bird blogging

My Congo African grey parrot, Kianga, is sitting on two eggs.

She laid the first egg on March 21, the second on March 26. Though they aren't fertile, she's tending them very conscientiously, though she did crush the first one a little, and it has dried out a bit. She is getting to the stage now in her brooding where she doesn't even want to get off the nest to eat or drink, so I have to feed her specially. Right now, she isn't really interested in eating much of anything except warmed frozen corn or soak-and-cook (a mixture of rice, split peas, nuts, and dried fruit, cooked up together into a cereal) mixed with peanut butter.

This is the second time in her 15 years that she has laid eggs, the first time was in 2003. I figure she has about another two weeks before she gets over he broodiness and starts acting like herself again, eating her nutriberries, sleeping on her perch, and making rude noises at us. In the meantime, I'm going to be worrying over her, fussing over what and how much she's eating, though I think she's eating more than last time, and she was fine then, though she did slim down an awful lot.

She still has the energy, just before bedtime, to climb up to the top of her cage, hang upside down, and flap her wings furiously, so I take it as a sign that she's doing OK.

I got her when she was 6 1/2 weeks old and not even fully feathered or weaned, and she just turned 15 on March 31st, so yes, I'm sort of attached to her.