Alright, guys. Starving orphan arriving in T-16 hours. Help me dot my i's in prep

[bug_n_flock]

Baby is doing well. She likes Alex, or at least she thinks she does. She has spent much of her time on the first floor on me, but her qt cage is in the guest room on the 2nd floor. My mom moved her bird Key into her bedroom for the duration of qt, and my birds live on my floor of the house(top floor, converted attic). She calls to him when she is in her cage tho. Cute. She also likes one of the nonesense noises I make pretty frequently (Fatty learned to mimic this noise a couple weeks ago so once qt is up they will have fun chatting together).

She has demolished 1/2 of a spray millet, tho I think she only ate 1/3-1/2 of the half. Silly thing. Overall doing well.

Just got a boat load of veggies and fruits to let her sample tomorrow. We are going into day two of a baaaaad wind storm, and the wind is picking up by the min. Lights flickering. My plan for power out is to be a human heat pad and basically just not sleep until the power comes back. But any other ideas? Got maybe 4.5 hrs of sleep last night for good reasons, but I'm still suuuuuuuuuuper tired and absolutely would prefer sleep. Hot water bottles seem kinda unreliable. House temp will drop significantly if we lose power. Any input that lets me sleep if we go dark?

From phone

 

[Carl_Power]

You could put a rug or thick blanket over the cage maybe? X

 

[Carl_Power]

How did things go last night? Good I hope x

 

[bug_n_flock]

Did not lose power and baby had a nice big formula feed this morning. I got plenty of sleep: two blocks of 4-5 hrs each. Feel very refreshed! currently am ignoring baby in her qt cage (she needs to learn to eat and play and just generally learn that she won't be on me at all times), so I am upstairs with Alex and Fatty. They are even getting along with each other... sortof. I thibk they've missed me since I've been focused so much on the little one.

What about the name Waddles for the baby? Haha because of her slight splay leg she waddles. I was thinking maybe a cool strong viking name though, on account of what all she has been thru.

Baby got banana and mini sweet peppers to try nomming on this morning.

From phone

 

[Carl_Power]

Thats awsome. Seems everything went well last night and both you and Waddles are doing great. I think your doing the right thing letting gain a little independance also. You guys are gonna have a really special bond.

As for names, i like Waddle too or Pingu is cool to coz he is a penguin and always waddles but can be a girls name too or go with a bad ass viking name x

 

[FlyBirdiesFly]

Why is it that smaller birds are always attracted to cockatiels? Pearl is in love with Ducky and chases him around. Glad to hear the birdie is doing well. Waddles is a great name! Or maybe Puddle... it just seems like a good name for a short, stout lovebird.

 

[bug_n_flock]

Oh jeeze. Little baby is going to be tough to name, I like all of these suggestions.

Alex hates all of his avian adorers though lol. He will serenade the parakeet on occasion(has not met the baby yet), but usually he HATES when Fatty gets too close. He literally will throw a tantrum until I come get one or both of them if Fatty gets within like two feet of Alex usually. Brat. Earlier today Alex was on his roost in the back of his cage napping and Fatty was standing in the door to Alex's cage chattering to himself. That is pretty much the closest Alex has ever tolerated him being for that long. Progress!

Monkey biscuits were delivered today (what whaaat! Only listing I could find with a smaller pack than 40 pounds had free Standard shipping as the only shipping option, but it came in only a few days and was actually sent priority mail super happy to say). I soaked two and offered them to the little one, who did nibble on them a bit I believe. Got through another half spray of millet shredding and eating some of. Thru the day was offered more budgie seed(hulled), banana slices (nibbled) sweet peppers (ignored I think), banana peel (ignored I think), zupreem cockatiel sized fruitybits(ignored).

Tomorrow we will try mango, watermelon, and yellow squash. I'll check to see if I have juice and maybe walk to the store if not and see if soaking the monkey biscuits in juice makes them more interesting. As much to get out of the house as to get juice lol, and I'll probably grab some kind of fruit and/or veggie baby food. When I bred budgies I would use babyfood to both help in weaning and to help get them used to the taste of fruit and veg.

Bitty thing is becoming more and more eager at mealtime, and is fluttering and helicoptering up for chin cuddles. I don't have any idea how, but the baby managed to avoid being clipped in her previous homes. Until I have a reason to (hopefully not until moving day approaches), I do not plan to clip her.

I brought my phone in for her bed time feed but then forgot to take any photos d'oh! But I am happy to say her keel has fleshed out noticeably. Still skinny, but has gained a noticable amount of weight. Going to give her a cuttlebone tomorrow, and order her a manu mineral block and any other beak conditioning products I think might be ok. Any advice here? She is rubbing her beak and grinding a lot, I'd like to give her bigger tools for grooming, in addion to proper nutrition and care. Hoping to avoid a beak trim and have her get it done naturally and less stressfully than a trim.

From phone

 

[bug_n_flock]

Oh, and of course several formula feeds.

From phone

 

[Carl_Power]

You have everything under control. Cuttle bone would be enough for her beak i think but other options can only help. Her putting weight on is the best sign. Keep doing what your doing and feel very proud of yourself and get pics too x

 

[FlyBirdiesFly]

Ducky is afraid of a wee little budgie. Ducky was just trying to peacefully eat in his cage when Kermit and Pearl managed to get the door open a crack and invite themselves in. Ducky, terrified, managed to squeeze past those two and fly out as fast as he could. And what did Pearl do? Turned around and flew right out of Ducky’s cage to go be with him. And Kermit the jerk proceeded to devour Ducky’s pellets.

 

[bug_n_flock]

Goodness gracious me! Houston, we have liftoff!

She flew across the room on to the top of my head. O.O
And has not stopped since. Thankfully she doesn't just fly to me, she also has taken some exploratory flights to interesting things waaay over there. Not fully fully flighted, but she is officially now a fledgeling. Awkwardness and all.

From phone

 

[FlyBirdiesFly]

Great news! Soon you’ll be swarmed by birds zooming everywhere. Welcome to the life of owning flighted birds!

 

[bug_n_flock]

Hmm. Any thoughts on how long to run qt? With her being so young and her start so stressful, part of me thinks if she had had anything I would know by now or soon anyway, and that I might be ok to do only a 14 day qt. Part of me says she had such a shady history that I shouldn't chance it and should keep up with full power qt as tho she 100% definitely had super virulent bird aids and do a clothes change and full scrub between her and the other two for 30 days. What do you guys think?

 

[LordTriggs]

I think a healthy middle ground on the QT. Keep the full 30 days so she can get all grown up and get some meat on her bones and bond to you instead of making a beeline for one of the other 2 to call her best friend

 

[bug_n_flock]

Is the name Alice too close to Alex? My gut says yes and it will just confuse my birds, but figured it couldn't hurt to get a second opinion. I went ahead and ordered her a nice big cage as I am pretty sure she will be staying with me post weaning. Also put in another big toy parts order as I imagine she will be quite a bit rougher on her toys than either of the other two. Fatty mostly flirts with his toys and Alex doesn't gnaw and shred like he did in his youth.

Still mostly eating formula, and flying around being a pest and also learning skills. She can hover! Not the most graceful in flight on the whole, but wow: she can hover!

It's interesting the differences in how they behave. Fatty will hop to perches and climb bars and fly short amounts, not really having a clear preference. Alex climbs EVERYWHERE, only hopping even on occasion, basically never even attempting to fly. The baby is terrible on her feet and prefers to fly over pretty much any other mode of transport, except maybe chin cuddle rides. Those are pretty great. Also top of head rides.

I've adjusted my rough estimate of her age by a few days. I don't think she was 5 weeks when I got her. Maybe 4.5, but I don't think 5 weeks. Shrug, maybe the person bought her at 4 weeks and had her for several days so just rounded up a week rather than say 4 weeks, x days. who knows, not that a handful of days really matters in the grand scheme of things anyway though.

 

[FlyBirdiesFly]

I would think the name Alice would confuse Alex. Wonderful news with the flying! My birds always choose to fly everywhere, except in their cages. Which cage did you end up buying? I thought you were going to keep her, with no question about it.

 

[bug_n_flock]

I went with one that I may end up replacing as the price seemed really good(perhaps too good, but the reviews seemed ok): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075T5Q4PF/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I was open to her going back to the people who bought her from the breeder since I didn't want to feel like I was "stealing" their bird lol, but barring that was going to keep her. They don't seem super pressed to get her back so she is mine.

 

[FlyBirdiesFly]

Wow that is a great price for a flight cage like that! Actually, that would be a great cage for Fatty. If his current cage is big enough, you can give it to the baby as you said Fatty’s cage has 5/8” bar spacing.

 

[bug_n_flock]

Good idea, tho Fatty's cage is the smallest one (still nowhere near a "small" cage, think it was originally marketed as a senegal cage) I have. I've been thinking about moving Alex into it since he is the least active. But it is also the most vertical cage I have so I feel like he might end up spending much of his time on the ground and/or at the top of the cage. Fatty wrestles with his cat toys when on the ground, all Alex does on the ground is to act pathetic and beg for me to come get him (sometimes he forgets how open doors work, even tho there is a ladder from the floor to the door of his cage lmao).

Amazon says the cage should be delivered by 8 pm today, whoo hoo! Though I may not be able to set it up until Monday evening depending on how late it gets here.

I may end up needing to have one of the birds live in my office. I can't decide who would be the best fit... my office has no windows, but it has plenty of light, and where I would put the cage is right by the door, clearly in view of a big window in my bedroom and just near where Alex and Fatty have their cages (just outside my office door). This door is open during the day and closed at night. This would put the bird in closer contact with my cat, who spends a fair amount of time in my office, and often sleeps in there. The other option would be to move a table into my office and have the cage where the table was, but that puts the bird farther away from the other two, and from where I spend usually at least an hour or two each day. Any thoughts? If neither of these seem ideal, I may be able to figure another place out, but for now that's what I've got.

Fatty loves the cat, Alex is afraid of her, the baby hasn't seen her yet, and also has the biggest beak.

Hmm, or I might be able to move my nightstand and put a cage there. But it means I won't have a nightstand! Also that bird won't be allowed seed in its cage, don't want hulls all over my bed. Learned that lesson the hard way, haha.

From phone

 

[FlyBirdiesFly]

I would keep the bird separate from the cat for sure. I have a cat, but I also have a dedicated bird room and the door is always closed. I only take Ducky and Kermit out of the bird room on my shoulder, although Pearl does occasionally fly out when she’s following Ducky. Bluebell has no interest in leaving the bird room, and the reason I don’t encourage Pearl to leave the room is because she’s incredibly flighty and doesn’t sit still, and she’s not as tame as Ducky and Kermit so she won’t sit on my shoulder for long periods of time. Ducky and Kermit will fly a few laps around the second floor or fly up and down the stairs when doing flight training, but generally stick close to me for security when they leave their territory. I don’t know your situation, but the best way to keep your birds safe from your cat is to keep them in a seperate room at all times unless closely supervised.