A Story of Life
About a month ago, we received the gift of life into our home.
You see, it all began when we thought they were all female. Our blue parakeet has been laying eggs for quite some time now; she will even carve out a hollow in the bedding/seed on the bottom of the cage and sits on them like any good mother (we've provided her with the location and materials to build a nest, but she never seemed interested in them). We would normally wait a few weeks before throwing them away, or they'd break in the interval. Well, this time seemed no different, except we left the eggs there for a longer time than usual because she seemed to be sitting on them more consistently and she was just so cute while doing so. One can imagine my complete and utter surprise when, as I was changing their water, I saw a TINY NAKED CHICK laying among the eggs!
Seriously! We had no idea one of them was a male! We also had no clue as to how to care for the little, helpless thing. In a near panic, I called around to several veterinary hospitals and pet stores, asking "what do we do??" The response was almost universal - "Let the mother do her thing. Wait and watch." They also told us to remove the other two birds from the cage, so the Blue wouldn't become pregnant again and there'd be no aggression towards the chick.
Erm, well, that last part was slightly difficult. You see, these parakeets are wild; we never tamed them. In the past, they'd careen around the cage attempting to evade our grasp and actually hurt themselves (thankfully, nothing serious). If we were to have tried to get them out now, they could possibly injure the chick and smash the other eggs. Thus, we allowed them to stay and simply monitored their behavior closely. As it turns out, the two non-moms were wonderful little helpers.
So the chickie, whom we dubbed "Pip," grew like a weed and, much to our surprise, flourished. The mother took excellent care of it - regular feedings, keeping it and the other eggs warm with her body, chasing the other two birds away if they ventured too near (after conveniently using them as a babysitter=), we realized that there was really nothing to worry about.
Four days after the first one hatched, his brother, Squeak, appeared. (I've assigned them both the male sex simply for ease of identification. I actually don't know their sexes and probably won't for a while). I'd forgotten completely just how weensy they are fresh out of the egg. A single egg is slightly smaller than a standard marble, so picture a creature that's barely there, for real; I actually feared for his life all over again. However, God knows what He's doing, and this one got plenty of TLC from mom, doubling his size in no time.
Really, the two looked like bugs without an exoskeleton. They couldn't hold their heads up for the first few days, because, directly after hatching, their head was quite nearly the same size as the entire rest of their body and it took a little while to catch up. After their necks strengthened enough, seeing a naked pink noggin sticking out from under the mother's body became one of the highlights of my day. As Pip grew bigger and he could no longer fit beneath her, she hid him under one of her wings, giving new meaning to all of those Biblical references. And whenever mom was away and they began to cry, she would race back and chase away the babysitter.
We kept expecting the other eggs to hatch, but they never did, so the Blue got to focus all of her energy into these two rambunctious babies. It seemed that every 10 minutes or so saw her feeding them and she only really left the "nest" every couples of hours to stretch her wings, in which case, one of the other two 'keets would stand guard.
Now, a month on, the two have entirely transformed. Pip looks like a miniature mommy-clone, with a blue body and gray wings and head. Squeak is simply covered in pin-feathers about to unfurl; he looks like he's going to be a cross between mom and dad - blue tail and yellow-and-black striped head and body. The Blue is away from the nest far more than she's actually there, but I've noticed that she always keeps one eye on her babies no matter where she is in the cage and one call from them is enough to send her scrambling their way. It's actually taught me a lot about motherhood. You can tell she's anxious when she's not with her kids, her feathers are often pulled closely about her and, I wasn't kidding, she always has an eye on the two (unless one of the other two volunteer to watch them), but she knows she has to let them grow and learn to fend for themselves.
And it's great fun to watch as they adjust to doing just that. Pip is quite the little adventurer. He's comfortable wandering a short distance away from the nest on his wobbly little legs and he'll follow his mom anywhere (though he hasn't gotten the hang of climbing the cage bars just yet). Squeak still likes to stick with what he knows, but he'll follow big brother around if he's up and about, and, just today, I saw him venturing a few inches out of the nest all on his own (the Blue was, of course, diligently monitoring her boys from the top of the cage).
We're not an "animal breeding" family, so this was quite the accident, but what a wonderful accident it was! It's so fascinating to watch them develop and to see how perfectly God created their relationship. I can't wait to see Pip and Squeak become beautiful adults and then send them off to a wonderful home (well, that second part will be hard). I love this and hope one day to have a whole small farm just full of animals. God gave us this gift of life and even a sterile suburbanite like myself can be taught it's true greatness through something as small as a parakeet.
You see, it all began when we thought they were all female. Our blue parakeet has been laying eggs for quite some time now; she will even carve out a hollow in the bedding/seed on the bottom of the cage and sits on them like any good mother (we've provided her with the location and materials to build a nest, but she never seemed interested in them). We would normally wait a few weeks before throwing them away, or they'd break in the interval. Well, this time seemed no different, except we left the eggs there for a longer time than usual because she seemed to be sitting on them more consistently and she was just so cute while doing so. One can imagine my complete and utter surprise when, as I was changing their water, I saw a TINY NAKED CHICK laying among the eggs!
Seriously! We had no idea one of them was a male! We also had no clue as to how to care for the little, helpless thing. In a near panic, I called around to several veterinary hospitals and pet stores, asking "what do we do??" The response was almost universal - "Let the mother do her thing. Wait and watch." They also told us to remove the other two birds from the cage, so the Blue wouldn't become pregnant again and there'd be no aggression towards the chick.
Erm, well, that last part was slightly difficult. You see, these parakeets are wild; we never tamed them. In the past, they'd careen around the cage attempting to evade our grasp and actually hurt themselves (thankfully, nothing serious). If we were to have tried to get them out now, they could possibly injure the chick and smash the other eggs. Thus, we allowed them to stay and simply monitored their behavior closely. As it turns out, the two non-moms were wonderful little helpers.
So the chickie, whom we dubbed "Pip," grew like a weed and, much to our surprise, flourished. The mother took excellent care of it - regular feedings, keeping it and the other eggs warm with her body, chasing the other two birds away if they ventured too near (after conveniently using them as a babysitter=), we realized that there was really nothing to worry about.
Four days after the first one hatched, his brother, Squeak, appeared. (I've assigned them both the male sex simply for ease of identification. I actually don't know their sexes and probably won't for a while). I'd forgotten completely just how weensy they are fresh out of the egg. A single egg is slightly smaller than a standard marble, so picture a creature that's barely there, for real; I actually feared for his life all over again. However, God knows what He's doing, and this one got plenty of TLC from mom, doubling his size in no time.
Really, the two looked like bugs without an exoskeleton. They couldn't hold their heads up for the first few days, because, directly after hatching, their head was quite nearly the same size as the entire rest of their body and it took a little while to catch up. After their necks strengthened enough, seeing a naked pink noggin sticking out from under the mother's body became one of the highlights of my day. As Pip grew bigger and he could no longer fit beneath her, she hid him under one of her wings, giving new meaning to all of those Biblical references. And whenever mom was away and they began to cry, she would race back and chase away the babysitter.
We kept expecting the other eggs to hatch, but they never did, so the Blue got to focus all of her energy into these two rambunctious babies. It seemed that every 10 minutes or so saw her feeding them and she only really left the "nest" every couples of hours to stretch her wings, in which case, one of the other two 'keets would stand guard.
Now, a month on, the two have entirely transformed. Pip looks like a miniature mommy-clone, with a blue body and gray wings and head. Squeak is simply covered in pin-feathers about to unfurl; he looks like he's going to be a cross between mom and dad - blue tail and yellow-and-black striped head and body. The Blue is away from the nest far more than she's actually there, but I've noticed that she always keeps one eye on her babies no matter where she is in the cage and one call from them is enough to send her scrambling their way. It's actually taught me a lot about motherhood. You can tell she's anxious when she's not with her kids, her feathers are often pulled closely about her and, I wasn't kidding, she always has an eye on the two (unless one of the other two volunteer to watch them), but she knows she has to let them grow and learn to fend for themselves.
And it's great fun to watch as they adjust to doing just that. Pip is quite the little adventurer. He's comfortable wandering a short distance away from the nest on his wobbly little legs and he'll follow his mom anywhere (though he hasn't gotten the hang of climbing the cage bars just yet). Squeak still likes to stick with what he knows, but he'll follow big brother around if he's up and about, and, just today, I saw him venturing a few inches out of the nest all on his own (the Blue was, of course, diligently monitoring her boys from the top of the cage).
We're not an "animal breeding" family, so this was quite the accident, but what a wonderful accident it was! It's so fascinating to watch them develop and to see how perfectly God created their relationship. I can't wait to see Pip and Squeak become beautiful adults and then send them off to a wonderful home (well, that second part will be hard). I love this and hope one day to have a whole small farm just full of animals. God gave us this gift of life and even a sterile suburbanite like myself can be taught it's true greatness through something as small as a parakeet.
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