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Post by Jan and Shah on Jan 29, 2015 4:29:06 GMT -5
I'm with you Siobhan. I don't care how an animal looks - the main thing is it is healthy and happy. Shah looks so weird around his chest - weird feathers and a big bald patch - but he is still my bossy baby and I love him.
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Post by easttex on Jan 29, 2015 7:44:28 GMT -5
I agree with you, Jan. There's even something about the the less than conventionally perfect that is really appealing. Kind of a Charlie Brown Christmas tree syndrome - loving what many others would reject all the more. Trixie is is a real cutie. Finches are so bright and lively, they cheer you right up. It must be sort of nice to have at least one bird who doesn't demand a whole lot.  |
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Post by siobhan on Jan 29, 2015 11:57:02 GMT -5
Her skin is pink and smooth, and I've had a chance to look at it from several angles now that she's a little more comfortable with being stared at. LOL Ringo sits on top of her cage and stares at her a lot, so she's had plenty of practice. Nobody can stare quite like a starling. Ringo stares at me, too. This morning Trixie was on the floor of her cage again, but she acted kind of embarrassed about it and hopped up on a perch when she saw me.
I know that her health and happiness is more important than a few missing feathers, and seeing her with the clearance tag on her cage was just a big red flag shouting, "Buy this bird immediately and take her home where she belongs!!!!" Canaries cost an awful lot and my credit card howled in protest, but there was just no way I was going to leave her there when nobody wanted the poor baby. I wanted her. And yes, it is nice that at least one of the babies is undemanding and happy with food, water, toys and clean paper without insisting on constant obeisance. LOL
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Post by msdani1981 on Jan 29, 2015 14:32:25 GMT -5
They do cost a lot, and I'm not exactly sure why.
Hmm...I would keep an eye on Trixie. The "acted kind of embarrassed and hopped up on a perch" would be a red flag for me. You know how birds try to hide any illness? Just a thought....
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Post by siobhan on Jan 29, 2015 16:40:31 GMT -5
I keep a very close eye on her poops and her appetite, as I do with all my birds, and also feather condition and stuff like bright eyes and energy level. All are very good and normal. She has a water dish on the floor of her cage in case she decides she'd rather bathe in it than her water dish, but instead she bathes in the water dish and drinks out of the bath dish. She also goes to her floor to pick up dropped food. But she doesn't like to be caught doing either of those things. Mostly when I'm in the room she sits on a perch and pretends to be a plush toy. She eats and drinks and bathes if I'm in the room and she thinks I'm too busy with Ringo to notice, but the minute she sees me looking, she goes back to Plush Toy. She lived in a pet store for at least a year and while she's much more relaxed than she was at first, she still has quirks like that.
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Post by biteybird on Jan 30, 2015 3:23:17 GMT -5
It sounds like she's hyper-aware of what's going on around her (a healthy awareness for a small bird and no doubt due, in some part, to her being in the store so long with minimal 1:1 interaction/attention). I laughed about your comment re the 'water' vs. 'bath' dish - are they the same size, colour, shape? If so, then I guess she's decided where each should be! Our canaries have a huge bathing dish (it's a pot plant base) that has an automated water timer set for 8am. They drink out of it and bathe in it. They don't drink out of the dedicated water holder. Bonnie hasn't bathed for a week. She's extremely unhygienic, apart from daily preening, and yells at me when she sees me holding the spray bottle (sigh).
Edit: forgot to say that here (Melbourne, Australia), about 5 years ago, canaries used to cost about $45-50 each. I have no idea what the current prices are or how this compares to the US, but us Aussies usually get ripped off with the prices of most things. |
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Post by siobhan on Jan 30, 2015 11:42:18 GMT -5
Her "water" dish is hanging on the side of her cage. Her "bath" dish is the bottom half of a sandwich box to take your lunch to work in. Trixie cost $130 and that was with a 20 percent discount because she was "on clearance." I already had a cage (I always have spare cages and dishes and toys just in case) and I bought her a couple of toys and a bag of canary/finch mix at the same time so the total bill was closer to $150. I didn't care, though. I was not leaving her there. I have solved the mystery of finding her on the floor of her cage in the mornings. That is her preferred place to sleep. She gets in the corner and stuffs her little bald head under her wing and she's out like a light. I went in that room this morning to get ready for work (it's also my dressing room) and she was so conked out she didn't stir even when I said good morning to Ringo. By the time I came back from my shower, she was awake and having breakfast. I think it's a good sign that she feels so safe and comfortable that she sleeps that soundly. None of the others sleeps that soundly except Clyde, who comes out of his happy hut yawning and stretching and reluctant in the mornings. It must just be a quirk of hers that she sleeps on the floor. I think she has a little trouble with her feet and balancing on a perch, no matter what size it is, so maybe she can't sleep well trying to sit on a perch.
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Post by easttex on Jan 30, 2015 13:33:56 GMT -5
Perching birds have tendons that lock their feet around their perch, which explains why they don't all fall off when they go to sleep. Maybe Trixie's tendons don't function quite right. If not, sleeping on the floor makes a lot of sense.
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Post by siobhan on Jan 30, 2015 14:02:26 GMT -5
That may be the situation. When she preens, she sometimes loses her balance a little bit and wobbles. She doesn't actually fall off if she's awake, but she seems to have more difficulty than any of the others. And when she's resting and kind of dozing, she sits on one of the perches next to her mirrors, and sort of leans against the mirror. I don't think she's sick or anything; she's done that since I brought her home and I may have missed the fact that she was sleeping on the floor until recently. She only had one perch at the pet store, and it was a skinny perch, which may have crippled her feet. Without a variety of widths and surfaces to perch on for all that time, it's probably a wonder she can perch at all. She gets around fine otherwise and has even figured out how to leap from one to another, even onto her swing and hang on as it swings back and forth, so it may only be when she's sleeping that she has real difficulty.
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Post by biteybird on Jan 30, 2015 20:32:55 GMT -5
As Easttex and you have mentioned, it could be because her tendons or muscles haven't had the opportunity to develop, due to a non-variety of perch sizes. This would not surprise me.
Also, thought you'd like to know - our canaries don't like the commercial 'nests' sold in pet shops. They insist on laying eggs in plastic food dishes instead of the nests (even though there's not enough room)...the point being that they do, indeed, have minds of their own and individual preferences.
Trixie sounds like she's doing fine!
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Post by siobhan on Jan 31, 2015 1:35:51 GMT -5
Someone on the finch forum suggested she doesn't like the placement of the nest. I bought her a happy hut and set it on the floor -- it's one of the stiff sided ones. Then I decided her cage needed a bit of rearranging so I moved her nest and took out a swing (she had three, LOL) that was kind of in her way if she was trying to hop to her food dish from the next nearest perch. She sat on her favorite perch and made her worried sound for a while and then hopped over to check out where I'd moved the nest to and she did have an easier time without that swing in the way, but I don't think she quite likes what I did. I'm trying to figure out if I can hang the happy hut without it being in her way or upsetting her. She's not quite as picky as a Quaker about change, but she definitely isn't a fan. LOL Maybe she'll eventually sleep in the happy hut.
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Post by biteybird on Jan 31, 2015 3:06:56 GMT -5
Given time she might like the happy hut because it has a flat floor, similar to her sitting on the floor of the cage. Canaries adapt very well so I wouldn't worry overly about it.
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Post by siobhan on Jan 31, 2015 16:21:48 GMT -5
She doesn't stay mad long if you give her a fresh millet spray. LOL She could hardly contain herself while I was hanging it.
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Post by biteybird on Jan 31, 2015 22:02:50 GMT -5
Trixie cost $130 and that was with a 20 percent discount because she was "on clearance." I already had a cage (I always have spare cages and dishes and toys just in case) and I bought her a couple of toys and a bag of canary/finch mix at the same time so the total bill was closer to $150. OMG, I've never heard of a price like that for a canary in Australia...it must be a 'first' that we pay less than the US for something. Still, I'm glad she's with you and safe now. It's great that you care enough for birds in need to rescue them and pay a premium for the privilege. |
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Post by siobhan on Jan 31, 2015 23:23:38 GMT -5
At a bird fair or from a breeder, a canary probably wouldn't cost that much, but this was at Petsmart, where everything costs more. Budgies are usually $25 and they have a beautiful tiel right now who's $149.99. I'd love to have her, but yikes, and my two spare cages are too small. Those cages are hospital or emergency cages and not for living in. One was Greta's, but she liked it and spent all day out of it anyway, so I didn't think it mattered so much. I tried to move her into a bigger cage as soon as she settled in, but she got so agitated that I surrendered and let her keep her little cage. I put Trixie in that cage to start with because Trixie is so small, but it didn't suit her and I moved her into the bigger cage I was going to give Greta. Trixie likes that cage because it's low and wide and she can flit across it and bounce from perch to perch. I tried hanging her happy hut today and she was intrigued but not interested in going inside and it was kind of in her way as far as the bouncing from perch to perch that she likes to do, so I took it down and set it back on the floor. She approved of that.
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