This page is dedicated to my first lovebird Tigger who passed away after a short illness with a tumor, on November 18, 2003. Tigger was six years old. Tigger is now with her first mate Pooh who passed away a year before. Tigger had only one clutch of babies which three survived out of four. Tigger is greatly missed by all who knew and loved her.
Yancy and Freedom are on their second clutch of babies. This time Yancy has laid four eggs. Last time she only laid three eggs and two babies survived. Tweeetie who lives with me and Sunshine who lives with my sister and brother in law. A present this past Christmas for them.
This is Freedom (front) and Tweeetie, Freedom's son. Tweeetie is 4 months old here.
Yancy and Freedom are great parents. They start from the time the first egg is laid. Yancy sits on the eggs most of the day and night. While Freedom sits on the outside of the nest most of the time looking over Yancy. Freedom will feed Yancy most of the time but there is a few times she will leave the comfort of the nest and her eggs to get a bite to eat on her own.
Yancy with her eggs and also sleeping in the nest on top of her eggs. One of my favourite photos of her. I think it is so cute how they tuck their head in their wing.
Freedom does go into the nest at night to be with Yancy and the eggs. He helps to keep them warm.
A few times that Yancy will leave the nest if she is not eating also is when she is building the nest and keeping it up so the babies are not on the bare floor of the nest box. The nesting materials that my birds love is shredding newspaper and plucking their own feathers for softness. I am very particular of the paper that they get for the nesting material. The paper has to have no colouring on it except for black and white. The dye colouring can harm the birds. Yancy shreds the papers and shoves it in her rump feathers. She can hold quite a bit in that little rump of hers. It is funny to see her flying back up to the nest with paper sticking our of her feathers.
Yancy shredding paper and shoving it in her rump feathers where she will carry it up to the nest.
Yancy and Freedom's second family started on December 29, 2003 when the first egg was laid sometime during the night. The second egg was laid on the 31st of December sometime during the afternoon hours. Third egg was laid in the early evening of January 2nd, 2004 and the fourth and final egg was laid during the night on January 4th.
After about five days I will take a flash light, and egg, head to the darkest room I have and candle the eggs. Candling the egg just means with a bright light I can see what is going on inside the egg. At day five I can usually tell if the egg is fertile. The eggs were all fertile with little red veins running through it and a tiny heart beating. The coolest thing that anyone can see inside an egg.
The first egg is due on January 21, second egg January 23, third egg January 25, and the final egg 27 of January. As the baby goes in the egg there is a air sac that moves to the side of the egg when the baby is ready to be hatched. By day 22 I can actually hear the baby chirping sometimes, and also seeing him moving around in the egg by candling it again. I also can very carefully hear him pecking trying to get out.
Yancy and Freedom's second clutch of babies are arriving
In the photo album below you can see how much these little one change day to day. They grow fast and before you know it they are fully grown and going to new homes.
This is the last page of my lovebirds. There will be a page added to this one as new babies arrive. Look back for future babies. Hope you enjoyed watching Sunrise and Lune grow up and leave the nest to new homes. As always I miss my babies but new ones always come.
