Rythm

We heard from an old friend today. Rita got the first Blue and Gold we ever handfed. It was also the first parrot we shipped. She named her Rythm. She was the most difficult bird to give up that we have ever raised. We really loved that bird.

Rythm also became our poster child. The cutout picture on the top of our blog and our website is her when she was 12 weeks old and just learning to fly. If you go to our website and click on Rythm's photo, you will go to a photo page filled with photos of her growing up.

Rita has since moved to California from D.C. She's now looking for a companion bird to keep Rythm company. So nice to hear from an old friend.
- posted by J-Birds @ 6:23 PM |

 
Positive Buying Sign

We offered our new little Vos male to Sue and got this response:

"hi guys, oh my god hes soooooooooooooooooo cute. YES YES YES YES oh did i mention i would love to take that little sweetie pie off your hands. i am so excited, you just made my day. you tell me what i need to do and oh my god, just give him a kiss for me. now the fun begins, i need to find him a name. i guess ill be on the net for awhile today,i need the perfect name.. maria is doing fine, she thinks she runs the house now.. shell start doing something shes not supposed to be doing and starts yelling at me NO NO NO NOW NOW...... she also sings bad bird bad bird bad bird.. seems she picks up new thing all the time..she enjoys it when we have company, well for about 20 minutes and then at the top of her lungs she starts yelling GOODBYE GOODBYE GOODBYE. shes a real treat but i love her soooooo much... cant wait till i hear back from you, take care.... sue"

We think she might be interested.
- posted by J-Birds @ 12:59 PM |

 
Learning To Fly

We thought our babies had it rough learning how to fly in our living room. Then we read this article in the New York Times about baby Peregrine Falcons learing how to fly in our cities.
- posted by J-Birds @ 6:00 AM |

 
Macaws Of A Different Color

There's an email discussion going on today within the LAS as to whether we should accept a Harlequin Macaw as a raffle gift. The thought being that the LAS does not support the hybridization of sub-species of any bird.

In the 70's and 80's breeders started cross-breeding Macaws and created what I call "Designer Macaws". Many of these bonded pairs are still around and producing babies. The Harlequin pair mentioned above have been together for decades. I personally don't think they should be separated. I also don't think that breeders should be encouraged to do this anymore.

I'm much more concerned that the bird we raffle off go to a good home where it will live out its life in a loving and nurturing environment.

For those of you who have never heard of hybrid Macaws, here's a breakdown:

Hybrid Macaws:
Blue & Gold x Scarlet = Catalina
Blue & Gold x Greenwing = Harlequin
Scarlet x Greenwing = Ruby
Scarlet x Military = Shamrock
Scarlet x Buffons = Verde
Greenwing x Military = Calico
Greenwing x Buffons = Buffwing
Military x Buffons = Miliffons
Military x Blue & Gold = Miligold
Hyacinth x Buffons = Emerald
Catalina x Greenwing = Flame
Catalina x Scarlet = Camelot
Camelot x Scarlet = Capri
Calico x Greenwing = Cameo

- posted by J-Birds @ 3:24 PM |

 
It's Another Boy

Turns out Prescilla's baby was four weeks old and already showing color. It's another boy. Someone on our waiting list is going to be very happy. (Can you tell it's raining today so we're sitting around blogging?)
- posted by J-Birds @ 10:51 AM |

 
Congo Time

We received this email last week from Doug. His "little girl" is a four month old Congo. Doug is an astronomer who lives in Lafayette, LA.

Things are great. Baby is wonderful. I love this
little girl bunches and bunches. She is sweet and
smart and has already started training me. Of course,
I almost always try to be obedient, but I have much to
learn!

She exhibits a very peculiar behavior when I feed her
corn or peas. She gets extremely excited. It's a
little ridiculous. She makes a noise that sounds like
someone growling while gurgling water!! And as she
takes the corn or pea from my fingers, she bobs her
head up and down. What's going on?!

She has also started talking to me, not English, but
all sorts of strung-together bird notes. From the
beginning, she made a hick-up noise, but little else.
Now she strings together chirps and clicks and other
sounds. And this morning, she started playing with
one of her toys! I know this might not sound like
much, but I've been trying to show her how much fun
her toys could be, but she never took an interest in
them. But when I left the house today, she was busy
chomping and yanking a rope and wood toy every which
direction.

I am a proud daddy. I love my little girl. I am
thankful that you raised her to be a sweetie. I think
she and I will share many years together...hopefully,
many decades.

The growling and head bobbing is a normal Congo baby feeding response. When you get three or four babies together they sound like a swarm of bees. Even though she's weaned she may sometimes revert to this behavior when she's offered food that she really likes.

- posted by J-Birds @ 9:24 AM |

 
Sunday Comics


- posted by J-Birds @ 7:44 AM |

 
New Arrival

After a long day of cleaning in the rain (Janis, I hope you enjoyed your books), we are starting to get excited around here. Precilla's baby Vosmaeri comes inside tomorrow.

It's always a little sad to take a baby from its mother. She will stomp around the cage for a couple of hours. Then she will enjoy her first good meal in three weeks. Then she will preen and relax for a week or so. Then she'll begin preparing her nest box to do it all over again.

I always tell them that their work is over and ours has just begun.
- posted by J-Birds @ 8:02 PM |

 
It's A Boy!

Our little Yellow Nape turns out to be a boy. He's still the gentlest bird in the world. We know we're going to have to stop calling him Rosa. Don't want him to become gender challenged. Stay tuned...
- posted by J-Birds @ 8:48 PM |

 
Queen of Bavaria

If you live in Louisiana, no permit is required to purchase these birds. Permits are only required if the birds are shipped across state lines.
- posted by J-Birds @ 6:03 AM |

 
Persia Chronicles - Part 5

I never have to worry about what to write in the blog as long as Jimmy Long and Persia are out there. Here's an interesting exerpt from his latest email:

"...Persia is making it through the molt and getting absolutely more beautiful each day. She is really talking. The air(conditioning) man was at my home last week to repair the inside fan of the air-conditioning system. I was busy on the computer upstairs as he was working downstairs. He kept coming to the bottom of the stairs telling me what he was doing................."I am cleaning the coil" ...................."I am installing the motor".........and on and on for about 30 minutes. All at once I heard him laughing his head off. Persia had been asking him over and over "Whatcha Doin"? He thought it was me asking questions and had become a little irritated. What a joy she has become!"

It's never dull, is it?
- posted by J-Birds @ 10:41 AM |

 
Queen of Bavaria



The Queen of Bavaria Conure, also known as the Golden Conure, is an endangered subspecies. We now have access to a small number of these birds hatched within the last year. You can find out more about this bird at this website.

Golden Conures are rarely seen in the wild and are extremely rare in aviculture. They were noted as becoming increasingly rare as far back as 1946. In the United States these birds require 50CFR Captive Bred Endangered Species Permit. The permit is considered to be relatively difficult to acquire. In the permit process the USFW Service is looking for proof that the applicant is able to care for the birds properly, house them suitably, maintain their health, possess the ability to raise their young, keep accurate records, and have a good opportunity for propagation.

If you are interested, or know of a serious bird person that has an interest in owning one of these birds, feel free to contact us.
- posted by J-Birds @ 7:52 PM |

 
Bingo!



Wow! What a big picture. This is a White Bellied Caique. Sweet, loving, inquisitive, charming...and very active...I could go on. Can you tell we're having fun around here?
- posted by J-Birds @ 8:24 PM |

 
Field Trip

We went on a field trip to the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans yesterday with the Louisiana Aviculture Society. This included visits to the three aviaries as well as a behind the scenes tour.

We were hosted by Mark Myers,the Curator of Birds, and had a wonderful time. Once we convinced him that the people in our twenty-five person tour group bred and raised 50 times as many birds as he did at the zoo, he was more than willing to discuss and show us anything we wanted. It was especially interesting to see the food preparation area and discuss the dietary requirements of different birds.

We were disappointed that the zoo only had 5-6 psittacines. You would think that a zoo that is in the top 10 in the country, with the proximity of Central and South America, would have a representative display of birds from this region.

It seems that zoos in general have taken the politically correct stance of being in the species preservation business. This is admirable but the way to save species is to get public funding and awareness. Showy birds from South America would get a lot more visitors to the zoo than a bird that looks like the stump it is perched on.

Enough insensitivity...I hope our organization can include the Audubon Institute as one of the organizations we donate to this year.
- posted by J-Birds @ 6:34 PM |

 
We're In Love


We've seen and handled a lot of parrots in the past but we have one in the house now that we've fallen in love with. "She" is a Yellow Nape Amazon...eight weeks old...with the biggest, brownest eyes that just say, "give me a hug". She is going to be a big bird. At eight weeks she already weighs 540 grams which is 20% more than a mature Eclectus. Yellow Nape females are supposed to be more gentle as adults than males. They also cost more from some breeders. We will most probably DNA her in the near future but, as gentle as she is, we can't picture her as anything but female. The photo above is not our baby, just borrowed it for this post.
- posted by J-Birds @ 11:38 AM |

 
Sunday Comics


- posted by J-Birds @ 5:48 PM |

 
Surprise

Elvis and Prescilla are our prettiest Vos pair. Unfortunately, although they lay every three months, they only succeed in having one or two babies a year. Adding insult to injury, Prescilla hasn't fed her babies causing us to lose the first two. Last time, Debra and I pulled the baby and handfed it from day 1. It was beautiful.

Last weekend I went out and checked nest boxes for the first time in a couple of weeks. In Prescilla's box was a chubby little ten day old baby. She seemed so happy to have a baby to raise. And for a change she's doing a great job.

Breeder friends tell us that you have to let a new mother fail a few times while learning how to care for a chick. Hopefully, Prescilla will continue to hatch and feed her new babies.
- posted by J-Birds @ 8:18 AM |

 
True Love

Got this letter from Doug today:

I have only good news to report about my little
birdie. She did just fine on the trip home. I sang
softly to her the whole way back. While my singing
would have been anything but calming to the human ear,
this little Grey seemed to have enjoyed it! She is
such sweetheart. She and I sat in my recliner most of
the evening, getting to know each other. She is full
of kisses and is taking an interest in everything.
When it got dark outside, she fell asleep on my chest.
Before that, she let me pet her gently from the top
of her head down to her tail. She closed her eyes as
I slowly stroked her feathers. When I stopped petting
her, she'd open her eyes and stare at me and then
sometimes start up with those kisses. So, one way or
another, she'd get me to pet her again until she
slept.

If you can't tell, I'd say I'm in love. Thank you for
such a beautiful and sweet Grey. I'll be in touch again
shortly. I've got to go birdie grocery shopping later today.

Take care, Doug

Kind of makes it all worthwhile.
- posted by J-Birds @ 8:15 PM |

 
J-Birds - -Your Delta Connection

It's not that they are mean or incompetent, they are just living in the marketing lie that their company perpetrates on the flying public. Can you tell that we shipped another parrot on Delta today?

Unbelievable that Delta's Pet First department's only job is to book reservations.
Have special handling requirements for your pet? Delta Pets First doesn't care.
Did your pet make its connection? Delta Pets First doesn't know (call Tracking)
Want to follow your pets progress on Delta.com? Go fish.

Aaaaarrrrrrrrgghgh!!!!!!!!!!!

They do have some redeeming qualities. If you want your parrot's butt searched for explosives...Delta's your airline.

Actually, we have reason to believe that Joe and Bonnie's Congo is on it's final leg from Salt Lake City to Boise....of course I'll let you know. Thank you for flying J-Birds - Your Delta Connection.

Later that night: Bird landed safely, Joe and Bonnie are happy, Craig and Debra are releived, Delta still doesn't care.
- posted by J-Birds @ 8:11 PM |

 
Sunday Comics


- posted by J-Birds @ 7:39 AM |

 
Earn Money In Your Spare Time!

J-Birds is having a contest to identify money-making uses of parrot poop. If we can come up with a saleable product we can all get rich. No idea is too crazy. Send your suggestions by commenting on this blog or email us at parrotsforsale at hotmail dot com.

You have a chance to win. All entries will be screened by our contest committee and ten finalists will be posted on the blog for a vote by you, the reading public.

This may also turn into an article in the LAS newsletter.
- posted by J-Birds @ 2:39 PM |

 
Muffins

It is said that you can get your wife any present for Christmas unless it has a power cord. This past Christmas I stumbled upon a really interesting gift called Roomba. Since I knew that, no matter how special it was, it was most likely going to be rejected as a present, I bought it for myself.

When I gave myself my present, Debra was skeptical...then I turned it on. The first words out of her mouth were, "I want it!". I told her I was sorry but it was against the "rules" that she get a vacuum cleaner for Christmas.

Within hours, we had named the little guy Muffin. Muffin has changed our lives. He specializes in cleaning against walls and under cages. Feather dust, down and seeds don't stand a chance around here.

There is one problem...Muffin is supposed to save you time by handling the floor cleaning. Unfortunately, for the first three months or so, all you do when he's doing his thing is stand there mystified and watch him. But, the floors still get clean with much less wear and tear on Debra and me.

Trust us. Go buy one and have fun. The more expensive models even have a remote control so you can sit on your couch and steer them. Life is good.
- posted by J-Birds @ 8:13 PM |

 
White Bellied Caiques

We've always been intrigued by Caiques in general. They are known as clown-like little birds that make great pets. We recently got a White Bellied Caique at 10 days old to raise so we could experience them first hand.

It's like being in a different world. Everything we are used to in raising large parrots is so different with a small bird. The principles are the same but smaller and occur at light speed.

I'll keep you posted as "he" grows. I'll try to post a photo when he gets some feathers. This would make an ideal second bird for someone ;-).
- posted by J-Birds @ 8:36 PM |

 
Sunday Comics


- posted by J-Birds @ 9:17 AM |

 
This Is For Andrew

A guy named Andrew started writing us regarding bird pricing yesterday. The email conversation went like this:

Andrew: "how much r ur babies"
Craig: "What are you interested in?"
Andrew: "can u just give me a baby pricelist for all? thank you"
Craig: "No."
Andrew: "why???????? "
Andrew: "im sorry wut did i ask u?"
Craig: "The point is, if you don't know what you're interested in, you need to continue doing research until you decide. Then write us and we'll be happy to give you a price."
Andrew: "im intrested in alot of the breed so just GIVE me the prices OK !?!?!?!?!"
Andrew: "FORGET U UR NOT BEING ANY FREAKING HELP UR A BAD BREEDER JUST QUIT UR BREEDING ITS NO USE OK OK GET GOT IT GOOD DONT MEEN TO BE SOO RUDE BUT UR NOT HELPING AT ALLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

We discussed in the past that we try hard to screen buyers to insure that our birds go to responsible owners. Andrew is not starting out on the right foot. He may very well be a good bird owner but his conversation is raising all sorts of red flags around here.
- posted by J-Birds @ 8:24 PM |

 
The Mother Of All Parrots

Prophet, our pet Military Macaw, has always had a soft spot in her heart for very young baby parrots. She's so big and roudy that we have been afraid to allow her too near the babies. In the past few weeks she's decided that she should participate in their care.

We have a makeshift brooder on our kitchen counter with two very young baby Eclectus. These little guys barely have any feathers. All they know how to do is eat and sleep.

Prophet has figured out that, if she climbs up her cage and hangs upside down from the ruffles on the curtain, she can "walk" upside down over to the microwave stand. She then uses her version of contortionism to right herself on the microwave and ease onto the counter.

About six times a day we find her standing over the brooder, the top on the floor below. Inside, the baby Eclectus are cowering in fear. Prophet guards the "nest" with all the fervor of an insane mother protecting her chicks...eyes pinning and beak slashing.

We've gotten to the point of trusting her with the babies. Some of them are fond of her and the others are not in danger of stroking out when she comes to visit. Life is never dull around here.
- posted by J-Birds @ 9:43 PM |

 
Persia Chronicles

He's back. I thought we'd share a little bit of Jimmy's world with you. I hope you find his emails as entertaining as we do.

Just dropped by to say hello. I received the wonderful toy from Ducote's today. Persia really took to it.... I tell her that she has a "new toy coming", and she has started saying "toy,toy,toy". Of course I have already said "toy.toy.toy" several million times before she picks up the word. I have noticed that when I introduce a new word or phrase by using it several times during the day that she does not use the word until exactly three days later, and at that time, it becomes a part of her vocabulary. She loves "Old McDonald Has a Farm." I sing it and say "and on is farm he had a (pause...pause..pause) parrot with a ...." and she says "quack quack" and I say "here" and she says "quack quack" and I say there and then she joins in with "E I...E I.......O". Of course we both dance during the song. What fun. I am on vacation this week and refused to leave, because I did not want to leave my Persia. (I will have to get over this, because I have always been a traveler!) I did save some money by not traveling........this will help pay for all the new toys. My best. jimmy

- posted by J-Birds @ 10:03 PM |

 
Random Thoughts...

I'm still struggling with topics for my article in the Louisiana Aviculture Society Newsletter. The issues that we address with our friends are not the same issues that I perceive with the bird buyer population in general.

Our friends know a lot about their species of parrot before they bring the bird home. I question whether other buyers do their homework or whether their breeders take the time to educate them.

Our friends know what a proper diet is and what flexibility they have in feeding their bird. Some new bird owners that we talk to think that seeds from WalMart are all they need. We once spoke to a man that went to Petsmart and asked a clerk to fix him up with a complete diet for an Eclectus. The clerk gave him pellets and a good seed mix and included a box of grit. The grit killed the bird in 6 weeks.

Housing for birds comes in a variety of flavors also. Current thinking says that parrot cages should be as large as possible. We have seen breeders with a breeding pair of Eclectus in a 2 X 2 X 4' cage...horrible conditions at best.

Maybe I'll do an article called "Have You Kissed Your Bird Lately?" I wonder how many new bird owners treat their parrot as their parents treated their canary 30 years ago.

...Debra and I are considering going to the American Federation of Aviculture convention in San Francisco in August.
Donations are welcome ;-).
- posted by J-Birds @ 8:10 PM |