Sugarbunnie Loft

All 6 babies are doing great!!! I originally thought the smaller Frill wasn't going to make it. But I didn't give up hope and she is doing fabulous now! And what a neat color! Don't quite know how to describe it, but I'll post pics this weekend. The two ancient babies are dilutes, a dun and a yellow, so Johnny says they're both hens. Cool! I named the yellow "Holly", keeping her. She is tiny and precious! We'll see how the dun turns out, she has a fabulous crest, but a little mismarked. The larger Satinette Frill baby seems to be a boy, he's awfully cute too! As for the Westie/Frill Mutts? I'm so enamored with them. Glossy black, huge, gorgeous. "Jupiter" and "El Gigante" - not sure of the sex yet, though I almost think Jupe is a hen and the other a boy. I'll likely keep them, unless I find a spectacular home for them. I think about Grover and Nesbit a lot, the two Budapests I sold. Wonder how they are doing, if they're happy and well cared for...

On July 31st I went back East to visit the fam. Decided to hire a bonafide bird sitter to care for the birds while I was away (instead of a dog sitter or bribing friends to do it). I went through everything with her, she seemed to get it. I mean, how hard is it really to go in and change the food and water every day? Her rates were good, $25 a day. It was worth it to know the birds would be well cared for... Except they weren't. Came home to bone dry water cups and empty food cups. Bone dry! She was supposed to come every day - maybe she did, but she didn't seem to do anything while she was here. I've never seen my birds act more starved and dehydrated. Poor things. Anyway, lesson learned - I'm only ever hiring somebody if someone I know personally has used and recommends them. I mean really, even if you check references, who knows who the people are that you're calling? It was a horrible experience. People, do not hire Squawk and Howl of Oakland, CA. 


That said, this past week I went to Oaxaca. Totally freaking out about the birds. Ended up bringing 4 of the 6 Oops! Babies down to Johnny Ajluni's in San Jose - he did a phenomenal job and I even learned a few things! The babies look great. The rest of the flock and the 2 West/Frill Mutts fell under the care of my lifesaver of a landlord. I left her a chart - and people, I think this is they key thing I learned here - leave a chart. Each day of the week across the top, and each task (no matter how obvious) down the side. Then little boxes to be checked off for each task on each day, heck I even tied a pencil to a string and taped it next to the list! "Empty & Refill NestBox Food Cups", "Empty & Refill NestBox Water Cups", "Lock Loft", etc. I felt annoying leaving such an overly simplified list, but you know what might be obvious to me can be easy to overlook for someone not used to doing it everyday. Needless to say I came home to happy, well fed, hydrated, healthy birds. 

Ohhh, these babies are too cute. Check the Nursery Page for some photos of the HUGE Westie/Frill cross and the yellow Ancient pup! Sooo cute! The Westie/Frills are giant and doing fabulous. The Ancients are coming along nice too, looks like we have a yellow and a black... with some white and grey? Hard to figure him out! The COF babies - well, we have one going strong and looking good, the other not so good. I've been having to handfeed him but left him in the loft with his sibling. He's just had a rough time. He's the one that got all scratched up by Jack. He's just not progressing like the others - but we'll see what happens. I'm going to Mexico on Friday, so I'll be pulling the COF and Ancient babies (I think the Westie/Frills are going to be fine on their own) and bringing them to my friend Johnny's to handfeed. Thank goodness! I almost cancelled my trip because I didn't want to leave them unattended! No more Oops! babies! Too stressful on me and the birds!

Just a quick update on the babies before I go to sleep. The 2 ancient pups (looks like 2 mags, a red/white and a black/white! I might have to keep them!!) are doing great with their Budapest foster parents. Keeping my fingers crossed they feed them through to weaning. The Muttlies (Westie/Frill crosses) are doing fantastic and are so big that Duchess can't fit in the bowl with them! Both appear to be solid black and have medium length beaks I think. Lastly, the Frill babies. I think Jack (the Blondinette Dad) has spread himself too thin, he keeps going in to feed the Muttlies - and the Frill babies end up relying on mommy Satinette, Sylvie, for all their meals. When Jack does finally go into his own box, he seems more interested in mating with Sylvie than parenting his second litter. One of the babies got injured in the scuffle - some scrapes in his head and a really bad laceration of the skin on his thigh. I bandaged it up tonight and have had Jack locked out of the nestbox since this morning. Sylvie is going to have to do it on her own, with me helping with feeding of course. I hope Scrapes makes it, the other baby looks good. I can't quite tell what the babies are going to look like - probably mismarked, but we'll see. They are super cute anyway! Hope I don't have to call Squab Protective Services on Jack...

OK, Matt Matuska has a gorgeous loft up here in Northern CA and incredibly beautiful, robust, healthy, glorious, gleaming West of England Tumblers. No wonder everyone kept telling me to get a bird from him for Duchess! Matt has some seriously impressive birds - gleaming people, gleaming!! He's got this Brown cockbird with iridescent turquoise on the neck like you can't believe. I never thought I'd fall for a brown, but wow is this bird a looker. Matt won't even think about releasing this guy for a year or two but I am going to make sure to do a fair share of begging and pleading so maybe I could get him when he finally decides to part with him. Anyway, enough gushing over the brown. All of Matt's birds were just so beautiful - reds, blacks, mottles, andalusians... I can't wait to see his birds at the shows this season! Exciting! 

All our kiddos are doing well. Gave the Ancient pups to the Friedmans (Budapests) on Wednesday because the Ancients just weren't up to the challenge of Parenthood. The Frieds are doing a stellar job. Sylvie is having a tough go of managing the two Frill babies on her own because Jack has been spending too much time fussing over his mistress, Duchess the Westie, and the two muttly babies. One of those, Giganticor, is like a huge fat sausage and I need two hands to pick him up. His sibling is half the size! They're super cute though, looks like the beaks will be sort of medium length. Should be neat looking birds. Might have to keep one as a foster... 

Came home from a trip back East today to find six sneaky Oops! Babies hiding out in the loft! We may have thought Breeding Season was over - but a few birds begged to differ. So, Sugarbunnie welcomes Paddington & GooGoo's Ancient Tumbler pups, Sylvie & Jack's first pair of Classic Old Frill babies, and Duchess & Jack's (busy little guy...) super Oopsie!! Babies - Westie/Frill crosses. Now those babies should look interesting... one of them is GIGANTICOR. Seriously HUGE!!! Pics to come in the Nursery section... So far so good. 


Oh, on an annoying note... Crummy petsitter leaves our precious birds with no food and water and poor Brook was left LOCKED in his nestbox for who knows how long. Can you imagine?? People, ask for references, and check them. And please, if you have a negative experience with a sitter please leave a review somewhere. Yelp, Citysearch, Yahoo... anything. I feel fortunate my birds survived the ordeal, and thankfully my landlord is going to tend to my birds next time I travel. Big thumbs down for Squawk & Howl of California's East Bay. Lazy Stinkers. >:(