Howdy, Everyone! I’m back again bringing more updates again about my angels. Lately, I haven’t got the chance to come online to share Kiki’s progress of the new trick. Thank you everyone for your support and concern for Kiki. She’s doing perfectly well, but rather nippy this days! Last Christmas, I brought home a new little guy, Kermit, a Senegal Parrot. He’s the primary reason for my inactivity on the weblog for these couple of weeks (or to be exact that’s almost a month ago! Oh gosh that’s long!).

Kermit then was only 7-8 weeks old when I got him home and he is yet to be full weaned. He barely has any feathers on his body accept for some grey furs and blood feathers on his wings. Honestly, I’m never keen nor supportive about bringing home an unweaned baby because of the possible risk and can be time consuming too. Any mistake and mishandling can cost this little feathered friend to lose his life.

Due to certain constrains, the local pet store was unable to wean Kermit for me (seriously that really upset me alittle about store selling unwean babies, do they ever thought of the consequences like selling to an unexperienced or new parrot owner who possibly may end the fragile lives of these babies with their inexperiences and even carelessness?), I’m really hesitating to bring home Kermit when I heard I had to wean him myself. After identifying the obstacles ahead and considering the possible adjustments I can make to my work and lifestyle, I decided to bring home Kermit right away.

I’ve placed him in a brooder since Day 1 to ensure that he has ample warmth, before shifting him to a weaning cage when he has reasonable amount of feathers to maintain and regular his body temperature. During the initial stage, handfeeding procedure for Kermit was really taxing. As I had to stick to 4 feedings daily, ensuring he has enough nutrients for growth and ensure he progressively reaching his peak weight. I had to plan the handfeeding schedules and work schedules to ensure that both doesn’t clash. I had to wake up early morning for a feeding at 6.30am, rushing back home during lunch to feed another time at 12pm, and feedings during the evening and night respectively. It’s definitely lots of time and efforts. But i’m really glad to see Kermit growing well and gain and maintaining a reasonably amount of weight.

Now Kermit has finally turned 12 weeks old and his daily feedings have now cut down to 2, one in the morning and the other during the night before going to bed. I can clearly identify that he’s struggling to be fully weaned. Kermit is starting to refuse the yummy formula most of time, preferring to consume the adult food himself. He’s already eating adult food like millets, seeds like sunflower and safflower, peanuts, veggies like corns, cabbage, carrot and brocolli, almonds, hazelnuts, fruits like apple and grapes and even dried red hot peppers. He sure does like to go for some hot spicy thrills in his daily meals!

He’s almost fully feathered now. He started his maiden flight 2 weeks ago on the 16th January 2008. That’s the day I never forget when he started to flap his wings and fly over to me for his dinner. I’m really happy that he’s growing up and getting stronger day after day.

Hope that one day, Kermit will be performing his very own stunts and trick on YouTube! Wish me and Kermit best of luck!