FINCHforum

So last Sunday my little brown hen died, she was eggbound. Silly thing, I had hoped she wouldn't try to lay again after I took the nest out. Especially since both birdy pals turned out to be female. So much for hopes.

I discovered that not naming the birds didn't help a BIT when I found one of them curled up on the bottom of the cage. Actually I had been privately thinking to myself that the name of this bird was "Molly Brown" - which was a jinx if there ever was one, given that one of my mother's canaries of the same name wouldn't stop laying eggs and died when she became egg-bound.

Her little pal, who is all white, was so depressed and upset, not eating, totally silent, nary a peep. So I girded my loins and went out to the local pet shops in search of a new friend and companion. I wasn't planning on getting a bird right away, but one of the shops I stopped at turned out to have a "damaged" Bengalese in the back room, where she had been ensconced for several months due to having been picked on by any bird she was put in a cage with. No tail feathers, nary a single one, her little butt is bare as a ... whatever something can be as bare as, LOL!

This bird was offered to me for free. I was assured this bird was a female. Since it is my habit to adopt strays and little birdies who are in trouble (my first pair had been rescued from a pet store where all the birds but Molly were picking on her little white friend) I went ahead and took her home.

So let me formally name both birds, and welcome the newcomer:

Introducing:

Aunty Pyewacket



and my little fawn, Bambi

Bambi in durance vile (still in quarantine)



Bambi the Tail-less Wonder



Both names are puns. Can anyone guess why? It'll tickle me pink if you can!

HINT: A case of mistaken identity is involved in one case.

Rats, really? No guesses? *sigh* I guess I am a lone punster, LOL!

Well I will tell, even if its sort of a letdown, LOL!

Aunty Pyewacket is not, it turns out, that accurate a pun. My faulty memory at work.

In "Bell, Book, and Candle", starring Rex Harrison on stage and Jimmy Stewart on film, there is a witch's cat named Pyewacket.

I remembered that cat being black. Well, the movie was made in what, 1953? Somewhere around there. Its been awhile since I watched it, LOL!

The cat is only PARTLY black, she/he was a Black & Tan Siamese.

So Aunty Pyewacket = anti-Pyewacket eg a WHITE BIRD instead of a (partly) BLACK CAT. So BIRD vs CAT and BLACK vs WHITE = the ANTI-Pyewacket.

Ok so even if the cat HAD been solid black, it was sort of a weak pun, but it still tickles me.

Now, for a case of mistaken identity...

The little Fawn Bengalese I just got I have named Bambi, because Bambi was a Fawn, right?

But Bambi is a boy and I was told MY Bambi is a girl.

Well, it turns out - not so much female, per se, as, well, MALE. Dang it! He sits over there in durance vile and sings and dances for Aunty Pyewacket. She gets all excited and chirps back. And I now see the (rather obvious) difference between a juvenile female who is a bit of a tomboy until she grows out of it and a real He-Bird. These are complete songs with all the bells and whistles (and the bobbing up and down and the puffing out of the throat and etc etc)

So the name "Bambi" is accurately reflecting gender as well as fawn-ness, LOL!

Sojourner
I LOVE this!!!! The names are priceless!
So sorry for the loss of your little girl . . . but your new little Bambi is just beautiful! (sans tail feathers, of course...but they'll grow back!)
I haven't named any of my birds either - but after reading your post I just might . . . especially after reading the creative names you picked!!!
What a lucky little bird to find a home with you...

Sojourner

If she is getting excited and chirping back, babies are on the way. ;)

Babs wrote: Sojourner

If she is getting excited and chirping back, babies are on the way. ;)

NOOOOOOO!

They are in separate cages for another week. I have already removed the nest box back when one or both of my original pair laid a couple of eggs (which obviously at this point, now that I know for a fact they were both girls, had to be sterile).

Now I have removed every seed cup big enough for them to sit in. All that's left are thumb cups and a pair of shallow very narrow cups that are also too small for nesting. Consequently they also almost never get pooped in - not enough room to be comfortable turning around on the perch because it is so close to the cage bars that their little rumps would stick out, LOL!

And I use a tube for water, might switch to tubes for feed as well. I am doing my level best to eliminate any potential nesting sites!

I really do not want to breed, but there is no telling sex with societies - even in the pet stores, they have them behind glass so you can't hear them to tell if anybody is singing. You can only guess and hope for the best. If I keep trying for another female then I would also have to try for another male (because Bambi would need a friend also).

I can just see it spiraling out of control .... not sure it hasn't already, actually, LOL!

So the new cage arrived and my guys are now safely ensconced within. I like the cage. The cage is good. The birdies, however, seem not so sure.

They're not fighting - but they're not cuddling up, either. They do stay sort of close to each other, but every time Bambi started to sing and dance for poor Pyewacket, she flounced off in a huff! Don't you get fresh with me! She hops over to another branch or the other side of the cage and turns her back on him, LOL!

I think he has finally gotten the message. I haven't heard him try to come on to her all day today. They kind of watch each other. They'll perch on the same branch but not right next to each other.

One might worry that they'll not get along - only Pyewacket, who heretofore has spent every night in my home roosting on the highest perch in the cage, is choosing to roost on the lower branches instead. Bambi, sans tail feathers, can't really get up there. So they are staying near, but not actually cuddling. I hope for their ultimate mutual happiness.

It does worry me that Bambi has come up with an alternative method of cage traversal that doesn't involve actual flight. What it DOES involve is flinging himself at the side of the cage in order to grab on to the wire so he can climb around. Doing this he can get ALMOST to the top of the cage, but not to the highest 2 perches.

The problem with this is that he occasionally "misses" and flings himself right into the side of the cage instead. He bounces off, shakes his head, and gamely does it again. He always makes it the second time. I am hoping for an early spring so he can grow his tail feathers back and go back to flying like a normal bird!

I have yet to see him drink out of the water tube. Until I see him consistently do that, I'm keeping a bath in the bottom of the cage so I know for sure he can get SOME water. This is making Pyewacket deliriously happy, as she now gets to bathe 3 times a day. Because I have to keep cleaning and refilling that in order to be sure Bambi is getting his fair share of the wet stuff to drink. I don't know how she does it, but with less than a half-inch of water in the bottom of her bird bath, she can splash me 3' away, LOL!

With the new longer cage, Pyewacket has started to do this hummingbird imitation. I've no idea why. She will fly a bit more than halfway across the cage and then hover there for a few seconds, as if she doesn't know what to do with the extra horizontal space. Then she will drop down to the intermediate perch there instead of flying over to the perch on the far end (only about 10" away). I have yet to see her fly from one end of the cage to the other, but hopefully she'll get over whatever the hovering is all about and start to make full use of the space she has now. She makes the funniest buzz-whirrrr noise with her wings when she's hovering like that, LOL!

My son doesn't get it, but sitting there and watching them of an evening is a joy.