Merlin & Charlie update thread!

[Mayden]

Merlin on the left, being a greedy boy as per. Charlie on the right, keeping a watchful eye.

 

[JerseyWendy]

GREAT picture!!! I truly think they'll be fine. they are learning from each other, and will soon realize how much fun it can be to play together.

 

[Mayden]

We had them out again today and all went well. We had veggies in two dishes again, although we were in the bird room this time. Charlie was quite tired so just dozed on my monitor for a while, then went to playing with a bottle. Merlin becomes quite aggressive around bottles (he LOVES to fight them) and the result got Merlins attention and he came over and had a beak, but prior to that he'd been whistling and friendly 'near' Charlie. They both almost sat together on the fan too, but Merlin stepped too close and whistled in Charlie's face, Charlie spooked and flew off.

So far so good! We're happy with the slow progress we'll be making with them. We're honestly just relieved that we can have them both out in the same room together without any actual fighting happening. Which means we'll 99% sure we'll be keeping Charlie now.

We didn't want it to be a case where one had to be caged for the other to be out in the same room, but so far they're happy to leave each other alone or only interact when perhaps prompted, either by food/toys, or us putting them in the same type of area.

Happy days! Vet nurse said she's looking forward to meeting Charlie too; they're both booked in for a checkup and nailtime for a grand total of £45 ($68) on Tuesday 23rd @3pm

 

[JamesC]

Sounds like you are making really great progress at about the right speed. The only experience I have with introducing two of the same species were with my Blue Crowns. Tootsie stood her ground all puffy headed while Rosco continually made overtures of friendship. Took her a few weeks of him hanging out nearby before she tentatively reached over to him to experimentally preen his head. They got buddy buddy fairly quick after that. Then Tootsie "kicked me to the curb" not long after. She didn't want much to do with me for a while but about a year ago she started coming back to me and we renewed our old companionship. Much to Rosco's annoyance cause he thinks that he should be her only bird. I never got so many evil eyes directed toward me in my life!

Good luck with the two of them. I just can't imagine having two Senegals in the same house. I have hard enough time just keeping track of one!

 

[SoCalWendy]

Awe they're so cute..... Looks like things are coming around for Merlin and Charlie.

 

[Mayden]

Haha thanks guys. They are trouble, but less trouble when out together... at the moment! Who knows what kind of mess they'll get in to if they become friends. I imagine they'll start teaming up on Operation: Trash House.

They are seemingly doing quite well together, so fingers crossed it continues .

Another thing we've found out about Charlie is that we think he's only ever been kept in a small cage because he will not go more than halfway up his cage. He's got perches and toys, mostly near the top and last night I decided to move everything up, food included etc. and give him some time to work his way around the top of the cage. Did he want to explore? Nope! He was put up top and immediately wormed his was down to the bottom of the cage and just started strutting about down there whistling instead. Nothing will entice him to go higher, so we've lowered some of the perches and toys so he's not just sat on the one perch the entire time (which he has been doing ) and he's only played with the one lowest toy too.

I've only just gotten up and so haven't seen him use any other area yet, but we're thinking if he gets happier with the lower part of his cage, his confidence should grow some. He doesn't appear 'uneasy' when up top, he just looks like he doesn't think he belongs there and goes down! We've had him 3 weeks on Thursday (although it feels much longer) and he's quite settled with everything else. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Poor guy refuses treats, fruit and veg at the moment too. Hand him a harrissons though and he'll take that as a treat. *shrug* odd guy. If I tried 'treating' Merlin with harrissons, he'd growl and look at me as though "are you serious?"

Got work now, can't wait to get home and get them out again

 

[Mayden]

Merlin played 'chase the Charlie' a little bit today. More often than not he just wanted to get closer with no beaking involved.

Both WERE settled on each side of Andrew when I was trying to get the pic, but trouble decided he wanted to play chase Charlie again just as I got the camera!

 

[Mayden]

Had both the terrors at the vets today. Charlie's been given a clean bill of health. Merlin too, except for a minor irritation type thing on his good foot. We need to be giving him his flat perch as his 'favoured' perch for a while to reduce the pressure. Not sure what else we can do perch wise as he has different types of perches, different sizes, the perches themselves get larger and smaller...

They're also both 140g, it's not great, but at least it shows we're consistent with food! It just needs to be reduced. I've been using tea spoons to measure the food, but Andrew's been piling the food in, so we've had some serious chats and he came to the vets with me today so heard it from Richard too, that he NEEDS to reduce food intake - especially for Merlin because we don't want any extra strain on his leg.

Socialising is standard, doing okay until they get too close. Charlie's a big bag of nerves around Merlin, so we'll work on it.

Right now I'm very tired with them both as they're not sleeping in late at all, it's literally like 5:30am and they're awake. We need more light blocking stuff in their room, but eurg. I'm exhausted!

 

[JerseyWendy]

GREAT update on your babies, Cat!!! Is 140g too much weight for them???

Aaaw, poor Merlin and his footy. Gosh, all the awesome perches you provide, it's hard to believe he'd have anything going on with his good foot.

I'm still hopeful that Charlie will learn to relax around Merlin, and that they will end up BFFs.

Sorry to hear they get you up so early :11:

 

[Mayden]

GREAT update on your babies, Cat!!! Is 140g too much weight for them???

Aaaw, poor Merlin and his footy. Gosh, all the awesome perches you provide, it's hard to believe he'd have anything going on with his good foot.

I'm still hopeful that Charlie will learn to relax around Merlin, and that they will end up BFFs.

Sorry to hear they get you up so early :11:

It's exhausting, we've hung some dark (but light and airy) sheets up over the curtains to help some, fingers crossed I get a decent night sleep as I've got work tomorrow!

I was a little surprised about his foot but I have to remember that despite all the perches and stuff he can ONLY perch on his good foot, so it's bound to get a little tender.

140g is a 'little' on the chubby side, but only just. So we're not in a danger zone or anything, ideally we'd rather he was around 130g though, 135g being fine. Especially because of his leg more than anything. The lower, the better

 

[Mayden]

Both dozing off with Daddy.

 

[JerseyWendy]

AAAAWWW!!!! How precious!!!!

 

[Mayden]

So, Merlin has learnt Charlie's unique whistle, which is very cute. and Charlie is now learning how to say "Whatya doin?" which is Merlin's

They're still not friendly, but we haven't had them out 'together' in a while, we're just letting them deal with each others company. So far, it's all going well.

 

[JerseyWendy]

Yay...and update on Merlin & Charlie. When you say they are still not friendly with each other...they don't fight either, right?

 

[Mayden]

Yay...and update on Merlin & Charlie. When you say they are still not friendly with each other...they don't fight either, right?

They don't fight, Merlin has a bit of a squabble on occasion, Charlie just flies off and ignores him. So they're not friends, but they're not trying to tear wings off either.

The chatting is getting better, Charlie still doesn't really know how to play, but they're learning to 'use' each other for chatter and general copying!

Charlie also tried to have a bath on his own too when the hairdryer was on

 

[Mayden]

Just thought I'd put these here.

Charlie enjoying bathtime with mummy. He spent some time getting 'fresh' water poured on/near him from a jug in the bath with me; the rest of the time spent perching on the bathside:

Wouldn't go to bed for me the other day, so left him like this (for a whole 10 mins) because he was being a pain in the butt.

 

[JamesC]

Took me a moment to realize that there were stubby tail feathers sticking out from under that blanket. He was probably enjoying it under there. If there is one thing I've noticed about my Senegal compare to the Blue Crowns is Sidney is far more stubborn. So it does not surprise me that you could not get him to go to bed.

 

[MonicaMc]

LOL! That's cute!

 

[Mayden]

Little monkey (Charlie) decided he was chilly and wanted to make a den under my laptop and between my legs. He accepted head scritches and started snoozing for a little while too.

He's banned from sitting ON the laptop because he keeps pooping on my keys. So I guess found an alternative. Took him out after a while because I didn't want to encourage nesting... then he did this.

Can I share your shirt Mummy?

Sorry for the pics being so large...

 

[JerseyWendy]

BAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH!!!! Those pictures are AWESOME!!!! LOVE IT!!