Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to present....

[LaManuka]

Indeed she is, but she’s a bloody little toad when she wants to be and she WILL be the death of me I swear!!

Probably.....but I bet you die with a smile on your face

Yeah Uncle Dave, you know it

 

[LeaKP]

Indeed she is, but she’s a bloody little toad when she wants to be and she WILL be the death of me I swear!!

She’s playing you part of the time. What a smart one she is.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[LaManuka]

By "part of the time" I can only imagine you mean the "part" when she's asleep. But even then there is no rest, for that's the time when her pouffy undercarriage haunts my dreams....

A few weeks ago HRH displayed her brilliant talents of invention! My bird vet sells these very nice stainless steel kabob-type fruit and veg holders with a perspex bobble that screws onto the bottom, and I had loaded it up with things Lilly likes to chew on, like yucca chips and so forth and suspended it vertically in the usual manner. One day whilst replacing the chewed up yucca chips Lilly landed on my hand while I was holding the kabob horizonally, grabbed the seagrass mat and overbalanced, resulting in her going for a bit of a ride on it. I thought "Lilly you are a complete and utter 24 karat rolled gold genius!" and proceeded to rearrange the kabob so it could be suspended horizontally and loaded it up with her favourite chew toys. After rigorous checking for safety, there are now two of Lilly's new favourite toys rigged up for her entertainment, one outside and another inside her cage.

Proof positive (as if any more was needed) that Lilly Pilly is a total GENIUS!!

 

[Laurasea]

Brilliant!!! I'll take five please!!! Rush the shipping

 

[LaManuka]

Brilliant!!! I'll take five please!!! Rush the shipping

I know right??!! I should've patented it

 

[LaManuka]

Things have been a little quiet on the Lilly front lately. Thankfully she has come through the massive monsoon season we had and has NOT laid any more eggs, not for want of trying however!

In an effort to try to head her off at the pass egg-wise in the coming months I have invested in a HUGE new cage for her. I get the feeling I may need to confine her to quarters a bit during the winter if/when she starts trying to burrow into the couch or about a thousand other little hidey holes that exist around the house, so to assuage my guilt in locking her up she now has a veritable palace that more befits her high octane antics. Since the coronavirus resulted in hubby's trip to the USA being cancelled, some of those funds were redirected into enlarging HRH's quarters. Much blood, sweat and tears were shed today in it's preparation too. Hubby's blood, HRH was much amused

And she's already had her first bath in it so i think she approves...

 

[Laurasea]

Things have been a little quiet on the Lilly front lately. Thankfully she has come through the massive monsoon season we had and has NOT laid any more eggs, not for want of trying however!

In an effort to try to head her off at the pass egg-wise in the coming months I have invested in a HUGE new cage for her. I get the feeling I may need to confine her to quarters a bit during the winter if/when she starts trying to burrow into the couch or about a thousand other little hidey holes that exist around the house, so to assuage my guilt in locking her up she now has a veritable palace that more befits her high octane antics. Since the coronavirus resulted in hubby's trip to the USA being cancelled, some of those funds were redirected into enlarging HRH's quarters. Much blood, sweat and tears were shed today in it's preparation too. Hubby's blood, HRH was much amused

And she's already had her first bath in it so i think she approves...

What the what!?!?! That's an I door avairy!!!! Holy cow! Huge!

 

[LaManuka]

Yes it is indeed palatial! It's the same size as the one Fang and Val are sharing - we did try shared accommodation with HRH but it just didn't work out, not surprisingly as She is not the type who shares with others.

Poor old hubby sliced his finger open while we were cleaning it yesterday and because he is on blood thinning medication there was blood EVERYWHERE. There was a suggestion that he did it deliberately in order to get out of working on it ... I don't know who would've started a rumour like that!

 

[Scott]

That is a phenomenal palace!!

 

[LaManuka]

Merci oncle Scott. C'est un palais digne d'une Couronne Princesse!

 

[LaManuka]

Well my Lilly has had a visit to the doctors' this morning. Naturally she picked a Saturday morning when the vets are closed, and in the middle of a pandemic, to have a case of the vomits!

On Saturday morning I woke everyone up, gave them their fresh water and was fixing Lilly's dry nectar powder for the morning. She managed to gulp down a few mouthfuls of the previous day's food while I was preparing her new stuff but that's not unusual. Within probably 20 minutes or so she was vomiting it all back up and needless to say I completely freaked out!!! I removed the dry mix and gave her some wet mix instead, firstly to ensure she didn't dehydrate and secondly to get some nutrition into her, they metabolise the wet nectar mix pretty fast so I though that was the best option to take. It also comes out the other end pretty quick too so again the theory was that whatever she had in her system would hopefully be expelled pronto from one end or the other!

For the remainder of the weekend she was perfectly fine, absolutely no change in her (can I say "bi***y" on this forum?? Ooops look like I just did!!) demeanour, appetite or energy levels. She has been making a few overtures about wanting to get nesty and broody again so I wonder how much this is feeding into all of this? Anyway this morning (Monday BNE time) she had a very brief repeat of vomiting, though not nearly as much volume as on Saturday. I called the vet the minute they opened and got her seen by Dr Jones (Dr Jones, Jones, calling Dr Jones, Dr Jones, Dr Jones, get up now! Apologies to anyone who has been trying to forget that tune by Aqua since 1997!) He did a crop wash and gram stain and said nothing to report there. He offered to do an x-ray to pick up any foreign body or parasite which would have required her to stay at the clinic and fast for a few hours but due to hubby's work schedule and my inability to drive a car to go back and pick her up that was not really practical. The compromise in the meantime was to worm her in case she may have picked up a parasite from the foraging material that we provide for her almost daily and observe her very closely over the next few days. Fortunately hubby will be on days off so if we need to take her back for an x-ray that won't be a problem.

Short of all that Dr Jones says she is in excellent condition but has a bit of softness around her abdomen which may be a precursor to another bout of egg-laying, which he agrees may be a factor in what's going on with her. She has put on a few grams in weight too and I wonder if sometimes she just gorges herself with so much dry mix in the morning that it sometimes gets stuck on the way down and she throws it back up?

My hubby has a theory that all the bad little birdies get together and have these strategy meetings where they come up with new and ingenious ways to worry their parronts to death. I wouldn't be a bit surprised and I reckon Lilly has elected herself Chairbird of the Board!!

 

[Anansi]

Wow. I'm really hoping this is a reaction to something from that day and it never happens again. It's good you're so observant with her, and I know if anything else happens you'll be on top of it.

But tell HRH to stop messing with her mama!

 

[LaManuka]

Thanks for your support Uncle Stephen, it means a lot!

I hate to say it in case I jinx myself, but HRH has been pretty much back to normal since her visit to the doc. I’m trying a bit of an experiment with her breakfast. She has been positively gorging herself first thing in the morning lately and I’ve observed her looking like she’s got some of her dry food stuck in her throat and having to make a real effort to swallow it. Therefore I thought if I give her some wet mix in the morning to so she can take the edge off her hunger with that, and then give her dry mix when she’s not so ravenous. She’s been happily playing, flapping and screaming this morning, so far so good but she’s straight back to the doc if she brings up her breakfast again!

 

[Laurasea]

Dang it it can take the stress! She must stay well!!!
As a member of the house of hens I do decree!

 

[Anansi]

Anytime, my friend!

Sounds like a solid plan. Some birds just don't know how to act when a meal first appears. Lol! Certainly couldn't hurt to manage the possibility of the dry food being the culprit by switching things up a bit.

 

[LaManuka]

Dang it it can take the stress! She must stay well!!!
As a member of the house of hens I do decree!

Oh you said it Aunty Laura!! But she’s had a good day today, eating like a horse and has kept everything where it should be.

I do believe she does enjoy messing with me. After all, was it not the great prophet David Bowie who wrote ...

“Oh you pretty things, don’t you know you’re driving your mamas and papas insane?!”

 

[LaManuka]

Following her brush will ill-health about 2 weeks ago I am pleased to announce that HRH is fully back to her usual screamy, flappy, squawky, b**chy self, though I don't want to jinx either her or me so I will say no more about that! But I have her doctor on speed-dial if required.

This is what Lilly has been doing during lockdown, which doesn't really differ to any other day now that I'm home full time...

In my next life I want to come back as her!

 

[Rozalka]

So cute!!!!:smile015::smile015::smile015::heart::heart:

 

[LaManuka]

Yes she is Aunty Rozalka, when she's not being a broody bitey little minx like she is right now!!

 

[Scott]

Lovely video, Martina! So funny when HRH impulsively tires of TLC and rolls over to her feet and runs away.