Mesdames et Messieurs, permettez-moi de vous presenter……
La Couronne Princesse Lilly Pilly !
(which is Francaise for) The Crown Princess Lilly Pilly!!!
Ok people so I have been keeping a little something under my hat for the last 3 or 4 weeks. Which is not hard as she is a purple-crowned lorikeet, only about 5 inches long and weighs 44 grams ! Meaning she is slightly bigger than Bumble but not by much! We got our little Crown Princess on 28 October and I wanted to wait until all her blood test results were back before I introduced her to you all. We have named her "Lilly Pilly", or "Her Royal Highness, The Crown Princess Lilly Pilly" cos I figure the smaller the bird, the longer the name has to be. Or if her behaviour is particularly haughty she gets called "La Principessa".
We got her from a breeder about an hour from where we live and unfortunately she got off to a bit of a rough start. She and her fellow nestlings were hand-raised but were weaned at least a month or more before we got her, and spent the intervening time left to their own devices in an outdoor enclosure, meaning she had reverted to pretty much aviary or even wild status, which purple crowns will quickly do. Therefore after the breeder took quite a while trying to catch her, and by the time we drove her home she was utterly traumatised and completely stressed out, the poor little mite. She spent probably the first almost 3 weeks of her life here being totally terrified of me, and let me tell you winning over a frightened tiny little bird like her with the attention span of a lentil and who does not respond to the normal bribery of sunflower seeds etc is no easy feat! I have really never had to hand tame a baby before, all my previous birds had pretty much come tamed and ready to go so this was a huge challenge for me! But after about 2 and a half weeks of sitting by her cage in HUGELY uncomfortable chair and reading to her, offering her eucalypt flowers and fruit to eat, playing YouTube videos of other purple crowns to her and slowly enticing her to get a little closer, she finally worked it out for herself and started jumping on my shoulder �� From there she has not looked back.
If anything I now have the opposite "problem" (if you can call it that !) Lilly has become totally Velcro bird. Her default position is on my shoulder, usually flipped on her back getting a skritch or having her feet tickled. She would stay there all day if I let her (and she has !) Poor hubby doesn’t get his dinner cooked half the time now because she will not let me leave the couch (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it !) Fang has had a go at her a few times and although she is a third of his size she does not back down. Fortunately Fang is pretty well behaved mostly and they are well supervised so nothing ever gets out of control. Being a lorikeet and on a high-octane nectar diet she is non-stop, go go go, completely manic and hyperactive until pretty much bang on sunset when she puts herself to bed and starts preening and making squeaky-wheel noises and goes to sleep. Now I am perfectly happy to be a lounge-lizard and play with her all day long (apart from her regular midday snooze time !) but I do have to occasionally, oh i don’t know, go to work, go to the loo, have a wash, make dinner… just sometimes right ?! Currently she loves me a lot more than her dadda, which makes her a lousy judge of character, but I am working on that because at some point I will need a break !
Anyway she and Fang went for wellness checks about 2 weeks or so ago, and Lilly had her psittacosis and PFBD blood tests and happily both are negative (phew !!!) It now transpires however that poor old Fang has a heart arrythmia. The vet did not seem overly concerned about that, just said to watch he doesnt exert himself or start to accumulate fluid around his rear or his legs and we will check him again in a few months. Could also just be the stress of this new spoiled brat in his midst ! Fortunately Lilly conks out at just on sunset which gives Fang some valuable "adult" time in the evenings, especially with his dadda whom he loves to bits.
Anyhow folks that is the story of our new Crown Princess. She is a little hard to get good photos of because she is so hyperactive but I will post more when I get some. Please make her feel welcome because I have a feeling that if you don’t she will jump right thru your screens and "play" attack you with her fuzzy little feathers fully fanned out and beak and claws ready to strike (it's so cute when she does that - lucky she is so tiny or she’d be dangerous !) Love you and your "big bird" attitude little Lilly Pilly! :smile015::smile015::smile015:
La Couronne Princesse Lilly Pilly !
(which is Francaise for) The Crown Princess Lilly Pilly!!!
Ok people so I have been keeping a little something under my hat for the last 3 or 4 weeks. Which is not hard as she is a purple-crowned lorikeet, only about 5 inches long and weighs 44 grams ! Meaning she is slightly bigger than Bumble but not by much! We got our little Crown Princess on 28 October and I wanted to wait until all her blood test results were back before I introduced her to you all. We have named her "Lilly Pilly", or "Her Royal Highness, The Crown Princess Lilly Pilly" cos I figure the smaller the bird, the longer the name has to be. Or if her behaviour is particularly haughty she gets called "La Principessa".
We got her from a breeder about an hour from where we live and unfortunately she got off to a bit of a rough start. She and her fellow nestlings were hand-raised but were weaned at least a month or more before we got her, and spent the intervening time left to their own devices in an outdoor enclosure, meaning she had reverted to pretty much aviary or even wild status, which purple crowns will quickly do. Therefore after the breeder took quite a while trying to catch her, and by the time we drove her home she was utterly traumatised and completely stressed out, the poor little mite. She spent probably the first almost 3 weeks of her life here being totally terrified of me, and let me tell you winning over a frightened tiny little bird like her with the attention span of a lentil and who does not respond to the normal bribery of sunflower seeds etc is no easy feat! I have really never had to hand tame a baby before, all my previous birds had pretty much come tamed and ready to go so this was a huge challenge for me! But after about 2 and a half weeks of sitting by her cage in HUGELY uncomfortable chair and reading to her, offering her eucalypt flowers and fruit to eat, playing YouTube videos of other purple crowns to her and slowly enticing her to get a little closer, she finally worked it out for herself and started jumping on my shoulder �� From there she has not looked back.
If anything I now have the opposite "problem" (if you can call it that !) Lilly has become totally Velcro bird. Her default position is on my shoulder, usually flipped on her back getting a skritch or having her feet tickled. She would stay there all day if I let her (and she has !) Poor hubby doesn’t get his dinner cooked half the time now because she will not let me leave the couch (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it !) Fang has had a go at her a few times and although she is a third of his size she does not back down. Fortunately Fang is pretty well behaved mostly and they are well supervised so nothing ever gets out of control. Being a lorikeet and on a high-octane nectar diet she is non-stop, go go go, completely manic and hyperactive until pretty much bang on sunset when she puts herself to bed and starts preening and making squeaky-wheel noises and goes to sleep. Now I am perfectly happy to be a lounge-lizard and play with her all day long (apart from her regular midday snooze time !) but I do have to occasionally, oh i don’t know, go to work, go to the loo, have a wash, make dinner… just sometimes right ?! Currently she loves me a lot more than her dadda, which makes her a lousy judge of character, but I am working on that because at some point I will need a break !
Anyway she and Fang went for wellness checks about 2 weeks or so ago, and Lilly had her psittacosis and PFBD blood tests and happily both are negative (phew !!!) It now transpires however that poor old Fang has a heart arrythmia. The vet did not seem overly concerned about that, just said to watch he doesnt exert himself or start to accumulate fluid around his rear or his legs and we will check him again in a few months. Could also just be the stress of this new spoiled brat in his midst ! Fortunately Lilly conks out at just on sunset which gives Fang some valuable "adult" time in the evenings, especially with his dadda whom he loves to bits.
Anyhow folks that is the story of our new Crown Princess. She is a little hard to get good photos of because she is so hyperactive but I will post more when I get some. Please make her feel welcome because I have a feeling that if you don’t she will jump right thru your screens and "play" attack you with her fuzzy little feathers fully fanned out and beak and claws ready to strike (it's so cute when she does that - lucky she is so tiny or she’d be dangerous !) Love you and your "big bird" attitude little Lilly Pilly! :smile015::smile015::smile015:
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