More Baby Updates: Junior, Lily and Melody

Junior, the "mercy baby" in my coop that was badly injured by two adult birds for trespassing, has made an incredible recovery. Her (?) injuries have healed and almost all her feathers have grown back in. She is eight weeks old and out and about in the coop with her brother (?) Sweets and they hang out with the other young- birds- Frankie, Neo & Isabella.

Junior and Sweets still spend a lot of their time together.

This is Sweets playing king of the poop-guard.

Junior manages very well with all the other birds and doesn't seem to hold a grudge for the bad beating she received.

As comfortable and content as Lily is in the pigeon coop, I'd like to be able to bring her places with me.

And so I got her a Flight Suit and "lanyard" leash accessory. Though shocked and a little scandalized that I would dress her up in a spandex onesie, Lily was a very good sport about the whole thing.

The suit-part itself fit very well and would be great except for the gianormous piece of velcro that is used to fasten it.

And the lanyard leash which is not at all well-suited for the job in my opinion. Too much in the way of heavy hardware plus another huge piece of velcro to hold it in and then a very short cord with no good hand-hold (unlike a leash).

We're going to try the Feather Tether next.

Melody, the young king recovering from PMV, is slowly but surely recovering. And, while he still has episodes of torticollis (neck twisting), his motor skills are improving and just recently he has been able to successfully stand on one foot.

The PMV virus attacks the nervous system and birds with it seem to do better with very low levels of sensory stimulation. I had covered most of Melody's cage with nice, boring brown paper to reduce the effect of the cage bars' lines and the changing light and view through the window but yesterday I opened up a slice of his view.

I've not seen any increased symptoms and I think Melody is actually really enjoying both the view and the increased access to prime sun-bathing real estate.