Welcome to our Aviary

Lots of news and so little time

Written by George Wednesday, 14 July 2010 21:20

That is right, we have lots of new to tell every one of you. First of all sorry for the delay in getting the news updated and also the Macaw baby news updated. I (George) was in the hospital with another attack of pancriatitis and let me tell you - it is painful. Jodie was holding fort with Shaina's help and everything seems to be just perfect without me. The main news is that the babies (Military Macaws) are doing wonderful. The parents of the first baby came to see him this week and the kids were able to play with the baby for a little bit. The parents of the second baby is going to be here soon and they will be spending some with us, which is long time overdue. They are our good friends Kurt and Monica from Vermont. They are already parents to our own Haley, Basil and Ellie and also the sweetest green cheek you will know Sydney. Jodie cannot wait for their visit and also a return visit.

We also did some other changes - we let Chico and Chara (our Yellow Nape pair) go to another breeding facility. They were our only pair of Amazons and they were getting shuffled in between the bigger Macaw pairs and we truly believe that they will be much happier at the new location. We wish (Jo and Steve) Good Luck with everything.

Did we mention that we have two Sun Conure babies? - the wonderful parents are feeding them right now and soon they will come up for hand-feeding. Soon we also have some eggs to pull and incubate :) All this is exciting, but at the same time I cannot imagine the workload on Jodie - I am working on cloning her, so there will be 2 of her and each has to do only half the work - how about that for a wonderful solution.

Babies and other news

Written by George Sunday, 04 July 2010 10:43

The military macaw babies are growing up really fast. Their pin feathers are out and bands are in their legs and we still cannot believe that a mere 3 weeks ago we were seeing them hatch out of the egg. Both the babies are already sold, and just like us the new parents cannot wait for them to grow up so that they can take them home and spoil them. We also have another 3 eggs from the Military's and now we back to debating about pulling the eggs for incubation or take the chance and see how they would do as parents for the first time. We are not sure what to do and hopefully we will make the right decision as we would be really devastated if something happens to any one of the babies.

Our Suns have hatched the baby of the 5 eggs they are sitting on. It happened yesterday and we are really excited and happy for them. We also had a little bit of flood in our basement where the birds are located. It was strange for this is the first time we even had a hint of moisture down there, and it resulted in us pumping out 5000 gallons using a shopvac and was finally under control once we put in the sump pump. Oh, what a two days it was.

We are also trying to maintain a page showing the growth of our Macaw babies on a weekly basis with some videos, pictures and write-up. You can see it here. Make sure to visit that page every week for we will be updating the page with latest pictures and videos.

Macaw Babies are here - Military Macaws

Written by George Monday, 14 June 2010 00:00

We would like to introduce you to our newest baby - a Military Macaw. After 48 hours and an assisted hatch he is finally here. We noticed the first external pip on Saturday early morning 5.00. 40 hours later, we realized that the normal piping was not happening and we decided to go in and take a peek at what is going on inside the egg. After candling to make sure we are not going to rupture any blood vessels, we opened a little bit of the shell. That is when we could clearly see that the membrane covering the embryo was so dry that he would need a lot of help to get out. Then we went into an assisted hatching mode. Afer a lot of patience and sleepless hours (for Jodie!) by God's grace, eight hours later the baby was fully hatched today morning at 3.32AM. The little guy is resting in the brooder and had his second feeding already.

Stay tuned for the news about the second baby - who has started the hatching process already!.

News and Updates from the Aviary

Written by George Thursday, 10 June 2010 16:33

It has been a very tough spring for all of us here at the Aviary. I believe the constant expansion, moving the cages around, the commotion of new birds being introduced and all has taken a toll on all our birds and what has resulted in is a delayed reproductive season, which in turn means we are going to have less number of babies. Which is fine as long as we get a wide veriety of babies *smile*.

We have one Sun conure baby being hand-fed, we have a whole bunch of birds on eggs - Sun Conures, Amazons, Alexandrians, Harlequin Macaws. We found out that the first clutch of eggs from our new Severe pair was clear, so we will have to wait a little longer for them. But the original pair (Mischief and Mr.Kitty) are acting a little wierd which hopefully indicates that they are getting ready for their second clutch of eggs ever :). If you all remember correctly this a very young pair and had their first ever clutch of eggs last spring (of course they were clear) - I am guessing the male had no idea what to do. We think last year he was more upset with the female because she was sitting on the eggs and not out playing with the toys along with him. He did know enough to feed her, so hopefully another year of maturity and he will know what to do.

Yesterday we did pull fertile eggs from our Military Macaw pair for incubation and hatching. This is new pair and the previous owners had advised us about the pair not taking care of the babies. Even with knowing all that, Jodie was a little heart-broken about the whole concept of pulling the eggs from the parents that they so carefully incubated and guarded for all this time. We think we will allow them to hatch one baby next clutch and see how they (the parents) do and then make a decision about the following times. We would rather have the parents take care of the baby for the first couple of weeks before we pull them for banding and hand-feeding.

So that is what is going on around here - will update everyone as soon as we have some news to share.