Sunday, August 9, 1998

Aviary Rearranged #1

It was inevitable, I suppose, that the African silverbills would continue to be bold in their attempts to find a suitable nesting place and then to finally nest.  (How they would practically accomplish this I haven't the faintest idea since no nests or nesting materials are in the aviary.)  Even after the owl finch had been removed, they kept flying about with that resolve only birds looking to nest have.  They had even begun to become quite territorial and were chasing other finches from the favoured perch in the aviary - the perch which was actually where the FinchCam camcorder was trained.  The FinchCam perch is the only one which is fastened to the walls, while the other perches hang from the ceiling from smooth, small-link chain.  Rather than remove the silverbills from the community, I chose to switch all the perches in the aviary around.

The idea of switching the environment around is to put the finches off balance and in doing so they might settle down hormonally.  The changes were made five days ago and the questions I ask myself are, "did it work?  Have the silverbills settled down?"  Well, not exactly. 

They've stopped being aggressive, however, they've not stopped their quest to nest.  They continue trying to get into the FinchCam camera house and they continue to call loudly a call they hadn't called until the past month or so.   I know that if they become aggressive again, I'll remove them both from the aviary and separate them from each other for four to six weeks.  When I consider about all the trouble we go through to prevent breeding, I begin to think that we may eventually stock the aviary with same gender society finches.   But when I consider that doing so may create other problems of sexual frustration, I waffle on that idea too ...

ABOVE:  Left, our male gold breasted waxbill; right, one of our female rosy rumped waxbills. BELOW:  Left to right, female gold breasted waxbill, male society finch, male gold breasted waxbill and female red cheeked cordon bleu.

Anyway, once the changes were made the coolish morning of what became a hot, hot day, the finches soon became accustomed to their home's new layout.  The FinchCam perch, which is obviously the most important from our perspective, is now the most popular place to perch.  It's the longest perch and the one placed highest up in the aviary.  There is a small bunch of fake leaves on the far east side which provides a little spot for the birds in which to play.  As I type, eleven of our nineteen finches are resting on it - not bad!

Monday, August 17, 1998

Aviary Rearranged #2

The change in the aviary's environment did, indeed, alter the aggressive behaviour of the African silverbill pair.  Neither of the pair has been seen chasing other finches and they've seemed to settle down in their desires to breed, too.  No longer do they spend their days trying to get into the FinchCam camcorder house, though I do hear the male singing from time to time - a sign he hasn't completely given up the ghost where mating is concerned.

The green singers, however, seem to have become aggressive since the move.  I doubt the change in their behaviour has anything to do with my changing a few perches around. Rather, based on last year's experience with this pair, I think August is their natural time to breed. 

Aggressive behaviour while nesting ensures that their eggs will be protected from finches who are hungry for eggs not their own.  Our green singers and other finches who are aggressive during nesting are just doing what comes naturally.

ABOVE:  Left to right, female African silverbill, male society finch, male African silverbill and our other male society finch taking a preening break.

Saturday, August 29, 1998

Society Finch Has Diarrhea #1

Yesterday morning, I noticed Trevor, one of our male society finches, sitting puffed, tail pointed upward with a slightly messy vent area.  I checked the aviary floor, but noticed no unusual stools. 

I'm always distressed when one of my birds turns up sick.   In the past, sick birds have sometimes meant dead birds and, well, since I'm in charge, it seems that I would be the one responsible for everything about my little charges.  It would, therefore, be my fault when a bird becomes sick.  This is actually true some of the time, of course.  Sometimes, however, nothing I did or didn't do had any effect on the health of my birds and that some problems are congenital.   The problem is with this particular truth is that I don't usually seem to know when I've done something wrong or if it's just nature doing what it occasionally cruelly does.

So, not knowing what specifically to do, I decided to watch Trevor throughout the day.

At about 6:30 p.m., I noticed him sitting at one of the water cups and that he'd just taken a big poop.  Ah! I thought, I can have a good look at a fresh poop.  How horrified I was when I found it to be reddish-brown and quite runny.   Looking about the aviary floor, I noticed at least two other poops of the same colour and consistency.  Still not having a clue what his problem was, I sent an e-mail to the Finchlovers List explaining my observations hoping someone would offer suggestions.  A couple of hours later, a few people responded.  The best suggestion was to give him a drop of pepto bismol a couple of times a day, provide him with an electrolyte drink and keep him separate from the rest of our finches until he recovered.

I'd earlier thought of removing him to the heated hospital cage, of course, but without a course of treatment, I thought it best to leave him in the aviary overnight.  My reasoning being that the change in surroundings would offset the goodness of the heat treat of the hospital cage.   And, by the time I received the good suggestions, it was much too late (and too dark) to move him. Of course, I had scary dreams all night surely due to wondering if I'd wake up to a dead finch.

ABOVE:   David, our other male society finch who does not have diarrhea and who appears to be quite healthy as usual.

This morning, though, he was alive.  I easily caught him, but poor little guy was so weak but not so weak that he didn't bite me several times!  His biting me turned to my advantage since his bill was open and the pepto bismol (purchased late last night) went into him rather easily.  He's since been in the hospital cage and his poops don't seem as brown, though they're still quite runny.  There are drops of liquid on the back of the holder containing the Pedialyte indicating he is drinking.  Plus, I added three drops of vitamin E oil to his cup of seeds and hung a spray millet in with him.

I'll keep an eye on him today to monitor his progress.   He'll also be getting at least one more shot of pepto bismol.  Gee, with any luck, he'll be feeling much better tomorrow ... I hope!