Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2004 12:34 pm Post subject: Introducing myself
My name is Monika and I just got a foster Kak last night. His name is pimento, but I have just been calling him Ricky. He is a red fronted kak, I believe he is male (going by wing colour the and red behind his eyes) A year and a half old.
He was surrendered to the rescue I volunteer for though I can't imagine why. He settled right in, is eating his pellets now instead of the millet and chocolate they had been feeding him, and he will step up, if he feels liks it. He goes to the vet for a checkup later this week. I am pretty sure he will find a new home soon, he is a very sweet and quiet bird. (His previous owners thought he was too noisy)
Well, I will be reading through all the old posts on this board and if I have any specific questions about my foster baby I will ask.
Thanks Muchly
I believe he is male (going by wing colour the and red behind his eyes)
The wing colour is basically the same on male and female, The difference is in the overall size and the size of the beak. Comparing the size with only 1 kike would be somewhat difficult, the beak is the best. The male's beak is rather broad across, a females tends to look petitte.
That is the best we have at the moment, also that female is a very large Kike, The pic on my atavar (pic beside my name) is a male
If u post a close up front on Pic, we will be able to help. (resize to max 500x500 1st)
Get him into fresh veggies and fruit, even a chop bone from dinner left overs to play with for a few hrs every so often. The protein will help.
A calcuim supplement wouldnt go a miss either...Sandoz, its for cats and dogs, a couple drops in with the vegies.
You may find it will take a while for him to even work out that vegies are ediable!!!!
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(His previous owners thought he was too noisy)
That really amazes me
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Well, I will be reading through all the old posts on this board and if I have any specific questions about my foster baby I will ask.
We are 'new on the block' but unlike many other sites, there are areas for off topics' And your bird rescure sounds interesting, would like to hear more about that.
Dont be supprised if u end up keeping him, there is no other parrot that has the nature of a Kike, freindly, yet a totally independent, and on the go all the time. [/url] _________________ My Spelling is Not Incorrect...It's 'Creative'
Last edited by Steptoe on Sat Jan 01, 2005 8:50 am; edited 1 time in total
Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2004 11:23 am Post subject: new member...
hallo and to the group,
i herd that your kakariki has been given chocolate, please tell that to the vet your are going to visit, since chocolate is poison for birds, they can even die from it ! _________________ HUGS,
Marianne
Well changing his diet is no problem. He eats anything. He doesn't seem to miss his seeds at all. I have switched him to tropican pellets, that is what I feed all my other parrots. And he has eaten whatever vegitables I have offered him so far. For calcium he has a cuttle bone, which he also uses.
His cage is too small, I've decided. It is only 17 inches square (45 cm) and I think he should have something twice that size, more like what I keep my moustached in. But that will be his new owner's responsibility, though teh rescue does not adopt birds out to people without the proper housing for the animal. There is a strict screening process.
'Ricky' is very friendly, comes to anyone, and is very quiet. He talks alot, but is not half as loud as my budgies.
I know how bad chocolate is for birds and that will be brought up witht ehvet right away as well as all his other information. The administrater knows more than me, though I will be going with her to the vet this weekend to get it all. Ricky came to me the same day she picked up up from his old home so the paper work was not all done yet. I do knwo he was only getting six hours of sleep at night, which might have made his screetch during the day but he has been getting 12 hours with me so he is very well behaved during the day.
I'd love to keep him, and every bird that comes my way. But my resources are stretched with my adopted moustache, my dog, and my four budgies. That is why I foster birds, I can give a much better temporary home right now than I can a permanent one.
I have one question. What is their expected lifespan?
I will post a picture of him (or her) as soon as he stays still long enough for me to take one. It would help quite a bit if you fine folks could help me sex him properly.
1/ Going by the beak, I would say female, it is not very broard.
2/ From the colouring and white (not Blue) of the wing feathers, and the general yellow patchy colour, I would gess that It has some mutation.
As we dont have mutations in this country, some of the off shore members are more qualfied to comment on that
The red patch on the wing is also curious.
3/I notice the perch is cherry tree, I have read that is not good....But I have big cherry trees in 2 flights and no probs _________________ My Spelling is Not Incorrect...It's 'Creative'
Thats not cherry thatsa young birch branch. New growth comes out darker like that. I cut those myself from my own tree, washed them and baked them in the oven back in the summer. They'd been stored in plastic since. I use apple and birch in all my cages and playstands. Cherrys don't grow here.
Thanks for the sexing. The vet might be able to tell too.
Also, in case anyone was wondering, yes Ricky did break a toe some time back, that is why his toenail grows funny. The vet will be trimming his toenails this weekend.
Thanks again for answerng my questions and just being here in general
Also looks like a female to me, could be a small male, some of the cinnamon males a re a lot smaller than normals and can be difficult to sex. The red marking on the wing is not that of a normal and there seems to be a little yellow or cinnamon coming through on her chest so she could be split for pied.
Where are you located? Mutations seem to be very prevalant in Europe.
Kakarikis don't live as long as most parrots, 5-12 years depending on diet and frequency of breeding. They are easy to breed and start breeding as early as 4 months (not agood idea though). Probably be an interesting idea to start a thread about live expectancy.
That red is under the wing, not on it. Her wings are clipped, and I checked today there is a little blue on some of the trimmed feathers. Though I can see there may be pied and cinnamon in her. Especially since I got him into the sun today and there is alot of yellow compared to the photographs I have been looking through that show them as darker green. Once he is more settled in I will open up his wings and have a good look but I don't want to bother him too much yet, even if he is very friendly.
I am in Canada. I don't think these are very popular birds here, this is the first one I've ever seen.
And thanks for clarifying the 5-12 years, that is what I had read, just had a bit of a hard time acceptingit, as I know budgies that have lived longer than than 12.
Ricky has never bred, and will never breed. The rescue does not adopt birds out for breeding purposes because of the large population of unwanted parrots here and the lack of information we get on many of them. We can't tell if they are good breeding stock or not.
I hope Ricky's diet did not shorten his life too much. At least it was easy to change him to something healthier.
I will be getting his paperwork soon which will have his band number and possibly a breeder recorded on it. Maybe I can see if he was dna sexed and what mutation he is then.
I dissagree on the 5 to 12 yrs, althu it could be different with mutations
Kikes breeding over 12 yrs is not uncommon and 15 plus also common in pure strain....
I did read someware of weakened hearts with inbreeding???
Edit: Bozco, I am using your post with pic above to do some recoding to stop pages being distorted, so appologise for a few changes althu the content isnt being changed _________________ My Spelling is Not Incorrect...It's 'Creative'
Vet checked out good. Best guess is still female. Got to see the paperwork, the store she came from to start has her listed as a cinnamon, which explains the colouring. And there is at least one person wanting to come have a meeting with her so she should have a new home very soon. Thank you all again for your support and I will point the new owners in the direction of this board.
I am very curious about the life expectancy of Kakarikis. Lorikeets used to have a very short life expectancy according to most older books (5 years) but most of the newer books mention 15 - 25 years. The short lves of lorikeets was due to poor diet.
My oldest two Kakarikis are 6 or 7 (female red normal) and are still breeding. They mated at about 4 years of age for the first time due to lack of a male. I wonder how long they are going to live? I have lost the rest of their age group (3 others) over the last few years but I think that was due to worms.
I hope the books are wrong and see no reason why Kakarikis that are bred and fed responsibly cannot live in excess of ten years.
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