Keep meaning to update and really need to as otherwise I'll forget and when it comes to assignment writing I'll fail, so here it is.
Monday, 18 June
Was in the fledgling room for the fist time, this consists of quite a few shelves covered in as many cat carriers as possible. Most of the birds in there were pigeons, there were a few magpies, a jay and a baby jay.
Overall the feral and domestic pigeons were fine but the wood pigeons made frequent escape attempts and would fling themselves at you, or the carrier door when you went to change the food and water. Each bird in the room had to be taken out while the cage or carrier was cleaned, while out they were weighed, more importunity for the pigeons to act up.
Got to force feed a bird for the first time, the baby jay wasn't eating, although as the day went on it appeared to munch a little bit by itself.
There were also three crows in carriers on the top of a series of small bird cages, probably taller than me overall, so I still got to play with my babies :)
One of them was crazy though, would fling himself with as much force as possible to the front of the carrier, usually when I was stood beneath it. What made this rather worrying was that the carrier overhung the edge of the cages and tilted dramatically every time he did it O.o
Most of the pigeons, notably the wood pigeons, and the doves refuse to eat so are crop tubed Harrison's Juvenile mix. Was also the first time I skinned, de-yolked and hacked up chicks for the corvids to munch on, yummy :/
Wasn't too bad actually, I didn't scream or get all squeamish either
Tuesday, 19 June - Thursday 21 June
Was by myself in charge of the corvid room for these three days, with the exception of the Wednesday morning when I was helped by a Biovet student on her year long placement.
On the Tuesday several of the crows were taken to the outdoor aviary, to gain proficiency in flight before being released, while others went into the body bin for a variety of reasons. My favourite Fatty, with each leg ringed, is still in there though. He's awesome :D
Let a number of Jackdaws out, which resulted in me becoming a lot more capable of using the bird net, it was either that or ignore them until the next feed when they'd defectively try get back into the aviary for food, jackdaws are rather food motivated.
A fledgling crow, still unable to fly walked out the aviary once and seen surprised how easily he was caught up again. Although did lose him for a bit, it was only due to how few crows were left that I realised the red ringed one wasn't there, took awhile to find as he'd hidden under the sink.
Then there was the offal flinging crow. He had to be force fed chick, every second hour. He had a habit of grabbing the offered piece of flesh/organ and flung it onto me, or simply across the room. Was rather joyful.
Force feeding him involved catching him out up out of his carrier in a towel, setting him down on the table, levering his beak open and shoving the chick piece by piece as far down his throat as possible, although it was likely to be thrown up and flung if not done right.
Now forcing the beak open was interesting, and incorrect method was originally the reason that he'd be able to fling offal about. When presented with the meat on the end of the tweezers he'd happily grab it, and chuck it. What was easiest was to let him, if not actively encourage him to bite my fingers, then once I was in there, could either work the tweezers into the side of his beak, force it open like that and shove it down, or get another finger in and prise it open, the latter resulted in a wider gob opening and more effective chick-shoving-down-throat-ness. Although I was terrified of potentially breaking his jaw, with birds you can only force the lower beak, the upper is part of the skull. Was also a fear with the jay on the Monday and the one young Jackdaw that needed force feeding.
By the second day the offal flinging crow was eating chick by himself in his box, negating the need for force feeding and the third day saw the jackdaw taking food off the tweezerz while in his box with only minor encouragement needed. He was fed either the usual corvid mixture of dog/cat food and prosecto with occasionally some dog biscuits in, or simply dog biscuits soaked in water.
One of the jackdaws in a carrier that was, and had been for awhile, taking food nicely was moved into the aviary with the little flock in there to socialise and develop group behaviours as well as practicing flying.
Now there is a wide brimmed hat which you can wear while cleaning out and feeding in order to try and avoid getting your head crapped on, which I usually didn't wear. This was due to a mixture of daring, fearlessness and over confidence. But it surely makes sense that so long as you don't spend too long under the perches that your safe?
Pointed as much out to the vet, when he remarked on my lack of hat, he said I was obviously braver than him, put on the hat and did whatever he had to. Not long after that I went to clean out the crows....and guess what happened.
I jinxed it.
Needless to say the hat was worn after that, also in part due to the fact that the magpies had started using my head as a stepping stone while they hopped between perches rather than flying, and well, those little claws HURT, especially when it's done lots. So now I wear the stupid hat.
---
Was going to do today and yesterday too, but too tired, will just do them tomorrow instead, nightnight
Monday, 18 June
Was in the fledgling room for the fist time, this consists of quite a few shelves covered in as many cat carriers as possible. Most of the birds in there were pigeons, there were a few magpies, a jay and a baby jay.
Overall the feral and domestic pigeons were fine but the wood pigeons made frequent escape attempts and would fling themselves at you, or the carrier door when you went to change the food and water. Each bird in the room had to be taken out while the cage or carrier was cleaned, while out they were weighed, more importunity for the pigeons to act up.
Got to force feed a bird for the first time, the baby jay wasn't eating, although as the day went on it appeared to munch a little bit by itself.
There were also three crows in carriers on the top of a series of small bird cages, probably taller than me overall, so I still got to play with my babies :)
One of them was crazy though, would fling himself with as much force as possible to the front of the carrier, usually when I was stood beneath it. What made this rather worrying was that the carrier overhung the edge of the cages and tilted dramatically every time he did it O.o
Most of the pigeons, notably the wood pigeons, and the doves refuse to eat so are crop tubed Harrison's Juvenile mix. Was also the first time I skinned, de-yolked and hacked up chicks for the corvids to munch on, yummy :/
Wasn't too bad actually, I didn't scream or get all squeamish either
Tuesday, 19 June - Thursday 21 June
Was by myself in charge of the corvid room for these three days, with the exception of the Wednesday morning when I was helped by a Biovet student on her year long placement.
On the Tuesday several of the crows were taken to the outdoor aviary, to gain proficiency in flight before being released, while others went into the body bin for a variety of reasons. My favourite Fatty, with each leg ringed, is still in there though. He's awesome :D
Let a number of Jackdaws out, which resulted in me becoming a lot more capable of using the bird net, it was either that or ignore them until the next feed when they'd defectively try get back into the aviary for food, jackdaws are rather food motivated.
A fledgling crow, still unable to fly walked out the aviary once and seen surprised how easily he was caught up again. Although did lose him for a bit, it was only due to how few crows were left that I realised the red ringed one wasn't there, took awhile to find as he'd hidden under the sink.
Then there was the offal flinging crow. He had to be force fed chick, every second hour. He had a habit of grabbing the offered piece of flesh/organ and flung it onto me, or simply across the room. Was rather joyful.
Force feeding him involved catching him out up out of his carrier in a towel, setting him down on the table, levering his beak open and shoving the chick piece by piece as far down his throat as possible, although it was likely to be thrown up and flung if not done right.
Now forcing the beak open was interesting, and incorrect method was originally the reason that he'd be able to fling offal about. When presented with the meat on the end of the tweezers he'd happily grab it, and chuck it. What was easiest was to let him, if not actively encourage him to bite my fingers, then once I was in there, could either work the tweezers into the side of his beak, force it open like that and shove it down, or get another finger in and prise it open, the latter resulted in a wider gob opening and more effective chick-shoving-down-throat-ness. Although I was terrified of potentially breaking his jaw, with birds you can only force the lower beak, the upper is part of the skull. Was also a fear with the jay on the Monday and the one young Jackdaw that needed force feeding.
By the second day the offal flinging crow was eating chick by himself in his box, negating the need for force feeding and the third day saw the jackdaw taking food off the tweezerz while in his box with only minor encouragement needed. He was fed either the usual corvid mixture of dog/cat food and prosecto with occasionally some dog biscuits in, or simply dog biscuits soaked in water.
One of the jackdaws in a carrier that was, and had been for awhile, taking food nicely was moved into the aviary with the little flock in there to socialise and develop group behaviours as well as practicing flying.
Now there is a wide brimmed hat which you can wear while cleaning out and feeding in order to try and avoid getting your head crapped on, which I usually didn't wear. This was due to a mixture of daring, fearlessness and over confidence. But it surely makes sense that so long as you don't spend too long under the perches that your safe?
Pointed as much out to the vet, when he remarked on my lack of hat, he said I was obviously braver than him, put on the hat and did whatever he had to. Not long after that I went to clean out the crows....and guess what happened.
I jinxed it.
Needless to say the hat was worn after that, also in part due to the fact that the magpies had started using my head as a stepping stone while they hopped between perches rather than flying, and well, those little claws HURT, especially when it's done lots. So now I wear the stupid hat.
---
Was going to do today and yesterday too, but too tired, will just do them tomorrow instead, nightnight
