During my time of selling birds I have had several offers of swapping birds. In most cases I'm more interested in recouping some money from my hobby than the trade offered or I have not enough space for the traded bird. However recently I received a trade offer that I was happy to take!
I traded a young male Green Cheeked Conure for a pair of Galah. I have had an interest in keeping Galah but never thought I would get an opportunity. I have housed them in my larger communal aviary and although it has taken the other birds a little while get used to much larger birds all seems to be well in the aviary. They are a three year old proven breeding pair.
My new aviary has allowed me to move around several of my bird to do some extensive cleaning of my aviaries. The first pair I moved were "Turk" and "Blondie" to allow a space and do some cleaning of my main aviary. However one day "Blondie" just seemed a little sluggish and sleepy putting her head into her shoulder a lot and the following day I found her past away hanging upside down. It had a lot of similarity to my female Princess Parrot that died some time ago; I still suspect cat involvement as these are very healthy birds that have died unexpectedly.
People down the street from me were getting rid of a aviary, so I managed to pick up yet another free aviary (yes I have paid for one of my four aviaries). This has provided me some much needed space for aviary maintenance (moving birds out while cleaning) and general shifting around of birds.
An unfortunate downside of keeping birds is the excess seed attracts rodents. I keep my seed in sealed bins and a box of rat sak in the shed which controls the problem but does not eliminate entirely. The flooring in my aviaries are pavers that have concreted across to keep out mice and rats, however a rat has recently been exploiting weak areas of this a burrowing under to access the seed. My response has been to concrete in the burrow but it was too late in my larger communal aviary and allowed my female Gouldian Finch to escape.
I recently purchased a pressure cleaner and it has allowed me to really thoroughly clean out all the aviaries and literally blow out all the cobwebs! Great idea for anyone keeping birds and I would highly recommend.
I decided to adopt a male Indian Ringneck Parrot from a local RSPCA shelter. His name is "Boe" and believe him to be partially hand reared as when I got him out of the box he climbed on my hand then shoulder but soon after me offering my hand to step up on he gave me a little nip but did not fly away. I have also been feeding him by hand and he is poor flyer (I suspect his wings have be clipped). I had an interest in doing this for a while but never found a bird advertised available. It cost me $35 to adopt him, me to provided ID and to sign a form saying I would not on sell him or experiment on him (bit odd but I guess it happens). He seems slightly larger and differently mark to my other males which leads me to believe he may be crossed with an Alexandrian Parrot but I can't be sure.
