FINCHforum

It's a sad morning. We had a disaster last night and it was my fault. I came in last night with my little dog Bitsie and the socies were in the window sill. I put Bits on the bed and went to get my husband. I had that thought to take Bits with me out of the room......
When we came back in she had Spreckles. I don't know why he flew from the window. He died in my hand, even my husband cried. He is the bird catcher he can catch them, and is so gentle which is why I went to get him and put them back in the cage for the night.

So far I have had a cat eat one and a dog bite one. Which is probably why people keep them in the cages with the doors shut. So much for Socie babies.... i can't see the point in confining them when they have this room to themselves all day long. This was a very thoughtless mistake on my part.

Anyway. Blue has his mirror and is in solitary confinement for now. The two hens are happy and playing together. They are cute and funny. I finally named them. I named the CB hen Nellie (Nervous Nellie) and the Socie is Sadie. With Blue safely away the girls are quite playful. Nellie plays a little game sliding down the ladder pole. Sadie hangs upside down and is full of funny antics. I think they are adjusting well. Everything was going much better anyway. They are even playing with dried eggshells now.

I still can't believe I did such a careless thing. Like leaving a baby on the bed for a minute and think they won't roll off onto the floor. Poor Spreckles life was just getting really great for him. He had a lovely girlfriend with a cute hair do and he was really enjoying himself. It took getting her to find out he was a he. At least he died quickly and didn't suffer long. Awful so awful. When I am in the room Bitsie just watches, she knew she did a bad thing. I don't know if she really meant to kill him or was just excited.

Ugh....enough of that. Here is a sweet story.

We used to have doves outside all the time and they would make nests in the craziest places. We had a freezer in the carport and my sweet Hunny had put an empty plastic gallon ice cream bucket on top of it. A dove built a nest in that ice cream bucket and had 2 babies in there. We had a bad storm and the wind blew the bucket off onto the ground. Hunny was looking everywhere for the babies. He found one and put it back into the bucket. At that time I had the best standard poodle who ever lived, that dog was human. Hunny was getting upset that he couldn't find the baby. Rasmus went and pointed to it for him, he understood what was going on and he helped. Hunny picked it up and put them both in their nest and then duck taped that bucket to the wall on topof the freezer Mama dove accepted them again and they were raised successfully. That dove was so used to Hunny. He talked soothingly to her every day. I think if he would have offered her food in his hand she would have accepted it. That gentle wonderful dog. That gentle wonderful man.

Bitsie is a good dog too she is just little and excitable. Bless her heart. Bless my heart too seems I am learning everything about birds the hard way.

Spreckles

Oh no.... We learn from those mistakes. My lab mix almost killed one of my juvies the other day. I caught her just in time to order her to drop it, before the fatal crunch.

See........it can happen to anyone. This has happened to many members. A cat or a dog getting a finch.

Your experience with the dog you owned previously, the gentle standard poodle (they are amazing dogs), was that dogs will not harm a bird. So you trusted your newer dog Bitsie.

I will tell you this as advice. Once a bird killer, always a bird killer. No matter how you discipline your Bitsie, the dog WILL do it again.

It's by no fault of the dog, that the dog acted in it's true nature probably for it's breed. It's better you learned this about your little Bitsie now with one bird, rather than have your entire flock killed.

So now it's just a matter of making sure the dog is well away from the birds, supervised at all times.

So forgive yourself, give your doggie a smoochie (share the turkey giblets with the little pooch) and keep your birdies safe.

Spreckles
Aw Sweetie . . . I'm so sorry. Babs is right - we learn from our mistakes and boy oh boy do we all make them.

Spreckles

Sorry about Spreckles. Poor little guy.

I would definitely keep the pup out of the room where you have free flying birds.

By the way, did Spreckles and Nellie get a chance to mate?

Elana Babs SocietyBird.

I think they did. they were in the nest together a lot but not sure. Spreckles padded it up nicely for them with hay and some pine straw. After so many debacles not sure I am ready for clutch! Although if she had some babies it would be wonderful to have them all

Thank you for the kind condolences SB.

And thanks Babs, totally agree I won't trust Bitsie or any animal alone with the birds even if it's 5 seconds! We will never know why he flew down within reach of her. Poor guy.

The irony of it all is that Blue is still by himself! He has his love affair with the mirror and maybe he will calm down after some time and leave Nellie alone. He makes her a nervous wreck.
Babies would be a nice surprise.

But anyway now we have the thread going of all our mistakes could get interesting if people decide to post a few. Personally I would rather read about them than do them!
Karen

Spreckles

Well Karen, we all make mistakes. I think the main thing is to learn from our mistakes, and not repeat them......

Just like I learned to fold a towel and place it across the space between my washroom door and the floor, after my cat snapped up a Gouldian fledgling through that space and snapped his neck .

I also learned to close the door on the opposing wall of a new flight, when placing Waxbills into self same flight through the door on the opposite wall.... Luckily no harm done, other than having to chase itty-bitty little birds who were zooming all over my house

Elana

You got your exercise then! My hunny is very good at catching them and not scaring them. I have a heck of a time. Usually toss a little wash cloth on them or something. Salt on their tails?? kidding!

Yes I like to learn the easy way not the hard way but so far it hasn't worked out that way. Except for Blue is an old bird and actually survived a cat attack as a youngster. He went to the vet but my grand pulled him through which seems all the more impressive to me now.

Everyone makes mistakes. Last winter, I stepped upon my favorite canary and killed her while she was running about on the floor. I cried for about 3 days straight.

*hugs* As mentioned above, we all make mistakes. I stood on a quail once and killed it. Felt terrible for days!

So sorry! I have had one of our little dogs get an Orange Cheeked waxbill. I felt terrible. The bird got loose, and landed near the dog. I keep mine caged all the time. I have learned that if I am going to be working with cages with a chance of escape to put the dogs out first.

A lot of folks let their birds free fly, but I think that first they kept them in the cages long enough so that they felt like that was home, and they went back into the cages at night on their own. No catching required. You might ask to see how it is done.

wikifam

Thanks Lori. my birds do go to their cages of their own accord. They were perched in the windowsill across the room which was a bit unusual. They don't usually leave the alcove where their cages are except to fly a little bit and hop around from cage to cage and sit on top of the highest one. I had never seen them that far away before.
oh well, it's done now and the doors are shut more often ;( Thanks for the nice comments.

Karen

So sorry to read this, but as you have seen, we've all made mistakes, it comes with keeping birds. I've stepped on one, my dog has killed several, I held a baby too long/too tight, the list goes on and on. The odd thing is that my cats are innocent, you'd think they would have been the biggest problem. I'm far more dangerous to my birds than my cats!

Once when placing new clean water tubes, I put the clean water tube meant for a cage full of finches on the nearby empty cage instead. When next I checked, I had several dead birds. I have made more mistakes than most it seems, and as I get more and more forgetful, I have to double-check everything I do.

Well aside from my poor little brown Bengalese hen dying from being egg-bound (and me not having studied up ahead of time justincase), and not counting letting my new fawn loose in my bedroom, I've also managed to totally lose 2 eggs laid early on (which were probably sterile anyway since I ended up having 2 hens, but still, WHERE DID THEY GO???)

I mean seriously. Not a crumb or spilled yolk or bit of egg shell left, even the nesting material disappeared completely, totally, and utterly. Just a little freaky.

I put a latch on the outside of the door to the room where my birds are. I mention that because of my old house with not quite level floors, which means the door does not always close completely. The latch gives me peace of mind.
Karen, you are a good person. don't beat yourself up. I know that going forward, you will probably be even more vigilant that many, because of this experience.

Mistakes happen... I sat on my gouldian female, but luckily I felt her squirming and got up (She is still alive, and better than ever). I was applying some mite ointment on them, I let them fly around the room after I do so (For exercise), than I sat on her (I didn't notice until I felt her squirming)... And she is still alive, the end. Sorry about the loss of your birds.