Had a very crazy time this afternoon – we went to help Andrew and JC select a few birds for their new house – it’s got an enormous aviary near the pool and JC suggested that Nykolai might like to come and help them. We arrived and checked out the place then headed off to Vic Markets where we fought through the ambling crowds to get some great food for lunch and then went to a pet store to seek out birds.
While Nykolai was busy chatting up the staff, I checked out the mice but, sadly, there were no females available. Hopefully we can find some new ones soon as our current pair are coming up on 1.5 years (life expectancy is usually 1.5 to 2 years).
They did have some *very* cute female rats and one of the staff had an enormous cream male draped over her shoulders (he was hiding in her long hair). Guess we can think about upgrading to rats in another couple of years.
JC and Nykolai had decided that a pair of lovebirds and a pair of quails. Staff took a while to eventually isolate a pair of lovebirds, moving birds from cage to cage until a pair was eventually located. Once all four birds were in boxes, we returned to the house to start the next part of the epic adventure – preparing the aviary.
The aviary appeared to have been used previously to house large birds, like Cockatoos or Parrots. This meant there were holes, gaps and overlaps that lovebirds, apparently being veritable escape artists, would exploit to leave the area.
A bunch of us descended on the house and began work within the aviary, leading to many calls of “See the wildlife within the cages” and “Ugly looking beasts, aren’t they!” After a number of hours of fiddling, cursing, nailing, cable-tying and self-destruction via tiny bits of sharp, annoying wire, we had managed to seal off a section of the aviary and the new occupants were released, with much squarking, confusion and racing about the place. They eventually settled down and began to get on with life.
After a refreshing beer, we took our leave. As far as I know, the birds are all fine and enjoying their new space.