Sugarbunnie Loft

Well, there are feathers everywhere at Sugarbunnie as Molting Season has officially begun. What a ragtag bunch of feathered folk we've got - missing tail feathers, new primaries poking out, goofy hairdos and hairdonts... Since we don't separate our pairs after breeding season, we use wooden dummy eggs to prevent any oops! babies from happening during this very important time of the year. We think it's stressful enough to have to grow a whole new body full of feathers - bringing up babies would be just too much for our little pijies! So, eggs are pulled in the cloak of darkness and secretly replaced with wooden fakes. We feel terrible, we love babies! But we know it's best for our birds. They sit on the dummy eggs like they're real for about 2-3 weeks before they figure out something isn't right. Poor guys. Anyway! We're looking forward to some nice new shiny feathers - and a lot less sweeping up of the old ones! Squab Watch: Update on Brutus - In case you haven't noticed, we're keeping him. But Brutus is still in the house and does not want to grow up. Still insisting on one hand-feeding a day, we are actually going to let Danny bunk with him starting tomorrow to see if he can't get our little spoiled bratty pants to start acting like a grown up. Sometimes you need an annoying older brother to get you to start acting like a big boy. Brutus has some personality though - he's a real Brooklyn in the making!!

Well, Brutus finally has his own room. He is such a big boy that it was time he got out of the nursery. He is still on 2 hand feedings a day, so he'll be staying in the house with us for another week while he gets the hang of eating real food. Our babies are weaned onto a mix of organic human-grade seeds, grains, and legumes mixed with Harrison's Organic High Potency Pellets. We find this gives us big strong babies with really excellent feathering and health. a large variety of toys in the Kindergarten Cage helps develop their curiosity and little birdbrain. Shmoopy is doing well too, probably happy to have the nursery all to himself as the last baby of the season! He seems to have finally outgrown the air-gulping so we have high hopes for him, even though he had a rough start. Since he's alone now, we gave him a little stuffed animal to snuggle, and he's been getting lots of extra kisses and cuddles. 

The weather has been a little chilly lately so the pool's been closed - until today! All the pijies jumped in at once and made quite a mess with all the splashing and goofing around. Little Daniel, our baby Berliner, waited until the real bath hogs were finished (the frills and the Friedmans) and then hopped in for his first bath. Fortunately, FosterMom Duchess was there to supervise and boy were they adorable! SquabWatch Update: Brutus and the Ancient Baby are doing well, though Ancient Baby is still gulping air and filling up like a little balloon. We're waiting on the vet for some advice, though we've been told not to worry and he will likely sort it out soon enough. But we like this little stinker, we want to be sure. More news to follow. :) 

Squab Watch is where you can easily find out the latest updates on our new babies. Right now we have Brutus, SF Budapest from the Friedmans. He is a real handful! We actually pulled him this week because the Friedmans were exhausted from rearing their last baby and then a Berliner - and Brutus was being a bit too pushy with them. So, he's in the house now and loving all the attention. Yesterday he actually got a roommate, an Oops! Baby from the Ancients. This little cutiepatootie is having a little trouble with air in his crop ("aerophagia"), he just gulps it in and fills up with air. So it's not sour crop. The Ancients were having a tough time feeding him after a week, so I am hoping it corrects itself now that he is getting fed regularly by me. If not, I will take him into the vet for tests in a few days to see if we can't get him squared up. He's a real cute little fellow. Brutus seems to like taking on the role of big... very big brother.