Poppy

Oh goodness.....poor Poppy....no wonder she was feeling under the weather. Glad to hear she is feeling back to her old self now.

Awww, little Poppy :-)

Interesting about the sprouted seed .... is this how most seed eating birds prefer it ???

Eggscellent blog !
Eggstraordinay story!
Polly is an eggstra special feathered friend...xxx:o)

Lovely blog Gee.....was gonna say what TT did...she beat me to it....lol
Did she not want to sit on her eggs and hatch them?

Great news Gee, I to want to know whether she is going to sit on the eggs?

Wow... bet you were surprised to find the egg...... lovely bird.... that was why she was rolling up the paper to make a nest....

Blimey Poppy you are deffinetly a lady are'nt you so pleased your feeling better.

Lovely blog, Gee...Think, you should adopt a partner for Poppy. :) What is the sense to have eggs when there is no love? :)

Poppy showed no interest in sitting on the eggs, which would be infertile anyway as she hasn't a mate! The one that landed in the water was broken. Lovebirds can only be sexed by DNA and I didn't want to pluck out a feather (with skin/blood attached) or cut her claw so that it bled to send it off for analysis :(

I was in touch with an avian vet when I first adopted Poppy (her three companions had died when her owner died and was not found for some time) and he felt, as long as she was happy, active and eating well, she would be better left alone. Sometimes pairs don't get on and one will kill the other. It is possible that she has just reached maturity and that is why she laid eggs. He expected her to lay 5-6 but there was only the 2.

The sprouted seeds is just so that she has some green stuff which is good for them. Poppy refuses to eat the salad leaves I provide for her so it was worth a try but unfortunately they are still not growing.

Pleased that Poppy has now recovered it must have been as much of a susprise for her as it was for you!, will she continue to lay eggs on a regular basis?

Gee, I didn't know that a lovebird could kill the other...:( I thought that that bird couldn't live alone...
It's good that you haven't done this analysis. No matter which sex our friends-pets are. :) Hope she feels good...she is a lovely bird!

Poppy is gorgeous and what an interesting blog. Someone I work with has an african grey and an egg appeared on the floor of the cage one morning but for almost 30 years they had thought they had a male - Charlie is her name, lol.

I agree Dawn, it is an interesting blog.

My daughter has an African grey, Dawn, called Doris and she is a real chatterbox, shouts at the children (in my daughter's voice), tells the dog off, but no eggs yet :)

The vet warned me that she could have a cycle of egg-laying, PP, but was a little puzzled because this is not the time for egg laying apparently!

They can be quite aggressive birds, Uma, Poppy went for me before she laid her first egg (I was very surprised as she is usually very friendly) so when I handled her I wore my gardening gloves. She has gone back to her usual friendly self now :)

Glad that Poppy is okay Gee.Was a bit worried as have read that sometimes female birds can get " egg bound " which is difficulty in passing their eggs.Luckily Poppy had no such problems.What a relief for you !

brill blog gee,very interesting

lovely blog Gee ..very interesting..you do pic your birds lol

Hi BB, Poppy was egg bound and that was why she took so long to pass the first egg. I oiled the vent to help her pass the egg when I realised what was happening late Saturday night but by then she was exhausted, poor thing. I am just so glad she recovered :)

so Lucky then Gee as have heard they often do not make it.Thank goodness you were there to help her !

Poppy is a lovely looking bird Gee, can`t really blame her for feeling a bit stressed out can we. My son had a pair of Lovebirds many years ago and they were so nasty he had to get a separate cage for them to get them out of his aviary, I can remember him wearing a pair of very strong gloves to clean out their cage.......

What an interesting blog Gee , I love the way Poppy decorates her toy and rolls the pieces of paper :o) she was very lucky to have you looking after her , I'm not surprised that she was feeling out of sorts for a while I'm pleased that she has recovered from the experience ..........

Doris sounds quite a character Gee .... they are so funny how they impersonate voices, arent they.

I've read that they are really territorial in an aviary situation, Lincslass, especially if breeding. Poppy is normally very gentle with me and I think that is because she hasn't a mate so accepts me as a friend :)

She's a beautiful bird, Gee! :-)) Shame the egg was infertile, though - but I do see why you can't have a pair.

Gee ~ you can buy soak seed ~ a mix that sprouts easily as well as being nutritionally good. Niger seed also sprouts easily, I used to do that for my birds. I did mine on a saucer with damp cotton wool on it, keeping it damp until they sprouted, only a couple of days. Rinse through a sieve before feeding... :o)

Thanks for that tip, PG. I have put niger seed in with some of the other seed but have tried to grow it on paper kitchen towel. I'll start some on cotton wool tomorrow and just use niger seed. I will look out for soak seed when I next get to a pet shop.

You're welcome Gee...... :o)

Thoroughly enjoyed this blog, I know nothing about these beautiful birds, so was surprised to learn they can be nasty, thanks for letting us see your pics.