Paquita the Parrotlet

[Wolf]

I am pressed for time for all of my animals and so I try to let the birds all out at the same time so as to not short anyone on their one on one time. All of my birds are much bigger than Paquita is, she weighs about 1 ounce and my Grey and my Amazon both weigh a pound or more and Kiki. my Senegal weighs about 6 ounces. I also have two 100 pound puppies and 6 cats. So it just made sense to me that if she were to be out at the same time that she would need extra protection, So I thought about the old clear plastic hamster balls and decided to try it , provided that she would accept it. Well she not only accepts it, she really likes it.

[liz]

I love it. Sounds like your house is as full as mine.

I think I have you beat with variety. 2 boxers, 5 house dogs, 5 cats that don't get along, two Amazons, four cockatiels, one Lovie, two Budgies, two aquariums and a herd of hermit crabs.

More than half are my daughters and she is working a job out of state. She only comes home to do her laundry and visit her friends.

I am overwhelmed.

[Wolf]

I love boxers, they are my favorite dog breed. I lost my last one to old age just over a year ago, and I still am missing her.

[Pajarita]

No, I beat you both: 7 dogs, 7 cats (and 7 or 8 ferals I feed twice a day), 1 mouse and over 40 birds (parrots, canaries, finches, cardinals and 1 button quail) But "2 boxers and 5 'house' dogs"? I don't understand what this means... are 'house' dogs some kind of specific mix of dog or does this refer merely to the fact that they live in the house while the boxers don't?

[Wolf]

I promised an update on Paquita a few days ago, but with all that is gong on this is the first time that I could clear my head enough and find the time to even try.
Keeta as I tend to call him is a boy and not a girl, another person posted that they thought that he was a boy and so I went looking for answers and found that on the males there would be a place in the center of their back running down to where the tail feather begin that would be a nice blue color that was absent in the female of this species. Alas, I couldn't tell as this area was plucked when Paquita came to me. Recently there has been a decrease in the plucked areas and this area grew 3 nice pretty cobalt blue feathers, which marks Paquita as a boy and not a girl as was originally thought. Since I have been calling Paquita, Keeta, and in the interests of continuity I am now calling him Skeeter as it is very close to Keeta in sound and also because this bird isn't much bigger than a mosquito ( Skeeter ).
Skeeter has always been a little bird with this small little buzz saw on his face and if I wasn't busy petting him when he was out he would always busy himself with finding any scab on my hands to rip of or chew the tips of my fingers right along the sides of the nail as well as the tips. After enough of this your finger tips really get to be quite tender to the touch, but he has recently started to tone the buzz saw down a bit and will now sit in my hand for up to 1/2 half hour without destroying the tips of my fingers and he also will climb up to my face and give me kisses. The first time he did this kiss thing I just knew I was in trouble but he hasn't hurt me yet.
He is happily eating gloop every morning, boy this little bird can pack it away for his size. Oh he also like raw kale for his favorite green leafy veggie.
As soon as I open his cage he has been flying over to me and pooping right away and whether it was morning or evening the volume of it made me think that he was holding it until he could get out, but this too is changing and they are now normal sized poops, had me worried for a while. He still likes his bubble, but his favorite perch is on my hands.
That pretty well covers everything that I can think of at this time with him. Sorry it took so long.

[Pajarita]

Skeeter/Keeta might very well be a boy but I have found that, when a bird plucks the same spot for some time, the feathers could grow back a different color. Sophie (CAG) got red feathers growing on her legs after she plucked them for a while, BabyBoyd (lesser Jardine) got orange feathers growing on the sides of her head after they grew back when the friend that used to preen/pluck her head died and a Quaker I used to have grew blue feathers on her chest when she finally let them grow so it's possible that the reason why those feathers are blue is because they were plucked before.

Why don't you order a DNA kit online to find out the gender for sure? It's actually inexpensive, easy and fast and it would be better if you found out because I am still looking for a mate for him/her and we need to know what sex we need to get (there's been lots of females on CL).

[Wolf]

Where do you get one?

[Pajarita]

This is the one I've used in the past (I've always used the blood samples -drawn by the vet when I do the initial blood work- but people say the feather testing is just as accurate and it's only $24.50): http://www.avianbiotech.com/SexingCenter.htm

[Wolf]

Well I still haven't ordered the DNA test kit as of yet, although I will later on. I was looking at Skeeter and although he is beginning to feather out there is still mostly just the down feathers and I don't want to pluck any of them so I will wait a bit for more of the regular contour feathers to grow in.
He has taken to getting mad at me if I am a little late in getting him out of his cage... late in his idea of it. He starts chittering ( don't have a better word for it) and flying about in his cage like a crazy bird to get my attention. It is surprising how much of a ruckus he can make doing this. He stops the instant that he sees that he has my attention and then I go and open his door so that he can come out. He just loves leaning over against the meaty portion of my hand at the base of my thumb to get his head rubbed, his all time favorite spot is under his beak and he is so funny when he turns his little head upside down for his petting in this spot. He is so little that it is hard to pet him there as it isn't much larger of an area than my finger is wide.
Kiki no longer minds him being on or in my hand when she is out and perching on my shoulder. I do know that it does actually bother her some, even though she doesn't do anything about his being there. It has made her jealous enough that she tries harder to talk to me at this time than at any other time and has almost managed to actually say " I love you" it sounds more like " eh uh ou" so I can recognize what she is trying to say.

[Pajarita]

Bad daddy, making the baby wait for his love quota! My Zoey is real nasty to any other bird that is anywhere near me, forget about a birdie perching on me! And now, Isis is beginning to fly by me and push poor Codee off my shoulder, too.... Ay, ay, ay those bird jealousies!