weirdlilfaechld

I almost forgot I didn't post about this!

We have five more baby tortoises. They hatched a bit late but are all healthy and doing well.

Luckily this also FINALLY convinced my parent's that Jojo needs to be separated from the females during mating season so they don't die.

I have received a few surprises from my featherbrats lately. A little over a month ago Tammy started to act nesty so I immediately started with changes to discourage any nesting behavior and she went back to her usual self. I may have gone a bit overboard because laying eggs could easily kill Tammy but that's not the point. She went right back to her usual sweet stupid self but a week later there was a calcified, undeveloped and unfertilized egg sitting at the bottom of the cage with dried blood on it. Absolutely terrified and thrilled that whichever hen that laid it was still alive I gave all of my hens a thorough physical examination and found nothing except a little bit of dried blood just barely inside Tammy's vent. Okay, so Tammy laid the egg (most likely) and they are all healthy and fine. Still, a calcified egg rarely happens without egg-binding. It either happens as a result or as the cause. If the egg was fully developed... scary to think about. They all got a extra abdominal palpitation just to make sure no more eggs were developing or - God forbid - stuck. All checked out fine. So I increased the calcium in their food and gave them a fresh mineral block. A trip outside, a wicker basket and a few rolls of calculator paper to destroy, several cardboard tubes with bells in them, a completely reorganized cage (compared to the partially reorganizing I did to discourage further nestiness), further decreased their "day" by putting them to sleep two hours earlier (giving them only eight hours of bright light and two of dim light), and took their sprouts away. All of that was in addition to the discouraging I had already done.

With no change in behavior preceding it (but my flock is always full of sex fiends so that needs to be taken in context) I found two more eggs just three days ago! I hadn't even started to change things back to normal yet! These were also calcified and even less developed (smaller than a dime) but luckily with no blood on them. No broody hens and no reaction when I removed them, though just in case they have been sterilized and stored on my desk in case one of my hens starts to become broody or act as if she is looking for an egg. This time I have no idea who may have laid it.

Diana and Snow are still pretty unhappy with me about the examination all my hens received again (Tammy is used to it and Autumn could not care less) but fortunately everyone checked out fine, again. No change in weight, no change in muscle mass, no changes at all. This does have one bad result: I have no idea who laid the eggs.

I'm pretty sure it's not Diana or Autumn. Snow is still a baby and has been very active with Lemon (yes, her brother, I told them that yesterday and also that they should be named Leia and Luke, but of course they only cared that I was talking to them) so it's easy to picture her laying undeveloped eggs and abandoning them. Tammy will always have the mind of a baby and she has been very active with Apollo so I suspect her for the same reason. Since it was most likely Tammy who laid the first one I have to guess it was also Tammy who laid the second two.

So this is scaring me but there is nothing I can do beyond increasing the minerals (especially calcium) and vit. D available to them, doing my best to prevent nestiness, and keeping an eye on them. So nothing I haven't already done. They have their sprouts back as it's one of the best sources of nutrients to replace what laying these eggs depleted and to compensate for the stimuli these green things are they are now receiving 75% of their food in foraging situations.Luckily Diana is getting food for Tammy and not Apollo, being fed by your mate would be one hell of a huge stimulus and Tammy just can't figure out any foraging methods I have ever used. I am considering separating Apollo from Tammy and Diana and Lemon from Snow but I think it will have far more ill effects then good. Nevertheless Tammy is getting many more abdominal palpitations then she would appreciate...

I dissected the first egg and found out it was nothing more then a calcified shell. How baffling.

Only slightly related, who has ever heard of a male cockatiel with TWO mates? And both of the hens being perfectly fine with that situation? My flock is strange.

My Rydia costumes...

So many layers... so much green... so many beads... so much shiny!

I love it and I am starting to go a bit mad. So much work and not much to show for it. Why did I decide to do all of the dying and embroidery myself? Why did the first month of doing so not change my mind about this?

And RenFaire is very, very soon. Eep! I forgot about those costumes!

Well at least there is already green thread in my sewing machine...

I bought giant fabric flowers at Chinatown! I have already planned out what costumes they will be accessories for. Sadly they didn't have any in purple, because I think having a giant purple flower on my chair while cosplaying as Sailor or Princess Saturn would be awesome <3

Also! Chrysanthemum tea. And sesame red bean rolls, and steam buns of all types! I wish I knew how they made that dry shredded pork they use, or how they get their vegetables all so sweet and melt-in-your-mouth, or how they make that tea! I also wish I could make a sesame red bean roll without ended up with a sesame red bean mess. A yummy mess, but a mess nonetheless. Hey that rhymes.

Can you tell it's past my bedtime?

I am queen of not getting a damn thing done for no apparent reason.

BLARGH!

Wahhh, I broke my grinder. I like it so spent more trying to fix it then a new one would have cost. So I guess no almond/quinoa/garbanzo flour for a bit for me.

I found a net "cuddle swing", the kind that is meant to stimulate kids with autism with deep pressure stimulation- for adults!

Well, still meant for kids, but it's max weight is more then double mine.

So when I am out of here I will be a happy little autie for another reason!

I found it here while looking for a more private disability aid (go ahead, use your imagination) of a brand I like but can no longer find anywhere and started browsing. Wow, apparently my bean-bag PT toys, green tilted wheelchair, train walker/transport chair, and special scooter are not the most awesome things for a disabled child!

It seems you can even get braces that don't itch, scrape, bruise, and cut and make you want to tear your skin off now!

Diana is having liver issues again. My usual vet has exploded with emergency cases as is common this time of year (and obviously taking her to the vet tech classes isn't an option during Christmas vacation) so she hasn't been seen yet, but that will be rectified shortly, and with her history and symptoms the blood test wouldn't even been needed for diagnoses, just to see how bad and what if any other organs are involved. Feather loss, loss of feather quality, incredible crankiness, loss of appetite, and lethargy could be anything, but bright green urates, a bruised beak without a fall, and overgrown nails clinches it. Definitely liver disease.

I can't say I didn't expect it. After all, a bird who goes into liver failure at the age of only two is never going to have a fully healthy liver. Still, when so many blood tests and ultrasounds came back so beautiful and her feathers all grew in soft, rich, and shiny I hoped.

So we're going back to the diet and medication routine that worked so lovely for her last time and hope for the best. Unfortunate for my wallet that it's winter right now and good greens are so expensive right now! Not to mention dandelion root, owch. Guess it's a good thing that I was hesitant about going to another convention and waited until the last second to see if I could join the road trip! Birdies come first of course.

So please send both of us prayers/good thoughts. We got a miracle last time, I don't think it's too much to hope for another one, especially since I caught it early. At least I hope I did. She was losing some feather on the back of her neck for about a week and I figured it was just one of my nervous pluckers picking on her (yeah, Apollo and Autumn pluck other birds...), was spending more time then usual on the heated perch but it's cold in the room they are staying in (my old bedroom got new carpet and paint so they went in the guest bedroom rather then staying with me) so I brushed that off. Then the neon urates right below the heated perch, but even then it was a few more days of her in partial isolation to make sure they were coming from her and she wasn't being plucked. So I think I caught it early, but bird lovers know how much of an expert on hiding their symptoms they are. Her crankiness just started two days ago and she certainly got the point across drawing blood when I went to stroke her head this morning. No warning either. The last time she drew blood was when I first got her, needed to restrain and shove a syringe in the mouth of a bird recently badly abused!

On a more cheery note, you know I am a crazy bird person when I spent the last twenty minutes in a conversation with her about how I am going to treat her, even telling her that I know she hates the taste of dandelion root and I can't blame her but I would really appreciate it if she ate it, and it might make her feel better. I think she understood a good chunk of it too.

I need to make a new cockatiel love icon. I have far better pictures of Diana and Tapestry that get their personalities across just as well; better for Tappy. Plus I need to add Lemon Drop and Snowflake!

I need to photospam this journal. I have so many pictures of my birds, and I don't think you have met Snowbaby and Lemony!

Extra time on my hands, no computer, series of bad luck, and diaphragm exercises are good for Crohn's issues (once I can use my diaphragm that is) so I now have most of Christine's lines from the songs in Phantom of the Opera down!

I am trying to convince Dan to be Phantom for the sake of duet songs, since it is perfect for his vocal range (and I do love to hear that boy's voice), but so far he doesn't seem interested. Didn't say no though!

Too bad I'm only practicing to keep my vocal chords in shape, though I do wish to perform. I just don't know if I am A.) good enough, B.) can get on stage without panicking, or C.) would be casted at all, lack of walking ability and all.

I've seen many people friend themselves.

Why?