SEPTEMBER 2005 JOURNAL

"BELLA, the lady that adores water!! We love this picture!

So here you have all five of us hahn'ser's

Ya got Higgins cocking the side of his head to get a real good look, then you got Shazza being the dutiful male and feeding the younger guy "Oscar", Than ya got Josy, who is camera shy.  As you can see his complete tail feathers are wet.  Lastly you have  Bella being her usual sweet self.  Man this Missie LOVES water.  She's funny to watch.  They have a huge dish (bottom of a planter) on the top of their playpen. Bella will get up there, turn around backwards and steps in backwards!!  She then jumps out frontwards, flaps around, turns around and steps in backwards again.  She goes right to the middle of the dish and dunks herself.  Just too cute to watch her. 

This is "Joey" the youngest baby hahns.  Jo called him Joey, but feels it might have to be changed to Jose! 

Miss Muffin as Jo calls her, taking a little break at supper feeding tonight to let it settle before crying for more.  She does have a home waiting for her, but the folks want to come meet her, before giving her a name.

Miss Muffin again, checking out those "huge" toys.

As you can see I'm still eaten! I think I'm finally done, just savoring the last of the formula dripping down my beak.  Jo spoons feeds, which means it's quite the job to keep us cleaned up.  That's my older brother Beeper in front of me.  He has a wonderful home to go to as well and Beeper is his permanent name.  I heard he's going to live with Chubber and JoJo

Now who's who here, Can you tell.

Hint:  look at the foreheads.  Beeper being the oldest "boy" is first in line here.   Miss Muffin, in the middle with a grey forehead, but has her red belly coming in and lastly, Jeepers as Jo calls him until his new Mom names him,being the youngest with a light red brow.

Miss Muffin, making her way up on the perch.  Beeper is trying to come up from the other side.  Jo has a larger size of these on order, should be here this week.  Good thing!  A little bit wider would be kinda nice.

Heads together.  Beeper, Jeepers and Miss Muffin wondering how they can make a quick beeline, before Jo's hand shows up with the wash cloth again. 

It almost makes Jo feel guilty watching these three flapping and playing away, just enjoying every second. 

Then we turn on TV and watch the largest National Disaster and realize how precious life is. One second here and the next, your whole life as you knew it, gone!   It's too difficult to even really think and comprehend the loss of life, human, bird, cat, dog, ..... the suffering, pain, lost dignity, lost homes,  precious belongings, hunger,  the loss is endless.   Jo is going thru the closets and cupboards this week and shipping to the salvation army.

This month you'll have to stay tuned for all the updates and pictures of our little red belly honeys, our two little hahns, our three big hahns and our weenie little linnie babies just started hatching yesterday.  They don't fool around, hatching two eggs a day.  Some folks will be happy to hear that bit of news, as they have been waiting patiently!

We want to share a little letter with you we got earlier tonight, with a little related back up information. We have a lady in Venezuela whom we sent some foods and product to as she is having problems with her lovebird and the vets were not able to help her out.  The bird has not been right for some time, feathers turning red, abnormal feces, not eating well.  The vets put her on antibiotics, but they were not helping.  Unfortunately the bird died last week.  She took  the bird back to the vet to have it examined to try and find a cause of death.  This is a copy of her letter and an excerpt from another, describing the simple material.

Hello, Joanne,

How are you? I hope everything's fine.

I'm just writing to let you know about the results of Susy's examination. I was shocked to learn that, with an almost 100% certainty what killed her was intestinal blockage caused a string made up of fabric threads or fibers found in her intestines and up to her stomach. As the vet told me this over the phone, I remembered the first piece of fabric I used for covering her cage at nights, which had later to be replaced by another due to destruction, while the fabric used for all the other cages remained almost intact. I was astonished to understand that she actually ate many of the fabric threads that she mainly (I guess her partner chew on that too) destroyed. I knew she liked to chew that and that mostly she gathered nesting material all the time to put under her wings and so, but I couldn't imagine she actually ingested the fibers, which ultimately built up and blocked her, causing her sad death.

The vets told me it wouldn't be necessary to do an exam of her organs, since even if they are damaged, it was probably due to the imbalance or other effect the presence of foreign materials caused on her organism. I have the cuts of her liver and intestines preserved, which are hard to see for me, but I don't think I'll be getting those biopsied, 'cause I also saw the string of fibers they took out of her and there is little doubt in my mind that that was what happened.

So i basically took out all of the fabrics from the rest of the cages and will cover them with some fabric that doesn't touch the cage so they can't reach it. Meanwhile, and looking back on this episode, I think what Susy did was very Susy like, she was the wildest bird of all the flock, always protective of her space, mostly aggressive, but so sweet to my eyes... I think she died for being her. The other birds are more laid back and not as destructive as she was, so I think her personality and my ignorance were the fatal combination.

At least it is a good thing there are no major bacteria or infections in the flock, and her case can be a cautionary tale for other parrot owners (companions, actually) who didn't know, like me, that this could happen.

I haven't received your products yet. I'm hoping next week I can finally start my birds on them. I'll let you know.

Best regards,

Bolivia