Among Friends

[Bird mama]

Hi @possummink  glad you made it to FL safely.  Freddie runs rings around me too, lol.

[yock]

Loved reading about your mirror experience Bernie.   It's interesting to get your thoughts about birds. Things I never would have thought of.  

[Bird mama]

Even though I've lived with birds for nearly 13 years... living with them is like living life - always learning something new especially now that I am retired.

Presto (youngest sparrow - female) sometimes cuddles on my collar bone closer to either shoulder.  She fidgets till she settles down and after getting some fine scratches from those needle sharp nails of hers I changed up my clothing.

Basically I wear a mans v-neck tee shirt backward and then add a 3/4 v-neck tee worn the proper way.  This adds some material over my collar bone so she can fidget all she wants until she finds her place and she doesn't scratch me. 

She's also started burrowing between the two shirts a couple days after Poppi died.  I didn't know if it was grief or what so I didn't think anything of it.

I know it's possible for a single female bird to lay unfertile eggs.  My husband's daughter had an African Gray that would do that. 

Peewee never did it and Presto has never done it.  That said, it could happen right?

Sunday morning, she gets up eats just a little and decides to burrow while I'm checking email and the forums.  She comes out of the shirt and sits on my shoulder and looks like she's trying to go potty and can't.  That makes me look at her rear end.  Her vent is usually covered with feathers and frankly you can't see it. 

So I see her little vent (not covered with feathers) and it looks pink and puffy.  I try not to panic (yea right)

A couple of thoughts go through my mind - how did this happen overnight?  Is she constipated?  Is she egg bound?  Is it cloacal cancer?

Yea, I ran through the gamut from minor to death 

I ran some warm water in the bathroom sink and dipped her butt.  I thought if she is constipated maybe warm water will get things moving.  I also get the Calcium Plus supplement and make her drink one drop on the really odd chance she is egg bound.

When a bird is egg bound if you don't do something they can die in hours which is why I am paranoid about bird eggs in general.

Within the hour she's pooping like normal, vent is normal and she's acting like herself for the rest of the day.

Last night, she decided to go into the cuddle on top of what used to be Poppi's habitat.  Grayson was upstairs bunking on the bottom shelf of the linen closet (these birds took over my house) and I thought, well, maybe it gives her comfort. I turned off the radio and lamp and turned on the ceramic night lamp and she didn't budge.

This was around 9:15 and they were settled for the night while their Mama was downstairs pondering Presto's choice of sleeping location.  I felt like I sent my kid to camp or something, rofl.

This early morning I don't hear her chirping much because she's not in her habitat waiting for me to open the door.  Mind you, I get up by 6:30 so it's not like she had to wait all morning anyways. 

She's happy to see me and not especially ready to eat which I find weird.  As she's perching on my arm I glance at her rear end and here we go again with the puffy pink vent.  I repeated what I did yesterday and she's fine.

Finally I googled - do birds go into heat?  Honest to Pete I didn't know.  I saw Poppi do the mating dance once with his sister Peewee and she nearly took his eye out (his one and only vet visit). 

Presto is displaying 'hormonal' behaviors according to what I've read.  I won't be petting her head to toe or touching her wings - that sends the wrong signal.  Hormones could explain the sudden aggression to her reflection in the mirror.

We can still interact and play, I just need to be careful about my actions.

[Bird mama]

Good Morning,

I guess I wasn't that far off yesterday because I had another first in my family this morning.  My Presto dropped an egg, literally.

She chose to sleep on top of the habitat in the 'main' room again last night.  I took it more in stride last night   That habitat has 2 perches near cuttlebones inside of it and 4 perches attached outside of it.  

I woke up early, was greeted by Grayson  and prepped Presto's egg food treat (by Quiko).  I could hear her chirping a little, kind of sing-song chirping.  She was peppy and cheerful and flying around when she saw me coming. 

I walked into the main room and noticed a large wet stain on the newspaper under one of the perches attached to the front of the habitat.  I said, what is that and when I looked I could see clear fuild, a small yolk and shattered egg shell. 

I was stunned, devastated, relieved and scared at the same time.  The risk of egg bound female birds is serious.  They can die if they don't pass an egg and now I know my Presto is capable of developing and passing one.  I need to be on high alert with her because I don't know if it was one and done or she has another one inside.  She went potty near me and it was primarily clear with a streak of blood.  There went my blood pressure.

She was in the mood to burrow in my shirts as soon as she saw me so I let her while I researched 'after care' for a bird that's laid an egg.  I also was checking to see how normal or not it is for some blood to follow.

All of this, before 8am.   

[mousiegirl]

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@Bird mama wrote:

Good Morning,

I guess I wasn't that far off yesterday because I had another first in my family this morning.  My Presto dropped an egg, literally.

She chose to sleep on top of the habitat in the 'main' room again last night.  I took it more in stride last night   That habitat has 2 perches near cuttlebones inside of it and 4 perches attached outside of it.  

I woke up early, was greeted by Grayson  and prepped Presto's egg food treat (by Quiko).  I could hear her chirping a little, kind of sing-song chirping.  She was peppy and cheerful and flying around when she saw me coming. 

I walked into the main room and noticed a large wet stain on the newspaper under one of the perches attached to the front of the habitat.  I said, what is that and when I looked I could see clear fuild, a small yolk and shattered egg shell. 

I was stunned, devastated, relieved and scared at the same time.  The risk of egg bound female birds is serious.  They can die if they don't pass an egg and now I know my Presto is capable of developing and passing one.  I need to be on high alert with her because I don't know if it was one and done or she has another one inside.  She went potty near me and it was primarily clear with a streak of blood.  There went my blood pressure.

She was in the mood to burrow in my shirts as soon as she saw me so I let her while I researched 'after care' for a bird that's laid an egg.  I also was checking to see how normal or not it is for some blood to follow.

All of this, before 8am.   

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@Bird mama  LOL, oh the stress of Motherhood!  I am glad all is well, at least for now.

[Bird mama]

@mousiegirl  you are not kidding.  I have no experience with pregnant animals.  Any cats we had were spayed/neutered before any kind of heat.  Both my dogs were male.  I seem to do okay with infant birds and kittens (abandoned by feral mother).

She's not a baby, however Presto has been Mama's girl her whole life.  To know that she worked to pass that egg and then bled a little because of it really hurt me to the core.  I don't care how natural it is, we're talking about my baby who lost some innocence this morning.  

I always said if I had human children I wanted sons, lol.

[mousiegirl]

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@Bird mama wrote:

@mousiegirl  you are not kidding.  I have no experience with pregnant animals.  Any cats we had were spayed/neutered before any kind of heat.  Both my dogs were male.  I seem to do okay with infant birds and kittens (abandoned by feral mother).

She's not a baby, however Presto has been Mama's girl her whole life.  To know that she worked to pass that egg and then bled a little because of it really hurt me to the core.  I don't care how natural it is, we're talking about my baby who lost some innocence this morning.  

I always said if I had human children I wanted sons, lol.

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@Bird mama  With sons, you have to worry about them getting a girl in the family way, lol.

Growing up, we have plenty of cats as my Mother would have the males neutered, but not the females, and would let them outside for the neighborhood males to have at them, really dumb, and of course, I always wanted to keep the kittens.  She would let me pick one or two, then find homes for the others.

One night, I woke up as my hand landed in something that woke me up, my cat had had her kittens right next to me in bed, so I am sure I screamed for my Mother as there was a lot of blood so I was scared, who had quite a mess to clean up.

When my cat was in labor, I would rub her tummy as she would cry.  We didn't have money though my Mother worked, but I would think she could have saved for the operation so that this cycle didn't continue on and on, my poor cat.  Once there was a litter with some dead, other unhappy stories also.

[Bird mama]

@mousiegirl  My mother used to feed all the feral cats.  As my sister and I got older we convinced my Ma to rent some cat traps from the local animal rescue.  My Ma had a favorite outdoor cat that she called Mama.  We had a permanent cat house on the front porch for this cat.  I begged my Ma to trap her because it made no sense to me to allow this cat to reproduce.  I don't know what it was about my Ma and this cat - maybe she felt it had been feral for so many years it would never be adopted.  I even suggested, trap the cat, take it to get spayed and I'll pay for it.  The cycle needed to stop.

Well, one year my middle sister took my Ma to the tulip festival in Holland, MI.  They left on a Friday and were gone for the weekend.  At this time, my neighborhood had a few packs of dogs that ran.  Wouldn't you know, that Saturday morning I get up early to go run some errand and there was Mama cat, in the front yard, torn to shreds.

I lost it and my father had to clean her up.  I was furious because this could have been avoided.  I think my Dad broke the news to my Ma when she returned home on Sunday.  

[mousiegirl]

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@Bird mama wrote:

@mousiegirl  My mother used to feed all the feral cats.  As my sister and I got older we convinced my Ma to rent some cat traps from the local animal rescue.  My Ma had a favorite outdoor cat that she called Mama.  We had a permanent cat house on the front porch for this cat.  I begged my Ma to trap her because it made no sense to me to allow this cat to reproduce.  I don't know what it was about my Ma and this cat - maybe she felt it had been feral for so many years it would never be adopted.  I even suggested, trap the cat, take it to get spayed and I'll pay for it.  The cycle needed to stop.

Well, one year my middle sister took my Ma to the tulip festival in Holland, MI.  They left on a Friday and were gone for the weekend.  At this time, my neighborhood had a few packs of dogs that ran.  Wouldn't you know, that Saturday morning I get up early to go run some errand and there was Mama cat, in the front yard, torn to shreds.

I lost it and my father had to clean her up.  I was furious because this could have been avoided.  I think my Dad broke the news to my Ma when she returned home on Sunday.  

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@Bird mama  OMG, how horrific!   I hope there is a law in your state now, it was different back when, that don't allow roaming dogs, there is a law here, and if one is found, it is picked up, then the owner has to go looking as no information is given over the phone if someone calls to ask if there pet is at the shelter, bad for the pet, good lesson for the owner.

Another traumatic cat story, all of this during which was a child and early teens.  We had a black fluffy cat, a kitten from one of the litters, named Satan, what a horrible name, but that meant black to me.  He was adult size, don't remember the age, when he disappeared.  We looked everywhere.  He was gone for a year when one evening, in the dark while outside probably with friends, or just looking out of the window, I saw something black right in front of our house in the gutter.  I ran out and saw that it was my cat, so went screaming to my Mother to help me bring him in.  Once inside, I begged my Mother to get him help, but she waited too long and he died.

In my mind, he tried to come home.  What are the odds that he would end up right in front of our house.

[Bird mama]

@mousiegirl  Wow, how incredibly sad about Satan the cat.  I know this left a scar however try to take comfort in knowing that your cat did not die on the street and he was with people who loved him when he went back to God.

My Ma had a tender heart and wanted to save anything.  She sometimes ran into problems because she didn't know when to stop.  There were a couple of times in my life, once as a little child and once as an adult where we had a multi cat household (to the tune of 10 -12) and there was an argument between Ma and Dad that resulted in a clean sweep. I remember as a child, the rescue agency coming for the first time and me running with one of my cats to hide it and stop them from taking it.  I still remember their names.

When it happened again as an adult I said, fine, you guys want to clean house?  I'll take the cats in , with either of you or both of you.  If you think I am doing your dirty work so you can sit at home and have a clear conscience, you are both out of your minds.  These cats have lived here for years and now they are inconvenient?  I'll be the driver, you look them in the face when you hand them over.

My eldest sister had two cats and a couple of dogs when she lived in Detroit.  I was in Detroit when Mama cat got shredded by the dog pack.  She bought a house in the burbs and decided to surrender her cats yet take the dogs to the new house.  I didn't understand that because it's not like the cats had a problem spraying or anything.  

When I saw these things happen in my life I honestly began to wonder if I was adopted.  I believe in thinking it through and keeping a committment until they go back to God.  I have respect for people who say, yea, my lifestyle doesn't accommodate a dog or cat.  At least an animal won't pay for a stupid decision.

When I make a committment, it's a lifelong committment.  I have no problem adjusting my life to my animals.  They give me joy, I don't consider it a sacrifice.