Batman Wannabe

A friend's Jambul (nick named "many sound"):




Chiku, the great escape artist:



Just love them when they are displaying.

Bird-sitting Jambuls

For the past week or more, have been "bird-sitting" the 2 Jambuls below. Will try to compete the one in the foreground in the coming competition in Batu Pahat on 2nd Aug. The one in the background is an interesting bird with many tones. I think he will look better in a square cage and Chiku (my Jambul) in the tall cage. Will swap their cages and see the response ;)

Mata Puteh

The following is a video of one of my remaining two Mata Puteh. These tiny birds would rank among the most difficult birds to keep (to me at least) due to the small cups and cages that comes standard with keeping them. The video below shows a full recovery (I hope) after the bird (all two of them) becomes fluffy during one of my extended vacation.



Now my practice before going on extended leave is to provide 3 cups & 1 tube of water, 2 cups of dry food amd 1 big slice of fruit. So far, it appears to be sufficient unless the birds changed their habits.

In the background, a recording of nature sound is playing, Apollo 6 is singing and Pikat, my Jambul is making some noise (recorded at night, close to midnight actually)

Chiku, the escape artist

Male Chicken with female colouring pt2

Too early to say whether this chicken will ever made the grades to become a good pikat. Will let him roam free for the moment until the neighbour complains hahaha!

Called the henny feathering mutation, it causes roosters to develop female feathering morphology as a result of increased conversion of androgen to estrogen.

Male Chicken with female colouring

The above are pictures of the latest addition to my flock of chickens.
The earlier 4 Red Jungle Fowl (RJF) babies are quite big already and I think is of suitable age to be released in the jungle. They are on the tame side though, so unlike my Green Jungle Fowl.

Anyway, back to the above chicken, ah! this is one that I could keep with peace of mind as it does not resemble the RJF, so there is no issue of keeping protested animals involved. At least I do not have to argue that it is not the original, one look and they will know for sure. Rumours has it that some of these female feathered chickens could make very good "pikat" to catch the wild chickens. There could possibly be some logic to it as the wild chickens will tend to be less intimidated by a female looking chicken but at the same time agitated by its male crowing sound. Maybe they would find that irresistible to explore ;)

Don't know what to do with him at the moment. Just let him roam free until the neighbours complain I suppose hehehe!

Testing New Food

Meanwhile, while Apollo 6's diet is being changed, I have been given 2 new compound to test out ;)

Jambul food that was bought in Thailand. It appears to have some chillies as part of the ingredient.



Dried and powdered grasshoppers:

Changing Food - Trial on Apollo 6

Was introduced to a different kind of diet and the only way to verify it is to test it. I will run a trial on one bird only this time. Below is Apollo 6 before starting the new diet. I video him in the garden around 6 p.m.

Will update here after Apollo 6 has started this new diet, molted and post a similar video for comparison. Hope I will be able to accomplish this and document it for future reference.

Green Singing Finch

Also popularly called the Rock Canary. Found this fella in a shop singing away happily so I felt compelled to bring him home. Appears to have a long song. Am quite sure his vocal (loudness) would further improve over time. The only finch in my collection at the moment.

Herbs for the Zebra Doves

Last Sunday, I acquired a pair of "black" Merboks from the competition ground, the variety that is darker in colour and have stripes across their chest. Actually was just looking at them and enquired about their prices. No deal was made.

On my way home, the seller manage to call me. He got my number from some friends who were still there. Deal was clinched over the phone and a good friend paid on my behalf and took the birds home. To cut a story short, on the second day, I noticed one of them is extremely tame, feather fluffy and inactive. I contacted a friend who operates a bird shop (come to think of it, I regard all bird shop keepers as friends hehehe!) and he so kindly showed me what herbs to give the sick bird. I do not know of any other name for the herbs, but in Chinese it is called "Chuan Xing Nian" or something like that (hey! I don't learn Hanyu Pinyin in school)

The below is a sample which I have planted at home:


According to the shop keeper, this herbs work wonders. He is very sure I would get a good response the very next day. He told me to feed 2 or 3 leaves. However, I fed only 1 leave (as its too big - 1 can make into 2 mung beans size pellet). I do think it is effective as the bird seems to look better the following day and I gave him another dose. On the 3rd and 4th day, I supplemented with a dose of commercially prepared herbs from Indonesia (brand: Larasati) for good measure.

Glad to report that the bird seems to be recovering well. The bird is fully covered for the whole treatment duration as it is quite windy these few days.

The other "black merbok" sprang a surprise yesterday. I normally put a merbok in a "jebak" trap so that I can thoroughly clean its cage. When I placed this new bird into a jebak, he hungrily ate the canary seeds inside and started singing (if you can call the doves' call a song hahaha!).

Not bad, first day in a jebak and he sings. Could be my future super "pikat". ;)

HERBS FOR THE OWNER

Well, since I am learning about herbal remedies for birds, I might as well expand my scope to cover myself. I am trying out the plant below. Don't know its name. Its a thorny plant with broad leaves. The leaves are plucked and dried in the sun. I drink it like Chinese Tea. It makes a nice tasting bitter tea. Suppose to improve vitality, detox and helps as a catalyst when combined with certain herbs. I mix it with some herbs I bought from traditional medicine shops (harvested from wild plants that grows in high altitude areas like Cameron Highland).
So far, am enjoying the tea. Whether it makes any health difference is another matter hehehe! Considered a bonus if it improves health and vitality ;)

Below is sapling of the plant. It could grow into a tall bush when allowed: