It's ALIVE!!!

That's a baby pic of "Heddie" by the way, at the top.

A lot of water under the pigeon bridge. I actually had lost the links to this and the login info etc. Who knew I could easily get in via the Google home page? Duh.

Alas, my beautiful Beauty Bird also succumbed to the same mystery illness that claimed Gideon. Now that was devastating. I had her necropsied out of fear it would continue. Short version, non contagious, nothing to do about it.

Since, I've learned so much more! I now call that syndrome pigeon wasting syndrome and have lost several young birds to it over the years sine I last posted on here. Most recently affected was another special hand-reared orphan, Arnie. So far, he is the only one to survive. The difference in the treatment with him was subcutaneous fluids, which I think sustained his life sufficiently for meds and his own system to tough it out.

Looking back on these few old posts makes me realize how far I've come in knowledge and skills with the birds in a couple of years. And oh I know have about FIFTY of them! And a 2nd loft...I am officially a crazy bird lady.

I do intend to find homes for as many as I can this year.

And right now the critical care individual is balloon baby, but his story can wait till tomorrow, for now.

A Heavy Heart

I have been preoccupied, consumed, for the past week with concern and care for one of my sweet little pigeons, Gideon. A Beautiful creature who was given to me this summer, I had treated him for a respiratory condition after bringing him home. His symptoms subsided after the recommended course of therapy and eventually he and his two companions were introduced to the loft with my other birds.

I began to notice he was lethargic and lacked interest in food, so brought him inside where I could observe and care for him if need be. I discovered then that he was vomiting up his food and passing abnormal droppings. Given his overall lethargy and myriad symptoms I decided there was nothing for it but to find an avian vet with experience treating something other than lovebirds, if one could be found. I did locate a good vet within an hour from home and made an urgent trip out to see her.

She did fecal and crop swabs and identified a large # of bacteria as the likely cause of his condition and put him on injections of Baytril (CIPRO) twice daily for 3 days, but by the third day he had lost all his strength and that evening he passed.

I am really devastated by losing him, he was a beautiful bird that I admired instantly on sight and for him to pass away at such a young age is heart-wrenching. I am indebted to the good people at Pigeon-Talk for all their support and help in my clumsy efforts to sustain this young bird through a crisis, and I am posting this message and some pictures here as a memorial to a beautiful fellow that I desperately wish I'd had a chance to know better, and more, that fate had dropped into more experienced hands.

Annoyances

I'd written a post about the ongoing fecal problems in the loft, which have resulted most recently in treatment for worms. THAT has caused new problems amounting to some pretty significant diarrhea, including for the babies, which has me worried (I must worry about something! Everything!)

Anyway, blogger ATE my postin spite of alleged drafts..etc. Well I don't feel like re-creating it all so this is here instead.

I have some new pics and also some little movies, which I'll put up at my photo album site with a link soon as I post them online.

A Day as Pretty as a Picture

Link to an album

Official Worry Wort

Should be my title. This morning I decided BB/Walt aren't feeding their babies enough. There was nothing in either crop. Of course, it was first thing in the a.m. and no one had anything to eat yet. The birds all ate and BB went to the nest and the larger baby proceeded to hog food..I stood waiting and watching till eventually the smaller goomer got his beak in there for some grub too. But baby #1 kept forcing his big beak in her mouth at the same time, and he definately got most of it. Especially that little guy, I'll have to make sure he gets stuffed good and full!

Anyway I've decided to supplement their feeding, starting this afternoon when I get home. It won't hurt, can only help, and I'm concerned since Walter has begun cavorting with every other female in the place! I saw him mating with 16 a couple days ago, this morning, she had a fresh egg. No doubt that one will be fertile..sigh..they've all got to get into the act! They all want babies to feed, I guess.

I suppose I shouldn't be concerned that he'll abandon his nest since he's been so protective and taken such good care of his babies so far, and the squirmer I saw in Woo's is obviously his, too. He takes no interest in that baby and its existence hasn't caused him to lose interest in the pair he has with BB.

I wonder if that squirmer is even still alive, I've seen no movement and the girls won't let me have a clear peek. If it is alive and if it makes it...I'll probably have to name it Squirmer!

Oh, Dear....

I've been convalescing and keeping a low profile, just poking my nose out as much as necessary and turtling again.

On Monday, or perhaps it was Sunday, I was nosing around in the pidgie palace and discovered a bit to my shock and dismay that Woo and her nestmate '15' have a baby in their nest bowl. They had 4 eggs in there, which makes them a pair of females...hanky-panky! They are determined to protect their precious from ogling by ugly bald headed humans so I haven't glimpsed the thrashing squirmer since and have no idea if it's still alive, or...shudder...has siblings. :(

I was quite comfy thinking that the females had bonded and would continue to lay their infertile eggs when the fancy took them and the population would remain under control. EEEK. Meanwhile Mama and Papa apparently are bored with their new home - or maybe they like it a lot - today I found a pair of eggs in their nestbox too. It's her first normal pair, so far she's produced one bad egg per round. Last time one wasn't fertile, maybe such will be the case this time around as well. Hopefully neither of them is any good. I'm beginning to be overrun!

I will be shopping for plastic "dummy" eggs immediately!

The loft can hold up to 30 birds, but I never wanted to have that many! I was pretty content with the 9 or 10 I had - oops.

I've banded both of Beauty's babies, kind of funny, I banded the larger one and the next day I found the band OFF the baby's leg and dumped in the channel outside the bowl..with the POOP. Guess that's what mom and dad think of that ugly green plastic bracelet on their offspring. One of them will be dark! A surprise as his mom and dad are mostly white, his grandparents on mom's side all white, and gramma on dad's side, too...somewhere in there a cross was made and this is it coming back I guess. I took this pic a few days after the first:

you can see the darker one already showing. Today he's got pin feathers starting and his primaries will certainly be dark and maybe his head, he has spots of darker pigmented skin on his feet too...it's much fun watching them grow and imagining what they'll be like when they're bigger (besides fertile!) The smaller/younger of the two isn't getting its fair share of the groceries, I'm afraid, and so far I think it will be white like mom. Maybe it's a boy and a girl...?

Happy Grandma

Beauty's eggs have hatched!!!

Making me an official grandparent of some kind...an official foster grandma? I took this picture Friday the 14th of September so I was pretty close guessing the day the eggs appeared as I was expecting them to hatch this weekend.

So far she is a very protective parent - I only got to have a glimpse and snap their picture when hunger drove her off of them and she was very worried and fretful about my nosing around the nest. I peeked again this morning just to make sure there were still 2 little miracles and so far, so good. My worry circuits have kicked on so I'm about to go out and see if I can nudge papa off for another glimpse.

'15' wants to help feed the little rascals, she obviously has good mothering instincts..I only hope one or more of the 3 new guys really IS a guy so some of the girls in the loft have suitors to choose from. I've heard some romantic cooing sounds coming from their temporary home, I hope they don't get paired up before they even meet the rest of their flock. Tomorrow is moving day for them, provided my cold lets me feel well enough to install some new roosting spots.