Rachel's Rainbow of Pets

16/03/2024

Not my picture, but what a fun way to mix a science experiment with the season!

12/02/2024

Baby chicks are big enough to be moved to the bigger pen in the garage.

19/01/2024

18/12/2023

One of the beautiful new pair of Society Finches I acquired this past weekend.
His partner, the only marked female available at the time, made an escape attempt when she was being move from the sale cage to my travel cage. She landed on the floor in the aisle, where I had to keep people from stepping on her before apprehending her with my bare hands. As you can see, they are pretty small birds and it was a very large hall she could have flown off and been gone forever. I felt so fortunate to be able to grab her before she took off.

17/12/2023

This past week I made an incredibly hard decision. I had been contemplating it for a few months now, and yesterday was the culmination of the situation. I sold or traded away all my conures and quaker parrots. Over the summer I got out of Indian Ringnecks and parrotlets, with the notable exception of my personal pet Indian Ringneck, Baby. I have one lone breeder parrotlet hen that needs to be rehomed.
I am going back to breeding the birds that I first started with: Cockatiels and English Budgies, Zebra and Society Finches. And I plan on playing with Gloster canaries. While I sincerely enjoyed raising the other species, they each had more difficulties involved than I had time to devote to them.
And they were so much louder 😅. With our new household schedules it makes it far more easy to get our sleep.

29/11/2023

We have babies! First 2 have hatched!!!

06/11/2023

🥰
Spix Macaws were reintroduced to the Wild after going extinct in their native environment and now we have the first wild born babies in decades.
🥰

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=669232558655899&id=100067074816479&sfnsn=mo&mibextid=RUbZ1f

23/10/2023

James alerted me this evening that a juvenile Coopers Hawk was trying to have quail for dinner. He was not successful. My cages are hawk-proof. Unfortunately, it looked like he was having trouble flying, like this was a fledgling just out of the nest.
Sorry kid, no quail tonight.

19/10/2023

Boy it was a hot miserable summer! I just went through my birds yesterday and set up my c**katiel pairs that have been resting 1 year+!
One pair has already dropped an egg in the nestbox! 🥚

03/08/2023

I was sorting my quail yesterday, they are 6 weeks old today. I have 16 quail and so far can only identify 3 boys out of them. I moved the boys to a separate cage, banded them and put the rest back in the main hutch to see if any more boys will mature. So far no eggs, but with the extreme heat, I imagine it will be at least another week or two before any show up.

13/06/2023

Something new!!!
I got these gorgeous coturnix quail eggs last week and set them incubating in only about 10 days they will hatch into tiny quail chicks. By mid-August I should be able to start providing fresh quail eggs and frozen quail!

07/06/2023

Here's our baby olive-eggers! These are considered an F2 backcross, and I am hoping for lots of spots to be laid from hens in this group. Look at the floofs! Cute little spotted splash babies, and ones that are mostly black. One of them even has a really dark chocolate brown look to it!

01/06/2023

Olive egger project going into lockdown! Should hatch this weekend

29/05/2023

My blue egger chicks that hatched in the middle of the ice storm have grown up so much! Will need to place some of the boys in new homes. PM if interested
Austin TX

27/05/2023

Some of the fun parrot items on my website
RachelsRainbow.com

24/05/2023

I have been quiet on here as I am getting in the new rhythm of my new job and home life. I bought a car last week, which I haven't had a working car since Christmas. My main requirements were to allow me to go to bird competitions, with the right cargo capacity to fit cages and decent gas mileage 😂
I am actually handfeeding a couple baby Indian Ringnecks, and have one that is not spoken for yet.

17/03/2023

The last few months have been rough. I had to close the business that I have been working for for the last 20 years and find a new job. My birds have been cared for, but not my main focus. The next couple weekends I am working a jewelry booth at and will finally have some time to get my last set of babies into their new homes, and retooling my aviary and bird room.

04/03/2023

Preparation for owning a parrot. ❤️ Borrowed from a friend 🤣😂

13 Ways to Really Prepare Yourself for Getting a Pet Bird

Are you thinking about getting your first pet bird? This 13-step guide will emotionally and physically prepare you for what it’s like to live with one. If you follow this, you will have a fairly good idea what it’s like to have one of these lovely creatures in your house.

1. Take a big bite of carrot. Chew it up well, but don’t swallow it. Now go out to your dining room and spew it all over the wall. Leave it there until it dries. Get a sponge and a scraper and scrape it off the wall. Repeat daily!

2. Go to the bird supply store. Buy everything you need for the month. Then with the leftover money, go to the grocery store and pick up a five-pound box of macaroni, some parmesan cheese and some margarine. These provisions should last you about two weeks, and it’s about all you’ll be able to afford after all that money you spent at the bird supply store.

3. Take a newspaper to the bird supply store. Place it in the bottom of an empty birdcage. Read it while it’s laying on the bottom of the grate. This is how you will be reading the newspaper from now on.

4. Get some pelleted diet, some chopped up vegetables, borrow some bird p**p from the bird supply store (they’ll look at you funny, but they probably won’t charge you for it), some parrot feathers, pieces of bird toy parts, some wood chips and some almond shells. Combine in a one-gallon container. Throw some of it on the floor. Now clean it up. Throw more of it on the floor. Now clean it up. Repeat at least twice a day.

5. Get a screwdriver from your toolkit. Make some gouges in the paint on the wall. And while you’re at it, use it to rip one of your lampshades and smack up a couple of picture frames.

6. Make sure you know the meaning of all of these terms: Cloaca, preen gland, PDD, PBFD, calcium to phosphorus ratio, polyomavirus, E.N.D., and boing. This task involves a lot of research. At least you'll be on your phone for a good reason.

7. Measure out a cup of flour and place in a sifter. Move about your house and lightly coat all surfaces with the flour. Now dust all the surfaces. Repeat at least three times a week.

8. Look up some wild parrots on YouTube. Turn the volume up on your phone to full blast and place it right next to your ear. Repeat at least three times a day for 45 minutes.

9. Take some of that bird p**p you borrowed from the bird supply store and place it on a spatula. Now reach over your shoulder with the spatula and rub the bird p**p on the back of your shirt. Let dry and then go grocery shopping. Count the number of people who either stare at you or tell you that you have bird p**p on your back.

10. Do a little dumpster diving and collect odd items like water bottle caps, pieces of raffia, tree branches from bird-safe trees, pieces of cardboard and old plastic clothesline. With these items, attempt to make an interesting toy. You have 8 minutes. You may begin.

11. Save the wild parrot sounds onto your phone and set them as your 6 a.m. alarm. Make sure they are on the loudest setting possible. Repeat every morning for the rest of your life.

12. Get some bed sheets. Now take that screwdriver and make various beak-shaped holes in them. Take some of that bird p**p and smear it on the sheets. Launder and repeat at least twice a month.

13. Find a reputable bird veterinarian and make his car payment for him. Repeat at least once a year for each bird you intend to get.

Do these exercises for as long as you can. If you can keep this up for at least six months without losing your mind, you just might be ready for a parrot 😂😍😋

01/02/2023

Eighteen blue-egger chicks hatched in the middle of the ice storm so far. 🥶 ❄️

31/01/2023

First chick is out of the egg!

31/01/2023

Look what else is hatching!
I have in the incubator eggs from my Whitings True Blue and Ameraucauna chickens. True Blue egg layers!

30/01/2023

I am still handfeeding some c**katiels and parakeets(photos soon, I promise 🥰😉)
But look at these adorable floofs that just hatched! More baby c**katiels!!!

19/01/2023

I have 2 Grey Pallid hens about 7 months old, and 1 c**k and 1 hen Green Pallid 7 months .
Talk to me.

19/01/2023

I have been handfeeding four baby budgie-keets(Dad is English Budgie, and Mom is Parakeet). Violet and Cinnamon Violet babies. Got all four of them banded today 😊

03/10/2022

My beautiful Sunday Conures are fully weaned and ready to go to their new families.