Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Baby Love Birds

Our Peachfaced Baby Love Birds are just about ready to find a new home.

They started hatching on Thanksgiving and we had one arrive every other day for about 10 days. You can view some of their hatching/baby pictures at: http://jacobsfriends.blogspot.com/

We have three available at this time. (with more in the future ~ call or email to reserve your baby) Here is the trio:


Their hatch dates from left to right:
The 'baby' is on the left ~ December 4th
The one in the middle hatched first on November 27th
The one to the right hatched 2nd on November 29th

Mom ("Posey") is a standard Peachfaced:



(This is what the babies will look like when they get their adult plumage)

And Dad ("Peaches") is a Dutch Blue:

They have a sibling ("Yellow" or "Amarillo") that is a Lutino (yellow with a peach face) that is not for sale:

This trio will be weaned and ready for new homes by the second week of February, Just in time for Valentines Day!

They are very healthy and active and enjoy swinging, climbing, and flying about their cage.
We are asking $75 each.

(We went to Springfield and visited several pet stores this past weekend. While we did not find any Love Birds we did find that Cockatiels have doubled in price since we purchased our baby 14 years ago, from $75 to $150 and parakeets have gone from $10 to $25. I have looked extensively online to come up with a reasonable price for our babies and have found that the lowest in parent raised was $50 and they can go on up to $250 and beyond for hand raised. For that reason we feel that these parent raised babies are a good value at $75. In the future our hand raised babies which will be pulled from the nest at about 3.5 weeks old to be fed by us up to 7 times a day will be $125 to $150 each. There will be a lot of time invested in them.)

If you are new to Love Birds and/or would like to know some of their requirements you can visit this website I have found very informative:

Ingredients to a Loving Love Bird ~
http://www.mresource.com/Birds/Lb_book.htm

This is our first hatching and we did not have the "baby bird" food for hand feeding right away so, we have left the parents to raise them. However, the babies are handled by our children and ourselves and they enjoy being petted as much as we have enjoyed watching them grow up. It has been such a pleasure watching them!

From what I have read, if you would like to hand tame a baby it takes 15 minutes per day to accomplish this task. Just handle them for that amount of time every day and they will be easily handled by you. I suggest you have a bird or butterfly net available and make sure to take your baby to a small room where you can close the curtains and doors so it doesn't fly into a window etc. They started flying very well a couple of weeks ago and we are going to leave it up to their owners as far as wing clipping goes.

As far as feeding goes... They absolutely adore apples, with broccoli and grapes coming in a close second. We get their seed at All-Pet in Mountain Home. It is the L'Avian Plus Cockatiel Food which is also perfect for Love Birds. They eat up cuttle bones faster than the cockatiels and budgies that we have had in the past. So, I find it a good idea to have extra on hand. As well as spray millet.

The cage they are currently in is: 25H x 13.5D x 23W. They require a nesting box to sleep in. Ours are trained to drink out of an 8 oz water bottle (like the ones for hamsters). We put their apple and other fresh fruit and veggie treats on bamboo skewers which they enjoy shredding after they eat their treat. It is a very good idea to keep them active in natural beak behaviors (like shredding and climbing) so they do not become bored and start feather picking.

If you are interested in one of our babies please call us at 417-284-3485. We will be happy to deliver the baby to Mountain Home, Lakeview, West Plains and Gainesville areas. If you require further pictures please let me know.

Friday, January 9, 2009

Our Newest Peanut

Baby Semyck is due July 28th / August 5th


OK.... So, Dr. Benoist (http://searchdocs.stjohns.com/Profile.asp?start=1&numrecs=10&first=&keyword=&source=default&city=&last=&clinic=St.%20John's%20Clinic-Houston&zip=&specsearch=&pict_id=4230005) said the 28th a couple of weeks ago and then today's measurements say August 5th. I am going to bet July 24th only because I usually go early. She was looking right at us most of the time (upper right pic) but then did a little dance (she is already a ballerina!) and moved to the HER side. Dr. Tricia was laughing at us because Bob kept on saying 'he' and I was saying 'she'.










Oh, and I broke my pinkie toe on my right foot yesterday! Yippee! Fun, eh? Interesting bruising. This is a 48 hrs + after the fact. The swelling in the toe has gone down a lot and look at how that bruise migrated. Only the pinkie toe actully hurts and is still quite a bit red and swollen. A lighter bruise goes down in a semi circle toward the ankle along the outside of my foot as well.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Tea Sets

A new adventure. I'm selling these tea sets for a friend.
This is an Austrian set that we believe is a dessert or custard bowl with saucer sized plate. The Makers mark is a M Z with a crown and then a two headed dragon like creature with wings below the crown. It says Austria just below the dragon and we found the makers mark and have been able to date this peice to 1870-1890. There is another actual dessert plate. Same maker similar design.
These three sets are Shelley.
The first two are a special patented 'shell' shape. The first is named "Dainty Mauve" the second has a number on the back of the plate: Ro 272101. The thrid is a 'cabbage leaf pattern cup and saucer with primrose chintz inside the cup. The cup and saucer are a pale blue with gold edging and handle.
Of the following sets one is a Royal Albert named "Lavender Rose", another is Queens China Staffordshire "English Charm", Royal Chelsea (with an anchor) #H095A, Fred Roberts (Japan) San Francisco, Royal Kent, Royal Dover China with a royal crown topped with a cross below the makers name, and Spencer Stevenson Co. L tr (England).