Pete betrays Emma and Peppi pecks his Grandpa

From the

Diary as of  9/12 – 9/16/09

9/12 Peppi came home very late today. I was already worrying about him whether he was going to sleep somewhere else. But then – it was nearly dark – I heard him bump against the balcony door. Gladly he did not injure himself. Silly little bugger – he should have known that there is a glass door espcially as I have 2 flowerpots hanging on the door. I was so happy to see him home – I cannot express how happy I was.

And then – you should have seen how Pina and Peppi greeted one another – it was so extremely sweet. He put his head and neck around her as if he wanted to embrace her. What a view – my heart was melting away…

9/13 Pete betrays Emma with a black pigeon lady?  He had sex with her again right in the middle of the balcony balustrade. I call her Miss Mimi. I am shocked! I wonder how this continues…

Here they look as if they don’t know each other – hm – just as in real life – eh?????

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Pina and Peppi had a bath again today. First Pina had her own this afternoon. Then when both came in quite early today – 6:30 pm – Peppi had his one  too and Pina joined him a bit again. There was a new young pijjie coming in also – was drinking eagerly from the bathtub but Pina did not like it and Willy was chasing the youngster away quite brutally. Poor thing.

9/14 Today both babies came quite early. They have started to moult as well but not so strong yet. Each day I find quite a few feathers beneath their roosting place on the bookshelf and I have to vacuum clean nearly every day.

9/16 Winnie has become quite intolerant especially against her daughter.Whenever she is near her Winnie starts to heavily peck Pina. What a rude mother! Pina apparently is only competitor for her now.

Behaviour between grandpa Pete and Peppi is completely different. Pete never pecks Peppi but Peppi is ruthless: can you imagine that he, the little bugger pecks his grandpa when both want to have sunflower hearts at the same time – !! Peppi is a little ungrateful monster!

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Pete is limping and Peppi is naughty (6 weeks)

From the

Diary as of  9/1 – 9/3/09

9/1 Pete is still limping a bit but it is definitely better than yesterday. So I don’t think I need to be worried.

I cannot believe my eyes: Peppi mounted Pina and this at a tender age of 6 weeks!!!! I have the proof on photo!! What the hell  did they put into those pills they had to eat these days??? I really want to know.

The Ritual

…continues

…mounting…

The climax

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9/2 The vitamins finally arrived. All pijjies seem to love that stuff. I put it into the drinking water. We’ll see whether it does them good. I really hope so.

For the first time I offered them peanuts today. I crushed them of course because in total they would be much too big of course. But it’s not a problem and easily done in my mortar. This I have also learned from the Pij’n Angels Forum. So I gave it a try. I would never have had this idea. The result:

Pete and Emma love the crushed peanuts – Willy and Winnie are reluctant, so are the babies. But who knows… Pijjies are always very conservative – they are very careful when it comes to try new things. But I find this excellent. Better to be careful than regret it later.

9/3 Day begins as usual: up 6:30 and letting the pijjies out on the balcony. It is quite dark and it is raining – so they are not very eager to go. But half an hour later it brightens up and both, Pina and Peppi, are flying around, coming back, having their breakfast and are out again.

They love the little foodie pots in the hanging flower pots where it is easier for them to defend their food – LOL.

Peppi is already courting his mom – besides Pina – and receives a slap with the wing for his cockiness!

I did not check the babies again. Their behaviour tells me that they are doing very well. They eat like a horse, they drink with deep gulps and they fly around like stunt pilots. You can really see how much joy that is for them. I do not want to distress them if there is no signal for a problem.

Whenever I have the opportunity – while I give Pina her little strokes or when I “fight” with Peppi – who has become quite snappy – I touch their bellies to feel whether there might be a problem.  And there isn’t. They have conquered the canker and they are healthy happy little pijjies who enjoy their young life! Oh how happy I am to see them doing so well. I love them so much…

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The Canker Medication is finished and Pete bumped his Foot

From the

Diary as of  8/29 – 8/31/09

8/29 Today it’s not very warm and it started to rain a bit even – only 19°C and apparently the babies feel it’s too cold to go outside. When Pina was on the balcony balustrade for a couple of minutes she realized that she was getting cold feet and jumped on my arm. She HAD cold feet. Even Peppi was not eager to stay outside – although he loves being outside with all the other pigeons.

Oh my – what kind of pigeons have I grown? They are lying in a cardbox right on the top of the closet in my livingroom and cannot be convinced that they have a life outside. They should fly around and have their fun – instead they are sprawling  and sleeping!!!! But maybe they need that for their final recovery 

Jimi appeared this morning. He was in a hurry as usual, quickly ate some seeds from the foodie pots and disappeared again. Have not seen Joey so far.

Winnie has laid her egg #9 – I have to produce new plaster eggs!!!

8/30 Winnie has been treated this morning – she will receive another pill tomorrow. Thank heaven – no visible canker. And their behaviour tells me that they are all perfectly okay.

So in total: Peppi got 5 pills, Pina 3, Willy 3, Pete 3, Emma 2 and Winnie 2.

I forgot to tell – 3 days ago we were at the lady doc again. Today we went to the lady doctor again. Well – I told her what I did etc. etc. – she was not very much amused (telling from her face) that *I* did change her prescription but in fact she did not say anything. I explained to her that it was not simply my idea but that I was in contact with a whole group of very experienced people who deal with these deseases on a daily basis. Sadly enough she did not jump on what I was saying so I left the subject. I really don’t understand why a doctor would not be willing to learn from other people who may have much more experience. It was disappointing.

Still I am grateful for her help (she made Emma healthy again) and I cannot thank enough the people from the Pij’n Angels Forum

The results at the vet:

Peppi and Pina both still had a tiny bit of those deposits in their throats but it looked much better than before. Peppi has got 5 pills, Pina 3. According to the lady doctor those few tiny nodules would clear by themselves so her recommendation was to give the little ones some vitamins to help their immune system.

I ordered some vitamin compound today (Vitacombex) which the vet recommended.

Peppi and Pina are greatly enjoying little outings on the balcony now, to the neighbour balcony etc. They eat and they drink and seem to be very happy but I still have a close eye on them.

Oh my, this morning I got up again at 6:15 – both babies requesting to be let out. So they went off. After an hour Peppi was back – hungry – what’s probably driven him back but Pina did not come back. After 2 hours I was getting nervous, especially as Willy, the father, seemed to look for her also. 3 hours went by, then another one. You can imgine that I was nearly in panic but what could I have done? I did not even see in which direction she flew off and with whom. I already saw Pina, my sweet little pigeon girl, hanging somewhere, entangled in one of those nets  – another half an hour went by and then, some flapping wings at the balcony door – and there she was, heading directly to the foodhouse and the water bowl.

Everybody on this planet must have heard that avalanche coming from my heart….

Winnie laid her second egg, which is  #10

Winnie got her second pill today. Also she had no visible canker. I will leave it with the second pill. It is actually great distress for her to pick her from the nest and make her swallow the pill. She is very strong and it was difficult to hold her.

Pete must have bumped his foot heavily  while fighting with an intruder. He is limping. I cannot see any injury though. I will watch this but I think there is no real bad injury. I think he is getting old and just cannot act as a young one any more. Sometimes he forgets about his age and he does things he should better not have done. Does this sound human???It is impossible to tell how old he already is. But I think he is not the youngest any more. You can see this from his ragged beak, his movements which are not as quick as those of a young pigeon. I really hope that he will have a couple of good years still though. I love him very much. He is such a good father and grandfather. And very sensitive too…

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.Pina and Peppi checking my book shelves

Willy (in front – father) checking on his kids and their readings – hm…

Peppi and Pina happily snoring in the box

Peppi and Pina on discovery

Willy (father) – the control freak… Peppi is not amused…

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Peppi is really sick…

From the

Diary as of  8/22/ – 8/28/09

8/22 Peppi is not feeling very well – he cannot swallow food. I am soooo worried. This is a true shock. The other day both babies seemed to be perfectly okay and now this. How quickly everything can change. But this is also the great danger wih birds. Due to their metabolism things can change very quickly to the worst without any chance to help them. But I must hope that Peppi is getting better again…

8/23 Peppi seems to be on the way to recovery after the 3rd. pill. He began to eat again – at least small seeds. I decided to go with the advice from the experienced people from the Pij’n Angels forum and give him a Spartrix pill every day instead of only 2 pieces with a day in between as the recommendation from the manufacturer said (and the vet). Actually it was a very difficult decision for me because under no circumstances I wanted Peppi to deprive of his onyl resistance and natural immune system by overdosing the medication. But in this case I followed the advice of people who have years and years of experience with pigeons and doves.

Pina received 3 pills altogether.

8/24 Peppi received another pill because there was a small yellow nodule left in his mouth and I wanted to make sure that this canker shit really disappears completely from his body. I got the advice to give him Spartrix as long as something was to be seen in his mouth.

8/25 Peppi received his 5th pill today. I really wanted to make sure that this canker has disappeared.

Now it was the turn to treat the parents and the grandparents.I decided to start with Willy. It was stressful because of course partially lacking expereince how to catch a fully grown “wild” bird. He was so alert but it had to be done. I was so worried to hurt him but finally everything went well. And the most important – he did not even sulk. He flew off but came back again shortly and I could fed him later a few sunflower hearts as consolation.

Emma laid an egg  – #29 - so it will be easier to catch Pete for his treatment now while he is sitting on the egg.

It was Pete’s turn today for the pill. I cornered him in the living room and threw a big blanket over him. Astonishingly it was quite easy but then I am getting used to catching pigeons – I get quicker too!!!!

8/27 Pete’s received his 3rd pill (Spartrix). Emma has laid egg #30. Removed both now and replaced them with the plaster eggs.

8/28 I gave Emma a pill this evening – tomorrow she will have a second one. It went very well after she was sitting on her eggs again. So I just took the blanket and caught her right in the nest. She did not even defend herself much – she was astonishingly calm – much calmer than at the vet. It was quite easy. Maybe she could remember the last time when we had to take her to the vet. She apparently knew that I only wanted to help her.

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Peppi with his grandma Emma

Peppi and Pina

Peppi relaxing on the closet

Pina relaxing on the closet

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Pete and Emma are feeding from my Hand after 4 Months Patience

From the

Diary as of  8/20/09

8/20 Today is a historical day – Pete and Emma were eating sunflower hearts from my hand. After more than 4 months of patience and trying again and again  I finally succeeded in gaining their trust to feed from my hand. Pete took all his courage and started to eat from my hand, then Emma while I was feeding Angelo with my right hand. Can you imagine the picture??? I feel like Saint Franziskus!!! This is a greater joy than getting the testimonial from the university!!!

Hubert is still here – he slept during the night in pigeoncity again and left a neat little heap of perfect poop –
The next morning he was sitting on the neighbour balcony, waiting for Willy to take off and then being able to snatch some seeds for breakfast.

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Today Pete and Emma are taking a bath again – it is so hot….

All pijjies are getting crazy for water and line up to take a bath too but Pete won’t let them – it’s all his

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Emma and Pete

look at Pete’s face – isn’t it gorgeous????

Winnie on the left – desperate for a bath but…

Jimi tries to sneek into the bath but…

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