RIP, Jeff Saturday

Jeff Saturday passed away over the weekend. Friday evening, Thomas noticed a tumor, which explained why Daphne had been picking at him -- trying to drive the unhealthy from the flock. When we went to bed Friday night, he was eating, chirping, and playing normally.

Saturday morning, he was huddled in the opposite side of his cage. I pulled him out and immediately knew that things were not well. I sat with him on the couch, pressed to my chest as I softly told him everything would be ok and preened the back of his neck. Thomas was preparing to rush him to the emergency vet; we knew most likely the only treatment would be euthanasia.

He didn't last that long. He died against my chest, enveloped in my hands. Once the ground thaws, we will bury him in the same area as our other deceased budgies, Lenny (2005) and Ethel (2006).

Jeff only lived with us for a little over two months, but we became quite attached to him in that short time. Daphne has been unusually quiet the past few days, and has been soliciting more attention from us than usual.

While I am happy that I was there to comfort him during his final moments, I wish we would have had more time with him, and I hope that he didn't suffer. I like to think he knew he was loved during the short time he spent in our house.

Snow and updates

Here is a picture of what our driveway looked like Wednesday, early evening. I have heard conflicting reports about how much snow fell in that 24 hour period, but it was definitely over a foot. Add drifting and the wind, and we shoveled a lot of snow! We hope to go skiing this weekend and take advantage of the weather. On Sunday, it is supposed to get down to minus 35 degrees with the windchill, so I am hoping to not leave my house much! That's Thomas shoveling. I did more than my fair share of shoveling; I just stopped briefly to take this picture :)

Here are Jeff Saturday and Daphne, on the last day that they shared a cage. I noticed that she was picking on him quite a bit -- she had actually picked out some of his feathers and caused him some minor discomfort. He is back temporarily in his hospital cage as we separate them until a new set-up can be made. I had been feeling better about their arrangement as they had been spending a lot of time together, but now I'm not willing to risk anything. I don't understand how the sweetest budgie in the world (Daphne) can be so nasty to other budgies!

Last week, we received another package of toys and toy components from The Parrot Asylum. Inside was a surprise: little pieces of candy -- wood wrapped in paper. My parrots loved this! Here is Max, working on a piece.
And here is Calypso. When he is very happy, sometimes he shuts his eyes. I imagine he gets caught up in the moment.
And here are a couple of videos that I think demonstrate the differences in their personalities. Max slowly and methodically works the paper until she unwraps what's inside. Calypso just attacks with caique abandon.

During his video, you can hear Rocky scream a bit. He sometimes gets jealous when attention is paid to a different parrot and doesn't always express his displeasure in appropriate ways! So, in many of my parrot videos, you can hear some severe macaw screams in the back. He actually has greatly decreased the amount of screaming that he does, and I'd say it's now at a tolerable amount, considering he is a wild parrot!

Here's wishing everyone a safe and warm weekend!

Over the past few days, we've noticed that Jeff Saturday and Daphne seem to be getting along better and better. They are still not preening each other (and Jeff Saturday does have some pin feathers!) but they are usually quite close to each other.

We attached a small platform to Daphne's cage about a year ago. One of her favorite places to be is perching below that platform. Jeff Saturday has taken to perching on top of the platform whenever she is there. And, if he's on the platform, she'll perch under it.

If something scares one of them, they will both often fly off at the same time and land in pretty much the same place. Yesterday, we retrieved them from behind the TV set, behind the lizards' tanks, and from under Calypso's cage. We never leave them out unattended as we don't want any of the larger parrots causing them harm!

In this photo, they are hanging out near the door to their cage. Sometimes they both hang out on top of the door by the wire. We've also noticed that they are either on the same level or Jeff Saturday is higher than Daphne. She is never higher than him. We're glad that things have been working out so well with them!

Also, Jeff Saturday is increasingly tame. He's still a bit hesitant to step up from his cage, but we've been working on that, and he's greatly improving. Daphne is one of the tamest budgies I've ever seen, so hopefully she's been giving him some pointers on living with humans!

Sending holiday cheer with parrots!

In the past, we've purchased bird-themed Christmas cards from National Wildlife Federation and sent our holiday greetings along with a professional picture of a cardinal or bunting. This year, we decided to join the growing trend of people who use their own pictures on their card.

Of course things don't always go as planned! I knit Rocky a scarf, to make it more festive, and here are a few of the pictures that we didn't use:

Daphne didn't want to pose next to this pine bough:
And although the budgies were willing to perch in front of our Christmas cactus, the lighting just wasn't right.

Thomas tried to take a picture of Beeps in front of the cactus -- he is our most photogenic bird, after all. However, Beeps was having a particularly rough day with regards to technology and jumped him as soon as the camera came out. Luckily, Thomas has reflexes like a cat, leaped out of the way of Beeps's impending attack, and Beeps flew back to his cage where he didn't have to come face-to-face with an evil camera.

Here is the best of the bunch, and the one that we sent out to everyone:

Festive, and involving knitting. What could be better?

Jeff Saturday flew over to Thomas last weekend while he was playing some video games -- fitting in as part of the family!

If you look closely, you can see Rocky's head protruding from Thomas's T-shirt. Where else would he be?

Things are going pretty well with the budgies. They've been together a little over 2 weeks now. Jeff Saturday wants to be friends with Daphne, but she continues to rebuff his advances. At least she is no longer attacking him! We're hoping that with some additional time, she will come to accept him and they will preen each other. Jeff Saturday is molting and has pin feathers on his head. I'm sure Daphne could do a better job of removing the sheaths than Thomas or me!

Budgie introduction going well so far

Thomas got home before me on Tuesday, and I came home to find the above scene. He said that when he got home, Daphne was guarding the water dish and Jeff Saturday was looking longingly at the water. So, he brought Daphne into the kitchen with him to let Jeff Saturday have the cage to himself for a bit. However, they started calling for each other, so he brought Jeff Saturday in the kitchen as well.

I ran into the same scene on Wednesday, so I added a water dish to the budgies' cage, and took this video of them calling to each other (the video itself is not all that interesting, but you can hear him calling from the other room).

This morning, I enclosed Jeff Saturday between my shirt and zippered second layer (it's so cold here I've been wearing several layers!) and did the birds' foods and waters. He loved exploring under there! I can't have him on my shoulder, or Max will buzz him and I don't want to scare the little guy. He is a little tame, but nowhere near where Daphne is, so I'm trying to get him used to being near people. He is hesitant to step up, especially on/near his cage, and will often fly off my hand. Daphne, on the other hand, runs over to be picked up and always stays on my hand, even though she is fully flighted at this time.

There has also been a large reduction in the squabbling between the two, so I feel fairly confident that he has become a permanent member of our family!

It has been so cold and snowy the past week. Today was the first day I had to run in sub-10 degree weather in quite some time. I did warm up, but it took longer than I remembered! I also had to jump straight into the shower upon my return home, neglecting my normal routine of getting the parrots up first, so they were a little miffed at me this morning!

We have another bird

Over the weekend, a darling budgie was surrendered to the bird rescue where we volunteer. He is a 4-years-old and tame. His previous owner died, which is why he was surrendered. I have been looking for a companion for Daphne for some time. Budgies are very social animals and do well when kept with others of their kind. I fell head over heels for this little guy, so we took him home.

Unfortunately, at this point, Daphne does not feel the same way. She's been pecking at him, and they've been hanging out on opposite sides of their cage. We'll give it a few weeks, and if she never warms up to him, we'll have to bring him back to the rescue to find a new home.

He came with the name of "Sundance," so we are planning on changing his name. I was thinking Stan, Gordon, or Victor, but Thomas wants to name him Jeff Saturday. That is the name of an Indianapolis Colt, but Thomas just likes the name, as we are not Colt fans.

I have more funny pictures and stories to share, but want this entry to be all about Jeff Saturday, so those will have to wait until later in the week!