together.

All my birds are inside. However, I recently visited someone with many outside aviaries and did a blog about them HERE.

If you are interested in Rosy Bourkes, I'm your gal. Sorry I can't help with the others. If I hear of anyone I'll be sure to let you know. I would like to introduce more Splendids to my flock too. ;-)

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Sarah in Oregon asked:

Opaline Fallow Rosy Bourke siblings.

“I recently purchased a pair of Rosy Bourkes, but I don't know much about them. I do raise cockatiels, and have budgies, so I'm not new to birds. I'm looking for something that might be able to give me some more information on this particular breed of bird.

I was told this is a pair of Boukes, but the *male* has no blue over his cere or on his forehead. He's pretty much all pink with some dark violet on the ends of his wings. The *female* is brown with a pink belly and violet on her wings. Can you help me figure out if these are really male and female? I'm beginning to wonder if they are both females, with one being a rosey, and the other a normal.

Also, I've got them inside right now in a fairly large cage, but I'd like to move them into my heated 8 foot aviary in our garden. I've got 2 pairs of cockatiels in there now. Have you mixed the two breeds before? These birds seem so timid, but maybe it's just because they are so quiet. Anyway, I'd really like them to have as much space as possible. Our cockatiels have babies right now, so I thought I'd wait until they were weaned and out of the aviary before I introduced any new birds. (If they will get along).

Any advice would be much appreciated, and I am definitely interested in possibly purchasing a couple more on down the road from a different bloodline.”

Answer: I wouldn't move your Bourkes outside until winter is past and it is warmer. If your aviary is heated, is it free of drafts? Parakeets are susceptible to drafts.

Let them get accustomed to being outside when the weather is warm and then move gradually toward cooler weather. Also, Bourkes get along fine with cockatiels as long as they aren't crowded. If your cockatiels have young, however, they might be protective ... another reason to wait until Spring to move the Bourkes outside with them. Bourkes tend to get along with all other birds. They are protective during mating season (when there are nest boxes available). Males will chase other males away and hens will chase hens. To prevent this, make sure the aviary is roomy, or put them in individual cages.

If your Rosy doesn't have blue over his cere, that's nothing to worry about. None of my male Rosy's have blue there either. It's only reliable on mature Normal Bourkes.

I have posted about identifying the sex of Bourkes by their behavior. If you enter "sexing" into the search box at The Splendid Bourke Bird Blog, you'll get more information than you ever wanted. It's been a on-going discussion. Here's one post: http://thesplendidbourkebirdblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/thanks-to-sags-for-his-comment-on-last.html

Males sing more and "wolf whistle." When a hen is present, they throw their shoulders back and flair the top of their wings a bit. Males want to feed hens. Hens wanting to mate will squat down and raise their tails in the air, while cheeping. Sometimes hens will squat and spread their wings outward as if to cover something touching the tips to the floor or perch.

Male Splendid brothers. © Gail Lewis

Peace & Blessings.

Enjoy Your Birds

Avian Genetics, Bourke Parakeets by Su Yin

2012-01-23T20:11:00.000-08:00

Introducing Su Yin who has commented on this site frequently as "neversink7," and graciously agreed to be a guest blogger on avian genetics. Below follows her post on Bourke genetics. For your education and enjoyment!

BOURKE GENETICS

Bourkes are a delightful grasskeet. They are the only grasskeet with pink being their main color. Quiet and friendly with males being excellent singers, it’s hard to resist trying to keep a pair of each mutation! Often, there are multiple terms that are used to describe the same mutations. I will try to include the more common ones.

Basic genetic nomenclature:

Normal or wild color refers to the natural or baseline genetics/coloring of the birds in the wild. Mutations alter the baseline appearance of the birds from normal/wild colors.

For birds, similar to humans, there are 2 copies of each autosomal chromosome on which the genes exist, so there are 2 copies of each gene. There are also the sex chromosomes that determine the gender of the bird. In contrast to humans, the male bird has 2 copies of the same sex chromosome called the Z chromosome (ZZ) and the female bird has 1 copy of the Z chromosome and 1 copy of the W chromosome. For the mutations that exist on the Z sex chromosome, the male bird can have 2 copies of these mutation genes while the female bird can only have either 1 copy or none.

Another concept that is important to grasp is dominant or recessive. A gene that is dominant will show up even if only 1 copy of the gene exists in the bird. If a gene is recessive, there needs to be 2 copies of the mutation gene in the bird in order for the mutation to show up.

The term “split” applies to the recessive genes when the bird only has one copy of the mutation gene. Since it doesn’t have 2 copies of the recessive gene, it will not physically show the mutation, but it carries the hidden mutation gene that can still be passed to its offspring.

Common bourke mutations:

Note Normal male at left has brighter colors
than Normal hen on right. © Gail Lewis

Normal:

The normal Bourke is subtly colorful with grey over the head and back, dusty pink on the belly, yellow scalloping on the black wing feathers. The males have blue across the brow and the hens do not. Males also have more blue on their wings.

Autosomal recessive mutations:

The genes for these mutations are on the autosomal chromosomes and 2 copies of the mutation gene are required to physically show the mutation. Both the male and female can be split to these mutations.

Bronze fallow male: ©Su Yin

Bronze fallow:

All black pigments are changed to brown shades, eyes are red, skin and nails are pale. The bird generally looks lighter. The blue band on the brown and wing still exists in the male and not in the hens. There can be different degrees of darker vs. lighter coloring depending on the strain.

Pale fallow:

Pale fallow male: ©Su Yin

Also called cream or yellow. All black pigment is changed into light browns, eyes are red, skin and nails are pale. The color overall is lighter than bronze fallow with more yellow/cream colors. There can be different degrees of darker vs. lighter coloring depending on the strain.

Pale fallow hen: ©Su Yin

Photo by Atholl Shelton (Australia).
http://grassparrots.free.fr/bourkes'p/pied%20%20025_jpg_view.htm.

Pied:

Irregular pattern of absence of deposition of pigment all over the body.

Sex-linked recessive mutations:

These mutations are genes that only exist on the Z chromosome and require 2 copies of the mutation gene in males but only need 1 copy in the females to show up physically. Since the hens only have 1 copy of the Z chromosome, they will either show or not show the mutation, whereas the males can be split to the mutation if they have only 1 copy of the mutation gene.

Cinnamon:

The black coloring is brownish colored. Eyes are dark red. Nails are horn colored. No increase in the yellow or cream coloring.

Cinnamon Bourke:
http://bourkenaround.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/dsc02597-copy1.jpg.

Lutino Bourke ©Su Yin

Lutino:

Inability to produce any dark pigment, so normally blue areas are white, pale pink over the head and body with yellow coloring over the wings and back. Skin and nails are very pale. Eyes are light red. Males may be a little darker in color, but confirmation of gender requires behavioral differences or DNA sexing.

Opaline males: ©Su Yin

Opaline:

More commonly known as rosy or rosa. This mutation mainly redistributes the existing colors of the Bourke but enhances the pink/red colors. Thus the common name of rosy because most birds with this mutation look pink all over. Some birds can have blue or green in the tail region.

Through selective breeding, strains of mostly blue or green and other variants have been developed. These are not different mutations from the opaline, just variations of the same mutation through selective breeding. Those with a little bit of every color are often called “rainbow.” Males usually are darker in color while less black/grey on the face, but this is not 100% reliable. Both genders will have the white stripe on the underside of the wings, which usually only shows up in hens.

Below are examples of opalines with less pink and other colors. To the left is a blue opaline and the one on right is often called a rainbow.

Blue opaline Bourke.
Breeding and photo from A. Coljon.

http://grassparrots.free.fr/bourkes'p/Coljon%20Blue%202010%20cd_jpg_view.htm.

http://grassparrots.free.fr/bourkes'p/YB%20Coljon%20B0015_jpg_view.htm.

Rainbow Bourke.
Photo and bred by A. Coljon.

Combinations of mutations:

When different mutations are bred together, one can develop combinations of the different features. Included here are only the more commonly available combinations, but let your imagination run wild with the endless possibilities J.

Opaline fallow:

Often called pink, sometimes white-faced pink. These can be developed with combination of the opaline and either the bronze or pale fallow mutations. There is a lot less of the black/darker pigments and eyes are red. Again, males may be darker in their red/pink color with the hens having more white on the face, but this is not confirmation of gender.

Pink hen or opaline fallow hen: ©Su Yin

Pink male or opaline fallow: ©Su Yin

Opaline lutino:

More commonly known as rubino. This is a combination of the opaline and lutino mutations. The birds are still red eyed with complete lack of darker pigments. The addition of the opaline gene redistributes the red/pink pigments to a wider area of the body, so the birds tend to be darker pink than lutinos with more pink on their back and wings. Gender can be very difficult to tell based on appearance alone.

Opaline lutino: ©Su Yin

A little about me… (Su Yin)

I’ve been a lifelong lover of animals and nature. I’ve kept different mammals, namely cats and most recently a dog, though I have dabbled in bunnies and mice in the past. Then there is some venturing into reptiles and frogs, but birds have definitely developed into a passion for me.

I started with a pair of zebras and now have numerous birds of several species. I keep various finches and breed some of them. Gouldians and societies make up the core of my breeding program, but I do also breed stars, owls, shaft tails, and various parrot finches at times. I also try to breed some of the rarer and very difficult to breed waxbills, but that’s another very long story J.

I started keeping grasskeets a few years ago. Once I saw a picture of a scarlet-chested grasskeet, I just had to have a pair. From there, I acquired turquoisines. I managed to resist Bourkes until I chanced upon The Splendid Bourke Bird Blog, then saw one in person, and I was hooked. Recently, I’ve also acquired a couple pairs of elegants. Just like finches, different species of grasskeets have different personalities, but most are peaceful and make good neighbors for the finches I keep together with them.

Having a background in the biosciences, I naturally gravitated to the interesting genetics that birds can have and love the challenge of trying to breed quality birds as well as different mutations. There are books available for reference on the different mutations of various birds, but a lot of information can often be found online – try googling ;D. Feel free to check out my birds at:

http://happybirdplacefinchandgrasskeetblog.blogspot.com/

Bird Sales Update and Announcing an Upcoming Post on Avian Genetics

2012-01-19T18:58:00.000-08:00

A young Rosy Bourke hen. Notice her dark face.
This is a common means of sexing, although not
conclusive. Her blue rump might indicate that
she carries a gene for Normal and is homozygous,
meaning she could possibly throw Normal males.

Sold four young Bourkes yesterday. Down from a high of 35 to 23 today.

Going to miss the hand fed pair though ... they are so sweet. Yet, when downsizing, sacrifices have to be made. And, these were 2011 babies.

Still have my older favorites.

The male was out of Flame and Fuchsia and the hen from Rhett and Cherry. Both were so affectionate ... that's what I'll miss most about them.

Someone has promised to buy two one-year old males and another person a hand fed male from this past summer. Hope those sales actually happen. Occasionally people back out before they've seen the birds. When shown, they sell themselves.

A Rosy Bourke male at left.
He doesn't have the dark face.
He's the dad of the other three birds in the
photo who are not yet weaned. He looks
a bit tired from working so hard, doesn't he?
(Someone took a bath and splashed water on
the bars, hence the white spots on them).

Now for the update!

If you've read comments from neversink7 on this website, you may recognize that this contributor is very knowledgeable about avian genetics. I've asked them to do a "guest post" and they agreed to. Why reinvent the wheel when someone else already does it better?

So, keep watching for Avian Genetics. As soon as it reaches me, I'll put it up.

Another post I expect to do soon will consist of photos of albino birds ... an interest of mine. So keep checking back, or sign up as a "follower" to be notified when a new post goes up.

Peace & Blessings.

Breeding Bourkes, Splendids or other Parakeets

2012-01-13T16:45:00.000-08:00

So many times in this blog I've stated that three clutches a year should be the maximum number allowed for any pair of birds, with two clutches a year being optimum.

Fuchsia, happily covering six eggs for her fourth clutch.

Although not a New Year's resolution, I broke this rule the first month of 2012.

These two are siblings, both with white faces and pink eyes.
They were not hand fed, but unafraid of people.

In 2011 I restricted my oldest pair to only two clutches, and another mature pair to only one. However, my two young handfed hens − who had not raised offspring previously − were allowed three clutches. This was because they were so eager and healthy, plus I hoped to get more white-faced, light pink Rosy Bourkes like those shown above.

These youngsters are all hand fed and very tame.
They're outside their cages for some free flight time.
Sweetheart in front is my favorite bird.

When Rosie's third clutch left the nest box, I immediately removed the box.

She'd been asking Pretty Boy to mate and unfortunately laid an egg on the floor of the cage. When I picked it up there was a small crack in it. She didn't lay a second egg because there was no nest box and no stimulation to continue mating and laying eggs.

Another view of siblings, a male and female, with white
faces and pink eyes. Rather tame, although not hand fed.
Male is for sale.

In the cage next to Rosie's, Flame and Fuchsia had four in their third clutch. Two were out of the nest and two remained in the nest box when they started mating again. Frown.

Tame birds out for free flight and visiting cages that aren't theirs.
Cages below them house parents with offspring not yet weaned.

At that point, I could have removed the remaining two babies and completed their weaning with hand feeding. Then the nest box could be removed and Flame and Fuchsia's attempts to have a fourth clutch would be thwarted. But, Christmas was approaching and I was away from home too much to feed baby birds 100% of the time required.

This cage houses four tame young Bourkes.
When the door is open, they go in and out on their own.

When Fuchsia's smallest bird finally left the nest box, she was sitting on three eggs! What to do? Toss them?

My "Sweetheart" ... favorite bird.

I am strongly Pro-Life. Okay, so these are only birds and not people. But... Everything inside me said, "Don't do it."

Now there are SIX eggs! None of my other Bourkes have ever laid that many. But then, none of the others ever hatched and raised five babies before either. Flame and Fuchsia did it with their very first clutch.

Flame and Fuchsia are young and healthy. As hand fed birds themselves, they love Exact Hand Feeding formula and often get some when I'm feeding Pipsqueek (I've written about her eating problem before). I believe the hand feeding formula, which is full of extra nutrition, has left both birds heavier and healthier than most birds who are feeding young ... especially when feeding large clutches like Fuchsia and Flame's.

The angel holding a dove gazes down on these cages
and gently keeps watch over these sweet, lovely little birds.

Instead of looking thin and worn out, these busy parents appear very healthy. So ... in another week Fuchsia's eggs are to begin hatching. When this fourth clutch is two or three weeks old (or maybe less), I'll remove and hand feed them. That will be easier on Fuchsia and Flame. And, I will remove the nest box!

When the Gouldians arrived, Mei-Ling decided to perch on
the back of this chair where she can see them better. The
Bourkes are old news, but the active finches have caught her
attention for now. Eventually, they will probably become like
another piece of furniture to her, and less interesting.

As noted before, we've had many cats (now and in the past) and they've all learned to live peacefully with our birds. So can dogs. It takes some diligence on an owner's part, however. It is necessary to ensure that a cat or dog are not left alone with birds until adequately socialized.

This can only be determined after keeping close watch on them for an extended period of time ... probably months. Also, each animal is different. Some learn quickly and want to please, others may not. I've taught both adult cats & dogs or kittens & puppies to accept birds and leave them alone. Puppies tend to be the slowest to comply ... even more so than kittens.

However, I can't honestly say which is easiest to train. It all depends on the animal (and an owner's patience).

Peace & Blessings.
May all your 2012 bird adventures be joyful.

Bird Aviaries, Outdoor and Indoor

2012-01-08T16:25:00.000-08:00

I promised a regular reader that I'd include photos of aviaries by this weekend, so I'd better get to it.

Many cages and flights are housed in this building.
It may appear open, but the "window" area has a clear cover.
This yard building has heat for sheltering and/or wintering birds.

This is a side view of the same building.
Entrance at left. It's winter, so leaves on the ground and
trees are bare. Spring will make everything pretty.

Our trip to Eugene and Salem gave us a chance to visit Jeannie Anderson's fascinating place. She raises many varieties of small exotic birds. Many of her birds have been allowed to acclimatize and slowly adapt to cooler weather. They are in outdoor aviaries year round. Others are housed in indoor facilities that are heated in the winter. Many go into outdoor aviaries in the spring and summer, but return to their heated homes when it turns cold.

Inside the same building. Left side of one of several areas.
There is a large flight at the end of the hallway. Half doors allow safe entry.
Birds generally stay up high, so by bending over to enter, birds remain safe.

Right side of the same hallway. Flight at the end.

A close up of the aviary at the end of the hallway.
There is an even larger one at the other end.

Another section of the same building. Notice the variation of small flights.
This one houses diamond doves and now a pair of Bourkes (formerly mine).

This building is a busy place with many varieties of birds.
A push cart helps distribute seed to each cage or aviary,
and helps deliver fresh water to all the birds daily.

A self-built, functional building that many of us could copy.

Most of the building has cement floors. This addition has a cement block floor.
Skylight above allows light in, yet keeps cold drafts out.
Button quail on aviary floors help control bugs.

Goodbye Clyde. I'm sure you and Bonnie
will enjoy your new, bigger space.

Notice the half door entry into this flight. A variety of nest box choices
for a variety of birds. It's always wise to have more nesting locations
than there are birds in an aviary. You don't want them to squabble.

An outdoor aviary. The bird in upper left is a Rosela parakeet.
As you probably know, they are larger than Bourkes, Budgies, Turks or Splendids.

An outside aviary near the house didn't allow for a view from farther away.

A different outside aviary, less fancy, but functional.
The far right houses white homing pigeons who are currently out flying.
Notice both provide shelter for the birds.
All aviaries have roofs ... Oregon gets a lot of rain.

A final note. You can build aviaries with flights that have wire tops on a portion of them, with enclosed buildings they can fly into. The only problem is that a neighbor's cat may decide to sit on the wire and torment your birds. Or, hawks may fly at them. Although both predators may still be a challenge, a roof is better protection than just wire.

The best protection, of course, is a full indoor enclosure. Then all you'll have to deal with is setting traps for rodents. It's very difficult to build something so tight as to keep them out, but not impossible.

Hope this was helpful, or at least interesting.

If you are in the Eugene, Oregon area and interested in acquiring almost any variety of small exotic bird, Anderson's Aviaries is fun to visit. You can contact them by phone at: 541-729-2740.

Peace & Blessings.

A New Song in the House - Gouldian Finches

2012-01-04T16:44:00.000-08:00

Our new Lady Gouldian finches.
Young and not fully colored yet.

We visited another bird breeder yesterday, and spent over 8 hours in the car, so we are tired today.

However, it was a beautiful drive and we got to visit relatives on the trip too.

This breeder keeps a variety of birds and she bought three pairs of Rosy Bourkes from us. We also traded a fourth pair of Bourkes for a pair of her Lady Gouldian finches.

I've raised many varieties of finches, but never owned Gouldians before. So, these sweet, little birds and their gentle tweet, tweet, tweets are filling my house with a new bird song. Gentle, quiet and lyrical.

A mature male Gouldian, possibly the father of one of them.

These two youngsters seem very self-confident and unafraid. They are also constantly on the move. Very different from my more sedate Bourkes.

Young male Gouldian.

Young Gouldian. A hen, we hope.

I took many photos of her aviaries, both indoors and out. An upcoming post will have them, and we'll discuss aviaries and cages.

Peace & Blessings.

Program Progress of Partial Hand Feeding Coupled With Parent Feeding

2011-12-29T17:24:00.000-08:00

Fuchsia and Flame's two youngest.

I blame it on the holidays … smile. I’ve not been hand feeding these baby Bourkes as often as proposed.

When you’re feeding babies 100% of the time you can’t be inattentive. When the parent birds are also responsible for feeding their young, it’s easy to put it off and let them take care of it.

Of the six baby birds that I expected to hand feed twice a day, but not take over the entire feeding process, I’m now down to feeding two.

Rosie’s babies are older than Fuchsia’s. Rosie’s oldest refused to eat from an eyedropper and his sibling ate only a little. It was all too easy to choose to give up and quit feeding those two.

Fuchsia has four in this clutch. Although younger than Rosie’s, her two oldest weren’t happy about being offered an eyedropper either. I’m certain that if taken away from their parents, when hungry they’d eat the Exact Hand Feeding Formula with gusto. But, they weren’t hungry and resisted.

Baby in the butter dish is an older sibling.

The two youngest, however, have been more willing to eat it. One seems to particularly like it. I expect the four oldest baby Bourkes to be tamer because they’ve been handled a lot, but not as tame as the two youngest. I’m hopeful that, as adults, these two youngsters will be just as tame as those that were hand fed exclusively for the remaining few weeks before weaning.

The tiny white-faced baby with red eyes I may keep and pair with another white-faced bird. As I’ve said before, my goal is to down-size my flock until there are only very tame birds left. Not, that the others aren’t very friendly … they are. All will come to the cage bars and talk to me. They aren’t frightened and like attention.

But, I’m spoiled. I enjoy having birds fly to me and nibble my cheek, eat out of my hand—although several do that anyway who weren’t hand fed. In fact, two parent fed males are very tame and will fly to me. If you take the time to work with them, they tame down. My problem is having the time to spend on so many of them. However, Pretty Boy, paired with Rosie, is tame and he was not hand fed. The fact that she flies to me encourages him to do the same.

The larger Rosy Bourke youngster is a better eater than
the small white-faced little guy.

Speaking of Rosie, thankfully her last baby has left the nest box. She’s been asking to breed again! No, no … four clutches would seriously deplete her energy. Her mate’s too for that matter. Raising babies is intensive, even if the food is supplied to them. By removing the nest box, Pretty Boy is refusing to take her up on her offers, thank goodness.

Fuchsia, too, is eager to breed again. Frown. I’ve considered removing the nest box and feeding the last two babies exclusively. Do I want that much work? Hmmm…maybe not. It won’t be long before they leave the nest box too.

All have silver bands with EGL and year on them. Also OR for Oregon.
They each have colored bands to indicate who they are related to.
Fuchsia's young have a two-color pink and blue band shown here.

I love my birds and I love hand feeding babies. However, I have overdue deadlines. I’m editing “Martyr” for E.G. Lewis and trying to edit my own book, “Cast Me Not Away.” Both are past their deadlines, and I hope they will be out soon. Have to knuckle down.

Peace & Blessings

BABY BOURKE PARAKEETS, TAMING AND FEEDING

2011-12-23T17:22:00.000-08:00

Hello All,

These are about the best age to begin hand feeding.
Both are Rosies, but one has pink eyes.

I can't believe I haven't posted in over a week. This must be a record for me, but 'Tis the Season... Busy, busy, busy. Aren't we all?

Because we've been in and out of the house so much, and home so much less, I've started a new procedure for hand feeding baby birds. This is one that is easier, takes less time, and I hope will make them just as tame.

These newly hatched babies can be hand fed, but at
this young it's more work and more risky. If your
parents are good ones, then leave them there for
the first two or three weeks.

I've been hand feeding Fuchsia's babies about twice a day, once in the morning and again before we go to bed. Of course, this isn't often enough for baby birds. So, after I offer them Exact Handfeeding Formula they go back into the nest box where their parents can also feed them.

They don't have to have me feed them at all, but in doing so they get very used to being handled and begin to trust people. By only feeding them occasionally, they aren't reliant upon me for their food and don't eat as much as they would if totally hand fed. However, my hope is that they will still become as tame as my other hand fed birds.

This mixed clutch are of different ages, but all fine for
hand feeding. Notice the pine shavings in bottom of
cardboard box with a paper towel over them.
The towel is changed at each feeding, and top of
box is folded shut, keeping them warmer in a
dark, safe place similar to their nest box.

This is a test ... if it works, it will make hand feeding much easier in the future when the goal is only to make them very tame. Only rarely have I had to hand feed because of problem parents.

Young Bourkes are easy to tame if they're handled frequently. However,I'm not able to devote enough time to taming this many once they are weaned, out of the nest, and flying on their own. By hand feeding them as nestlings, they become tame and stay that way.

Peace & Blessings. Have a wonderful,

MERRY CHRISTMAS,

May God Bless You, your loved ones and all your pets.

Raising Bourkes, a Question from Sarah

2011-12-09T16:55:00.000-08:00

Sarah writes: "Hi - I have just purchased 2, 5ish week old bourkes to finish hand raising (they're the blue mutation and I couldn't let it pass!!). I have been breeding budgies for 8 years but I have never hand raised a bird. Have read your blog and thank you so much I love it! I was wondering if you have pictures of your birds you could send me so I can see how old mine actually are. They are developing their flight feathers and their main tail feather is about 1.5 inches long. If they were budgies, I'd say they were about 3 weeks old, but I have read that bourkes develop much slower."

At 17 and 19 days old, good ages for hand feeding.

ANSWER: Optimum time to hand feed is said to be at three weeks of age, but that's subjective. I've had to feed some from the first day they hatched and they did okay. Parents are the best at feeding, especially while they are tiny little guys. My preference is to wait until their feathers just begin to start emerging. Once they are fully feathered, they may resist being hand fed and it can be harder to get them started.

Same two youngsters. I intend to begin hand feeding
them in two days, as the next two days are very busy
and hand feeding requires a big time commitment.

Fuchsia's babies. Oldest is two weeks
(14 days old). Youngest is one week old.

I haven't raised budgies for a while, but it never seemed to me that they grew any faster than Bourkes. I assume they take about the same amount of time to grow, but I've never put it to any test. If there is a difference, it's slight. Egg incubation time is the same, so growth probably would be too.

I've asked Sarah to send us photos of her blue Bourkes. I would love to see them. Our Normals have blue rumps, and a few of our Rosies do too, but not an unusual amount of blue on any of them.

Fascinated by the idea of a blue Bourke, I found this site: http://www.bourkes-parakeet.nl/pg/casestudy-blue.html It gives some insight into the "blue factor" which apparently is a mutation in Bourkes.

One week old baby in my hand has pink eyes.
Fuchsia was hand fed and is very tame.
She doesn't worry about me handling her
babies. This is her third clutch so she's very
confident and trusting.

May all your eggs hatch and all your birds sing beautifully.

Peace & Blessings.

Avian Connection and eBay ads are up.

2011-12-09T12:28:00.000-08:00

As an FYI, I posted an ad on eBay's classified ads, Kijji, and also on Avian Biotech.
You can post there too. Here are their links: Kijji for eBay Classifieds Avian Biotech.com

Best of Luck. Contact me for information about my birds at rosie.birds@gmail.com

Peace & Blessings.

Lutino Bourke Parakeets ... On a Happy Note.

2011-12-04T10:41:00.000-08:00

These beautiful photos were contributed by Jill Warnick.

Thank you, Jill.

The parents of this clutch of four babies are a Rosy Bourke hen and a lovely Lutino father who looks like three of these...

Because color is sex-linked in Bourke parakeets, I'd guess the normal coloration will be a male through the hen and the lutino's will be females from their father. However, admittedly I've never raised lutino's and haven't investigated their genetics.

With a mixed pair of one rosy and one normal, it has always held true that hens looked like their father and cocks looked like their mother.

An exception to this was a normal pair I owned who threw rosy hens. This was because the normal male's father was a rosy, making him a split (half & half), or heterozygous for color. I'm an amateur at bird genetics, but am fascinated by it. Smile.

Have you seen the completely red African Gray parrot? He's amazing. Here is a link to my post on it.

World's first red African Gray

Check the Archives for other informational posts that might be of interest.

Egg Hatching Update to Previous Post

2011-12-04T10:00:00.000-08:00

In spite of his mother's assistance,
this baby didn't survive.
His four older siblings did.

Fuchsia's fifth egg didn't quite make it.

As you can see from this photo, the hen attempted to help this one out of the egg, but too late, I think. Yesterday only his beak and cere were showing through a small hole. This morning, it was as you see it.

Fuchsia had pushed the dead baby-in-egg out in front of her, making it easy for me to remove it from the nest. Her other four babies were huddled under her. She made no protest.

Judging from other egg shells with "serrated" edges, I believe she may have helped some of them out of their shells too.

Sadly, this baby would have had pink eyes. Happily, there is still one other baby in the nest with pink eyes. My husband believes the birds with these light colored eyes are genetically not as strong as the others. I hope he's wrong. We have four from earlier clutches who appear strong. One is out of Rhett & Cherry, two from Rosie and Pretty Boy and one from Fuchsia and Flame plus the one still in the nest.

Same baby removed from shell.
His neck looks odd to me.
Perhaps a reason for his demise?
Or, the dark belly?

After removing the egg/baby, I put warm water around the shell and removed the embryo. I didn't expect it to revive, but gave it a shot anyway.

One sign of a truly dead bird is if its eyes are sunken. These partially were. I was certain it was dead, but still warmed it and watched it before discarding it. Even if I'd intervened early yesterday, I doubt he'd have survived. If he couldn't get out of the shell, then there was probably something else wrong with him. Sad, but Fuchsia has four others! ;-)

Eyes are slightly sunken. They would have been pink,
not dark like most Bourke parakeets.

Question for my Reader/Breeders...Smile.

2011-12-03T14:11:00.000-08:00

Fuchsia, 12/03/11. Four babies and an egg hidden under her.

Hello All,

This morning I checked Fuchsia's nest box while she was out. Her last egg, the 5th, had a small hole in it and I could see the beak and cere (nostril) of the baby inside. He was moving.

Four hours later, I checked again. The egg looks the same and the baby wasn't moving. My hubby thinks he's only resting. Hope that's true. I realize hatching is a long, labor intensive undertaking, but no change after four hours?

I read a post once from someone who said she helps her cockatiels out of their egg shell. But, I've also read that you should never do that, and so far I never have.

I lifted the egg while Fuchsia was out of the nest and was so tempted to chip away a tiny piece of shell, but didn't. She's been such a wonderful mother. Wouldn't she help if it's needed?

So far, she has four healthy babies and one has pink eyes. I'm hoping this last baby will too.

Fuchsia returned to the nest to immediately cover her last egg and the
smallest of her four youngsters. She's very tame and likes getting
extra attention, even while she's caring for eggs or baby birds.
She's my favorite at the moment.

Any suggestions on how long to leave the egg alone before intervening? I hope I haven't already waited too long. I'm erring on the side of caution and leaving Fuchsia to decide if her last offspring needs assistance.

Any thoughts? Thanks!

ROSY BOURKE PARAKEET BABIES, December 2, 2011

2011-12-02T12:12:00.000-08:00

Rosie had four eggs. Three hatched, but
only these two survived. White circle
around babies are their own droppings.

Rosie and Pretty Boy's two youngsters are banded. She lost one baby for some reason. It was the only one we lost this year and survived for just a day.

Fuchsia is covering four babies and an egg.
Dark area in corner are her own droppings.

Fuchsia and Flame have four babies in the nest, newly hatched.

One egg remains. The third in this clutch has pink eyes, smile.

Photo by Joyce Sunseri

I find it interesting how various birds of the same variety behave in different ways. In my countless Bourke pairs, I've only had one male who made a habit of venturing into the nestbox wtih his mate. All the others remained outside once she took up residency. They'd feed her either at the entrance, or when she came out, but they didn't venture inside.

This photo was sent from a reader of this blog. Obviously, her pair share the box. Aren't they sweet? This clutch is from October. Thank you for sending us photos, Joyce.

Below are photos of babies waiting to be sold. Our local pet shop will take some, but not all of them. I've reduced the price to $50 each. Some are hand fed ... all are used to human activities going on around them. Most males and females can be identified by their behavior. Also, males tend to have lighter colored faces than the hens. All are sweet-natured.

Five or six birds in one cage are too many. An aviary is better.
However, these youngsters are housed here only temporarily.

The young birds in this cage regularly come out and fly around the
living room and kitchen. They are very tame youngsters that let
me return them to their home cage when I want them to go back in.

View from above of Newly weaned babies. They have
extra food containers and extra water to be certain
they have no difficulty finding what they need.

Front view of newly weaned babies.

Babies from a previous clutch. Enjoying sunshine.

For more information, write to: rosie.birds@gmail.com

PEACE & BLESSINGS.

Rosy Bourke Hens in nests, November, 2011

2011-11-24T21:27:00.000-08:00

Photo taken Nov. 18 of Rosie on four eggs.

Rosie laid four eggs. The first baby to hatch lived for less than a day. Not sure why, but its belly was very dark, not a good sign. It had a small amount of food in its crop. It was laying in front of Rosie, not under her. She probably realized it had died.

Rosie's two babies, and an egg that won't hatch.
Photo taken Nov. 23, 2011

The next day, she hatched another egg and two days later another. The last, and fourth egg, appears to be fertile, but isn't likely to hatch. Notice the dark color at one end and the big band of white on the shell in the photo. A fully mature chick should fill the entire egg. I think it died sometime before it completed its growth in the shell.

It's a mystery to me though, why a chick can have the strength to get out of the shell and then die anyway. Did it have a genetic defect and its mother helped it get out of the shell? Yet, it wasn't able to survive despite her assistance?

The other two appear healthy. Both have dark eyes.

Fuchsia sitting on five eggs. Photo from Nov. 18.

Fuchsia has laid five eggs, just as she did twice before. They are due to hatch within the next few days.

When Rosie's babies are three weeks old, I will pull them to hand feed. Fuchsia's will join Rosie's and be hand fed too. Since it is a third clutch this year for both hens, they will benefit from the rest.

I hope one of Fuchsia's will have pink eyes and be a hen ... we shall see.

Not a flattering picture of my favorite bird.
I love this white-faced, pink-eyed Bourke. I suppose
he is an opaline, fallow... Much prettier than the photo.

This lovely white-faced Bourke was hatched this summer from Rhett and Cherry. He was hand fed, and my sweetest bird. He's also the reason I hope Fuchsia and Flame produce another white-faced, pink-eyed hen as a mate for him. That's the real reason I let both Rosie and Fuchsia have third clutches this year, in the hope for a hen who looks like him. Rosie produced one in her first clutch and another in her second, but they aren't hand fed. Even though Rosie didn't have one in this third clutch, I'll hand feed them anyway.

Still have hopes that Fuchsia will hatch a pink-eyed baby over the next few days. If she doesn't, I'll have to spend more time hand taming one of Rosie's from her earlier clutches, however, I'm not certain of their sex yet.

May all your bird adventures be happy ones.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Peace & Blessings.

CATS and HUMMINGBIRDS, Hummer Update

2011-11-17T10:26:00.000-08:00

Admittedly, this photo is borrowed
from Google. Aren't they pretty?

Yesterday as I replaced a refilled hummingbird feeder, a little Anna's hen lit on it and stared at me. Instead of eating, she seemed to want to communicate something. I'm convinced it's the little hen we rescued last summer, unafraid and grateful.

This morning, as I looked out our front door (we have a window in it), there was a gray tabby cat at the top of the steps leading onto our deck. More spotted than striped, he is quite a regal looking fellow.

I thought he was begging for food, but later decided he'd been drawn there by the many buzzing hummingbirds. I've seen this cat before. He's one of the strays who sadly lives in the woods. We've caught many of them in our "Have-a-Heart" traps. If they've been sick or injured, we've healed them before moving them to new homes or a shelter. Don't want them catching birds and chipmunks to survive.

He has evaded capture, but this morning he came back for a bowl of canned Friskies mixed grill. He left the Purina cat chow untouched. With a full stomach, maybe he will be less inclined to hunt. If I can win his confidence, perhaps we can catch him and relocate him to a shelter or, better yet, a loving home.

Mei-Ling considers Bourkes just other family members.
Boring, actually. To avoid being scolded,
she will seldom even look at them.

Interestingly, for the first time in her 8 years of life, my black Mei-Ling hissed. I've never heard her do that before. I lifted her up to look out the window at him as he ate, and she let us both know in no uncertain terms that she did not welcome him.

Other times I've brought stray females or kittens indoors, she never hissed at them.

Patches likes to watch the birds sometimes, but she never
threatens them. Admonished to keep her distance,
this is as close as she ever gets, and then only rarely.

In fact, our tiny calico is her best friend and she was a stray we decided to keep. That was because the first day I brought Patches home she walked up to our 75 lb. Malamutt (malamute and lab) and rubbed up against him, purring. He likes cats and apparently this is one dog she decided she should befriend immediately.

Our affectionate Patches is funny. This tiny calico will walk right under the dog, or over him, without any hesitation.

When I started this post, I wanted to comment on the hummingbirds. Our cats understand, "NO BIRDS!" It helps that they live with over 20 parakeets ... 31 at present, counting babies for sale. When they leave the house they are admonished with that command. We see them with mice, voles and moles, but not birds, even with all our feeders.

Wild or stray cats are another matter, however. Cats are meant to be domestic lap pets, not wild. People who release them into forests are not doing them or the wildlife any favors. It's sad. Animals deserve our respect and care, not to be mistreated or abandoned. I'd like to know who is responsible for the lonely cats that have, or are, prowling our woods.

Peace & Blessings

Breeding Bourkes

2011-11-14T14:06:00.000-08:00

Bourke Parakeets, unlike Splendids and some others, are eager to raise a second and third clutch of baby birds. Hens will return to the nest very quickly.

The photos here are of Fuchsia and the youngest of three babies in her second clutch. The oldest two have left the nest, but the last youngster is still lingering. If you look closely, she has a new egg under her.

Fuchsia with her youngest baby and a new egg.

She and Flame have been mating in front of the kids. He performs his duty with Mom, then hops off and goes to feed one of their recently fledged offspring. He's a busy guy.

Move over youngster, Mama's ready to start another clutch.

I decided to allow two young Bourke pairs to have a third clutch this year. However, it isn't wise to give your birds an opportunity for more than three clutches a year. In fact, restricting them to two clutches a year is less physically stressful, especially on older birds.

Baby Bourke Parakeets are fuzzy,
unlike baby Budgerigars (budgies).

Removing nest boxes will usually discourage them from trying to raise more young. I've found that some of my hens ask to mate even when a nest box isn't present.

However, their mates seem to ignore the "come hither" behavior. In Bourkes, and most parakeets, it is the father who identifies and checks out a nesting location prior to his potential mate occupying it. If there isn't a suitable place for her to raise their young, he typically won't mate.

One pair, Bonnie & Clyde, had their nest box removed after one clutch this year. They have made no attempts to mate without a nest box present.

That said, one year a hen did lay an egg in her feed cup. It was February, but she had not had a clutch for about a year. I put up a nest box for her and put the egg in it. She immediately went in and brooded the egg and laid others. Whether that egg was fertile or not, I'm not sure. She did raise some from that clutch.

Birds are individuals. Although there are typical behaviors, they can deviate from the norm.

One of these days, I intend to write something about avian genetics, particularly in Bourkes and Splendids. I'm not an expert, but I've learned a lot from reading and watching my birds' production. And, especially from the generous comments and information I've received from many of you.

Peace & Blessings.

Added Note: Knowing that Fuchsia wanted to start another clutch, I took this baby out of the box, scraped off any soil and added new pine shavings. Then put him back to allow him to leave when he was ready. I didn't want a new clutch to start out in a dirty box.

USA Veteran's Day, Nov. 11

2011-11-11T15:58:00.000-08:00

In Memory of all our brave men and women in uniform.

God Bless them all, past and present.

Splendid Comments on Bourkes and Scarlet-Chested Parakeets

2011-11-03T11:51:00.000-07:00

I’ve been asked if Splendids, also known as Scarlet-Chested Parakeets, are difficult to keep.

I didn't want to part with this little guy, but his new
owner sent me this photo of him. He's a sweetheart.

I suppose that every breeder’s experience is diverse. I’ve raised a few Splendids over the years, but have never had the success with them that I’ve had with Bourkes. However, I know a breeder in California who has trouble raising Bourkes, but no difficulty with Splendids.

There is a difference in how we raise our birds though. Mine are indoors, hers are not.

Face color isn't accurate. Face is a dark cobalt blue.
It's difficult to photograph, the flash reflects off it.

Perhaps that might explain the variation of success between the two species.

All my birds live in individual cages inside my house and the temperature fluctuates little all year long. Some come out to fly around, but others don’t. Her birds all live in roomy outdoor aviaries. California is mostly a desert climate, warm during the day although winter nights can become chilly. Frost is rare there, whereas, where I live in Southern Oregon it goes into the low 40’s in the winter. Although unusual, it can even go below freezing. Australian birds might not fare well in outdoor aviaries through winters here.

Splendids (Scarlet-Chested Parakeets) are curious
and friendly.

I’ve found that Splendids seem to be more prone to egg binding than Bourkes are. All my Splendid hens have laid larger eggs than the Bourkes. This seems strange since the Splendids are slightly smaller than Bourkes. However, it might account for their propensity toward egg binding. Exercise flights in aviaries could be an advantage for Splendids by helping to keep them fit.

A Male Rosy Bourke

As an indoor pet, Splendids seem to fare very well. They are active little clowns and fun to own. They will chew up paper and like to put anything and everything into their water. Drinking water should be freshened often … preferably more than just once a day. They enjoy bathes, so cups may get emptied. It’s wise to also have another source of water, like a water tube dispenser.

Bourkes are quieter by nature than Splendids, and easier to keep in that regard. They have lovely lyrical songs that aren’t loud like Budgerigars or other birds. I’ve never identified any mimicking by Splendids or Bourkes like Budgies do. However, both will “talk” to you in their own lingo. They like attention from their owners, even if they aren’t finger tamed.

A Normal Bourke Male

Male Bourkes are especially good at beautifully singing, and they naturally weave in wolf whistles. What is a wolf whistle? Here’s a sample: http://audiojungle.net/item/wolf-whistle/136

Peace & Blessings.

Bourkes for Sale on East and West Coasts - Enjoy a Video

2011-10-30T09:55:00.000-07:00

Hello All,
Currently, we have lots of Rosy Bourke babies hatched recently and some still in their nest box. All are used to people, some are hand fed and very tame.

Write to me for information at rosie.birds@gmail.com. We are located in Southern Oregon.

Also, Jill in the Boston, MA area shared a video of her baby Bourkes. All are Normals, but split. Their mother is a Rosy Bourke and the father is a beautiful Lutino.

Parents of the Normal babies in video. Father is a Lutino,
Mother is a Rosy Bourke. She is probably the daughter
of a Normal hen with a Rosy male.

Enjoy the video of Jill's baby Bourkes. You can contact Jill at kitty6694@aol.com

CLICK BELOW to Watch and Enjoy

VIDEO of Normal Baby Bourke Parakeets

Peace & Blessings,

Gail

NEST BOX CLEANING BETWEEN CLUTCHES

2011-10-27T15:14:00.000-07:00

Pretty Boy at left with his pink-eyed youngster on right.

I’ve written about cleaning and replacing nest boxes before breeding season. However, I haven’t written about keeping them clean between clutches.

Most of my hens are meticulously clean while on eggs. They leave the box to defecate. However, after babies hatch and begin to grow, nest boxes start to become soiled. Two babies in a nest aren’t bad, but four can make the boxes pretty dirty.

When that happens, I temporarily remove the half-grown baby Bourkes, and place them in a safe, confined place. A large butter tub lined with a paper towel works perfectly for this. Old pine shavings are removed and fresh ones added. I press them down before returning the babies to their box.

Notice how dirty and crusty the pine shavings have gotten.
Three babies beginning to feather, but not ready to leave box.

My Bourkes live indoors and are very familiar with all of us, so cleaning out boxes with babies still in them is not a problem. If you have birds in an aviary, and they aren’t used to you coming and going, consider whether removing the youngsters is wise or not. I doubt a Bourke would ever abandon their nest because of a short-term cleaning, but there is a slight risk with birds that aren’t used to people.

Although I don’t always clean out boxes that have babies in them … unless they’re very dirty … between clutches, I always do. New babies are better off in a clean box. The photos with this post are of Rosie’s box. Currently, her second clutch of three is still in the cage with her and her mate. They’re being parent fed and learning to eat on their own, but not ready to leave home yet.

A photo of old shavings completely turned over by hen.
Loose and no longer crusty, but gray after previous use.

Rosie, on the other hand, is more than ready to start a new clutch. I had planned to remove her nest box, but changed my mind. These pictures illustrate how dirty a box can get, and how she decided to make it useful again. She turned over all the shavings to make the box ready for another clutch. She worked hard to make the formerly crusty, dirty box shavings soft and pliable, albeit old and gray.

Nevertheless, I felt that clean pine shavings are preferable. I set an empty 40 lb. dog food bag on a chair where it was easy to reach and, using a metal ladle, scooped shavings into it. With a sharp knife, I scraped hardened droppings and food off the sides of the box. Then, I vacuumed the interior.

An empty pill bottle blocks entry to nest box.

It might be advisable to remove the boxes to vacuum them. However, my birds are used to hearing the vacuum cleaner. It’s not very noisy as it’s an in-home vac with the motor in the basement. What they hear is loud air flow.

While I cleaned the box Rosie stayed away. She seemed to know what was going on. I did this between clutch one and two. However, before vacuuming, I decided to block the entry hole to be safe. I used an empty pill bottle that fit. Easy to put in and take back out.

Investigating her box after it has been cleaned out.
Windex was used on the sides after scraping off dry food & dirt.
Then the box was aired out. It will be throughlyscrubbed
before it goes back up for use next year.

Later, satisfied with her box, she's fluffed
(wings out) and ready to lay an egg.

With about an inch of clean pine shavings in the bottom, I packed them down for her. As soon as the pill bottle went away, it didn’t take her long to investigate. She has already formed a “bowl” in the center. She is fluffed and ready to lay an egg, which I expect any day now.

Meanwhile, she and her mate, Pretty Boy, are still doing the deed. I expect all her eggs to be fertile. Smile.

Link to Previous Post on Nest Box Cleaning

Pretty Boy on bowl. His three youngsters in background.
Rosie is out of sight in the nest box.

Peace & Blessings.

Banding The Youngest Bourke

2011-10-23T16:42:00.000-07:00

Flame and Fuchsia's current three baby Bourkes.

As mentioned previously, we decided to give the birds nest boxes late this year. Hence, they started laying later and we still have baby birds.

Both Rosie and Fuchsia are still feeding their last three babies each from their second clutches. I've not let any other birds have a third clutch this year, and only allowed Bonnie and Clyde one clutch. Rhett and Cherry, our oldest pair, were the first to reproduce and I removed their nest box after two clutches. They were willing to have a third.

About to band this year's youngest so far, Baby #24.
Silver band for us is EGL. Year is 11, OR for Oregon.
Colored bands indicate parentage.

Rosie and her mate, Pretty Boy, have recently been mating repeatedly. They began as soon as their three had left the nest box. In fact, I think Rosie chased the youngest out. All three still require parent feeding. Yet, that hasn't stopped their parents from wanting to start another clutch. Pretty Boy is taking over most of the feeding. However, soon the babies will adequately feed themselves.

It's interesting what Rosie has done to their nest box. Normally, I clean the boxes before the birds go back for another clutch, and replace the pine shavings with fresh.

I didn't plan to allow Rosie a third clutch. I noticed her in the box before it was removed, and looked inside. She's completely turned over all the pine shavings that were stuck together from baby bird droppings. Although not fresh and clean like it would be after I worked on it, she's done a pretty fair job of cleaning things up and tossing the shavings so that they are soft again. It must have taken a lot of work.

This is as large as a foot can be for "budgie" bands. Bigger
and it wouldn't slip on. I waited a day or two longer than
necessary. Too soon, however, and they slip off in the nest.

Do I want to make Rosie lay eggs on the floor, or in a feed cup, because there is no nest box? I don't think so. I'll clean the box for her, give her fresh pine shavings and allow her that third clutch. She's young and healthy, as well as eager.

Then, there is Fuchsia. She and Flame are the parents of one of the sweetest birds I've ever owned, the one I lost last Monday. Would they produce another pink-eyed baby in a third clutch? One could hope they might. Currently, their three have dark eyes. They're younger than Rosie's. I am very tempted to allow them a third clutch and hope for another like the one that's gone.

In the past, there have been a couple of times when I didn't get a box cleaned out fast enough and there was already an egg in the used box. I temporarily removed the egg, quickly cleaned the box, added new pine shavings forming a "bowl" in the area I knew the hen preferred, and put the egg in it. Both hens accepted this and continued to lay other eggs, even hatching the one that was temporarily moved and replaced.

Although not finger tamed, Rhett's first hen, Scarlett, even accepted two babies and raised them after their own mothers rejected them. I think the other hens were restricting the size of their brood, whereas Scarlett's eggs (with the exception of one) were always infertile. Yet, she wanted to be a mother.

She and Rhett fostered several offspring from adopted eggs. That's not unusual. But what is uncommon is that Scarlett accepted two newly hatched baby birds at different times and raised them. She was a remarkable little Bourke hen and very sweet. She was never extremely hearty though and has since passed away. Rhett, on the other hand, is still with us. Rhett and Scarlett were my very first pair of Bourkes.

My second pair of Bourkes were Bing (a beautiful singer) and Cherry. They weren't ideally matched and eventually I was able to give Bing another mate. He and a Normal, Stella, produced many beautiful offspring before they passed on. I've no idea how old they were when purchased, nor how old Cherry is either. When Scarlett died, Cherry went to Rhett and the rest is history. Over the years, they've produced and produced ... although she's not the sweetheart that Scarlett was and bosses Rhett terribly. Fortunately, their offspring all seem to inherit his exceptional disposition.

Year 2011 Baby #24 is banded. Blue & Red band will
always indicate his/her parents are Flame and Fuchsia.

Peace & Blessings

A Sad Post... On Loss & Sorrow

2011-10-21T11:51:00.000-07:00

Sweet Primrose
A Heavenly Flyer.

I’ve written and rewritten this post in my mind over and over. It must be cathartic to do so. This was written Tuesday, Oct. 18, although not posted immediately. I considered it first, but decided to share it as we all face disappointments in life.

***

If I could wipe yesterday from my life, I would. Don’t we all have days we wish had never happened? It began with a phone call while I was still in the shower. My husband answered only to hear that a relative in another time zone had died. We grieved for that family, though we didn’t know her. She was only 32.

We’d also learned a day ago that our son-in-law lost his job after 15 years with the company. Perhaps it is another sign of our times.

Later, we opened the mail to find a bill we'd disputed had been turned over to a collection agency. We’ve already wasted so much time trying to rectify this and now have to start all over again. It’s not a large bill, but it's one we don’t owe. The time and trouble over it have exceeded its worth.

Friend of Primrose.
He misses her.

So, when the accident happened yesterday, perhaps my mind wasn’t where it should have been. But that’s an excuse…a justification.

In previous posts I’ve talked about potential hazards to birds and many things to avoid. I believed I was the epitome of safety and care for my birds. I’ve lost more than a few feathered friends, sure. But, the losses weren’t unusual and I was able to deal with them as timely, unpredictable or unavoidable. Each occurrence was sad, but nature can sometimes be brutal.

This one was different. I spent most of yesterday weeping and had difficulty sleeping last night.

I hesitate to admit to this error. I’m ashamed, hurt, guilty and upset with myself. Only time will help erase the sense of loss. My husband tells me to quit beating up on myself, but what else can I do?

Others have faced far worse loss, but that thought isn’t consoling. Four decades ago I lost an infant daughter to SIDS. A bird isn’t a child, but this hurts in a similar way. Both seem so senseless. There have been other losses, too. Cats, dogs, birds, relatives…somehow we cope. And, I will cope with this, but it is still fresh. Perhaps I’m supposed to learn sympathy and understanding for those who have also accidentally killed a pet with a car, a recliner, a garage door… It happens, and I’m certainly not one to judge. Especially not now.

I let all my tame young birds out to fly around yesterday morning, as usual. They bring such joy and I wish I could focus on that joy at this moment. My favorite, a young pink-eyed hen I’d hand fed and decided to keep, is the one I lost.

She had also formed a special bond with her look-alike. The two were always together, side-by-side at night, flying together when outside their cage, and often crowded together on my left shoulder, nibbling at my cheek.

She spent a lot of time on the floor, and I knew that was something to be careful of. I usually followed her with my eyes, reminding the dog to lay still when she approached him and climbed up on his leg. To her, all the pets were just another family member. She was usually followed around by her friend, so I decided to keep him too, and allow them to become a pair as they seemed to want to be. They looked just alike, although he was slightly larger and they each had a different colored band identifying their parents.

It was just me and the birds in the kitchen and living room. The cats and dog were outside. The doors to the other rooms were closed. No dangerous hot lights, no potential hazards. Window blinds down, so an inexperienced bird wouldn’t fly into a window. All seemed safe.

I named her Primrose, but have yet to name her best friend. As I leaned over the kitchen counter feeding Pipsqueek, who can’t totally feed herself, there was a ruckus in the cages behind me. I thought a bird had fallen behind the cages and upset the young birds in those cages. I turned quickly to go retrieve that bird who, it turns out, somehow found its own way to freedom.

In turning so quickly, I felt something under my foot. In a flash so many things go through your mind. In that instant, I knew. I hoped beyond hope that what I’d stepped on was the dog’s toy, or something else. But I knew that it couldn’t be, and small birds are so fragile.

I picked up her bleeding body and cried, “No, no, no! Please God, no!” But the answer was not what I wanted. She never made a sound, but gently died in my hands.

My husband came rushing from another room, and held me as I wept hysterically. I’d done it. Me. How could I have been so careless? How? How? How?

He took my bloody shirt and cleaned it for me, while I stroked the lifeless body of a bird who’d been so beautiful and sweet. The little bird who’d nibbled at my cheek, and was always so eager and loving.

Why was she on the floor at my feet when the room is wide and big with so many other places for her to have been? She was at my feet because she wanted me to pick her up and put her on my shoulder as I'd done countless times before. This time I didn’t realize she was there and reacted to the noise behind me without thinking.

Unlike all the other birds, she found it difficult to fly higher than my waist. She was getting stronger and better at flying and I’m sure she’d have caught up with the others in time. But, she never feared anything, and I was always ready to scoop her up.

Why wasn't I watching out for her? I have no answers, only sorrow. We buried her yesterday afternoon near others we’ve lost, although not in such a horrific way.

This morning her friend flew around the house appearing to look for her. I gave him lots of attention. He, too, nibbled on me and is very sweet. I’ve told him over and over how sorry I am.

Primrose was the daughter of Flame and Fuchsia. They currently have three babies in their second clutch, but none have pink eyes and a white face like Primrose.

Rosie and Pretty Boy also have three babies in their second clutch. Theirs are cousins of Primrose and one does have a white head and pink eyes. That baby isn’t hand fed, but I took it out of the nest and held it today.

Rosie and Pretty Boy's baby from 2nd clutch.

The bird who loved Primrose showed some interest in this baby. It’s fully feathered and almost ready to leave the nest. The oldest sibling has been out of the nest box for a week and the second left their nest box today.

What is it that makes birds who look alike be drawn to one another? They don’t have a mirror to tell them what they, themselves, look like. But, Primrose and my other pink-eyed baby, were drawn to each other even though other young birds in the cage were not related to them either.

Part of my pain, is knowing her future mate is robbed of the one he chose to love.

Same baby from Rosie and Pretty Boy.
Hasn't left the nest box yet, will soon.

I ask myself over and over why I spent weeks successfully rehabbing a wild hummingbird, only to lose my favorite Bourke? Why have I inconvenienced myself twice a day for more than a year by hand feeding Pipsqueek who is unable to adequately feed herself? Why do I continue to maintain and provide for another bird that is wild, unattractive and will never have any value? Why not lose any one of them instead?

I’ve prided myself on being soft-hearted and caring. Then this happens, and I feel like a horrible person. Unable to forgive myself.

"It was just an accident," my husband tells me over and over. But, I feel careless and stupid.

Raising birds can be fraught with disappointments … it goes with the territory. There are always losses in life. But, for whatever reasons some are harder to deal with than others. Hopefully the long-term joys outweigh the disappointments, and we will focus on the joys and release what causes us sorrow.

April Heather, sleeping.
She went to Heaven when 64 days old.

Normally, I'm an optimistic person, but it’s difficult right now. I loved that little bird. I pray that God makes space in Heaven for little birds who look like angels and love like them too. I hope she’s sitting on my baby daughter’s shoulder, tickling her cheek and making her laugh.

Food For New Bourke Parents, A Question & Answer

2011-10-10T11:19:00.000-07:00

This Spray Millet has been worked over by the birds.
Not all the seeds are there any longer.

Question: My Rosie Bourke just had a baby hatch, this is our first. Do I need to give her special food? Is there anything I can do or should do? She has 2 more eggs in there with her!

Answer: Your Bourkes can exist on seed alone, however, there are healthy things you can add. I provide Petamine Breeding Formula because it has healthy vitamins. They don't need a lot of it, just some each day. It's not a requirement, however. They also like fresh vegetables ... spinach, broccoli, kale, lettuce. Also cooked mixed vegetables, cooked peas, cooked corn, cooked carrots (or fresh shredded carrots). Mine enjoy an occasional piece of bread, especially with added seeds in or on it (like sunflower or sesame, etc.). Birds also enjoy rice.

A young Bourke eating Spray Millet. Parent birds below.

Spray millet is high in fat content and very good when birds are feeding their young. Parents typically lose weight during the weeks they're feeding babies, so spray millet is healthy then. The rest of the year, you want to only give it sparingly so they don't become obese ... that's not likely to happen when they're raising their families, however.

Again, you don't have to give them all (or any) of this ... but, a varied diet is healthy. Greens are especially good for Bourkes all year round.

Best of luck. If you can, send photos of your mother and babies. I'd love to see them.

Young Rosy Bourke Parakeets. Two with pink eyes.
For young birds Spray Millet is a good introduction to eating on their own.

Peace & Blessings.

HAND FED YOUNG BOURKE PARAKEETS

2011-10-07T14:31:00.000-07:00

Seven young Rosy Bourke Parakeets.

These youngsters are old enough now to eat on their own, but they still appreciate a treat now and then. It's also a way to encourage all of them to roost on me for a photo opportunity. Typically, when allowed out of their cage, they come and go on and off my shoulders.

One-year-old Pipsqueak being fed, with friends nearby.

I've mentioned Pipsqueak before. She's a one-year-old hen I took out of the nest last year to hand feed because she wasn't thriving. I later learned there was a reason for that. She is unable to eat properly, and Nature would have let her starve. I'm too much of a softy to let her die, so I feed her twice a day with Exact Hand Feeding formula and she does well with it.

These 2011 hand fed young birds are a real joy.

The other six youngsters I chose to hand feed this year are all eating very well on their own now. As mentioned earlier, I chose to feed two of Flame and Fuchsia's five babies because that's a lot for such a young pair to manage, especially since it was their very first clutch. I feared they might not cope with all of them, although now I think they probably would have.

The other four are the second clutch from my elderly pair, Rhett and Cherry. He was looking a little thin ... it's a lot of work raising baby birds. I didn't want to lose either of them from overwork, so I pulled their four too. I thought as long as I was feeding two, why not more. Actually, more is a lot more work.

Six young Rosy Bourkes with Pip.

All my hand fed birds consider the Exact Hand Feeding Formula to be quite a treat, even when it's no longer required. I enjoy sharing it with them when I feed Pip. Even the adult parents like it.

Those in the photo above are all 2011 youngsters, recently weaned. They are all so sweet. Wish I could keep them all, but that's not reasonable. If you live near Southern Oregon, or want to visit the beautiful south coast with all it's scenic wonders, send me an email. I will have young Bourkes for sale. rosie.birds@gmail.com

A close-up of one of my pale pink babies with pink eyes.

Peace & Blessings.

Young Rosy Bourkes, 2011

2011-10-04T12:40:00.000-07:00

Two 2011 youngsters.

Baby in front is from Flame & Fuchsia's first clutch. Pale, pink-eyed bird in back is from Rosie & Pretty Boy's first clutch.

Another view of Rosie's pale baby
from her first clutch.

Currently, Rosie is raising three more in her second clutch. One has pink eyes.

Fuchsia laid five eggs and two have hatched so far. The first has dark eyes. Haven't seen the second one yet, but an egg shell tells me the second in the clutch has hatched. Last time, in her very first clutch, all five survived and are thriving. Only one has pink eyes.

Bird on right is from Bonnie and Clyde. I've dubbed him,
"Sir Grayhead." Notice how the gray feathers go down into
his chest. They circle his head and back too. I've never had
one that looked like this. His father is a very deep rose and
some of his sons have also been (Pretty Boy, for one).
I think this bird is rather unusual and unique.

Aging Rhett and Cherry raised two clutches this year. They wanted a third, but I removed their nestbox. Also removed Bonnie and Clyde's nest box after one clutch. Both pairs would like to continue. However, we now have over 20 baby birds and will need to find buyers for most of them. So much for down-sizing. Smile.

All six who are hand fed are adorable. The two white-faced, pink-eyed babies have paired off and stay together all the time. They are not from the same clutch. One is out of Rhett and Cherry, the other from Flame and Fuchsia. I'm very tempted to allow them to be a pair, since they seem to want to be. However, they are closely related. One is an aunt (or uncle?) of the other.

My favorite hand fed babies from this year, 2011, above. These are a darker pink than Rosie's offspring. I'm tempted to keep these two who seem so fond of each other. Any name suggestions? I'm thinking about Primrose. We sold Rosebud, so we could use that pretty name again for one of these. Any thoughts?

Peace & Blessings!

Rosie Rosy Bourke and Her Baby Bourkes

2011-09-27T11:30:00.000-07:00

Rosie is eager to escape from her brood of three and take a bath.

Rosie, happy to grab a bath.

Rosie's mate, on my husband, wants to
participate but is hesitant.
Rosie never hesitates.

A Spa moment without the kids.
"Take me away."
Cool and refreshing.

She also appreciates help with feeding her babies since her mate, Pretty Boy, isn't keeping up with the feeding ritual. He's younger than she is. A little help from us is appreciated.

Rosie steps out of her nest box. She's eating the extra
Exact Handfeeding Formula I give to hand fed baby birds.
She was hand fed and is used to it. It's easier than getting "milk"
from her mate and feeding the kids. It's ready immediately
and she stuffs her little ones with it.
Pretty Boy hasn't been totally dependable.

When I hand feed the current six, I give some to Rosie too. She, in turn, feeds it to her three who are fat little rascals.

Rosie's three babies are growing. The oldest is much
bigger than the other two. The unhatched egg was
probably between them, meaning these two are 2 and 4
days younger than their older sibling.

Happy Bird Raising with Peace & Blessings.

Mites and an Update on Catherine's Splendid Question

2011-09-23T18:00:00.000-07:00

Catherine's Comment on the Previous Post:
"Since writing I'm pleased to say all three Splendids survived, even the smallest one we feared we would lose. They are all eating very well, guzzling food down like there is no tomorrow.

I have one other question. When looking the little ones over tonight I noticed these tiny insects falling off them, and when I squished them, they were bright red with blood. Are these mites or something else? And how would I get rid of them? My concern is using a spray on a chick so young.

Following the directions on "VITAFARM Avian Insect Liquidator"
rid us of mites in 2007 and we've never had them since.

The mother is also in a smaller cage, inside the house and nice and warm. She too us eating a lot better, although she still doesn't seem interested in her chicks. The vet has told us to watch her and if her wing doesn't improve, they've given us the details of an expert who lives an hour away.

You're website has been vastly helpful. I actually live in south Wales in the United Kingdom, but there's very little resources on Splendids, which is why you've been a God send. Thank you once again for everything."

My Response:
Thank you, I'm always grateful to know that my blog is helpful.

Your "bugs" sound like mites all right. They will sap a baby's strength. I discovered mites on my birds in 2007 and used the product shown here. I've never had them since. Birds in outdoor aviaries are more susceptible than those kept indoors, but it's possible to carry them inside on our clothing ... especially since many of us also maintain bird feeders outside for our wild feathered friends. It's a wise idea to always wash our hands when we come back indoors, particularly if we've been handling outdoor bird feeders and such.

The "Avian Insect Liquidator" shown here can be used on baby birds without harm, and I've done so. It is a concentrate and needs to be diluted. The best way to apply it is in a gentle mist. I made use of an eyeglass cleaner spray bottle that was empty and washed out. It gives a very fine mist and was very effective. Note that we marked the bottle "Mite Spray" so that it would never be confused with its original product. We also store it with our other bird products, away from "people" items.

We purchased this insecticide online from www.allbirdproducts.com
Their catalog has good advice, and I called them once and found them very helpful. They have a toll free number in the USA. Doubt it will work in another country, but it is (888) 588-3892. They are in Hemet, California and their number there is (951) 927-5349.

The address on my bottle for the product supplier is:
VITAFARM, 3 Bye Street, Wagga Wagga, NSW 2650 AUSTRALIA. Phone (02) 6925 6222; Fax (02) 6925 6333. This information is from my bottle purchased in 2007, so I hope it is still valid.

If the babies have mites, all the birds are likely to have them too.You definitely should get rid of these critters. Mist each and every one of your birds and as much of their cage or aviary as possible (but only after removing their food and water first). Also spray perches and inside and outside nest boxes. My catalog from "All Bird Products" gives detailed instructions and is reassuring about using it on baby birds. It's a lot less harmful than the mites or lice.

Best of luck.

Splendid Hand Feeding Question and Answer

2011-09-22T16:05:00.000-07:00

A female Scarlet-chested parakeet.

Question

Catherine writes: "I'm wondering if you can help me. Our female red chested parakeet (splendid) had her first clutch. Out of 6 eggs only 4 hatched. Sadly, the very smallest chick completely vanished. I could find no sign of her, not in the nest or on the floor. Now the hen has damaged her wing. We checked the chicks and yesterday their crops were still full, however this morning they were empty. So we put the nest box on the floor so the hen could get access to them easier. The hen took no notice.

When we went back late afternoon 2 chicks had clambered out of the nest and stood under their mother, but she did not feed them, just ignored them. The smallest chick was still in the nest, and when I pulled it out, I thought it was dead, but it was still breathing and after heating it up in my hands it started chirping. Since then I've taken them into the house to hand rear them. Reluctantly they are eating from a syringe. The vet has ordered us chick feed. We estimate the chicks to be 2 and a half weeks old. Can you give me advice on how often to feed, how I'd wean them in the future etc? We've never had Splendids before and I don't want to lose these chicks. Thank you!

A male Scarlet-chested
Splendid Parakeet.

Answer

Not sure where you live, but most communities in the United States have Granges or Pet Stores that carry Exact Handfeeding Formula for birds. I hope the chick feed your vet is getting isn't for chickens. Buying Exact at a pet store might be more expensive than ordering online, but you need it NOW. I recommend calling pet stores and/or anywhere else that sells pet food or caters to birds. Try to find it immediately.

If you enter "handfeeding" into the search window on this site, you will get other posts about feeding baby birds.

Since your babies haven't been fed enough recently, I'd offer them warm food every two hours during the day for the next few days. I'd even be tempted to get up in the middle of the night for the first day or two, just to get them healthy again. Try to feed them until they look like their crops are swollen and large. If they shake their heads, and refuse food, they're full. If they want to keep eating, let them.

You need to keep them warm as well as fed. A space heater near the box they are in will help. I've even put a piece of flannel over tiny ones with no feathers. If all three survive they will help keep one another warm. Since they've missed feedings, they will be more susceptible to cold, so warmth is even more important.

First thing, try to find some local business that carries the hand feeding formula and go get it. Once your babies are eating well, and seem healthy, you can cut back to feeding them four times a day ... about every four to five hours.

After my babies no longer huddle together inside a box (especially at night), I make sure there is other food available. Even when they start pecking at it, you will need to continue feedings for a while. They may get some food from seed, but not enough. Continue to offer feedings at least two weeks after they appear to be eating some food on their own. I give them spray millet and a nestling formula, as well as parakeet seed. They also get Petamine Breeding Formula. All of this isn't necessary, but I have it, so I offer it. They also like the usual vegetables, kale, spinach, corn, lettuce, broccoli, carrots, peas, etc.

It's not surprising that an injured bird gives up on her young. She is focused on recovery, poor thing. I recommend bringing her indoors too. Confining her in a small cage will give her wing a better chance to heal and protect her from harm. If she's staying on the ground, she's at risk from night time predators. Better to keep her warm and safe during her recovery.

If your birds are outside, even in an enclosed building, it's possible that your hen threw the dead baby chick out of the nest and a rodent found and carried the body off overnight. They can get into spaces you'd never believe possible, and are attracted by bird seed.

A pair of Scarlet-chested, or Splendid Parakeets.

Best of Luck. If you're not too late, you will have wonderfully tame, beautiful birds.

RAISING BOURKE PARAKEETS, Handfeeding and Helping Parents

2011-09-20T18:41:00.000-07:00

Six young Rosy Bourke's. These are hand fed, very tame and sweet.

The six youngsters I'm hand feeding are doing great. All are fully feathered, and some will fly to me and sit on my shoulder. The four oldest are eating on their own, but still like getting Exact Handfeeding Formula when the younger birds do.

Another view of my babies being hand fed.

In her second clutch this year, Rosie has hatched three of her four eggs. Although the fourth is fertile, it is unlikely to hatch. It's been too long. It will remain in the nest, however.

As you may recall from an earlier post, Rosie's first clutch of three produced two pink-eyed baby Bourkes, but one died. I believe this was because she didn't feed it and I failed to notice in time. The problem, it seems, is that her mate, Pretty Boy, is very young ... younger than she is. I've watched and he quits feeding her before she wants him to. She continues to loudly chirp, begging for more, and he quits sooner than he should. This appears to be typical behavior for one-year-old males.

Rosie with three babies under her. I'm helping her along by offering
Exact Handfeeding Formula in an eye dropper. Her mate isn't feeding her
enough, so she's getting a little help from a friend. Don't want her to abandon
any of these sweet little ones because she thinks she can't handle them alone.

I've had other hens who behaved in the same way, refusing to feed all their clutch because the male is not supportive enough. In Rosie's case, with this second clutch I've decided the help. She is a hand fed bird and very tame. She was accustomed to eating from an eye dropper and these photos are my first attempt at offering her Exact Handfeeding formula while she's in the nest box.

With Flame and Fuchsia's five babies, I did the same thing, although I started giving it to them when their babies were much older than Rosie's are now. Also, I didn't offer it to Fuchsia when she was in the nest box, but only when she came out of their cage. They'd both eat it and then take it back to their huge brood. It was their very first clutch and all five are doing well. Flame, however, is a two-year-old bird, as are both Fuchsia and Rosie.

Rosie's three babies on Sept. 19, 2011.

Some people recommend waiting for birds to reach the two-year mark before allowing them to breed. However, Rosie was soooo ready and Pretty Boy was the only available male. In spite of their losing one youngster, two more are healthy and beautiful. I expect the three in this clutch to survive if I watch them closely. One even has pink eyes.

Fuchsia is also on eggs again, recently laid. She and Flame are remarkable birds. This is their second clutch and once their babies are fledged, I will remove the nest box.

Rhett and Cherry raised seven babies this year and I removed their nest box. Cherry would like to raise a third clutch, but we have enough youngsters for one year. We are overwhelmed with lovely pink baby Bourkes!

May all your Bird Adventures be happy and enriching.

Peace & Blessings.

WING CLIPPING: Question on Clipping Wings

2011-09-16T09:51:00.000-07:00

QUESTION: "Someone has mentioned to me to clip their wings ... how do do feel about that?"

This question came in attached to my "Taming Parakeets" post. Thought I'd share the answer with everyone.

This isn't one of my birds. I've never
clipped their wings. This photo comes
from "Bourke's Parakeets" by
Doreen Haggard.

ANSWER: This depends more on a person's circumstances than on the bird's.

If there are cats or dogs in the house, I wouldn't clip them. If not, and you can't always retrieve the bird to put it back in its cage, then clipping might be appropriate. It doesn't hurt them if done correctly. Personally, I like to let my tame birds out to fly free, but they always go back into their cage for me. They consider it their home.

Most of my breeder pairs aren't finger tamed, but they're tame enough to come to the side of the cage and talk to me, nor do they go crazy when their cage is being cleaned. They like to fly in circles inside their long cage. It's healthy exercise that they shouldn't be deprived of. There would be no reason to clip their wings, plus the males use their wings for balance during breeding. So, if you plan to breed then don't clip their wings.

If you have a bird who isn't tame, and you want to work with them, then clipping can be an advantage. Their feathers eventually grow back, hopefully after the bird is now used to you and will sit on your finger or shoulder.

Birds that aren't tame are likely to still bite when caught, even if their wings are clipped.

I would never criticize anyone who feels a need to do this. It's done to larger parrots, cockatoos and macaws routinely to avoid losing them. I suppose parakeets can also fly outdoors given the chance, so there is a risk of losing them too if their wings aren't clipped. If someone in your house, possibly a young child, is likely to open the front door at an inopportune time, then clipping might be wise.

It's important not to cut the flight feathers too close, there are blood vessels in the lower part of the feathers. The photo above gives an idea of how far to cut. Better to not cut enough then too much. You can always go back again, if necessary. If you do cut too close, cornstarch will stop the bleeding. But, I hope you NEVER have to use it.

Again, each situation is different and needs your evaluation and decision.

Sending Splendid & Bourke Blessings Your Way.

VIEWERSHIP FOR THIS SITE AS OF SEPT., 2011

2011-09-10T15:32:00.000-07:00

A year ago I bragged that this site had over 2,000 views from December, 2009. What was I bragging about?

To my amazement, since then we've added another 40,000 views. That's right, we passed 42,000 views in less than three years and we're still growing worldwide.

I should peddle advertisements...smile. So far there are none to wade through, it's all about sharing our experiences with each other. (Although Summit Book Reviews is my site and, in addition to reviewing many books, there are links for the books my husband and I have published. Check them out too. Links are at the right. Smile).

Thanks for caring and sharing. It makes it all worth while.

Rosy Bourkes love individual attention and being hand fed treats.

God bless you and your sweet birds.

HAND REARING PARAKEETS, Question and Answer

2011-09-03T21:51:00.000-07:00

These are the two youngest of five babies in Fuchsia's clutch.
She may look like she's willing to feed her baby, but she's
really stealing a bite of the Exact formula for herself.

Mandy Asked: "Hello, just another question for you if you don't mind answering. I took a 3 week old baby bourke out of her nest on saturday (today is thursday). She is one of three but her mother stopped feeding her, she is quite fluffy with her feathers coming in slowly, however, checked on her siblings today and they are fully feathered,looking like bourke's. Is there something I am doing wrong as to why she is not growing as quickly being hand fed as apposed to parent fed?"

My Answer: If there's no physical problem, I'd guess the baby may not be getting enough to eat, is not consistently warm enough, or both.

Perhaps your baby is the youngest in the clutch and therefore slower? Hopefully, the reason the mother quit feeding it is not because it had a physical problem. I have one that I'm still feeding twice a day after more than a year because it can’t adequately eat on its own. It has remained slightly smaller than most Bourkes, but it's too sweet to consider putting down. It also eats slowly compared to healthy babies. It doesn't "guzzle" its food. Does yours? Guzzling is a healthy sign.

When you started hand feeding this youngster, did you try returning it to its mother to keep it warm? Some hens will accept the baby and keep it warm even though they don't feed it. Others, push them aside. It's easier for you if Mama keeps the baby warm, but risky at first if you don't watch them closely and retrieve them if necessary. Sounds like you're past that place, however.

Just fed with a very full crop.

View from above shows full crop extending over the shoulders.

Rotund crop from below. Wait until almost empty
before feeding again. At this age, feed again in
about four hours.

Parents literally stuff their babies so full they look like they will burst. We need to do the same thing with hand fed babies. They are rarely full when we think they are. If the baby stops eating before its crop looks like it could burst ... protruding in all directions like an over inflated basketball ... then perhaps the food has cooled too much, too fast.

They like it warm. Not hot, but very warm. Exact Hand Feeding Formula has directions that give the degree range. It's a good idea to start this way until you're familiar with what temp feels right. They say about 105 degrees Farenheit or (102 to 110). For one bird I mix one teaspoon of Exact into two teaspoons of boiling water, stirring until it's cool enough to feed. I test it on the underside of my wrist like you’d test human baby formula.

Try to use a very small container for the food, one that holds heat. (Goodwill and Thrift Stores have an assortment). You can also sit the small container in a bowl of very hot (nearly boiling) water to keep the bowl of food warm. Be careful not to slop more water into your food mix.

Healthy babies "guzzle" down the food from an eye dropper very quickly, so feeding only one baby should make it easy to finish feeding before the food cools too much. I assume you're using an eye dropper. If not, you should.

How often are you feeding the baby? I'm feeding my current clutch four to five times a day, about every four hours. Newly hatched chicks need to be checked every two hours and fed if the their crop is empty. For the first week of life, I get up twice a night, then drop it to once a night at age two weeks. After that, I sleep through the night and feed them only during the day (but I don’t sleep in).

Are you keeping your baby warm enough? Dry enough? Accumulated droppings are wet and cold, so clean the box every time you feed them. Mine have pine shavings under paper towels. The paper towels absorb droppings and get tossed each time the babies are fed.

Box on table above a heat source. Notice they can move
closer or farther from the heat as they need to. Box is
closed when they are not being fed.

I put an electric oil heater near (not under) my box of babies to be sure they stay warm. The box is long enough that they can move toward or away from the heat source. Also, I've learned to feed more than one at a time. That way they help keep each other warm. Even though our home is 70 to 74 degrees inside this time of year, at night I use the heater. I don't use it except for hand fed babies. Otherwise, their mother keeps them warm enough.

Good luck. I hope your little one grows up to bond with you as a healthy, loving and affectionate pet.

Fuchsia at bowl and Flame on my hand. These two babies
aren't theirs, but they treat all four alike - with disinterest.
They're still feeding the three left in their nestbox, but seem
satisfied to let me take over on the two youngest and the
two shown here from another pair's clutch. Their main
interest is in the "delicious" Exact Hand Feeding Formula.
These two parents were hand fed babies themselves a little
over a year ago.

Peace & Blessings

Rosy Bourke Babies Today

2011-08-31T10:10:00.000-07:00

Presently feeding four young Rosy Bourkes.

Two of Flame and Fuchsia's five babies. These are
the youngest two and are being hand fed.
Nice photo to compare eye colors, one dark, one pink.

With five babies in the nest, I worried about Flame and Fuchsia being over worked. So, taking two of their youngsters seems kind.

Also, Rhett and Cherry are older birds with four in their second clutch. I removed two of theirs to also feed. Once they're a little older, I will probably take their other two as well.

All of these birds will be very tame.

Bird's eye view of the four currently being hand fed.

Notice how pretty the pink-eyed baby from Flame and Fuchsia is becoming. His/her feathers are very deep rose-colored like Flame's, yet has striking pink eyes.

Rhett & Cherry's two oldest of four babies.
These are being hand fed. Others will be later.

The pink-eyed youngster from Rhett and Cherry is still too small to tell what his/her feathers will be like. Picture of two in nestbox are siblings of the two above.

Rhett & Cherry's two youngest.

The pink-eyed young one from Rosie and Pretty Boy is a delicate pale pink with a white face. Lovely.

Rosie and Pretty Boy's pink-eyed baby on left.
She (or he?) is such a delicate, lovely pink with a white face.

Rosie currently is on her second clutch of three eggs. We hope for another delicate pink baby.

Bonnie & Clyde's baby, "Sir Gray Head," is in photo below. Smile.

Little "Gray" out of Clyde, center, and Bonnie at right.

Rosy Bourke Father with Food on His Face

2011-08-29T17:31:00.000-07:00

Food from when he's fed his mate.
This spread out on his cheek feathers
and hardened.

Bonnie and Clyde only had one fertile egg out of four. Perhaps that contributed to why Clyde looks like this. He only has his mate and one offspring to feed, and he's regurgitating too much.

This photo shows the "milk" he feeds his mate having hardened around his beak.

I expected to have to catch him and wash his face in warm water. That's something I've done many times on hand fed baby birds when Exact hand feeding formula isn't cleaned off and hardens. Best to find it and get it off before it dries.

However, I procrastinated with Clyde and this bit of hardened "milk" eventually dropped off all by itself a few days later. If this happens to one of your birds, don't let it worry you.

In photo below, Clyde's face is clean. He's the one in the center.

In all honesty, Clyde is the only parent bird I've ever seen this happen to. But, each and every one is an individual. Bless their tiny hearts.

Baby named "Gray" because of unusual light gray head, back and chest.
Parents, Clyde in center and Bonnie on right.
Baby still has some down on head and rump.
This pair typically produce two or three offspring per clutch,
but this time there was only one.
However, he's unique.

Peace & Blessings!

ROSY BOURKE FLEDGED BABIES AND FEEDING TIME

2011-08-22T20:18:00.000-07:00

Rhett and Cherry's three youngsters at upper left. Rosie and Pretty Boy's
two babies, one at far right and pink-eyed youngster at lower left.

Five young Rosie Bourkes are ready to leave home. Haven't offered them to pet shops yet, but will soon. They are from two clutches. Makes Flame and Fuchsia's five babies a bit more remarkable. Those five are all growing and doing well. Imagine seven birds in the cage though. Perhaps tomorrow, I'll remove some to hand feed, along with Cherry and Rhett's second clutch. Those parents are getting on in years and can use the extra help.

Flame and Fuchsia accept some Exact handfeeding formula.
With five babies to feed, they can use this help. The bird in the
center is Pipsqueek, who still requires handfeeding over a year
after fledging. She isn't able to feed herself due to some
physical handicap.

Dad, Flame, is on my hand. Mom, Fuchsia, has her head in the bowl
Pipsqueek (or Pip) is eating from the eyedropper.

These birds bring me such JOY!

Peace and Blessings!

Newly Banded Baby Bourke

2011-08-20T15:36:00.000-07:00

Fingers are shiny from mineral oil used to make bands slide on easier.

All of Flame and Fuchsia's five babies now have bands. Their smallest baby is the one with pink eyes, and he/she is the last one to be banded. All have EGL, OR, 11 bands (Our initials, Oregon and 2011). This one is band #12. We also added the bi-colored blue and red bands on an opposite leg to identify parentage when they're grown.

Notice how full the crop is. Their parents are gorging all five of them so far. None are being left out. Smile.

Silver band with information is visible on right leg. Colored band is on left leg.
First band went on easily, but he fussed and wiggled for the 2nd, as if to say,
"Enough of this! Let me go home now."

Peace & Blessings.

Pink-eyed Baby Rosy Bourke Parakeets

2011-08-17T20:13:00.000-07:00

Fuchsia with her brood of five. Wouldn't you know that the bird
with the largest clutch is the one with the smallest nestbox?

When Rosie and Pretty Boy hatched pink-eyed offspring recently, I was excited. Then, Rosie’s aunt, Fuchsia, and her mate, Flame, hatched five eggs … one with pink eyes.

Now, Fuchsia’s parents, Cherry and Rhett, who are also the grandparents of Rosie, have hatched at least one pink-eyed baby in their clutch of four eggs. Two have hatched so far, one with pink eyes and one with dark eyes. Wondering what the 3^rd and 4^th will look like.

Granted, these three hens are all related to one another. They all carry a gene for pink eyes, yet it’s still unexpected and exciting. I’ve never had a white-faced, pink-eyed Bourke parakeet before.

Fuchsia's five babies with smallest, pink-eyed one at top.

Slightly older here, taken 8/17/11.
Pink-eyed youngster is covered up by her siblings.

Fuchsia & Flame's five on 8/17/11. Tiniest baby rests her head
on a sibling near top. Pink eyes are visible, but not open.

This is great grandmother, Cherry, hiding her latest brood.
As of 8/17/11 she's had two of her four eggs hatch.

Cherry's two babies with two more to hatch.
Photo taken 8/16/2011.

Rosie's pink-eyed youngster. She has a dark-eyed sibling. She is not only
lighter in color with pink eyes, she is also smaller than her sibling or her parents.
Ads on back are to keep the males from bickering with each other. Newsprint
hides them from each other. The other three sides of their cages are open.

PARAKEET FEEDING TIME with TAME ROSY BOURKES

2011-08-11T13:29:00.000-07:00

Tame birds offer so many advantages.

Especially when you want to photograph them. Smile.

Flame feeding his mate, Fuchsia. There are five babies in the nest.

Fuchsia with head out of nest box. Flame on perch.

I have one bird who requires twice daily hand feeding. All my other tame birds love to steal a bite of the Exact hand feeding formula from her whenever possible. Flame is the one most eager to do so. Since he's feeding his mate, who in turn is feeding FIVE babies, this morning I let him share in the prepared Exact. He loves it and ate all he was allowed to.

As soon as I prompted him to go back to his cage, he called to Fuchsia. She came right to the nest box opening and he began feeding her. These photos are the result. This pair is not put off by having a camera shoved into their cage and, in spite of it, they didn't stop the feeding process.

From above. See Flame's deep, bright color ... hence his name.
I offer them a variety of foods to choose from.

Male Bourkes feed their hens on the nest. This allows the mothers more time with their babies, and also ensures that the food she's feeding the young is thoroughly dissolved. Most hens rarely leave the nest until their babies fledge. Once or twice a day they will exit the nest to deficate, and then quickly return. Older, experienced hens are more likely to spend time outside the nest, particularly when it's very warm. Young ones, however, seem afraid to leave their babies alone, even for a few moments.

Fuchsia asking what I'm doing up there.

Most recent hatchling in my hand. It's much smaller than the others,
and needs to be watched. It may not compete well for its food.

I love small, exotic parakeets. They are adorable birds. In addition to bringing sweet birdsong to our home, ours provide much joy.

May you, too, experience happiness through all that you love and those that love you.

Peace & Blessings!

Flame and Fuchsia, parents of Five!

2011-08-10T14:44:00.000-07:00

Fuchsia with her five babies. Dark pink on right is newly hatched & still wet.
Egg shells are from this last one that hatched today. It has pink eyes.

This morning Fuchsia's fifth egg hatched. Unlike its siblings, this tiny baby has pink eyes. Yet, the stomach appears dark ... not a good sign. Based on information sent to me when Cherry's pink-eyed baby didn't survive, there may be something wrong with this one's internal organs. I hope not, but am preparing myself for disappointment.

Sorry this is blurry. It does show size of baby.
Head is near my ring and turned, showing a
pink eyelid that indicates pink eyes below.

Fuchsia and Flame, both handfed, are doing well with their little charges so far. Five babies is the most any of my Bourkes have ever hatched in a single clutch. And, this is their first clutch. Both parent birds are young themselves.

Other parent Bourkes have hatched and raised as many as four youngsters, but no others have ever hatched more than four eggs. Fuchsia hatched all five of hers ... quite an accomplishment!

Rosie's pink-eyed baby and its dark-eyed sibling are still doing well. The dark-eyed baby is out of the nest, and the other will soon follow.

Wishing you and your birds all possible joy and happiness!

PINK-EYED ROSY BOURKE BABY UPDATE

2011-08-08T15:00:00.000-07:00

Remember my favorite handfed Rosy Bourke hen, Rosie, who hatched three eggs and two of her babies had pink eyes?

Since Rosie's grandmother's pink-eyed youngsters seemed to have internal defects and didn't survive, we worried for Rosie's babies. At two weeks of age one pink-eyed baby did die. I expected to lose the other one too, but that was not to be. Here it is with its dark-eyed sibling.

Pink-eyed baby Bourke in front.

Notice that the typical black feathers are gray.
This bird's "rose" feathers are actually light pink with yellow highlights.

This was Rosie's first clutch and her mate, Pretty Boy, is very young and not much help feeding her before she feeds their babies. After inspecting the dead baby bird, I think she simply did not feed it and let it starve. If I'd kept a closer watch, I might have saved it with hand feeding. I hope it wasn't a genetic problem. We've had other young hens with young mates who give up on one or two of their clutch.

You'd think that with ample food provided they'd happily raise all their young. However, when the males aren't enough help...

In the case of some of those hens I was able to successfully hand feed the abandoned youngster(s). By the time I saw this one, however, it was too late. Rosie and her mate will probably improve with future clutches. Experience seems to add confidence and many of those hens who rejected one or two babies in the beginning went on in later years to hatch and raise four babies in every clutch instead of hatching four and only feeding two.

Bonnie with her single baby. He's very calm and serene.
A very sweet little bird.

Bonnie & Clyde hatched only one egg this time, although there were three in the nest. That's unusual for them. The baby is doing fine, but grew so fast that I missed banding him. By the time I took him out of the box, his foot was too big to put a band on.

I was kept enjoyably busy with visiting relatives and forgot to check on this bird.

Can't wait for her to leave the nestbox so I can see what she has
hidden under her. At least two of her five eggs have hatched.

Tame Fuchsia and mate, Flame, have five eggs. She shares a grandmother with Rosie, so I'm curious to see if she will also have pink-eyed youngsters. Yesterday I discovered that two of her eggs have hatched. One baby has dark eyes, but I wasn't able to see the other one without moving Fuchsia. Didn't want to upset her since it's her first clutch.

I need to watch these babies more closely than I did Rosie's. Don't want to miss whether they are being fed, and will need to band them on time.

Currently have eight baby Bourkes with two more clutches waiting to hatch. Bourkes are such sweet birds.

I hope to trade some baby Bourkes for more Splendids. Ours haven't been productive for quite a while. Rainbow's mate died and he needs a new hen. He is becoming noisy, crying for her. Sad.

Peace & Blessings

to all of You and your Birds

Hummingbird Release and Return Visit

2011-08-01T15:46:00.000-07:00

We released our little hummingbird hen this morning from our west deck near a sugar water feeder hanging there. She didn't hesitate. She flew off and disappeared very quickly.

However, at mid afternoon today I was watering potted plants on our south deck and in she flew to the feeder! She landed on the holder and sat there cheeping (or singing?) at me. She was very friendly, and unafraid. My granddaughters asked how I knew it was her. She is still missing a few feathers on her breast, and has some white ones near her tail that are unusual.

It was so much fun to see her again and realize that she is less afraid than the other birds. Although they aren't all that timid either.

Several people have sent messages about her need for protein as well as sugar water. The special items zoo's use aren't available in our community. We tried offering her small insects, but she didn't seem to want them. If you think about it, people can exist for a long time on bread and water ... not the best of diets, but we survive. Hummers do too. She was in captivity about two weeks and managed to regain her strength and ability to fly while being sustained on sugar water and fuchsia flowers. She is healthy and can find insects now that she's released.

Time for Release ... and off she flew!

A happy ending to this random act of kindness.

Happy Monday and many Blessings!

HUMMINGBIRD RECOVERY

2011-07-30T13:23:00.000-07:00

The hummingbird hen is doing well. She now lands on a perch...not the one in this photo. She feeds at the flowers and from the sugar water. She doesn't "spin" in the air like she did two days ago. We are going to hold her until Monday and then probably release her in the morning. She is still favoring her left leg and we want to give her another day or two to gain strength. She's a sweet little thing.

Peace & Blessings.

HUMMER HEN

2011-07-28T20:19:00.000-07:00

Our injured hummingbird hen is flying better. Maybe a few more days and she can safely be released. She's able to hover without going in circles and flies up to the fresh fuchsia flowers put in a vase in her cage. As of yesterday, she wasn't doing that. She still prefers the dish of sugar water, but we lifted it up off the floor for her and she seems to like flying to it now. One leg still seems a little weak, but she's stronger than she's been in the past and now flies to a perch. Hurray!

We have visitors this week and next, so blogging time is limited. Hope your summer days are pleasant wherever you are. Ours are lovely.

Blessings to you and yours.

HUMMINGBIRD UPDATE #4...

2011-07-25T16:34:00.000-07:00

I tried to release the little hummer hen this morning. Days ago she couldn't fly at all. Now she hovers in the cage pretty well.

Took her to the hummingbird feeder on our west deck and placed her on it. She flew across the deck about 20 feet, awkwardly bumped into the deck handrail before making it over the top. She glided down to the grass below, then lifted off and flew about 12 feet landing in tall grass at the edge of the mowed area. Any farther and she'd have been over an embankment and in forest where I couldn't rescue her.

Another hummer followed her in her flight off the deck. A mate, maybe? It hovered over her, while in the tall grass she struggled to fly, but couldn't get airborne again. Sad. I went down the steps and retrieved her. Back in her cage, I put her down in front of the bowl of sugar water and she drank and drank. I think she was saying, "Wow, that was a workout!"

She must need more recovery time. I sincerely hope she regains her ability to fly adequately again. She's much better than she was, but apparently not good enough to survive on her own yet.

May all your bird encounters be happy ones!

PINK-EYED ROSY BOURKES from Rosie & Pretty Boy

2011-07-22T17:40:00.000-07:00

The baby at the far left has pink eyes.

Notice the baby by my thumb has dark eyes. A pink-eyed
sibling has a head over his neck and the other on the left also
has pink eyes. Albino? They probably won't be white,
but I'm excited to see what they will look like.

When our tame, handfed Rosy Bourke hen, Rosie, left her nest box this morning, she came to the cage door to let me know she wanted out. That’s the first time she’s been interested in flying free since she laid her first egg, and now her three babies are over a week old.

I opened the cage door and out she came. Later, Pretty Boy followed, and as usual he did some circles around the room and flew right back into his cage. He’s such a homebody. You never have to worry about coaxing him to return to his cage. He’s an easy keeper, smile.

Since one of Rosie’s babies was nearly ready to band, I lifted them all out of the nest box to check them. I thought she’d be concerned and would fly to them immediately. I wanted a photo of her with the babies, but she visited me only briefly to give me a quick kiss before flying to say hello to all the other birds.

I banded her largest dark-eyed baby while she flitted around unconcerned about her youngsters. In spite of being hand fed herself, she's proving to be an excellent mother.

Happily, her two babies with pink eyes are doing very well. Their feet should be big enough to band in another day or two.

Laying like this, his pink eye is very visible. Eager to see
what he's going to look like as an adult bird.

Rosie’s grandmother never successfully raised her pink-eyed babies, and Rosie’s mother never produced babies with pink eyes. But, since Pretty Boy is a cousin of Rosie’s, they probably both carry that gene.

Aren’t they sweet? I think so.

Have a wonderful day!

HUMMER DOING WELL

2011-07-21T12:05:00.000-07:00

Photos taken this morning of the little Anna's Hummingbird with an injured wing.

She can climb up the side of the cage with her wings going. Can't seem to fly very high or very far though. An outside trip proved that. We're eager to release her, as we have enough indoor birds to care for, but she's not ready. Pray she will be soon! ;-)

Peace & Blessings.

HUMMINGBIRD UPDATE

2011-07-18T15:40:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

Thanks for the comments on the previous post. It's very useful. I moved the little hummer into a larger cage this afternoon. I wanted to add real fuchsia flowers and they wouldn't fit in the little travel cage. Perhaps she can get pollen from them. We have lots of fuchsia's in bloom right now.

I tried offering a fruit fly and a mosquito, but she ignored them. Possibly because they weren't moving any longer. I didn't want them to fly away... Her sugar water is replaced daily.

She seems stronger today than yesterday. Maybe having more room will be a good thing.

In the photo she is laying down, but I'd just moved her into the new cage and she's still unsure about it. She can pull herself up to the low perches. The red lid holds sugar water and the blue one plain water. I had a water bottle on the small cage, but she never went near it. This seemed like a friendlier option. She still has a water bottle on the other end of the cage, however.

The small cage sat on my kitchen table and she could see the other hummingbirds through the window. Having her there was a bit inconvenient as we're going to have visitors in a few days, so the larger cage is now in the living room. She can hear and see other birds, just not the hummers...

I might return her to the kitchen if she's still with us after all the company leaves. God willing, however, by then she will be flying free! Smile.

INJURED HUMMINGBIRD QUESTION

2011-07-16T12:54:00.000-07:00

Hello All,

This little hummer was rescued last night from a cat. Her wing is injured and she can't fly without falling to the ground. She is eating the sugar water mixture we gave her: 4 parts water to 1 part sugar, boiled and cooled. An essential red lid provides it.

Anna's Hummingbird hen with an injured wing.
She was rescued from under the foot of a cat last night.

Any suggestions on helping her recover? I know they also eat small insects. My husband suggested aphids, but we don't have any. I read that fruit flies are a good source of protein for hummers. Now, where did I toss that banana skin?

We do have very small moths and can probably find a mosquito or two for her, especially since our baby Swallows have all left the bird houses and none are staying close to our home any longer. Wish the parents would decide on a second clutch, but that never seems to happen with Swallows like it does with parakeets.

Although we have several varieties of hummingbirds at our feeders right now, I believe this one is an Anna's hummingbird. This variety doesn't migrate and remains in Oregon all year long. That's a positive in her favor if she never flies again and can't leave ... she won't have an urge to migrate.

The bird's coloration is that of a hen or a very young Anna's hummingbird. Males get their irredescent red throats when they mature. Young male birds look like the hens. I hope this bird is actually a youngster and not a hen who left a nest. She doesn't seem to be afraid of us, a possible sign that she's young, or just used to seeing us around the feeders. They will sometimes land on our hands as we carry the cleaned and refilled feeders back outside.

This morning my husband was the first one into the kitchen where the bird slept last night. He came back to tell me that the hummingbird hadn't made it. That she was dead.

"That's odd," I said. "She didn't seem to have any major injuries, just an injured wing."

"Well, she's laying stiff, and her beak is in the sugar water like she drowned in it." He took my hand and we both went back to the kitchen.

The bird was sitting on her perch, looking sedate and comfortable.

If you haven't heard about "torpor" in hummingbirds, you should know about it. When hummingbirds sleep, they go into a hibernation-like state called torpor (pronounced TOR-per). This is a really deep sleep. They may appear dead, but aren't. So, if you find an unresponsive hummingbird, don't toss it in a garbage can! Leave it alone, even if hanging upside down. However, if it's in danger from a cat or something else, you can move it to a safe place and watch it, releasing it when it wakes up.

We hope this bird will fully recover and can be released. It's illegal in the U.S. to keep a migratory bird, and just because this one doesn't migrate, they might still want to fine us for having it. If she can't recover enough to fly, perhaps there's a bird rescue facility we can locate, or get a permit for her ...? I'll have to look into it. Unless a bird sanctuary takes her, we may have a resident hummingbird for the duration of her life. I've seen videos of tame hummingbirds, but never one that couldn't fly. It's sad and I hope she fully recovers and can be released. If not, I guess I'll have to think of a name for her. Any suggestions?

Peace to you on this lovely Saturday.

ROSIE'S ROSY BOURKE BABIES

2011-07-15T21:17:00.000-07:00

Rosie has just returned to her brood. I added millet to her box
when I thought she looked thin. She ate it until the eggs hatched.
Now she relies only on her mate for food. Possibly because the
twice regurgitated food is richer and finer for her youngsters.

Our handfed Rosy Bourke hen, dubbed Rosie, hatched all three of her eggs. Two of the babies are a surprise. They have pink eyes.

Rosie, and her mate, Pretty Boy, are first cousins. Her father and his mother are siblings. Their mothers have never produced babies with pink eyes. But, their shared grandmother, Cherry, produced a baby with pink eyes one year. It only survived for a week.

Three huddled together for warmth. Hatched
Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Photo taken
on Friday.

For Rosie to produce two pink-eyed babies in her very first clutch was unexpected. I hope they're healthy and will continue to grow. I once owned a pair of white faced Bourkes with pink eyes. I'd no idea how old they were and the hen died about six months after their purchase. I traded the male for a Splendid parakeet, and he did later reproduce for his new owner.I don't think any of his offspring had pink eyes, however.

As discussed in an earlier post about that first pink-eyed baby, it also had a very dark stomach, indicative of an internal organ problem. These are so newly hatched, and Rosie is so protective, that I've not examined them closely enough to determine if they do too. I'm optimistic that they are okay.

Look closely at baby in my hand. Egg tooth is touching
my finger. Eyes are still closed and both slightly bulge
outward on both sides of head. See that they are pink. No
dark coloration. Compare them to photo below.

The largest, and first baby hatched, has dark eyes. His head is at far left with one dark eye visible. Crop is full. The other two babies' eyes are harder to find in photo because they're pink, lacking the melanin of their sibling. The one in the middle is actually facing us and his head forms a "v" toward us. Both eyes are visible at each side of his head.

Peace & Blessings.

Rosy Bourke Hens and Black Spots

2011-07-12T17:57:00.000-07:00

On Jul 6, 2011 Thomas wrote: "Why do my female rosie bourkes have black spots all over their backs?"

Here's my response:

Female Rosy Bourkes are usually darker than the males, especially their faces. However, there is a wide variation of color possible in Rosies since all of them are descended from Normal Bourkes (the wild color in Australia). If your birds are receiving adequate nutrition, the dark spots are not unusual. My hens aren't completely pink on their backs either. The dark edges on some of their feathers may not show up in the photos, but they're there. The males are less likely to have this, but can.

A young bird of a different color. See comment attached to
this blog for information on pied colors, different than this one.

Occasionally, we will get a baby that isn't truly pink or rosie. They can be "pied" and I've also heard people refer to "rainbow" Bourkes. Here is one of ours.

It's unlikely the dark color on your hens is caused by a deficiency, but all birds can show feather damage if they suffer an illness or go through a period of time where they receive inadequate food. Starving birds don't produce healthy feathers. I discussed stress bars on feathers in an earlier article. Here's a link to it.

http://thesplendidbourkebirdblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/birds-and-their-feathers-selecting.html

Rosy hens are likely to have darker areas on their backs, and it's not at all unusual. One of my hens suffered egg binding and lost feathers due to a treatment with mineral oil that saved her life. The feathers came back very dark. A few months later, after another molt, they were pink again. Here is a link to that post.

http://thesplendidbourkebirdblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/parakeet-egg-binding-what-to-do-to.html

After losing feathers damaged by mineral oil, they grew back
in dark. This is Sugar about a year ago.

This is Sugar after molting off the darker feathers.
They came back in as they were before being damaged
and then regrowing in darker.

These are before and after photos of Sugar, who suffered egg binding and survived.

Currently, she's on eggs again without any problems. Trust me ... this REALLY IS the same bird.

Peace & Blessings,

rosie.birds@gmail.com

A Compliment and More on Raising Bourkes

2011-07-10T12:55:00.000-07:00

Rhett & Cherry's babies on 7-10-2011.

I must share this wonderful comment from "Inkophile" with my other readers. It made my day and put a big grin on my face! She or he said:

"Your birds are gorgeous and charm me every time I read about them. In addition your writing inspires me to do the best for my birds. I hope downsizing won't have a negative impact on the frequency of your posts. I really look forward to them."

Thank you, thank you!

Actually, the frequency of my posts has lessened because I'm working hard to finish editing a new suspense novel, "Cast Me Not Away." Cape Arago Press is willing to publish it, and if I go with them it will be out sooner than if I seek an agent and allow her to shop it to larger publishing houses. That typically means two years or more before publication.

I also want to compile my blog information into a book on "Parakeets of the Smaller Variety," and include Turks and Elegants besides Bourkes, Budgies and Scarlet-chested parakeets. It's assembled, but needs more work too. That one should appear here eventually. Smile.

Meanwhile, I'll try to give more updates. I opened the blog this morning to talk about my tame Rosie, who is on eggs due to hatch this week. However, I've not checked to see if they're fertile. It's her first clutch and I've left her mostly undisturbed.

Fuchsia and Flame with two nest box choices.

My other very tame pair, Fuchsia and Flame, aren't going into the nest box, so I gave them a second one. Actually, Rosie, moved into their cage and made it plain to me that she wanted the box they had, so I gave it to her. Moved both pairs. So, Rosie and her mate, Pretty Boy, are very happy.

Flame and Fuchsia appear less so. When I open their nest box lid (it sits outside the cage), Fuchsia will come through the hole and hop out on my hand, but she won't go inside when the lid is down. Maybe she doesn't like the dark? So, the other box I gave her is an open tissue box with pine shavings in it. It's open at the top and side. She's gone inside that one. It's low tech, but she seems to like it! Smile.

Meanwhile, their grandmother, Cherry, has three youngsters nearly ready to leave the nest. Even as tiny babies, I could put my hand in Cherry's nest box and lift them out without upsetting her. They are banded and have been handled a lot. Cherry and Rhett (formerly with Scarlett who died), are laid back and relaxed parents. They aren't hand tamed, but unafraid of me no matter what I do.

I mention this because I was a little worried about Rosie, who was hand fed and very tame. She seems very thin, as hens usually are when feeding their young. But, she's still on eggs. I decided to put a piece of spray millet in her box with her. This encourages the hens to eat more. They depend a lot on their mate and maybe young Pretty Boy wasn't carrying through well enough. When I put my hand in her box, she screeched and leaped at it. Weird. Normally my most affectionate bird, Rosie's motherly hormones have kicked in and she's going to protect those eggs!

She did, however, eat the millet. So, I'll keep giving her more. Smile.

Bonnie on three eggs so far (recently laid). Her box opening slides up.
Mate is Clyde, who is a nearly complete dark rose color.
We bought him at a bird show in Hillsboro, Oregon.

Sugar is on four eggs. Notice blue on her rump, like Bonnie's.
They're sisters. Sugar's mate is Spice (or Spicy), a hand fed Normal Bourke.

My favorite bird is hand fed Rosie. She's on her first clutch of three eggs.
Notice she doesn't have a blue rump like her aunts, Bonnie & Sugar.
Her mate is Pretty Boy, actually a cousin out of Bonnie & Clyde.
He's a dark solid rose color, unlike her light pink.

These hens all keep their nest boxes very clean. Only after the eggs hatch will there be anything that soils them. Of all the Bourkes and Splendids I've had, only one ever soiled her box. That was Scarlett who never seemed strong and healthy. I think the extra effort to leave her box was more than she was willing to do. Scarlett only raised one baby, who never raised young of her own and died at only three years of age. She wasn't healthy either, like her mother. We had her autopsied and the bird vet said she died of obesity ... a fatty liver, etc. I've been careful to give them all less corn and spray millet since then, and provide more greens and vegies.

Scarlett did, however, foster two other babies at two separate times, and I think the last one was too much for her. She was a sweet bird we bought with Rhett, but she never seemed robust like all our others. Then, there's Rhett, who is still fathering and raising baby birds over ten years later.

May all your birds (indoors or out, tame or wild) remain healthy and bring you much joy.

Bourke Parakeets. These Four are Sold. Bye, Bye Birdie.

2011-07-06T18:03:00.000-07:00

If you've followed my blog, you'll remember that I'm downsizing. Not getting out of the bird business ... I love them too much for that. Simply cutting back. The major pet store chain that used to buy all the baby Bourke and Splendid parakeets available is affected by our poor economy too. Like everyone else. Sad.

Two very successful breeding pairs going to a new home.
Divided cage separates a Rosy Bourke pair and
a Normal Bourke pair only for transportation.

I've kept my oldest pairs and my tame pairs. Their youngsters will go to a local pet store, or friends and acquaintances who want them. Currently, I have three babies in the nest and three more hens on eggs. That satisfies my desire to raise them, and is a sustainable flock. Instead of 12 pairs, I now have five pairs and two extra birds. Twelve total birds is much easier to care for than 24 or more. I may even let one or two more pairs go eventually.

Rhett & Cherry's baby Bourkes on
07-06-2011

Meanwhile, Rhett (my very first Bourke!) is a father again. He and Cherry have three healthy babies. He lost his first mate, Scarlett, and Cherry lost her mate, Bing. Since they've been together, they've produced countless beautiful baby Bourkes.

My favorite Splendid (Scarlet-chested) parakeet, Rainbow -- son of Merlin and Millet -- is looking for another hen. He's been a father before and lost his mate, Jewel. The newest hen, Rivkah, has never had fertile eggs, and I'd like to find him a more successful mate. I'm sure that would make him happier too. ;-)

Rainbow, a male Splendid, or Scarlet-chested parakeet.
His scarlet chest is hidden.

Swallow and Hummingbird Update. They Finally Arrived!

2011-07-05T16:04:00.000-07:00

On the Southern Oregon Coast, we finally have our usual number of Hummingbirds and Tree Swallows. They were very late in arriving, and had us worried. It is probably due to the cold, wet weather we've had for so long. It wasn't much of a Spring, and although Summer is supposed to be here, it's still cooler than typical this time of year, with more rain.

Yet, the hummers are emptying our feeders rapidly and Swallows have set up house-keeping in three of our seven bird houses. They have reduced the mosquitoe population to almost none. Bless them! (the birds, not the mosquitoes). Smile.

We also have gorgeous black and orange Grosbeaks at our feeders. They arrived late too.

Bless you and your love of birds.