Monthly weigh in - December 2015

The last weigh in post of 2015!

I know December is not quite done yet, but I felt like posting this now, before the year is officially over.

Last month we saw a dip in Piper's weight, which was explained in the November weigh in post, this month his weight came back up, averaging 55g. He's also fully back to his old self, chirping when faced with something he loves or dislikes, being cuddly, yet still managing to get a little lovebird mischief in from time to time.

This month has seen no weird weight fluctuations, everyone was pretty normal. Some of the smaller Pois might have gained or lost two grams from their average weight from last November, but that is not something I worry too much about, especially since we have been a little less diligent about weighing them in December - while I try to have at least three different measures in a month and try to spread these out, for various reasons, we've only weighed them four times this month and all towards the end of the month.

So I guess a resolution for 2016 is to be more consistent, but we will see how that will go.

Average weight (in grams) for December 2015:
Piper - 55g
Shade - 118g
Joey - 127g
Petey - 139g
Zuri - 126g
Pixel - 124g
Léa - 316g


Updated table - average weights for each bird per year:

Year	Piper	Shade	Joey	Petey	Zuri	Pixel	Léa
2009	54	111	124	128	112	-	-
2010	56	115	126	131	124	115	-
2011	59	117	127	131	130	121	303
2012	57	116	128	132	128	120	307
2013	57	116	127	136	128	120	313
2014	57	117	128	139	130	121	316
2015	56	118	127	140	127	122	318

Throwback Thursday

This older picture of Pixel is one that always makes me smile, if not laugh. She was yawning, but it looks like I captured her mid-song. Again, one of my favourite pictures of her and it was taken in June 2011.

The watch

Keeping an eye on everything that is going on in that room.

I also quite like this picture of Joey.

Preening away

The acrobat way forward

 

I think she prefers moving in an upside-down position while on this rope, rather than right side-up. This may be because of her size/weight and the rope being a little lose, she looks less stable than the smaller birds when standing on the rope. Either way, she doesn't let anything stop her from going where she wants to. 

A Christmas present

Being totally unoriginal, I'm using the same title for this blog post as I did for a very similar one last year.

The Boy decided to get me another painting of one of the birds for Christmas, which made me very happy. Since we are going in the order in which we got each bird, it was Pixel's turn to be immortalized in painting form.

He went with the same local artist as all the other paintings, Frank Van Boxtel. I don't think I ever mentioned him in any of my other posts, a big oversight on my part, for anyone who is curious to see other pieces of his work, have a look at this website - franciscus.ca

Here is a picture of the painting (again, not doing it fully justice) -

And here is the picture on which this painting was based on -

The Boy said that generally Frank will look through pictures and will give an option of two for him to select for the painting but this time around, he selected this picture from the get-go - I guess it does show her belly well, and there is no yawning or self headscratching involved!

Finally, as I've done with all other posts showing off paintings of the birds, here are links to the previous ones:

Piper

Shade

Joey

Petey

Zuri

Zuri and the net

He was moving pretty fast on this thing - surprised I managed to get a picture of him where he is somewhat in focus!

Shade

She looks somewhat surprised.

Pull-up

Pixel

Her new standard pose for pictures - "the head scratch".

Peek-a-boo

The little one

One of his many nicknames.

Poofy

Appearing larger than he is...

Hi there!

What?

*Yawn*

While Pixel won't yawn for the camera lately, it appears that Shade has no problem doing so.

Going for the leap...

Taken just before she jumped (rather than flew) from the net to an adjacent swing.

Throwback Thursday

I guess I'll stick to the theme "one of my favourite pictures" I have had going these past few weeks, in regards to TBT pictures. This is one of Piper's, taken in May 2012. This is typical Lovebird - small bird, BIG personality.

Framed

Stars

Where are you going??

Following me around, not interested in playing but insisting to fly to me to perch on my shoulder. Me backing away to try and get him to be interested in the toys was not working; he was back on me a few seconds later.

Throwback Thursday

This may very well be my favourite picture of Joey - it even was used as the base image for the painting we had done of him! I took this one on his hatchday (March 14) back in 2010. He was turning five then, hard to believe he's already ten...

Zuri

Shade

Pretty Léa

Framed...

...and caught preening.

Pixel

It's getting harder and harder to take a picture of her without her scratching. I miss the pictures of her yawning!

Regal

Throwback Thursday

Today's TBT picture is of Zuri. This is one of my all time favourite pictures of him and features quite a bit of yellow, which I love. I apparently took this on Christmas day in 2010.

What?

It is all about the side glance...

Monthly weigh in - November 2015

On November 5, I had noticed that Piper wasn't himself. He was quiet and not very active, which worried me. He had been fine up until that evening, so I decided to weigh him.

And sure enough, his weight was off.

Had it been daytime, we would have likely rushed to the vet. However, there was a simple explanation at hand and it turned out to the be the problem.

While Piper does eat his fruits, veggies and pellets, he still eats seeds. Recently, we have experienced trouble finding the regular seed/nut mix we give to the birds so we had to try something different. The Boy bought a bag of this different food and started to give it to the birds. To be honest, if I look at the weights I got at the very end of October, Piper's was slowly going down (but was still within normal) - turns out, he wasn't a fan of the new food and, having taken a closer look at it, it did look like the elements in the food mix were too large for him. So, on November 5, the Boy went to get another mix I knew Piper had eaten in the past and that made Piper happy.

All that to say, having a record of Piper's regular weight, as well as being able to see when things started to go bad and being able to match it with an actual change that happened in the household meant we were able to find a solution.

So let's get to the actual data.

Average weight (in grams) for November 2015:
Piper - 54g
Shade - 116g
Joey - 126g
Petey - 141g
Zuri - 127g
Pixel - 122g
Léa -  315g

Updated table - average weights for each bird per year:

Year Piper Shade Joey Petey Zuri Pixel Léa 2009 54 111 124 128 112  -  - 2010 56 115 126 131 124 115  - 2011 59 117 127 131 130 121 303 2012 57 116 128 132 128 120 307 2013 57 116 127 136 128 120 313 2014 57 117 128 139 130 121 316 2015* 56 118 127 140 127 121 319
*For 2015, data from January to November is included.

November Beak Box haul

Here is another order that I received a little while ago, but didn't get to take picture of and post about until tonight (but at least this time, I had opened the box before).

Beak Box...what is that? It is a monthly bird toy subscription. It's been around for a few months but I didn't join in until either late in October or earlier this month.

Danita from Things for Wings is behind it, and given how much the flock likes her toys, I figured why not give this a try for a few months. It is rather convenient, describe likes and dislikes of the flock and see what will happen. I generally like surprises (if they are pleasant in nature) and was happy with my first Beak Box.

 (This is the inside view of the pouch posted in the previous picture)

 

For anyone who is interested in subscribing, the link is below. Note that if you do not wish to continue, you need to ensure you cancel. We went with the second package, given the number of birds that live here and their sizes.

beakboxes.com/

Oliver's Garden 2015 Fall SWS order

About two weeks ago, I received my box containing toys purchased from Oliver's Garden during the Fall 2015 Sidewalk Sale. Uncharacteristically, I kept the box closed up until tonight - I guess we can blame the addition of a new kitten to the family, as well as things picking up at work giving me things to think about.

This wasn't a particularly large order, and it was mostly of items that are favorites around here. I stocked up on Chunky Monkeys (in medium size) and got a couple of Rainbow Trouts.

These items are meant for the smaller Pois and should keep them busy for a while.

Reach

I believe she was trying to get to that lonely green wooden piece on the swing.

On the move

Petey

Rock on!

Well, he's really preening, but with that foot right up in the air and his head down, how could I resist the title?

Sideways

She makes me smile!

Pixel

A rare picture of Pixel where she isn't doing one of the following things - yawning or scratching her own head.

Split

It's impossible for him not to look cute.

Joey

I love this picture, his pose makes it.

Léa