Thursday, May 28, 2015

Brothers and sisters

As mentioned in an earlier post this week, we got to meet one of Joey and Pixel's siblings this past Sunday at the local Parrot Club meeting. This got me thinking once more about how nice it is to know of other people with parrots who are siblings to my guys.

Initially I thought I didn't know many, but, other than with Piper and Petey, I can say that I know at least one sibling residing with someone I know and I thought it would be fun to have them all listed in a post.



Joey and Pixel

The obvious ones to start with, as they are siblings themselves, Pixel being a few months older than Joey. Back in 2010, I got to meet one of their sisters who now lives in Guelph, Lucy, whom I believe is around the same age as Joey and Pixel. And last Sunday, I got to meet their older brother Charlie. Now I knew about Charlie for some years, but had never met him before. Last year, his then owner had to rehome him and had gotten in touch with me, and as tempting as another Red belly might have been, we were (and are) at full capacity. In the end, she did find another Poicephalus-friendly home with people who already had a Senegal.

Their breeder (who no longer breeds parrots) lives in my area,but she did sell to both individuals and pet stores, including one no-longer in existence Canadian chain, which is why some of babies were found in totally different cities.

Here are some pictures of all these Red bellies!

Joey

Charlie

Pixel

Lucy

Shade

The only reason I know a sibling of Shade's is because he was "saved" at the same time as her and currently lives with my parents. If not for my Dad having taken pity on him (a gesture Nemo does not seem to be thankful for if you consider his love of biting my Dad), who knows where he would have ended up...and, in all honesty, if he would still be alive (the breeder essentially gave him to us when I decided on Shade as he didn't want to deal with a bird in the situation Nemo was in (his legs were really messed up) and I don't like to think what would have happened if we had left him behind).

In any case, he is doing fine, loves my mom and me, doesn't like anyone else really, doesn't like other birds either and fits what you hear people say of Senegal more so than his sister. He comes here when my parents go away so I get to take pictures of him again and again...

Shade on the left, Nemo on the right

Shade is behind Nemo

Shade

Nemo

Zuri

I believe I may know more of Zuri's siblings than I am aware. The one I know the most is Itsy; she was a bird my mom saved from being sold at one of the horrible bird fairs/exhibitions here. Itsy was meant to be a foster bird to her, but I still got to birdsit on a few occasions until a new home came along. Turns out, this new home was with a women I knew who lives just a few streets away from me.

Zuri

 Itsy

I also believe this little guy, named Indy, is also a sibling, although we last saw him and his owner at parrot club meetings in 2010-2011 so I can't confirm (I used to know for sure if he was or not, but now I can't remember).

Indy

Léa

Finally we have to Léa. One would think it would be easy to keep track of her siblings, as there are very few Capes in Canada. You would be wrong. I am especially sad that I know very little of what has happened to her clutch mates, other than her older sister Wendy (Léa was the "middle child") had flown out a door or window sometime last year but was luckily found a few days later. What happened with her younger brother, I don't know. While Léa was sold directly to me, her two clutch mates were sold through a pet store, which limited the opportunity to be in contact with their owners. And while I scour multiple bird forums (sometimes just as an observer), I find little activity from fellow Canadian Cape owners.

With that said, I do know of three of Léa's siblings. The breeder who handfed Léa had an older brother (I think there is a 7-8 year gap between them) named Fanfan and I got the chance to take a picture of him when I visited Léa when she was a few months old.

The lady who runs "Perroquets Secours" has an older sister (a year and a few months older if I remember right), named Maggie. I believe Maggie was hatched in the clutch just preceding Léa's. I never got to meet Maggie in person though.

A third sibling, a younger brother, sole baby from the clutch that came right after Léa's, resides with a friend of the breeder. His name is Crocus and I have never met him.

Léa's clutch mates; older sister on the bottom (Wendy), younger brother on top.

Léa

Fanfan

And that is it. The known siblings of my parrots that I have met (or can remember) at this time.

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