Post by santinoandmondo on Mar 8, 2014 21:50:57 GMT
So, Santino laid another egg Thursday evening and we thought we'd let Mondo have a sleepover last night (Friday). Santino had been fine with Mondo visiting overnight and we separate them by mid-morning as Santino gets territorial again and starts squawking and chasing Mondo around. This was only the second overnight visit in the past 3 weeks but had them more frequently previously.
I came downstairs to uncover them after the 14 hours of imposed darkness, and heard them squawking at each other and frantic flying inside the big cage. When I uncovered them, it was obvious that poor Mondo had been attacked by Santino. She had feathers out of place, and a couple of spots where Santino must have bitten her hard and drew blood. I stuck my hand into the cage to retrieve Mondo and she let me grab her. And several of Santino's eggs were also bashed up during the skirmish. We ended up having to throw away 5 eggs and only 3 remain in a small oval basket. I felt so badly that I put them together late yesterday but they had never been so hostile towards each other before. Now they are separated again and cannot let them have any overnight visits until we figure out what is going on.
I have to take the birds to the vet this week. And I say BIRDS, not bird, because by this afternoon Mondo had laid an egg in her cage!!! At first I thought that maybe Mondo was responsible for some of the eggs that we've been seeing but my daughter pointed out to me "Mom, we've kept them apart". My husband thinks that Mondo destroyed Santino's eggs because she was about to lay one. But I think the eggs got broken during the fighting as it was dark underneath the layers of fabric and they couldn't see well.
I can't believe that with all the changes I've made, BOTH birds are now in breeding condition and laying eggs. I've covered them up for 14 hours a day, change their cage contents AND switch cages regularly to change things up, changed from all seed to pellet and then added veggies. They do see outdoor birds from their cage locations and get to come out to fly every day for 15 - 20 minutes and they can see birds from their playground area.
It's been bitter cold this past week and I didn't want to take Santino outdoors so I delayed calling the avian vet. Now I am hoping we'll have a day of warmer weather sometime this week so I can take them both.
This has been so stressful
.
Cherry
I came downstairs to uncover them after the 14 hours of imposed darkness, and heard them squawking at each other and frantic flying inside the big cage. When I uncovered them, it was obvious that poor Mondo had been attacked by Santino. She had feathers out of place, and a couple of spots where Santino must have bitten her hard and drew blood. I stuck my hand into the cage to retrieve Mondo and she let me grab her. And several of Santino's eggs were also bashed up during the skirmish. We ended up having to throw away 5 eggs and only 3 remain in a small oval basket. I felt so badly that I put them together late yesterday but they had never been so hostile towards each other before. Now they are separated again and cannot let them have any overnight visits until we figure out what is going on.
I have to take the birds to the vet this week. And I say BIRDS, not bird, because by this afternoon Mondo had laid an egg in her cage!!! At first I thought that maybe Mondo was responsible for some of the eggs that we've been seeing but my daughter pointed out to me "Mom, we've kept them apart". My husband thinks that Mondo destroyed Santino's eggs because she was about to lay one. But I think the eggs got broken during the fighting as it was dark underneath the layers of fabric and they couldn't see well.
I can't believe that with all the changes I've made, BOTH birds are now in breeding condition and laying eggs. I've covered them up for 14 hours a day, change their cage contents AND switch cages regularly to change things up, changed from all seed to pellet and then added veggies. They do see outdoor birds from their cage locations and get to come out to fly every day for 15 - 20 minutes and they can see birds from their playground area.
It's been bitter cold this past week and I didn't want to take Santino outdoors so I delayed calling the avian vet. Now I am hoping we'll have a day of warmer weather sometime this week so I can take them both.
This has been so stressful
.Cherry
