#truvi

[briantheinfamous]

[kedreeva]

Saw a boy this weekend that you might recognize! Orion is doing well in his new home! He's going to be with Sasha and Truvi for next year's breeding season, and someone very special came home with me in exchange! It was good to see Orion, though. I shook the nugget treat bag and he came galloping over. Has not forgotten the sound of the good stuff 😉

[kedreeva]

Do you have any idea whether Sasha will be back this fall or is it early to plan yet?

Sasha... the peahen? She is likely not coming back- I don't have a ton of space and she was a poor quality breeder that didn't get along with most of the other birds- just Truvi, who went to stay with my friends permanently. Since they're working on pied, and both sasha and truvi are pied, it's best if they stay down there.

[kedreeva]

Curious about your coming peafowl groups. I know Stan keeps Artemis and Truvi. Obviously Eris, Opal, and Onyx will be for Polaris, but he's still a baby, and also Stella and Corona are not for him.. That's all I can guess at. Will there be much fighting, when you rearrange? (too invested in your birds here)

I will have 3 (technically 4, but functionally 3) pens. Truvi is actually going to be staying in NC for their pied breeding pen, since I can't really use her.

So, TENTATIVELY-

Pen 1 will have Stan, Artemis, Eris, and Sasha. Joslin will also be here, though she's Very Ancient and who knows how long she will continue to exist. Once Joslin passes, I will likely move Callisto in here, unless she can't get along with everyone, in which case I may look to sell her.

I forgot that pen 2 and 3 will have to go through one more musical birds SO.

For 2023, Pen 2 will have Polaris, Callisto, Corona, Stella, Opal, and Onyx. The only bird of breeding age in this pen will be Corona, everyone else is a baby from 2021.

For 2023, Pen 3 (barn pen) will have Poppa P/Indigo, Aris, Aurora, Arcana, and Eclipse. This should allow me to easily tell who the parents of the chicks from Indy are; barred wing/blue babies are from Aurora or Aris, BS babies are from the other two. Since purple is sex linked, this also means that I can tell which of Aris and Aurora's chicks are boys immediately after hatch, and remove them to keep down the number of males I will have to deal with.

For 2024, Pen 2 will have Polaris, Aris, Aurora, Arcana, Opal, and Onyx. Polaris is not actually related to any of these birds, despite being raised by Aris- I put someone else's eggs under her. I may end up replacing Onyx with a better BS hen down the road, as she came home as the only BS without obvious health issues, but I'm not sure her genetics are all that sound, and I suspect that it's on her mom's side; she shared a mom with Lazuli, who also had issues. That's fine! I'll have 2023 babies from Indy to choose from, from my own hens.

For 2024, Pen 3 (barn pen) will have [Descendant of Poppa P], Eclipse, Corona, Stella. There is a chance I will sell Corona down the road, in order to keep one of Aris' purple hens from Indy instead.

There's definitely going to be politics about all of this, but I think they'll work out since I'll be moving everyone in the winter when hormones are the lowest.

[kedreeva]

Stan actually let Artemis sleep next to him and she actually wanted to sleep by him for once. Eris only jumped over because I was doing something where she was not the center of attention. Everyone was very unhappy about the lights coming on.

[kedreeva]

Everyone got Valentine's day fruit and scrambled eggs because Sark is making mousse and only needed the yolks. I stole the whites, added the yolk he messed up, and added an extra egg + all the shells (crushed up). I also snuck in a little cheese; traditionally cheese is not great for birds, as they are not mammals and can't really digest it well, but a little bit once in while won't hurt them, and they go absolutely feral for it.

Sasha chased everyone except Truvi away from the pile, and I had to separate some for Stan and Artemis to eat because they're civilized creatures that want their treats given to them in the locations they get treats, not just put on the floor like animals.

[kedreeva]

Truvi has chosen a spot to receive her treats! When I call for treat time, she moves over to the ledge under the big window to wait. I give 1-2 to Eris for using her button to ask for them, then to Stan first, up on his well-behaved-boy perch (where he goes to wait for them), and then toss Truvi’s onto the ledge (she moves away still when I come over, but she’s getting less nervous every day), and then I turn around to put Artemis’ on the cinder blocks (that she goes and stands by to wait), give 1-2 to Eris to keep her up on the button perch, put Lazuli’s in his white bowl (that he goes and stands by to wait) in the middle of the pen, and then end the ritual with putting some on Eris’ button perch. They are SO FUNNY about this. Even before I touch the bag itself, in the evening they all just sort of migrate to the right places. Well trained little gremlins.

[kedreeva]

Aside from the usual feather lice (which they pick up every year from wild birds since they live outside, are getting their fall Ivermectin dose for now that I’ve acquired it, and are fairly harmless to a healthy bird anyway), Truvi, Polaris, and Tori (Sark’s chicken) all got clean bills (beaks?) of health today at the vet when we took them for their first wellness exams to establish baselines. We have to wait a couple of days on the mycoplasma test results (which should be clean but you never know) but then Truvi, Tori, and Tako should be free to join the other birds.

Truvi’s previous owners, on top of being terrible for abandoning her, are also in trouble for not feeding her well; the vet said she showed signs of having been long-term nutritionally deficient, with signs of slow recovery now. There’s nothing really for that, except to just continue to feed her right and keep an eye out for any problems that might evolve from having started wrong. I’m PRETTY sure she’s only around 2 years old given a lot of things I see in her, so hopefully she’ll have a long 15+ years to live well from now on.

Given how truly little most vets know about peafowl, even avian vets, it’s really, really important that folks who have the ability to do so bring their birds to their vet as soon as possible upon arrival so that vets can learn what healthy birds look like and what is normal for that particular bird (also for the sake of their flocks to ensure only clean birds come in). If the vet has nothing to compare a sick bird to, they may not be able to tell how bad a future issue really is, or whether something is normal for an individual. Seeing healthy birds can help others as well, when something goes wrong with their birds. AND last but not least, establishing the birds with a vet can help establish a rapport with the vet, which can potentially help save a lot of money on minor issues you can solve yourself with guidance instead of actual vet visits. It can also catch things early, and everyone knows preventative care is cheaper than emergency care.