Pissed as a Parrrot

This lorikeet got brought into the vet's this morning.



It seems he (or she) is a bit intoxicated, or at least that's the vet's diagnosis. Just how it got drunk we don't know. I personally think it's a myth that fruit falls off trees, ferments on the ground and gets animals pissed when they eat it. After a couple of days in the sun the fruit would most likely dry out rather than ferment.

With wild birds like lorikeets though, a lot of people, ourselves included, put out food for them. As lorikeets are nectivores, the food put out for them is usually a very sweet, watery mix. Normally you would put out just enough for them to eat in one afternoon, but if someone put out a whole heap that lasted a few days, then it's quite possible it would start to ferment. I'm sure it wouldn't take much to get a bird as small as a lori pissed.



When Donna got this one home and put it in the big cage its in here, it just grabbed the bars at the top of the cage and hung there with its legs dangling. After a couple of minutes it had moved down to the perch in these pictures.

The main reason it looks such a mess is it's rolled around in its food. I'm not sure if lorikeets get into fights, tell everyone they love them and throw up all over themselves when they get drunk, but I can imagine it. They're very gregarious birds.

Anyway, if this one survives the hangover, or the alcohol doesn't poison it, it'll be released soon. Either that or it'll be introduced to a few other lorikeets and released with them. It all depends on its age.

Either way, I hope it's learned it lesson. I doubt it though, I never do. There's a rum and coke at my elbow right now.

All quiet

It's very quiet here now as far as animals are concerned.

We only have Lucky to look after now and all he does is come out of his drey at night to eat and explore. We had a female brushtail, about twice Lucky's size, sitting in one of our trees the other night, making croaking sounds. I assume she could smell Lucky and was getting a bit territorial. Lucky completely ignored her.



You can barely see where he'd lost his fur now it's nearly all grown back.

We've had word back regarding Mogwai. The carer looking after him can't touch him as he won't let her. That's a good thing, it means he's getting more feral, and he didn't get too domesticated when he was with us. He'll be with the new carer for a couple more weeks while he gets bigger. He's already getting a female visitor apparently. I'm not surprised, he's a good looking boy.

This is what it's all about

This is a rainbow lorikeet where it belongs, in the wild, well in our backyard actually, but you know what I mean.



We picked him up from the vet surgery where Donna works on Friday afternoon. We'd been told he was malnourished. A quick look at him made me think he wasn't malnourished, but he was definitely feeling sorry for himself. His beak was a bit darker than normal and we wondered if he'd eaten something he shouldn't have.

We took him home gave him some lori mix, water and a couple of native flowers, covered the cage and left him alone.


The intention was to pass him on to another carer when we took Mogwai over to be passed on. That day was today, and while we were getting ready the bird seemed really antsy and active. He'd had plenty to eat and certainly didn't look ill anymore, so we took the cage outside, opened the door, and let him do his thing. Once he got into the tree, he had a look around, got his bearings, then he was off. Our first release. I know we hadn't had him long, but it still counts, and he probably would have been eaten by a cat the way he was when we picked him up.

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So now we only have one wild animal to look after. Mogwai looked a bit overawed when we opened his box at Natasja's place, who are all these people?

By now he'll be at Mt Tamborine near the Gold Coast in an even bigger aviary than he was with us. He'll spend a few more weeks there, fattening up on the local cuisine, then he'll be allowed to get out of the aviary and go and explore in the evenings until he decides to stay away.

Goobye and Good Luck Mogwai

Tomorrow the 11/11/07 Mogwai our possum in the pocket that is in the photo moves on to new carers for his soft release at Mount Tamborine. Sad but great for him we have been told that a few ladies have been released lately on that site so hopefully he will find some company and there will be lots of new little mogwais out there late next year. I went into his cage tonight for a final goodbye and got lots of kisses and a hug and a scratched lip, will miss him heaps.

Farewell my big boy do well in the wild.

Moving

Lucky moved into an aviary on the weekend.

He's got to the stage where he's recovered enough from his dermatitis and the stress of the Vetadine washes that he could be moved.





We kept and eye on him to make sure he wasn't stressing out, hence the pic of Donna holding the bowl up for him. Later on, Donna got in the aviary with him to check on him and he showed his appreciation by biting her and peeing down her back... twice.

All he needs now is to put on a bit more weight and get a bit more feral, and he'll be ready for release in a few weeks.

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We had another bird come into care on Sunday. BARN's rescue line got a call about a baby magpie that had been injured and there was no-one else in the area that could go and pick it up. Being a Sunday afternoon we'd already had a drink, so the person that had rung up was called back and they agreed to drop the magpie off at our place.

When it first arrived and I looked in the box, my first thought was that it wasn't a magpie. The colouring was wrong, it was too small and the beak was the wrong shape. That's no surprise though. BARN often get calls from people that have found injured owls that turn out to be tawny frogmouths. You can't expect people that aren't as interested in animals as we are to know everything about them. A bird is a bird.

Anyway, the bird had been attacked by other birds and had a lot of blood on its head and both eyes were closed. Our past experience with birds led us to think this one wasn't going to see the night through. That was Sunday, tonight is Wednesday, and as I sit in front of the tele watching House and typing this, the bird is still alive. The trouble is, she might well survive, but if she's blind she can't be released back into the wild she has to be euthenased, that's not only the law, it's the kindest thing for the bird in the long run.

Have I mentioned before that being a carer can be a bit frustrating? I still reckon it's rewarding though. There's something about tapping the side of the basket the bird is in, knowing it's going to think mum's arrived with food, then shoving grub down its gob before it realises it's you.

Possum heaven is getting crowded

It must be with all the ringtails that have gone there recently.

I wrote last week that Rusty died. On Sunday we picked up two more ringtails to keep Rufus company. They were a male and a female, Linus and Lucy.

Rufus was a bit overwhelmed when he was first introduced to them, but he'd settled down a bit by the time we went to bed. The three of them were all snuggled up together in a cute little bundle.

The next morning Donna got up to check on them and Rufus had died in the night, most likely from the stress of meeting the other two.

We'd been having a bit of trouble getting Lucy to feed, but were told she wouldn't feed while being handled, unlike the others. So we moved Linus and Lucy to a bigger carrier and put a small container of Divetelact and some foliage in with them. The bigger carrier was so they had some more room for the food and wouldn't knock it over.

The morning after Donna had found Rufus dead, she went downstairs to check on Linus and Lucy, and Lucy had died. To make things worse, Linus was almost dead from the stress of losing Lucy. He didn't make it through the day.

From the smell of her urine, we're pretty sure Lucy had bloat, and possibly thrush as well. Something Natasja (our co-ordinator and previous carer of Linus and Lucy) said she wouldn't have got in the short time she was with us. Bloat in possums is similar to bloat in horses, in that the food they eat isn't digested properly and it ferments in the gut. It usually comes about in young possums because their gut flora (bacteria) hasn't developed enough yet. It's the reason a lot of carers feed young possums yoghurt to start off with.

It's disheartening having every ringtail we've cared for die on us, that makes six so far. There's been a lot of self analysis going on this week, trying to work out if it's something we're doing wrong. We're definitely much more aware of things to look out for now, not only with the ringtails, but also the brushtails after Lucky's bout of dermatitis

Speaking of Lucky, I looked in his cage yesterday evening and he came up to me and licked me on the nose. Apart from the fact that his hair is much shorter in places, he's pretty much back to the Lucky he was three months ago.

With the failures come the successes, and it's nice to know that in a few months there'll be a couple of brushtails back in the wild where they belong because of us.