This is a short clip showing our latest baby in his daytime “weaning brooder”. The blue flooring is called “dri-deck” and is very helpful as it gives the baby solid footing which is also easy on his tender feet. The holes allow much of his droppings to fall through. This flooring is changed constantly througout the day. Dri-deck can be cut to any shape you need and is easily cleaned. I simply toss the dirty one in a sink of hot soapy water and then give it a spray with Vanodine. I always have a few clean and disinfected ones set aside to make the clean-up easy. (when using disinfectant such as vanodine, be certain the item is completely dry before placing back in the cage or brooder)

He will be using a water-bottle in a couple of days when he is moved to a larger weaning cage. This brooder has sides which are simply not tall enough to be able to hook up a water-bottle to.

At night, he is placed in his bed-time brooder which has a nice bed of shavings in it that he loves to plow into.

Both the Dri-deck and the Vanodine are available at Healthy-Bird, along with loads of advice. Believe me, I’ve taken full advantage of the latter!

Visit Healthybird and Joanne at www.healthybird.net

Flew the Coop Aviary's Pied Senegal

Pied Senegal Parrot

Not the best shot as his eyes are half-closed but Bantu is back in his cage, happily shredding his Pinata and wolfing down his vegetable-cornmeal mashes. You can see that he is still missing a lot of breast feathers but I noticed the other day that there is a sudden growth-spurt of new downy feathers. It looks ike the 6-week treatment of antibiotics has done a lot of good. He’s eating well, and is more co-ordinated. Despite all the tests and x-rays , it’s unlikely we’ll ever know for certain what exactly is wrong with him, but the general thought is that his liver or pancreas is not up to par. However, he is still calling to all his other bird-buddies in the bird-room and enjoys his daily head-rubs from both myself and my husband. Plus his cage is jam-packed with millet-spray for a nice high-calorie snack between soft-food meals. SO, what the heck, he’ll never be a breeder, but he’s got a real nice life now (even gets tours around the yard with visits to the horses and cows and everything! ).

Great Danes

  The whole collection of Great Dane mugs completed for Amanda of Kaldane Kennels. All these mugs are dishwasher-safe and meant to be used and enjoyed. You can click on the pet portrait category on the side menu for better close-up pics of most of the mugs. Oh-my mistake, there is one more mug that did not make it into this group photo. I’ll take care of that on the next post!  

He is also possibly one  of the very rare true Pied Senegals. It would be a great thrill to see the babies he produced if ever I could find him a suitable mate. 

But it soon became apparent that he was just not “quite right” and I think the females we tried to pair him with sensed it too and no bond ever occurred , though there was a little friendly mutual preening with a very young female.

I took Bantu in regularly to see Dr. Prus and he has had 6 avian panels done but nothing was really showing up. A little calcium deficiency which was easily rectified and a little anemia which was also taken care of. So I kept him in his own cage in the bird room and simply fed him the excellent diet all the birds recieve.

Then 2 weeks ago he just looked a little more listless and more uncoordinated than usual. I got him to Dr. Prus immediately and kept him with her for 3 days so she could observe him and run tests and x-rays.

The x-rays were good and she suspects it is his pancreas causing problems. He is now on a 6 week term of antibiotics and digestive aids.  I am so hoping this will be the end of any health problems for this little guy. He is such a sweetie and has endured such a crappy life due to people’s abuse-by-neglect. I just want to see him happy and secure. He’ll never be a breeder, and that’s just fine. He’s got his other buddies in the bird-room and he gets nightly head-scritches by me every evening. I’ve also been taking him on little tours of our yard on the few sunny warm days we’ve been getting.

While at the Vet he dropped 10 grams of weight which is alarming. But the moment I got him home, before he could even see where he was, he started hollering to his bird buddies-a good sign!!

He is now secured in his snug, warm (82-83 degree) hospital cage, in full view of his flock, and has already put on 4 grams of weight in just a few days.

We are back to see Dr. Prus next week and I’m certain she will see an improvement.

"Querida" One of Flew the Coop Aviary's beautiful Pionus

This excellent article is has now been placed on the website under “Parrot Behavior”

This link will take you to it: http://www.flewthecoopaviary.com/parrotbehavior.html

I recently found some very nice mini earthenware vases that I am going to paint upon. I think they will look just beautiful and may be a really great option for people. They are small enough that the price would still be $45.00 , but just large enough to be easily seen but not obtrusive. Might be a nice alternative for people looking for an inexpensive yet unique gift.

This excellent article has now been posted on the website under “Parrot Behavior”

http://www.flewthecoopaviary.com/parrotbehavior.html

 3 of Kaldane Kennels Great Danes!

This gives a better idea of how a coffee-mug Pet Portrait can look as a collection.  This lady is having her entire collection of beauties done as well as some of the puppies that she has sold to others! These paintings are about 4″ in height and the price for this size is $45.00. You can either send me the item you would like the painting rendered on, or I can get a good idea of what you are looking for first and then email you photos of a few different samples for you to choose from. I just found some really cute earthenware mini-vases that I think are going to look terrific with some little critter on the front!