Over the weekend Ditty hit the road with me to stay with grandma overnight, attend a family Christmas party, and take a drive to see my daughter in Northern Maine. He took it all in stride. He is a great traveler and charmed everyone at the party. He happily went from one person to another. When he perches on a new person, he repeats his "deDit" call over and over. I think he is saying his name. When the new person says their name a few times he will stop.
Ditty is getting more and more cuddly. He has learned both the word tickle (rub top of head and cheeks) and scritches (back of neck deep massage). When I say "Tickle, Tickle" he puffs up the feathers on his head :-D Today he was getting into the scritches so much that he lost his grip and fell over. He recovered quickly and came back for more cuddles. Here is a video: https://youtu.be/LMnBP3K80jU His color is constantly changing. His chest is turning more and more yellow. The bright green with the bright yellow gives him a lime color. Almost florescent.
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I went into email to ask Ditty's breeder whether I could come visit the following week, when I got the good news. Ditty no longer was taking the hand feeding mush and was only eating seed. In a few more days I could pick him up. I wrapped up his cage in my coat, and took a short walk through the snow coated sidewalk, and brought him to my car. He did great on the car ride home! He was subdued, for a few minutes and then ate a lot of seed, drank from his water bottle and played with his toys. Ditty came home in a travel cage. I have a much bigger flight cage for him to live in, but I'm planning to keep him in the smaller cage for a few days. He seems comfortable in it and knows where the food and water is. I'm so happy to have him home. I have food cups to replace these; they are huge!
During the two weeks after the first visit Ditty's breeder sent me pictures of his feathers coming in. He is all sorts of brilliant greens, blues, and yellow. I came back for a second visit with Ditty and he was all grown up. Hard to believe it was just two weeks since the first visit. I got to sit with him for a long while. He seemed to enjoy it and even sounded like he was saying his name: "dit-Dee." And I whispered mine into his ear, "Dee-Dee." I was in heaven. Right before I left he did a test flight!! With a baby parrotlet, there is no set time when they are "weaned" it is just whenever they stop taking the hand feeding formula and will eat only their seeds and pellets. It could be up to 3 weeks or more until he is ready to come home. Even with over an hour of cuddling with him, it was very hard to walk away. I left hoping I could come back in a week.
I got to visit baby Ditty today! I went with my friend Cynthia who is a truly amazing animal caretaker and took Sven into her home whenever I was away for more than a day. It is hard to believe how fast Ditty is growing. We got to see Ditty being fed (see video below). He loved to sit in cupped in our hands like it was a nest; we held him the whole time we were there. He was very vocal and chirped a lot. We also got to see the other parrots, including Ditty and Sven's parents. I was so thrilled that Ditty is from the same pair of parrotle tparents as Sven and not one of the three other pairs.
For many parrots the males and females have the same coloring so you have to DNA test to determine gender. Pacific parrotlets have different coloring. Males have blue on there head (behind the eyes) and on their wings and tail. Got the great news from the breeder "You can see the blue pin feathers on the wings and down the middle of the back." Also, got updated pictures. So adorable.
On November 4th I contacted Sven's breeder and asked if she might have a baby parrotlet I could adopt. Sven's parents had just hatched a single egg! I told her I had no color preference but I would love to have him if he was a boy. (Boys are more likely to talk and let's me not have to deal with egg laying issues). She sent me pictures on November 10th after she had pulled him from the parents and started handfeeding. This is usually done at about 10 days old right before the baby bird opens its eyes. Seeing the human caretaker helps with imprinting and bonding to people.
Baby parrotlets look pre-historic, like tiny dinosaurs to me. Now, I'd have to wait until his feathers came in to see if he was a boy. |
AuthorI am an animal behaviorist by nature if not by occupation. I want to teach Ditty contextual language and learn as much Parrotlet as I can. Working from home gives me the ability to be at home enough to have a parrot companion. ArchivesCategories |