April 9 2006

Then, I decided to buy a girl canary to better keep Squeak company. From the same bird show at the fair grounds. This is Goldie, and that's just a tiny carrier cage she's in to bring her home - Squeak's spare cage became her full time home.

Goldie was very loud - she had a loud EEP! she gave out every 5 seconds or so when she was in the mood - and I bought her for a very inexpensive 20 dollars from a guy who was keeping her and another girl in a low, dark box. (I'll show you that bird later, she went home with Debbie's family). It's kind of nice when you feel like you're "recuing" a bird and giving them a better home.

March 26, 2006

This duck seems to know he's at Disneyland.

February 2, 2006

The first sort of good shot I took of the finches in their nest. It's kind of funny, they like these deep baskets with the opening up high, then they fill the whole thing up to the brim with paper, sticks, anything.

January 16, 2006

One time, I put the finches in with Squeak's "double cage" setup to see what happened. Not much. Squeak just looked at the little birds. The boy finch apparently freaked out at the sight of this giant male and flew into the other side to hide. The girl just sat there and looked at him.

A couple of times since, when I've had more finches, I'll put a canary in their cage for a minute just to see how they socialize. They mostly just ignore each other.

December 24, 2005

Squeak looks kind of ragged right after a bath :)

Nov 27, 2005

I bought a pair of finches to keep Squeak company. There's a bird show twice a year at the fair grounds right near Debbie's house, and I just learned about it and we went for the first time. One breeder offered a pair of white zebra finches in a cage for ten dollars. A very good deal. I figured they wouldn't be hard to care for, and having a little life in the room would keep Squeak from feeling lonely.

They were a male and female and in this photo, they're very tired after a long day of being brought to the market, being sold, and brought home. I set them on the table behind Squeak's cage, then sat on the couch. Squeak was up high on his top perch waiting to be covered, already in his one-footed sleeping pose. The finches started peeping - they have the oddest beep beep sound - and I swear Squeak froze - looked in their direction (he couldn't see them) then looked right at me with a "What did you do NOW?" look. Very funny.

November 19, 2005

Apparently, corn on the cob makes a convenient perch to stand on while you eat it.

It was about this time I noticed that Squeak looked, well, bored when I came home from work. Sneaking a look in the bedroom before he knew I was there, I found him sitting very still just staring out the window. At least he had a nice view. When I came into the room, he would begin to hop around and sing, so he was clearly glad for the company...

October 30, 2005

Just an ordinary sparrow in Disney's California Adventure.

October 7, 2005

Just a nice view of Squeak.

Sept 24, 2005

This is a bit hard to see, but for awhile I actually would set up Squeak so he had two large cages together. This is the first time I put them together, and he's in his cage in back cautiously looking through to the expanded space. It took him about 20 minutes to go theough the first time, after that when I set them up he'd jump through right away. Often, I would put a very large tupperware bowl in the extra room for him to bathe in.

July 20, 2005

Squeak also had a nest in his cage. Boy canaries don't

"need" a nest, but I've found that they like them. First of all, every different surface the y have to stand on is good for them, and they seem to like the variety of the natural wood edge to stand on. Plus, every once in awhile, it's pretty obvious they git sick of standing around and enjoy someplay soft to sit. The handkerchief hanging on the side of the cage gives them a sense of security - they like to have one side of their cage up against a wall.

July 20, 2005

In his large cage, Squeak always had a small perch way up high in the center. When he was tired, he would always move up to that perch and then stare at me until I covered his cage for the night.