FINCHforum

Hello Fellow Finchers....
~ Do you ever have one of THOSE twenty four hour periods where you just want to knock heads together, pull your hair out, and SCREEEAM! ?
~It all started with a Flight Cage on Kijiji that I desperately craved. I wanted this flight so badly that I could taste it. It would match my other flight perfectly (same flight) They would go up against the back wall, with the taller flight in the middle. Plants all around... I could envision it all. Oh so pretty.
~I talked the lady down from $250 down to $150 for a flight that costs over $500 in the store. Spoke to my son's friend (the guy with a truck) to bring it home. Finalized with lady for the Sunday pick up. All was good in the world. Then 'guy with truck', couldn't make it. Phoned lady and agreed on Monday.' Guy with truck' agreed, then went out and got drunk Iand couldn't drive Monday. Tuesday then. Lady agreed but 'guy with truck' suddenly had to work.... Yesterday evening finally had enough and grabbed my neighbor who has a truck but had been out of town, would he help me out? Sure, no problem. Yay!!!! Phoned lady, said we were finally coming.... Lady's hubby told me that someone else had already bought it...
~Popped over to the neighbours to thank them and explain. Came home to find one of my Red bill Fires hanging by one leg from a plant, flailing wildly , feathers everywhere, his buddy frantic , everyone in a panic. Managed to get him out of flight and untangle him. Placed him in the tiny hospital cage with his friend . Slapped a heating lamp over them and settled them for the night.
~Had a restless night, worrying about little bird, and heaping curses on 'guy with truck'.
~ This morning, little bird ok (thank God). Took dogs out for a run in the chill +3 c. I was begining to enjoy my walk, when little dog found the biggest pile of poop and dove in... white dog goes in, brown aromatic dog comes out, it's magic. Dragged her home, heaping curses on stupid dogs and 'guy with truck'.
~ Threw stinky dog in tub and scrubbed. Went to get towel and twisted arthritic knee out of shape. Ouch! Not happy.
~ Hobbled to grocery store (we need food too, woman and family cannot live by seed alone).
~ Came home to birds screaming, babies screaming, feathers flying. Gouldian rebellion in full progress. Jaxom and Mirrim (babie's parents) had chased Socies out if snuggy/nest and had decided to regain parental rights. Societies frantic. Jaxom trying to pull babies out of nest, while Mirrim is sitting on top of them plucking feathers. NOOOOO!!!
~ Dropped groceries and ran to the basement on one leg for extra cage. Now
the Gouldian hunt was on. Finally had the blood thirty couple in a small cage. Sigh of
relief...
~But why is everyone still screaming? Maybe because my other Gouldian pair were now in the nest, taking over where the other two had left off. Back to the basement, hopping down the stairs. Another cage. Another Gouldian hunt.
~ Alfie, my parrot finch makes a break for it. Luckily he's too chubby to go far. Grabbed him with net and tossed back into flight. Grabbed Tiny and Sharra and tossed them into cage. Checked on babies. Seem to be ok. Socies back in nest.
~ Dropped into a chair. If I was a drinker, I would have had a drink, but I'm not, so... had an ice cream sandwich instead.
~ Good grief!!!
I hope babies will be ok. I hope Fire finch will be ok. I hope the Socies will continue to feed. I hope my knee feels better. I hope I find another flight. I hope I'll still have some hair tomorrow morning....
~ And most of all, I hope that the fleas from a thousand camels will infest the bathing suit area of ' the guy with the truck'....
~ Good night everyone.

~Elana~

Oh. My. Lord. I think even I need a drink after that story. I have been there with trying to rely on someone else for something and ending up sorely disappointed. Well, you will find another flight that's even better, but I wouldn't ask "the guy with the truck" again. You need to go punch that guy.

I'm glad the fire finch appears to be recouperating well from his incident. And what in the world got into those Gouldians all of a sudden to make them think they needed to take over the nest and pick on the babies? I bet they are wanting to start another clutch now.

OK, I can just see your dog jumping into the poop and you scrubbing him down in the tub. I always bathe my dogs in the tub, and it is the most uncomfortable position. I'm always afraid I'll take my back out. Hope your knee feels better!

For the guy with a truck=
For you =

Sam007
Thanks Sam.
Just a slice out of my life...

KarenB
~Sigh... what can I say?
~Fire Finch Rowan is snuggled with his buddy Orion on a perch, sleeping.
~Jaxom and Mirrim, together in their small cage on same perch, shoulder to shoulder, sleeping.
~Tiny and Sharra on a little swing together, sleeping.
~Babies quiet in the Snuggy/nest with their Socies, sleeping (I hope).
~Dog (Katy) smells great now, sleeping.

~Tomorrow is another day. I realy hope those babies are ok. As to what caused the Great Gouldian Rebellion, I have no idea. What got me, is that they were so so mean. I mean, he was poking at them with his beak and just trying to grab them and pull them out. And her, she just got in there and sat on them, pulling out their brand new little feathers. They were crying and screaming.
~Well let's hope all will be well . Just don't know what to do with these suddenly gone crazy Goulds. I hate to leave them in small cages until babies fledge and wean, but oh yea, I don't have my Flight... Grrrr!!!

'guy with truck' needs a smack along side the head...

Hang in there and I'm holding thumbs that you have a super relaxed weekend, with no problems!

Rox
~And wouldn't I like to give him one, but it wouldn't solve anything.
~Thanks for weekend wishes.
~ I'm hoping my babies are alright this morning. I'm so worried about them. Being attacked by your own parents must be stressful to the max, and then these other two as well... poor babies..... I hope Socies continue feeding and looking after them, now that Gouldies are out of the way.
~ Now I'm almost 100% sure that it was parents who tossed that one baby into bath water to drown.

~Elana~

Oh Elana, that's an epic day!

I've DEFINITELY had those days......and on those days, I tend to go to bed at 5:00 p.m. in an attempt to halt the awfulness so I can just start over! LOL

I hope those babies are okay!
They're VERY lucky if there wasn't any bleeding. Those are ALL blood feathers on those babies; if they damaged one without pulling it out, it could have caused a fatal bleed.
So traumatic for them!

I'm so disappointed with Sir Jaxom! He's one of my favorites! (I can't believe he's a dad already! He was just a youngin'!!)

If the gouldians haven't been involved in raising the babies thus far, I'd make an educated guess and say that they don't view the babies as their own. So I don't think they were trying to re-claim them.

I think it's more likely they view them as the societies' babies in a very ideal nesting spot. So the goulds were likely trying to oust them so they could take it over. That's my guess, based on your description.

What's curious is that the societies didn't defend the nest. Perhaps the chink in the armor for otherwise incredible society super parents! (Passive to a fault?) I know that my nesting couples in community cages have made it *extremely* clear that they "own" a nest spot and kept others a good distance away at all times.

I bet you're right on the drowned baby. That breaks my heart thinking about him going from a warm, loving nest to the cold water, where you can't see or swim or do anything to save yourself.

Once I finally had a surviving chick (after many epic failures in my zebras), it really hit me that these babies only have 1 shot at life. Just one chance and if things don't go just perfectly, it's all over.
I know they don't intend on being "mean" or "cruel" when they toss babies or try to take over another's nest. They're just following instinctual drives.
Your story about the drowned baby made me order a bunch of watering devices, like this: http://www.thefinchconnections.com/bird ... r-waterer/

I bought a couple different watering tubes and so forth so I can see which ones they like and use those when we have babies to avoid drownings, which have always been on my mind.
So your little guy's life wasn't in vain; he prompted me to do something that I hope will save others like him.

SUCH a bummer on the cage! It's so disappointing when you get your hopes up and miss out because of someone else.
I've been there, done that, as I don't drive, so I've got to rely on my husband. But he's a driver with a car service, so his schedule is crazy and always changing!

In the future, I might offer a deposit to secure it, just to show you're absolutely serious. For $150, I would have offered $20-40. (Never more than I'm willing to lose, of course. And I'd make sure it's clear it's refundable if the sale falls through.)
If you do it via Paypal, you're protected, as long as you put the terms in the memo box (e.g. This is a refundable deposit for black Prevue Hendryx [dimensions] cage, to purchase from [name] for [price.] Deposit fully refundable in the event the sale falls through for any reason.) That way, if they were to sell it to someone else and tried keep the deposit, you'd just contest it with Paypal and they'll refund you.

It's perhaps not the smartest thing to do, giving a deposit to people you don't know, but I've found most people are honest and reasonable. I've done this with Craigslist sellers probably about a dozen times when I REALLY wanted an item and couldn't get there right away. I've never had a problem. In the one case where the guy sold the item I was purchasing, he happily refunded my deposit. And Paypal keeps you safe too, as a backup.

Goodness gracious. What a chaotic mess. I feel like I need to take a drink for you. ;) But the ice cream sandwich made me laugh.

I'd agree with Mia on the Gouldian's behavior. I'd say it was pretty spot on.

Colt
~It was a mess, and I was so mad, there was smoke coming out of my ears.
~As to my darling Gouldis, they are not going anywhere near those babies until they are much bigger. Boy, I could sure use my 'long gone' flight right now... GRRR!!!