Update From The Ark (Long)

Well, I don't have two of everything- even though it feels like that with all these animals around here sometimes!

First, the bad news. This summer I lost two of my finches, Fawkes, who was a yellow backed male gouldian, and Minerva, the mother of most of the chicks you have seen grow up on this blog. That really sucked!!

I also sold almost all of the Society Finches. I only kept the original couple I had and one of their babies that was born with a twisted foot. I wanted to keep him to make sure he was going to be looked after. Sometimes a flock will pick on a bird with a handicap but so far he seems to be getting along just fine.

So the flock is down to manageable proportions again. Thank goodness! I'll probably slowly sell off about half of those I have left. I want to just keep about six to eight birds total. I don't think I will raise any babies this year either. It's just too much work for me to keep up with right now. Keep reading and you'll see why!

I also lost Marilyn, my beautiful white Angel Fish. Both of our tanks were suddenly hit with weird sicknesses. We managed to put the Discus tank to rights but couldn't cure Maryiln. Diana, the golden Angel Fish, is showing some worrying signs now too. We are treating the tank again but with fish (as with the finches) there seems to be only so much you can do. :(

I try not to get too upset when I lose any of the "little guys", but I do feel distressed. Not like I would if I lost one of the dogs, but you know what I mean. I consider the birds and the fish to be some of the wonderful "bonuses" of life, like the wind in the trees or a beautiful clear night sky. Just a small nugget of gorgeousness that makes me stop and think about how great life is and how lucky I am.

Now for the good news.

Actually just some cute photos. :)

Libby has lost all the weight she needed to and is thriving. She desperately wishes she was a lap dog though. Hubby took this photo of Libby trying to climb onto my lap the other day.



You haven't been kissed until you have been kissed by a mastiff. :)

Luca is his charming, sweet self as usual. Here he is with his most favorite toy in the whole world - a stuffed lobster.



He carries it around smiling and wagging his tail. Never chews it or anything, just loves it. The lobster makes a strange burbling noise when it gets squeezed and occasionally Luca sets it off while he is cuddling with it in the dog basket and it scares the bejezus out of us every time.

And lastly, I haven't blogged about this yet, but about a month after we adopted Libby, we adopted two more dogs! (Why yes, we are crazy.) Two little English Toy Spaniel girls joined our family. Both are retired breeder dogs just like Libby was.

This is Sarah, in the basket with Henry and Luca. She is turning three next week. Sarah is a total sweetheart - the kids ADORE her.



And this is Clementine. She prefers to sleep on the couch. :) Clemmie is five years old. She's a bit of a diva.



(Ten points to anyone who can guess why I named them Clementine and Sarah.) :)

They have both settled in and now our dog/animal family is complete. Seriously - no more animals for us!!

Well - that's the update from the Ark.

Sorry for the long post. I couldn't knit tonight because we took the futon couch out of our sitting room - my knitting spot. Our new couch will be delivered tomorrow. Yay! That futon was major uncomfortable. I just hope the new couch has good knitting mojo. :)

Holding My Breath

I haven't blogged about it, but I've been pretty much holding my breath since Sunday.

When I went down to feed the finches that day I found Lily on the floor of her cage in obvious distress. She had all the symptoms of the dreaded egg binding.

Female finches will lay eggs pretty much any time - not just when they are making a nest with a male. Usually there is an egg on the floor of the cage every now and then and it's not a big deal.

Egg binding is when the female has produced and egg but can't lay it - basically it means the egg is stuck. It is always an emergency situation and quite often fatal. Once you find the finch in distress you really only have a matter of hours to fix the situation.

I'm not sure exactly why this happened to poor Lily, the usual explanation is that egg binding is due to extreme malnutrition. I don't see how that can be the case with the diet that my finches get - although there is a possibility that I may have been going a bit too light on the calcium supplement. But this is the first time I've ever had this problem with a finch so I think it is more likely due to the fact that Lily is starting to get on the older side for finches. She is at least three years old but since I got her as an adult from someone else I'm not sure exactly how old she is. Since I have her two sons, Ron Weasley and Fawkes, and they were also both adults when I got them, I'm betting Lily is closer to four years old.(Average lifespan for a Gouldian Finch is 6 years.) Plus, Lily had gone on an egg laying spree for the past few days - I had found three eggs in the cage - so I think her distress was more likely due to her age and to laying too many eggs too fast.

This is the best photo I have of Lily. It's too bad she has her back to the camera because you can't see her beautiful lilac breast. It's one of the rarer mutations and her whole family has it.



Anyhow - I snatched Lily up and got her into a hospital cage. It's a very small cage so that the birds can't tire themselves out with flying. I wrapped a heating pad around the cage and covered it with a towel. Heat is the absolute best thing you can give to a sick bird - regardless of the cause of their illness. I gave her a bowl of food and also a flat ceramic dish of water, both for drinking and to provide humidity. The humidity is supposed to help the muscles to relax and allow the egg to come out. The cage set up I devised worked really well!

I also gave Lily a drop of calcium directly into her beak. Then (and this is sort of gross) I gently massaged her little birdie "backside" with vegetable oil. This is supposed to help the stuck egg come out. I thought to myself - "You have reached a new level of insanity woman! Massaging a finch's ass. Nice." But I couldn't just let her die. I was determined to try everything I could to help her.

I went to bed Sunday night thinking I would wake up to find her dead. I had horrible nightmares all night!

But luckily on Monday morning she seemed slightly better. I gave her another drop of calcium and kept my fingers crossed.

On Tuesday when I checked on her, Lily was standing up! Another drop of calcium in her beak.

By Wednesday Lily was moving around the cage and looking alert. She is still a bit weak so I'm keeping her in the hospital cage for probably a week to help her regain strength and give her a rest.

I think, I THINK, I just may have saved her.

It feels good to win some of these battles sometimes!

Please spare a good thought for little Lily. She's a sweetheart, really gentle and mild.

BTW - It doesn't appear that there was actually an egg stuck inside because one hasn't appeared yet (and it would have by now) so that's another reason I concluded she must have just exhausted herself.

Jenny Weasley

Thanks for all the nice comments on Minerva. I really love her too. She's a special little gal! :)

I'm trying to work my way through "introductions" for all the birds so you guys can get to know them - and not wonder who the heck I am talking about with all these Harry Potter names.

This is Jenny Weasley. She is a female Lady Gouldian - a little over a year old. She is the intended mate for Harry Potter because she is split to blue which means she also carries the blue gene. That amounts to hopefully lots of blue babies. So far though Harry and Jenny haven't taken to each other - but they are both young so I'll try again in a little while.

Jenny has a gorgeous red head and pretty purple chest that has a neat fade out effect near the top. Her body type is a bit too long and skinny for my taste - compare her to Minerva and you will see what I mean. But Jenny is young so she may fill in a bit more. And Harry has the body type I like so we will have to see what their chicks end up with.



Jenny is a yellow back but her color is a bit muddy. There is some green showing through. That's probably due to her genetics - in layman's terms I'd call it a "weak yellow" gene. (And believe me I don't fully understand genetic inheritance in Gouldian's either! It's very complex compared to most domestic animals.)



If you compare Jenny to Godric you will see the difference in their yellows. Godric is a "strong yellow" - which is probably why I get so many yellow babies out of him!

Minerva

Minerva is my ideal of a female Lady Gouldian Finch. Her body type is substantial without being too big. She is nice and healthily round looking. Her colors are super saturated and well defined. Plus she has a wonderful personality. She is quite like her son, Harry Potter. Both are curious and calm. You can see the intelligence in their eyes.

This series of pictures is typical Minerva. First she came closer, curious about what I was doing.



Then she gave me her curious look.



Then she hopped into the dish of oyster grit - just to make sure I knew it was hers.



It's that combination of boldness and stability that I think makes Minerva such a wonderful mama bird - and such a joy to watch!

Godric and Minerva's Chicks

I'm down in the dumps today because Neville has tossed all his chicks again. This time I wasn't able to save any of them. I took the one unhatched egg - which does have a chick in it - and put it under Ron and Rosmerta. So there is a slight hope for that one. But all in all a real bummer of a day. :(

So after the sad news from today and about the green baby I thought I'd perk things up a bit with an update with good news for a change.

Godric and Minerva's 2007 chicks are thriving so far. I'm looking at them with great anticipation, wondering what they will look like as they color in.

Here is Godric sitting with the chick I am calling #2.



What colors will this baby have? I know it has a yellow back and sometimes I think I see hints of a purple chest and possibly a black head. That would be an exciting combination - one I have not seen yet.



But looking at him through the camera isn't revealing any clues. So far baby #2 is keeping his secrets!

But look at chick #1!



Look at the purple coming through on his chest. Doesn't he look proud? I'm excited to see a yellow back with a purple chest. The other yellow backs I have, Ron Weasley and his brother Fawkes both have lilac chests (quite a rare mutation). So I am excited to contemplate the combination of bright yellow with the electric purple. Even though the electric purple is the "normal" color for a Gouldian chest I happen to have far more birds with either lilac or white chests.



So far none of Godric's chicks have inherited his white chest. I hope some of them will someday. But they may not if Minerva doesn't carry that gene as well.

Oh - and keep those fingers crossed - the blue baby seems to be doing well....

Chick Update

Well the two fostered chicks came out of the nest the other day and shortly thereafter the green chick died. :(

There seem to be two "danger zones" times for Gouldian chicks.

The first is - get hatched but don't get tossed. If the chick isn't tossed on the very first day it hatches then usually it will be okay.

The second is - get out the nest successfully. Gouldian chicks seem to be especially vulnerable at this time. They need to keep themselves warm, get fed and learn fly around without injuring themselves.

From my observations over time, these two foster chicks have exhibited subtle differences from the chicks that I have seen that were fully parent raised. The major thing I've noticed is that these chicks don't seem to be as good at begging for food. Godric and Minerva's own chicks are very loud and very persistent. In fact, after leaving the nest, the chicks would go so far as to almost harass their parents, following them everywhere and constantly begging.

The foster chicks seem much lazier and less robust. Even in the nest, their begging was less frequent and less pronounced. And now out of the nest, the blue baby usually only begs when Godric or Minerva happen to come near him. And his begging is more half hearted. If he gets ignored, the chick just seems to accept it. Godric and Minerva seem to be doing their best. I've seen both of them initiate feeding the chick so I don't think it is really their fault.

We had a power outage yesterday so I spent an hour or so observing all of the birds closely. The green chick had already died and I was very concerned about the temperature falling too low for the blue chick. I had taken away then nest as soon as the chicks had fledged (were out of the nest) because I didn't want to encourage Godric and Minerva to abandon the foster chicks to start a new clutch of their own. Fortunately, the power came back on before night fall so I was able to add a little heat lamp to help the blue chick rally.

Cross your fingers - so far he seems to be hanging in there. It could go either way at this point. I don't think he will really be out of danger until he learns to feed on his own. I just hope he will be tough enough to get what he needs until then.

Please Ignore the Big Pile of Poop in the Corner....

Do you see what I see?? Aside from the poop I mean!



Look at the little chick on the right - that's blue feathers folks!! Hooray!

Yesterday I snuck a few pictures of the rescued baby Gouldian Finches. As every frustrated yarn photographer knows, the camera often distorts colors, especially when the flash is used. But I have found that in the case of Gouldian Finches, the view through the camera lens is often very revealing. And this is a perfect example. To the eye, the chick on the left appears a drab olive green, the chick on the right, a light powdery grey. But when the flash bounces off whatever little color particles there are hiding in those feathers sometimes you can see exactly what color these little babies are going to be when they grow up.

Another blue! I'm so excited!

Ahhhh....Spring Cleaning

The blog not the house!

I overhauled the sidebar yesterday. Man that felt good! I was really surprised at how out of date my list of blogs that I read was. Tons of blogs that I have been reading FOREVER weren't even on there. Chris, Carrie, Mrs. Pao, Marina, Jessie, Laura...sheesh. I mean really, as if I could be happy in blogland without reading those blogs! There were many more which I added to list. If I comment on your blog but your blog is not on my sidebar list - it's just because I am an idiot, not because I don't love you. :) My eyes were seriously starting to get blurry by the end of the overhaul. I had to put on my glasses! Don't be shy - drop me an email if I have forgotten to list your blog.

My squares have found a good home. They will be going to Knit Knack for her Blanket of Hope that she is making for a friend who has cancer. I can't wait to see the finished blanket!

Lastly, in bird news: I peeked in on the two "rescued" chicks that Neville had tossed. Godric and Minerva have done a great job raising them. I was very excited to see that the first chick looks like it will be green backed - the normal coloring for a Gouldian - believe it or not this will be my first green backed baby! I was even more excited when I saw the second baby - wow! It is definitely not green. It is a soft powdery grey. So I'm thinking either another blue or some sort of pastel/dilute. This baby is much lighter grey than Harry Potter was as a baby. But it's not as light as the silver baby (which I lost) from the first clutch. So - another exciting "wait and see".

Plus - Godric is doggedly brooding a clutch of three eggs! I had intended to take away the nest after these two babies fledged but I guess Godric had other ideas. Three clutches a year for a pair is okay - but I like to do less. Well - I had wondered why Godric was still hanging out in the nest so much with those almost grown babies - and now I know. I am a bit skeptical about the prospects of these eggs actually hatching under these circumstances but I guess we will see.

Also - Neville and Rowena are on clutch number two. I hope they decide to raise these ones rather than pitch them! Ron Weasley and Rosmerta are on their first clutch as well. These two couples share a cage - so we will see how that works out. No action from Harry Potter and Jenny Weasley yet. I think there won't be any eggs from them this year. They still don't seem very interested in each other in general. Dang. I may have to try them each with a different partner next year.

Hopefully photos of all of this activity later.....

New Blog

After some prompting by Melanie got me thinking I decided to start another blog that will be just devoted to my finches.** I will still be posting about them over here and will be cross posting to my other blog as well. But this way all of you finchy fans out there can get a quick "finch fix" anythime you need one. You know me, I aim to please. :)

My new blog is called: Color and Song: My Life With Finches

I've cross posted all of my old finch posts so now I am good to go for the future.

**You know, come to think of it, Melanie seems to always be getting me to do things. What is up with that? ;)I'm barely keeping myself from joining The-No-End-In-Sight-Ripple-Along. I don't think I can hold out much longer....I was, after all, a crocheter long, long before I was ever a knitter. Plus I do have all that Elann cotton in my stash...Excuse me, I've...um...got to go...um..take a look around in the craft room. Send help if I'm not out of there in a week or so.. :)

The Good News & The Bad News

Well the good news is that it looks like all the finchey good thoughts have worked. Neville and Rowena's two chicks that were tossed have been successfully adopted by Godric and Minerva!

On the day that I transferred the chicks to their new nest, I found one of them back on the floor of the cage shortly thereafter. But I stuck him back up in the nest and kept my fingers crossed. I left them alone and tried really hard not to peek into the cage every five minutes. I finally checked the nest today and there were the two chicks looking happy and begging for food. Yay! The other two eggs from Neville and Rowena's nest should have hatched by now - all the eggs in a clutch usually hatch within a day or two - but these two haven't. I hope they will - but if not, at least I feel good that the other two chicks were saved.

The bad news is that one of the Society babies died today. I don't know what happened to it. I think it may have broken it's neck. These little birds do that to themselves sometimes. They startle so easily. The Societies more so than the Gouldians. I know it's "just one of those things" but I still feel really awful when I lose one of the birds.

Drat!

Turns out Neville is a tosser too!

I found two chicks on the floor of their cage just now. Luckily they were both still alive and very squirmy so I think I found them in time. I immediately put them into Godric and Minerva's nest along with the three other eggs which hadn't hatched yet. I'm pretty sure only two of those eggs were fertile though.

Cross your fingers! It looks like it will work. Minerva flew right back into the nest and snuggled down so looks like she's okay with it. As long as Godric doesn't get upset it should be fine.

Send good finchy thoughts this way!

Gouldian Babies

One of the new Gouldian babies with Harry Potter and his gal Jenny Weasley. They are supposed to be a couple but they have yet to decide to give it a try. I'm hoping they will because Jenny has a blue gene in her and that would result in some awesome babies. This was the only photo I could get of Harry's back feathers - unfortunately the camera flash washes them out and makes them look turquoise rather than bright blue.



The baby and Harry fluffing up.




Looking curious. Isn't he gorgeous?




Harry is a very sweet bird. He is curious and has a very even personality. Some finches can be quite nervous. If you look in the nest box you can see his daddy Godric sitting on another clutch of eggs. At least I'm pretty sure there are some eggs in there - haven't looked. But knowing Godric and Minerva I'm sure there are - they are very industrious. After this second clutch I will take the nest away until next year.

Also - I split up Sirius and Rowena since Sirius tossed all the chicks last year. I paired Rowena up with Neville. It took awhile but they finally have some eggs. So far though I have only seen Rowena sitting on them so I'm not sure how well this will turn out. I didn't take any photos because I don't want to disturb them. Godric and Minerva are very confident birds and could really care less what I do around their nest but most other finches are more nervous.

Society Finches

Baby Society Finches! See how they all pile up on top of each other?

These are the two Daddy birds. The chestnut brown is John and the tan or fawn colored one is Paul. I named them after the Beatles because if you look really closely at the feathers on top of their heads you can see that they have Beatles haircuts. Funny head feathers is one of the prized traits in Society Finches. I have to admit they look really cute that way.

As far as I can tell almost all the babies look like John in their coloring except today I think I saw one that looks like Paul. Several of them have the funny head feathers. You can see it a bit in the picture of the babies in the nest.

Sadly we lost one baby the other day. They sleep with their heads hanging out of the nest and I think he must have fallen and then gotten too cold overnight. That's the hazard of having so darn many I guess.

My Other Family

Readers of my blog already know I have two sweet Italian Greyhounds. The lovely springy weather today prompted me to take some photos of my other family members. I have four Lady Gouldian Finches and one Society Finch.

This is Sirius:

Sirius is a lovely male. You can tell the males by their brighter colors. When they are in breeding condition the tips of their beaks turn red.

This is Sirius with his lady Rowena:

You can really see the difference in coloration between males and females. When females are in breeding condition the tips of their beaks turn black.

This is Neville:

He is our baby. You can see that his beak has not yet turned red. He is also still getting his adult feathers - "coloring in". He will look like Sirius when he is all grown up.

Neville with Nimbus:

Nimbus is a Society Finch. I'm not sure what color mutation he is but he is not a normal colored Society - he is much lighter.

Nimbus again:

I can tell Nimbus is a male not by his coloration but by his song. Nimbus is in love with me and frequently does the Society Finch mating dance and song when I am around.

Here's Ariel:

Ariel is a dilute mutation. Normal Lady Gouldian males have red heads and very bright green back feathers (like Sirius). Ariels head is bright orange and his back feathers are a softer green.

Nimbus, Ariel and Neville:

My three bachelor boys.

I really love my Finch family. Gouldians are very quiet and have gentle, soft chirps, peeps and trills. On the whole they are not big singers. Nimbus on the other hand can out sing a canary! Wherever I am in the house I can hear soft little birdy noises. It's very soothing, like ocean waves from a distance. Their colorful feathers are a continual inspiration. They come in many more color mutations than I have in my little flock, but all are spectacular! The Gouldians are like little packages of happy. A cage full of Gouldians is a riot of color. I'm so lucky to have them!

Finches - like all birds - require specialized care. You can't just throw birdseed at them. Especially if you want them to stay healthy and in top color. Gouldians are also rather hard to find and a bit expensive - especially when most finch species sell for $50 at the most. But I think they are worth it. To me they are the most beautiful, sweet little birds you could ever hope for.

***Melissa noticed they are all named after Harry Potter characters. All except Ariel who is named after the Little Mermaid because my daughter insisted. :) Does anyone know which character Rowena is named after?***