How cute is it when parrotlets bathe? 😍
Happy Wednesday from our flock to yours! 🐥❤️🐥
Happy Wednesday! We’ve been busy getting ready to set up baby bird with her new partner to see if they get along. She’s quite tame and pretty gentle with her beak, though we are still taming her down. Parrotlets can have a somewhat strong nip. Some babies have a kind of intuitive sense that fingers are soft tissue; others think that it’s the same as grabbing another Parrotlet’s beak, use too much force and need to be taught how to interact with fingers. And of course sometimes they take interest in cuticles and knuckles as well, thinking these are interesting things to chew! When and if this happens with a baby, remind yourself that it is not malicious and they are basically “teething” (beaking) and just need to learn what kind of pressure is acceptable. It takes time and patience but with a well-raised parrotlet, you will get there. Just like all kids, some get it quick, some take more time to learn, but they all get there!
Here’s a video of baby in her temporary transition cage, she will stay here until we try her in the pairing cage with our chosen male. She still comes right up to the cage bars, interested in human interaction and is getting the hang of being gentle with her beak. Such a gorgeous yellow! It really makes you appreciate the variety of vibrant colors that Parrotlets come in.
Happy Wednesday from our flock to yours! ❤️🐥🐣🐥❤️
Surprise! One of our parents was carrying a recessive gene down the line! We think 🤔 it’s probably Mom split yellow. It could be a green marbled as well, those can be hard to tell the difference, baby has grey toenails but we don’t see grey wingtips yet. She is still feathering out. 100% Adorable! Either way, we are happy with the result.
Here’s a video of cute Lil’ bit taken just recently. More pictures on Wednesday’s update! Happy Monday everyone!
It’s that time again! What’s up this Wednesday? One lil’ bit sleeping peacefully on a full stomach. One pair currently laying eggs, we have two eggs 🥚 🥚 now. Amazingly, this female finally took interest in the new custom nest box we built that goes with the new cage setup. Guess she’s finally settled in and found things to her liking! Now we have to wait and see if the boy she’s with has done his job, egg fertility checks will happen soon. The two other pairs we have boxes up for have the male working the boxes but the females are being shy. If they do not show interest in the next few days we will give them a break, as we have a vacation coming soon and although we have cameras for remote viewing, we like to be here to monitor everything.
Here’s a lil’ clip of the lil’ bit. It really is incredible to witness the growth of these little parrots. We have already begun the hard work of socializing this baby.
Happy Wednesday from our flock to yours! ❤️🐣🥚🥚 🐥❤️
What’s up this Wednesday: We may have our first egg of the round laid today! Little blue lady won’t move off the nest recess in the nestbox and we don’t like to disturb them too much, since a worst case scenario is a startled bird may move the eggs in a mad dash to escape the nest and may damage them accidentally. If they don’t slowly move off within the first 10 seconds or so we leave them be for this reason. We will check again tomorrow when she’s out of the box (if the timing lines up, it should) and see what we can see. She was certainly a little territorial about our peek into the box today, which usually means she’s protecting an egg. Fortunately this blue girl comes out of the nestbox like clockwork on most days.
Funny thing, most of our pairs have a kind of unique sound when they are getting their groove on. There is a general kind of noise to it, but certain males/females are louder or softer, coo more, squeak more, chirp in a particular way... it’s rather comical really 😛
Here’s a video of the blue girl with her male. They last more than three seconds 😉 but it’s more than enough to hear the racket going on in their cage. No actual video to see though, just sound as everytime we’ve tried to catch these two they hear and stop. So we snuck the recording from the doorway. 😈 Not like one of our other pairs, who might be exhibitionists. 🤣
Happy Wednesday from our flock to yours 🙂🐥❤️
What’s up this Wednesday? Whole lotta ordering from Amazon! New filter for the air purifier, strong, sturdy magnets for toy hanging from new cage ceilings. We’re still looking at new lighting options, currently in consideration is LED tape and LED strips, both of which can be linked in a series. In the meantime we can put up the old lights with additional magnets that we’ve ordered but we have to wait for them to arrive. The current LED strip lights are alright and have served us well, but we’d like a setup with the lights inside each cage, able to be disconnected individually. We have to see about how the wiring will run, since we don’t want the parrotlets to have any chance of access to them, so we’re not in a rush to order them - although we ARE eager to get them up once we find a system that works for us.
The other piece on order is Phillips HUE led strip, which can be controlled by several timers. Our plan is to set this strip up across from the cages and simulate a cycle of sunrise, daylight, sunset and nighttime lighting. We’d like the same for the inside-the-cage light setup, which is doable so long as the light strip/tape is dimmable. But we have to see what’s involved, if we can do this with the HUE or if we need the other LED tape we saw that’s cuttable every 2 inches.
The Parrotlet’s Echo dot has been set up again. We’ve been playing classical music 🎶 to try to calm them since they’re getting adjusted to their new cages and the terrarium pair has rejoined the flock.
Our Vision nestboxes work fine as the wire spacing is the same as the previous setup. We also have one nestbox made of pvc that is very much like a traditional wood nestbox but easier to clean and disinfect (which is the reason we don’t use wood nest boxes). Depending on how breeding goes this year, we may or may not completely switch to the pvc boxes. Both box designs have an insert floor piece that has a recessed cup for the laying area and a long flat area
What’s up this Wednesday? We made the regular update day! Wooo. Some progress made in the aviary last week, one corner ready for painting. Since we’re DIY amateurs and have various other responsibilities to attend to, this Reno has been like a weekend project that never ends. And we can’t dedicate every weekend to it, either. For example right now we’re down with the flu or if not the flu something very bad. Mild fever, aches and pains, chills, clammy, headache, sometimes severe spurts of localized joint pain, and a bad cough. Not fun. Of course the fids must be taken care of, rain, shine or flu!
Here’s a video of the completed corner. We are very proud of it... we just wish we had gotten this done already!
Happy Wednesday from our flock to yours! 🐥
What's up this Wednesday? Still working on finishing the wall to get the cages up. We had to remove a portion of it and fix an issue with an electrical box which set us back a bit.
Usual cleaning and chop making going on.
Here's a video of one of our babies all grown up and shootin' hoops! Parrotlets truly are amazing companions. This green male is doing it purely for his owner's praise 💚 who was nice enough to share it with us. Looks like we might have to get one of those basketball hoops for Starbuck 😁
Happy Wednesday from our flock to yours!
Small breeder in New Jersey exclusively breeding parrotlets. All of our babies are handfed/co-parent All prices are competitive and firm.
