Tiny Baby Has a Full Crop - Good Job M & D

November 12 Nestbox Updates

Mommy Lovebird Keeping and Eye on Me

Four Little Sweethearts

Well, I'm pleased to say that we have four healthy lovebird babies. Sadly number four out of the five eggs did not make it ;however, number five - even though he/she is much smaller than the others- is doing great!! What a little trooper :o) That's the way it works regarding size. A baby will hatch every second day. Given that they grow soooooooo fast a six day old baby can be much bigger than a two day old baby. I was surprised and delighted to find number five chick to not only to have survived but be a feisty little guy - doing great. I haven't intruded with my camera today but I did get some shots a few days ago. M(mommy) and D(daddy) are doing a wonderful job. It is a huge job and very tiring. They both work together to keep all the little mouths well fed. Mom does most of the sitting and dad eats and eats and eats and then goes into the nest and regurgitates it to feed wife and kids. He does this all day long.

I'm keeping their food dishes well stocked with veggies, rice, eggs, pasta and sprouted seed and legumes. It really is worth it to feed the healthy diet. it keeps the parents and babies strong.

Next week I'll start hand feeding these little sweeties.

Baby Lovebirds

Four Beautiful baby Lovies!! The biggest one is a week old now and we can tell that he/she'll be green. They are growing fast and I'll pull them in a week's time for handfeeding. It looks like the week between Christmas and New Year's Day is when they will be ready to go.
I'm very much looking forward to the hand feeding. It is such a wonderful experience.

So far nothing has hatched in English Budgie land...being patient (:>}=

UPDATE on Babies

Well...it's been a very crazy month. I've had a couple of family crisis so I've been away from my computer for most of October.
Here it is Halloween already and to mark the day we have a brand new - less than a day old lovebird. I think that this one will be known as "Pumpkin". This little chick looks great and actually quite large for one so young - a real bruiser!
Stuart and Sunshine were taking great care of their clutch of five eggs but alas - they were not viable. That's not unusual for the first time. Sunshine is now sitting on two new eggs - we'll see.
Hedwig and Winston (English Budgies) have six eggs in their nest box - the first having been laid on the 20th of October - good job Hedwig :o)'
On October 5th I acquired a beautiful pair of Splendid Parakeets at a bird show here in Ottawa. They are just as their name suggests - splendid..
I have also just finished making my very first homemade bird cage. it was fun and I still have a couple of finishing touches to add. Two Gouldian finches and two Bengalese finches are living in it so far. As soon as I get a chance I will post pictures of all of the above.

Eggs-iting!!

Stuart and Sunshine have three eggs in the nest. This will be their first clutch. I realise that sometimes things don't go smoothly the first time around so I won't count my budgies ...just yet.
English Budgies have their nest boxes. They are still suspicious of them though. "What the heck...??" They should soon get the idea.
The lovebirds are also working on their nest. They are experienced though as this will be their third time at parenting. They are really sweet and gentle birds and make really nice babies. I'm still hoping for a chick that looks like the mother - dilute yellow with a baby blue rump. It is a really beautiful colour. Right now the pale yellow on mommy LB's face is grubby looking as she's tearing up newspapers. She needs a bath.
Ozzie has expanded his vocabulary and is now saying "good boy" and "sweet baby" as well as "good budgie" It's so cute and really amazing to hear such a voice on a little fellow who's head is hardly bigger than a grape.

New Birds

I'm so very excited to be getting back into the swing of things. September is always a new beginning for me - more so than January 1st.
The summer was great. Our family a few fun getaways. We love spending time in nature - both camping and cottaging. There's nothing quite as nourishing for my soul as a good campfire and sleeping in a tent. However, I really missed my birds and am glad to be not going away from them for the next good while.

The latest arrivals at Heartsong are lovely lovely birds. They are beautiful and cute at the same time. They are gorgeous colours and I can't stop admiring them. What are they?? English Budgies... big beautiful English Budgies. I have three pairs now and they are great!!! If you're not familiar with English Budgies you should be (:>}= They are MUCH bigger than the American - pet shop - version. They are also very calm - which I love. So two pairs will get their nest boxes in October. The other "pair" are too young being only three and five months old. I may end up taming them and just playing with them for about a year as they are simply adorable.
I also have a pair of regular budgies working on their nest. One of those is Stuart and the other is Sunshine. They are both pied and should have some amazing babies. They are going through the cuttle bones like crazy. They are also eating a wide variety of fresh foods as are all the others. Well, all but the new EB's but I will gradually introduce these to fresh foods. First I'm letting them get settled in... and spending a lot of time just admiring them.