Pierre & Piper UPDATE 6/7/10
Pierre and Piper are doing very well. Piper still finds new places to explore and I'm seeing a lot of welcome sunlight under Pierre as he stands and walks with his hobbled legs.
On 6/3, Piper laid a cute little egg.
She's been moving a lot of grass and twigs around but hadn't really committed to a nest spot and layed her egg on the the grate in a corner of their flight cage.
I added another food dish (because Pierre loves to sit in them) and padded it with grass and some twigs and put the egg on top.
Piper appreciated the grass but wanted it for a different nest spot...
She transferred grass from the egg in the bowl to their hammock perch all day but for every couple pieces that she added, one fell off and so it was slow going.
The next morning, Pierre sat in the bowl and broke their egg. Piper examined the situation closely and removed the biggest piece of shell from the dish. I don't know what she thought or felt but eggs are very important to birds and I'd bet that she was saddened by the sight.
Later they returned to their hammock perch nest but I decided they needed some help making it more nest-able.
I'm careful about adding new elements to their environment because I don't know how well Pierre will be able to cope with things and I don't want to introduce something that he could get tangled up with or impeded by but he's been doing so well and is so mobile now that I decided to add this basket to their hammock perch.
Piper immediately set to work ferrying nest materials from the cage bottom up to it and Pierre enjoys sitting in it- no problem at all.
These pictures are from today- 6/7. The first one shows Pierre standing in my hand with his hobble on and the second one shows him standing on his basket hobble-free!
It's been two weeks that he's been hobbled and I wanted to take it off, check his legs to make sure they're not showing any irritation or problems and see how his formerly-splayed leg did without the hobble.
I was really impressed with how Pierre continued to stand and walk and perch even without the hobble. His splay leg still drifts out some without it but no where near like it was and, after an hour of freedom, I put it back on. His legs looked great and showed no problems at all. I shortened the tether between the cuffs about 1/10". He's doing so well (judged by his increased mobility and activity and range of behaviors and lack of complications), that I don't want to fiddle with what's working.
Here he is, unhobbled, having flown up, perched on and then gotten into his nest basket- something he never could have done (nor would have even tried) two weeks ago.
Tonight, for the first time, I saw not just courting but mating behaviors between Pierre and Piper. No pix. That's private stuff.
On 6/3, Piper laid a cute little egg.
She's been moving a lot of grass and twigs around but hadn't really committed to a nest spot and layed her egg on the the grate in a corner of their flight cage.
I added another food dish (because Pierre loves to sit in them) and padded it with grass and some twigs and put the egg on top.
Piper appreciated the grass but wanted it for a different nest spot...
She transferred grass from the egg in the bowl to their hammock perch all day but for every couple pieces that she added, one fell off and so it was slow going.
The next morning, Pierre sat in the bowl and broke their egg. Piper examined the situation closely and removed the biggest piece of shell from the dish. I don't know what she thought or felt but eggs are very important to birds and I'd bet that she was saddened by the sight.
Later they returned to their hammock perch nest but I decided they needed some help making it more nest-able.
I'm careful about adding new elements to their environment because I don't know how well Pierre will be able to cope with things and I don't want to introduce something that he could get tangled up with or impeded by but he's been doing so well and is so mobile now that I decided to add this basket to their hammock perch.
Piper immediately set to work ferrying nest materials from the cage bottom up to it and Pierre enjoys sitting in it- no problem at all.
These pictures are from today- 6/7. The first one shows Pierre standing in my hand with his hobble on and the second one shows him standing on his basket hobble-free!
It's been two weeks that he's been hobbled and I wanted to take it off, check his legs to make sure they're not showing any irritation or problems and see how his formerly-splayed leg did without the hobble.
I was really impressed with how Pierre continued to stand and walk and perch even without the hobble. His splay leg still drifts out some without it but no where near like it was and, after an hour of freedom, I put it back on. His legs looked great and showed no problems at all. I shortened the tether between the cuffs about 1/10". He's doing so well (judged by his increased mobility and activity and range of behaviors and lack of complications), that I don't want to fiddle with what's working.
Here he is, unhobbled, having flown up, perched on and then gotten into his nest basket- something he never could have done (nor would have even tried) two weeks ago.
Tonight, for the first time, I saw not just courting but mating behaviors between Pierre and Piper. No pix. That's private stuff.
posted by Elizabeth at
6:09 PM
1 Comments:
wow, what and odyssey! Too bad about the egg, but glad to hear that they're showing mating behaviors. These guys are the best (and so is their momma).
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home