Hey you guys! I've been gone quite a while. I just want you to know that everything's alright. I've been rather busy with college and life with general.
For now, I'll give a few quick updates. I'll probably make some other threads regarding specific things.
Lucy is still laying eggs, and has made more of an effort to sit on them and protect them. I haven't been able to prevent her from laying, so I've just been making sure that the eggs haven't broken or anything, and also that she's healthy (and also that she gets time to poop because she's gotten into the habit of holding it in while inside the cage).
Alex has gone through an entire juvenile molt, and the pearls haven't even remotely faded. I'm starting to wonder if he is actually female. Although it will be hard for me to get in the habit of using female pronouns, since I use "he" as a default.
Alex is rather talkative though, and while her songs don't quite have a pattern, they sound slightly more whistly than Lucy's ever did. Lucy has also gotten back into a "chattery" mood, which she hasn't done in a while. She doesn't chatter as much as she did while at Alex's age, since now it's just mainly quiet peeps she makes when she sees the wild birds outside. She used to actually try to "sing" when she was around the age Alex currently is.
Unfortunately one of my mom's bronze-winged manikin finches passed away. I believe it was the male, although I can't tell for sure. I'm going to try and convince my mom to possibly get a DNA test done for the surviving finch so we can get it a new mate. I do not want to get into detail on how the death happened, but I will assure you that the other birds are still healthy.
Joey and Dudley are still doing fine. Joey has been especially vocal lately, and I've notice that he coos more often when he is in his nest. Because doves are monogamous, they do well in pairs, so I'm going to try and find a mate for him. I've been trying to avoid buying live birds at pet stores. Luckily there is a bird mart coming up in July. Hopefully I can find a mate for our lone finch, as well as Joey. However, this is one of the smaller bird shows, and from what I remember in the last July one I went to (the one I got Lucy in), there were no bronze winged mannikins and all the diamond doves were sold out before I even got in.
I also went on vacation to Florida at some point because my parents wanted to take my nephew and I to Disney World and also meet some family in Mississippi along the way. We returned about 3 weeks ago, and I have actually been sick since then. I recently got some antibiotics though, and should be fine soon. My sister watched the birds while we were gone, which made me nervous since it was my first time leaving them and also my sister isn't quite the best with birds. They did fine although they couldn't be let out of the cage as often because of Lucy (will go into more detail in a different thread). Next time we go on vacation, either the birds will be socialized, or I will let someone with more experience watch them.
Speaking of socializing, that is one of the things I've been trying to do with Alex and Lucy. Alex is already rather social to begin with, but since she's getting older, that socialization is starting to fade. She'll sit on the hands of a few people, but is much more wary of strangers. Lucy on the other hand doesn't go near anyone other than me and given how much trouble she caused for my sister while on vacation, I think it would be good for her to be able to tolerate stepping up for other people, at least.
First "stranger" I tried to actually socialize them to was my boyfriend, which actually ended up pretty decent in the end. I will go into more detail in a different thread, complete with pictures.
Anyways that is all for now. I appear to have some catching up to do.
Thank you for reading, and I hope to get back into posting here.
