This is a cute story of a successful assist hatch...
Whew, no one told me that hatching could be hard. I started out life by trying to hatch out of the wrong side of the egg. If someone hadn’t come along and helped me I would have been trapped in there and died. Luckily for me I wasn’t stuck in the egg for very long, and didn’t get dehydrated and lose weight. In fact I was a nice sized baby and was as big as my fostered clutchmates that were 1-2 days older.
Since I showed a unique personality right from the start (that is if you consider being directionally impaired endearing) my 'pet human' decided to make me an internet star by taking daily pix's of me. During the first week all I wanted to do was sleep. She had a hard time keeping me awake long enough to get any pictures, and had to keep nudging me to wake me up.
Didn't she know that a growing chick needs all the sleep it can get? And being babies we mainly eat, sleep and poop in the nestbox. I can get a little messy, and she had to clean me up the first 2 weeks before each pix was taken so that I looked perfect for the camera. Sheeh!...at that age who's going to worry that I don't look my best? Now I have to admit though that I felt a little bit proud the day I got banded. I acted grumpy, but if you look real close at my beak you can see a slight smile.
As I grew I started spending more awake time in the nestbox. I had a brief spell where I would hiss and look ferocious about the time of my photo sessions. That didn't last long because I was starting to look forward to my short trips out of the nestbox. And it was fun being compared to other babies. I can't believe that in this short of a period in time I have grown so much. By looking around at some of the bigger 'tielfids'
You can see that I consistently gained approximately 6 grams a day. Once I started to feather my weight slowed down somewhat. Part of that is because most of my major growth had already occurred. My parents are also partially responsible because they are feeding me less. I think this is because right after I become fully feathered they will try to get me to fledge from the nestbox. Then I am on my way to becoming a big bird...
Click on the images below for a larger view
©2001-2012 Susanne Russo, all rights reserved. Anything copied or printed from this site is for personal use ONLY. No portion of this site may be reproduced or distributed without the permission of Susanne Russo.
Since I showed a unique personality right from the start (that is if you consider being directionally impaired endearing) my 'pet human' decided to make me an internet star by taking daily pix's of me. During the first week all I wanted to do was sleep. She had a hard time keeping me awake long enough to get any pictures, and had to keep nudging me to wake me up.
Didn't she know that a growing chick needs all the sleep it can get? And being babies we mainly eat, sleep and poop in the nestbox. I can get a little messy, and she had to clean me up the first 2 weeks before each pix was taken so that I looked perfect for the camera. Sheeh!...at that age who's going to worry that I don't look my best? Now I have to admit though that I felt a little bit proud the day I got banded. I acted grumpy, but if you look real close at my beak you can see a slight smile.
As I grew I started spending more awake time in the nestbox. I had a brief spell where I would hiss and look ferocious about the time of my photo sessions. That didn't last long because I was starting to look forward to my short trips out of the nestbox. And it was fun being compared to other babies. I can't believe that in this short of a period in time I have grown so much. By looking around at some of the bigger 'tiel
You can see that I consistently gained approximately 6 grams a day. Once I started to feather my weight slowed down somewhat. Part of that is because most of my major growth had already occurred. My parents are also partially responsible because they are feeding me less. I think this is because right after I become fully feathered they will try to get me to fledge from the nestbox. Then I am on my way to becoming a big bird...
Click on the images below for a larger view
©2001-2012 Susanne Russo, all rights reserved. Anything copied or printed from this site is for personal use ONLY. No portion of this site may be reproduced or distributed without the permission of Susanne Russo.
If you have any questions or concerns we have a FORUM on our sister site. Feel free to visit and post. If it is an issue with a baby please try to give as much info and details as you can, such as age, problem, how long there has been a problem etc.
Click on the Logo below to go to the forum
