Sweety

STORY OF SWEETY

We had been looking for a mate for Cheeky, both to keep him company and also with a view to get baby parrots, all things being well, for some considerable time.

This particular Saturday we had stopped in at Safari Select in Westerham, Kent, just to look at what birds he had in. To our dismay, there were four pairs and one odd male Cape species in one of the cages. We ogled for quite a while and then decided which female we liked. She stood out from the rest and was unmistakable in appearance. On approaching the owner, he advised that they were all spoken for on an order and were being sold as pairs only. We reminded him that we had put our name down very early on in 1999 and had not heard anything back on the subject. He said that these birds were extremely difficult to get hold of and he had only just cleared the ones in the cage after importing them especially from Zimbabwe. They were captive bred from wild parents. They had been quarantined, cleared by the veterinary inspection and were pronounced fit and free from any of the diseases such as PBFD, Psittacosis, etc,.

After a long time of bargaining and discussing the subject, he agreed, as a very special favour, that he would get hold of another female from a source that he had fairly local and would let us have the female, but she would be at a higher price than for the males. He offered a pair for a marginally higher cost, but we only wanted her. We accepted his price, as this was not negotiable and we either paid what he wanted or did not get her. As she was a beautiful bird, we agreed and he had one of his staff catch her and put her in a carriage box while I paid for her.

Sweety was purchased on 01 July 2000 at an age of approximately one year and eight months old. She took to Cheeky immediately, and he to her. It was as if they had grown up together, or as we believe, had been destined for each other.

Please note that the correct procedure with ANY NEW BIRD is to place it into a quarantine cage, away from all other birds, for a designated time, and then to get a veterinary checkout prior to mixing with existing birds.

As she had just been cleared from an import quarantine and had her check-up, we decided to forgo the other preliminaries. Anything not picked up by the checks done at Safari Select, would have meant that Cheeky could go down with something contracted from her, should she be a carrier, and could have resulted in his getting sick, or at the worst, dying. We would have had no comeback against Safari Select, as the responsibility for the decision to go against recognized practice would have been mine, and mine alone. She would, in any case, be in the same cage as Cheeky, away from the other birds, for a week without being allowed out. This would be to allow the two to settle down together, and let her get used to having strangers around her.

She was, and still is, a fairly placid bird and shown no sign of aggression or fear when putting her in with Cheeky. She accepted her surroundings, and a week later, was allowed out for a fly around. She stuck close to him, and followed his every move to start with. Now she flies to the various toys, swings or ropes and enjoys her time out to herself when she feels like it. The two are normally not very far from each other, and copy each other.

Interaction with others

Sweety fits in well with all the other parrot family as well as the human family. She has learned to come out of her cage, when invited and goes back in again when asked to. She is a very obedient and intelligent bird. You can see lots of lovely pictures of her, taken by Craig Harris, the webmaster of www.capeparrot.org, so do check this site out. Don't forget, hold down your shift key when you click your mouse on the hyperlink and it will open a separate page for you, so you can continue looking through my site if you wish, after exiting the separate screen.

Sweety has not as yet allowed anyone to touch her, but she certainly allows my wife, Aileen, a lot closer to her than she does me. She also seems more at ease with Aileen, although she does respond to me talking to her and telling her things. The best example of this is when I instruct her to go into the cage. She may sometimes hesitate a bit, but normally goes straight to the door. The only time she may not respond to this command, is if Cheeky is out and she wants to remain with him. He always puts himself to bed and will not respond to a command for this, so I assume she feels that she need not go to bed until he has.

Playing Games

Sweety loves wooden toys of any description, shape or size. She also enjoys time out on the spiral rope hanging from the ceiling. Above their cage is an apple branch which has been cut leaving several side branch lets. She loves climbing up and down it.

Naughty Sweety

She can be a very naughty bird when she wants to be, Everything was very quiet one evening and only her and Cheeky were out. She decided that the wires leading up to the special bird lamp were ideal beak exercise material. How she avoided electrocution, we will never know. There was suddenly a mighty bang and the light went out. I immediately ran to the bird room, to find her standing next to the wire. She had an "I didn't do anything" expression on her face, and with her beak slightly opened, looked as though she was smiling at her handiwork. The wire had been chewed bare for a good four inches (10cm). The fuse had fortunately blown in both the light plug and the mains wall plug. The next day I repaired the damaged wire, replaced the fuse and moved the light so that it was in the corner and out of harms way.

Only a few nights later, I heard nothing from the bird room and decided that it must be investigated. There standing on the room divider, beak firmly around the telephone wire was Sweety. I had thought that the wire was out of her sight, so would be out of her mind. No such luck, her head was twisted awkwardly round the corner and she had the wire. Fortunately the outer coating only had been chewed through, so the computer modem connection would still work. She was persuaded to go to bed, along with Cheeky, and they were both only allowed out again over the weekend, after I had moved the telephone wire well out of any harms way. Fortunately, the voltage in our UK telephone lines is only very low, but she could have messed up my telephone extension and computer modem access if she had got any further.

Sweety is the only bird of my collection that continually goes for wiring and plastic. The others are not even the least bit interested. We have now hidden or removed any temptation from her sight.

All our birds have free flight of the ground floor of our two storey home, and the bird room has very little within reach that could harm a bird, or so we thought at the time. Now we are certain!

Always ensure that all electrical apparatus, wiring, and anything that can cause harm to your parrots is securely out of the way, or hidden from view as electric shock will kill a bird.

Just a little advice based on personal experience which I hope will save anyone ever having to find a dead bird.

Mimicry, Interaction & Calls

Sweety is a very quiet bird. She seldom makes much noise. When she is out with Cheeky, they call to each other. If Cheeky is in another room, she will call to him and when he answers will go and look for him. When anyone talks to her, she makes small chirping sounds, almost as if trying to talk herself, but not knowing how yet. She makes louder chirpy sounds if she wants to be let out.

When she sees anyone close by, she opens her wings slightly from her body, bends her head a bit and looks like she is smiling.

Mothering Instincts & Eggs

Cheeky has decided to take all manner of bits into the nest box provided for them and is very territorial over it. He has invited Sweety in on several occasions. Cheeky has made some advances on Sweety, but due to his age, we are not sure how far these will go. These last anything from five to twenty five minutes at a time. Sweety may not produce fertile eggs, due to this being her first season to lay. Not having any experience with this aspect, we shall just have to wait and see how things develop, or not, as the case may be.

Sweety has started to lay eggs. Her first egg was laid between closing them up on Tuesday 27 February 2001 and opening them on Wednesday 28 February 2001. She was sitting on an egg at the bottom of the cage. It was on the bars and in amongst newspaper. It caused a great deal of excitement for all the family. Later in the day the egg disappeared from the position it had been in the morning. We checked the nest box and all the chewed up paper, but could not find it. The fact that it was on the bars tended to point to it having been broken, but there were no signs of shell or egg. We beefed up the base of the cage so that there was no space between the bars and the bottom tray, put extra paper in the cage and left them to it again.

Friday 02 March 2001 saw Sweety in the nest box. Observing her proved she had laid another egg when she came out for food. Cheeky went straight into the box and sat on the egg. After she had finished eating, he had his usual fun with her and then let her go back to nesting. This has been the daily routine now, and Cheeky shares the box with her. I believe that it is unusual for the male to share the duties, but as Cheeky is wild bred and caught and Sweety is from wild bred and caught parents, this may be something that they do naturally in the wild.

It is difficult to see if there are any more eggs, but certainly there is at least one. After the problems with the first egg, we have thought it better not to disturb them, lest we loose the latest egg. We are not going to check if it is fertile either, although when they are both out of the box this would be possible. We feel that taking the egg out to check may cause problems and they may either abandon it or destroy it. The incubation period is about 26 to 30 days, (thanks to information supplied by Scott Lewis of Old World Aviaries) so we will have to wait until about the beginning of April to see whether we have a successful hatching or not.

Clear eggs first time round

On Friday 29 March 2001 we found both Sweety and Cheeky out in the main cage area. Sweety did not return to the nest box at all, so we decided that either the babies were dead, or the eggs were infertile. On further investigation, two of the eggs had only pieces of shell remaining. The third egg had been broken from the outside. At first we suspected foul play by one of the birds, but on closer examination, it was apparent that the eggs must have been clear as there was a rotten smelling odour coming from the shell.

We decided to let them out for a fly around as Sweety had not been out for almost a month. He first flight was very laboured and she glided to the floor. She would not accept any help and climbed up the side of the cage. When she had her breath back again, she took another flight, and slowly gained strength. Her and Cheeky were in and out of the cage, flying and preening each other in great excitement.

Back to normal now.

I will add to this story as Sweety progresses.

Thank you for reading the story about Sweety. Please go on to read the stories of my other birds from the HOME PAGE location.

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