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| Ring necked Turtle Doves at San Diego Zoo. I'm probably age 16, about 1962. |
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| S.D. Zoo, summer, 1964. Right after H.S. graduation at 18. |
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| Such joy. I dreamed of having an aviary like those at the San Diego Zoo. |
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| Feeding meal worms to the finches at San Diego Zoo in 1964. If you recognize their varieties, please let us know. Thanks! |
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| Blue & Gold Macaw and a Scarlet Macaw. |
As you can see, I always loved birds. In my youth, if visitors to the San Diego Zoo in Southern California wanted to feed the birds, they were encouraged to do so, and most in the aviaries seemed to trust me.
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| San Diego Zoo walk-thru aviary. Me with a Mynah bird on my arm. |
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| I'm feeding a Guianan Cock-of-the-Rock |
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| Male Cordon Bleu and male Strawberry finch. From my aviary when I was a teenager. |
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| A budgie with Zebra finches and what we called a Coral beak, although I've seen them named something else. This photo is from my aviary in the 60's when I was a teenager. |
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| Me, my sister, Nancy and Mom, Ellen. San Diego Zoo. Feeding Ring neck turtle doves. |
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| Perhaps my first bird, Beauty, a blue budgie. I'm 12 or 13 in this photo. |
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| San Diego Zoo walk-thru aviary. Me as a teen with a Mynah bird. |
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| 1967, my beautiful "Captain" budgerigar parakeet. |
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| My high school senior sweater, so 1964. Feeding a male Cock-of-the-Rock. |
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| My sister and I feeding the wild variety of Banty chickens at the San Diego Zoo. They were everywhere and often ended up feeding some of the wild animals in captivity. |
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| My Lhasa Apso puppy, Eechee, in 1969. Bird in cage is a male singing canary. He sang so loudly that he woke us every morning and getting a hen for him didn't help. I traded them both for a young budgie parakeet. |
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| Some of my Zebra finches in a California outdoor aviary. I raised many varieties of finches when a teenager. |
If I were going to go back and live my life over, I'd choose to be an Avian Veterinarian and try to find employment in a zoo. Smile.
Peace & Blessings to you and your birds, domestic or wild.
Hello. I am writing to ask for your advice. We have a Rosie Bourke that is approximately 10 years old. Her health has been excellent. She has always been an excellent flier and has exercised daily. Recently, however, her stamina has decreased and so has her steadiness on her perch. The vet believes she is getting older making it harder for her to move about. This is limited information, I know, but I would like your opinion regarding what could be the cause of her losing mobility. Also, is there anything I can do to make it easier to get about in her cage. She likes to eat at the floor level of her cage but she struggles to move from her perch to the floor and back. She will not walk along rope perches. She will only jump.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
Hello Anonymous...I hope you see this. If you write to rosie.birds@gmail.com I can reply to you via email.
ReplyDeleteI recommend you add a perch or ladder that is slanted from her favorite perch to the floor. Maybe she will climb on that. I had a Splendid that injured his wing as a youngster and could never fly. He was very adept at climbing.
When hens get older or sick, often their mates feed them and help them recover. If she's alone, that's not an option.
As for her age. I hope she survives longer for you, but it doesn't sound positive. I have birds over ten years old and a friend with 14-year-old Bourkes. However, I've lost others at younger ages too. I do think that the average Bourke typically lives a few years longer than the average Budgie.
I once had a normal Bourke hen who got sick with an unknown malady and she could not leave the floor for several months. All winter long her mate fed her...she wouldn't or couldn't eat on her own. She surprised us all by recovering and later raised many baby birds, all healthy. I had expected her to die and isolated her and her mate from our other birds. He never got sick and years later both are still well and healthy. They are some of my earliest Bourkes and both over ten years old.
Good luck. I hope she recovers.