Sunday, December 30, 2012

Birds together (so far, so good)

I have been keeping the birds together in the large cage for a week now. The only injury came two days ago when it was getting late and it was dark. Both birds were hanging upside down and were doing some very angry sparring. I heard Manzi scream, which made me run to the cage (upon which I found them sparring). I didn't have a quick plan and I didn't want my hand to take their bites, so I quickly grabbed Manzi's tail to get him to turn around, then I picked his feet off the top. He was happy to be rescued. He must have wandered too close to Maui, whereupon she bit him in the nostril, causing Manzi to begin a counter attack. The bite did leave Manzi with a broken skin, some blood welling up in the area and some swelling. Now, it is healed over, but definitely still red (which it will probably be for some time). I was scared to leave them back in the cage together, but they have been fine. I check on them in the camera all the time. It seems that they just stick to themselves. By evening, they will perch on the top branch about 1' apart and preen themselves, so that is nice. They aren't too stressed for that.

The goal of this is so that both birds have more room than in their smaller cages. But, if they are too stressed and have to give each other a huge girth, then that will defeat the purpose of having them together. So far, they seem to be okay, not great. They do pay attention to where the other is in the cage and they don't come closer than 8" from each other. Hopefully they will relax. Last year when I tried this, it lasted for about a week before they started beating each other up. It has been a week, so hopefully it doesn't go down from here.

Another topic: I had a rotisserie chicken on Friday. The birds love chicken, so I gave them the scraps (bones, cartilage, etc.). Manzi was in the way of the food dish and wouldn't move so I put the scraps in having to brush past him. The scraps were so greasy, so now he has a big grease mark on his entire right wing. I was hoping he would preen it off quickly, but after an hour I wrapped him in a towel to get out some of the grease and bits of chicken. Today I put him in the shower and he is looking much better, but his wing may be dark for some time.

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