Trained Parrot BlogParrot Wizard Online Parrot Toy StoreThe Parrot Forum

Pajarita's update

Place to share personal stories, pictures and videos of your parrot.

Re: Pajarita's update

Postby Pajarita » Sat Jan 25, 2020 11:09 am

So yesterday, my husband and I went to the New Jersey State Museum for the Birds exhibit. It's a very small museum and the exhibit is also VERY small but there were a couple of things that I enjoyed a lot: the Carolina Parakeet specimen, a male and female Passenger Pigeon and the side by side of the taxidermy species with the art representation of them (mostly figurines but some paintings, too).

What I noticed about the comparison of the 'real' birds and their representations is that, believe it or not!, the real birds looked much more colorful than the figurines or the paintings -one would think it would be the other way around, right? - and, not only because one would think that artists would try to make their work look prettier than reality but also because taxidermy degrades in time so the feathers became dull and faded in time.

I had never seen an actual Passenger Pigeon and was surprised by their size - they were pretty big! The male looked quite ratty (the end of its tail was all raggedy and shortened) but taking into consideration that they became extinct in the early 1900's, it was understandable.

And, of course, for me, the piece de resistance was seeing the Carolina Parakeet - which must have been absolutely BEAUTIFUL! It was smaller than a quaker, much thinner (had an elongated body and none of the 'roundness' of the quakers), with longer wings and a shorter tail, and the plumage (which must be completely faded by now as it also became extinct in the early 1900's) was astounding in that it was almost uniformly multicolored. The head and such were yellow/orange in color but although I doubt you can see it on the pictures, what looks to be green (like the wings and back) actually had feathers of different greens going to almost yellow. Gorgeous!

Unfortunately, I can't share the pictures with you because this site does not allow for direct uploading, Photobucket is now paid and all the sites that upload them into the net ask for a cell number so they can text a code to them and I don't have one.
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes

Re: Pajarita's update

Postby Pajarita » Mon Jan 27, 2020 9:50 am

I remembered my email and password for Photobucket and could access my account so here are the pictures my husband took for me:

Carolina keet close-up:

Image

Carolina keet with identifying label:

Image

Passenger pigeons with nest and egg:

Image
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes

Re: Pajarita's update

Postby Pajarita » Wed Feb 26, 2020 9:36 am

I might have a surprise for you, guys, tomorrow...
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes

Re: Pajarita's update

Postby Pajarita » Thu Feb 27, 2020 11:00 am

And now (drum roll) the surprise: I got a new quaker! It's only a few months old (was born in Aug/2019) and is a lutino! I found it by sheer coincidence when I went to Delaware Craigslist to flag (which is something I don't do often - I do all of NJ, NYC and Philadelphia every day but seldom go to another state or city). The posting was the very first one on the list and it had been placed only 20 minutes before so, as I have always wanted a lutino quaker and Keku did not have a companion of her own species, I replied and went to pick it up last night. The owner (I suspect she bred him herself) called it a 'he' but, of course, it's too soon to tell although I might be able to sex him as it gets older (for some reason, I seem to have a knack for guessing gender in some species and quakers are one of them). Wings are intact and it is VERY high-strung - it has also been fed way too much protein (free fed a seed mix that should never be used for parrots) but it is so young that no real damage has been made.

I have a picture of him but I forgot my sign on to photobucket AGAIN!
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes

Re: Pajarita's update

Postby Chai » Mon Mar 02, 2020 12:43 pm

Congratulations on your new quaker! If you ever remember your login I'd love to see a picture, I bet he's just beautiful.
Chai
Lovebird
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 37
Number of Birds Owned: 3
Types of Birds Owned: White-fronted Amazon, 2 African Greys
Flight: Yes

Re: Pajarita's update

Postby Pajarita » Tue Mar 03, 2020 9:19 am

Thank you! He IS beautiful! Don't misunderstand me, I love all birds no matter what they look like. They can be rare mutations -which, in truth, do not remain 'rare' for long because once a 'new' mutation is achieved, all the breeders jump on the wagon and start producing it because they are more expensive- the more common mutations (in quakers, it's the turquoise one, like Keku), the phenotypes and even the plucked ones. To me, there is no such thing as an ugly bird (or dog, or cat or any animal), and it's not as I was any different than anybody else because this happens to all of us. Once we get used to seeing something all the time, it doesn't strike us as 'ugly' or even different - even awesome sights turn commonplace once you get used to it. I not only love my pluckers, I find them just as delightful as the pretty birds and, if I was to be completely honest, I even love them a bit more because I 'feel' for them as the fact that they pluck tells me they suffered more.

But he is gorgeous and that's no lie! His plumage is not only yellow but a bright, saturated sunflower yellow with pink beak and legs. I will endeavor to remember my sign on in Photobucket and, if I can't remember it, I will open another account. I owe everybody a good update and will try to post pictures of the birds, too - I've just been (and continue to be) super busy with the house (fixing it to sell it).
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes

Re: Pajarita's update

Postby Pajarita » Mon Mar 23, 2020 10:12 am

With the heaviest of hearts, I have to inform you that my beloved Keku, the love of my life, passed on Saturday at noon. I do not know what happened. I noticed she wasn't herself on Thursday (not vocalizing, much less active, fluffed up) and put her in the hospital cage with heat overnight after giving her antibiotics. Friday morning, I saw she was not eating so I gave her more antibiotic and handfed her baby bird formula because she had lost a lot of weight (this was MY fault because I had not noticed she was losing weight :cry: ), called my avian vet and found out the office was closed because they had one employee come down with coronavirus and everybody had quarantined themselves so I fed her again that night and gave her more antibiotic. But I am pretty sure now that it wasn't any kind of infection because she kept on getting worse until she died at noon. I was so devastated that I locked myself in my bedroom - did not want to talk or see anybody, not even the dogs who are always with me (my husband stayed with them and took care of everybody's dinner that night). Unfortunately, I won't even be able to get a necropsy done on her so my husband buried her in the backyard and put a stone as a marker so I would know where she is. I can't even begin to tell you how heartbroken I am and how terribly guilty I feel...

All the other birds are doing fine - everybody eating, flying around, vocalizing, etc. The only one that could use a bit more weight is Jauney, the new quaker, so I put him on antibiotics, heat and a handfeeding a day. I do not believe that Keku had anything contagious but just in case...
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes

Re: Pajarita's update

Postby Chai » Mon Mar 23, 2020 1:39 pm

I'm so sorry for your loss Pajarita. I can only imagine what a wonderful life she had with you; I know you do your very best for them. Sending gentle hugs.
Chai
Lovebird
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 37
Number of Birds Owned: 3
Types of Birds Owned: White-fronted Amazon, 2 African Greys
Flight: Yes

Re: Pajarita's update

Postby Pajarita » Thu Mar 26, 2020 8:50 am

Thank you - you would not believe how much I miss her! I cry every single morning and evening when I approach her cage... I can't believe she is no longer here with me. But it was worse than I suspected because Jauney died the same night I posted that so, obviously, it was contagious, he was sick when he came in and even though he was still quarantined, Keku managed to get sick from it (she was always one to be stealing the produce from the other birds). My husband and I have spent the last two days disinfecting EVERYTHING - and people cannot even begin to imagine the HUGE amount of work that means because you need to scrub cages, walls, windows, floors, change all perches, toys, soak bowls in a Clorox solution, send all draperies to the cleaners, wipe all furniture, etc. etc. I also put all my birds on antibiotics. All I had left was tetracycline -which is not the best for psittacosis which is what I suspect- but it will work until the doxycycline I ordered arrives today (thankfully, my dog and cat vet gave me a prescription for it because I still haven't been able to get my avian vet). They are all doing OK, nobody has lost any weight and everybody is active, eating, pooping, flying normally. I contacted the woman that gave me the lutino and she says her birds are doing OK but she had rehomed the parents so I told her to contact these people and for her and the new owners of the parents to follow the protocol (disinfecting, treating for a month).

Unfortunately, I ended up with a pain on the left side of my chest so I promised my husband I would go to bed after posting here. He is terrified I will end up with pneumonia again (I have an auto-immune condition and real bad lungs because of almost 50 years of asthma so, whenever my immune system gets more depressed than usual -the auto-immune has it working overtime all the time, I end up with pneumonia and I already had five of them, two of them affecting both lungs). But, so far, no fever so we are still good.
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes

Re: Pajarita's update

Postby Pajarita » Wed Apr 15, 2020 10:35 am

Just a quickie to let you know that Annie laid an egg so, as I suspected, she is not a male (as the breeder said) but a female. Also, I did not like the eggshell on it... I found it to be a bit too thin for my taste so she got two extra doses of vit D3 and Calcium (all the birds were on a three week antibiotic treatment and that meant no multivitamin/mineral supplement).
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes

PreviousNext

Return to Parrot Tales

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 14 guests

Parrot ForumArticles IndexTraining Step UpParrot Training BlogPoicephalus Parrot InformationParrot Wizard Store