DaVinia (formerly called DaVinci) progress photos

Many of us have been following Davinia's maturity and color changes for the past 3 years, and we all wondered - will "his" beak ever turn the bright orange that will confirm that "he" is a boy.

Maturity of a Moustache Parrot

 

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Well, it's been 3 years and other than the yellow/orange dot that began at about 1 yrs old, and although it has gotten a little bigger, is still just a dot and the rest of the beak is black.

She is 3 yrs old now and after perusing many pictures have finally come to the decision - DaVinci is a girl, and therefore I have changed her name to DaVinia.

 

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DaVinia seems to like when I call her pretty girl. (Probably saying finally Mommy has figured it out.)

She also says "My name is DaVin?" She would never say DaVinci. It would be DaVin? with sort of a question mark at the end.

 

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So here are some pictures of progression:

 

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At 13 wks old - DaVinia's 1st morning with us. Note the orange tint to the beak. I believe they all have this orange tint when young. Then it either gets full orange if a male or becomes all black if a female. As she got older this orange did disappear.

 

Her first cage in NY and the first cage she was ever in.

 

 

DaVinia's 1st computer lesson, and Mommy's first lesson that her beak is no good for the keyboard. LOL

 

 

Here she is a little older. Notice that she has lost any red in her beak now.

This is her first play gym.

 

DaVinia's cage in PA

 

 

 

DaVinia at 1 yrs old - May 2011 - Just getting some coral color to her chest - note on the left side of the picture - side of her chest - ONE coral feather, and notice the orange/yellow dot that has started on the end of her beak. Yes, she has a plucking habit, which is behavioral.

A few months later - Aug 2011 - More coral on the chest, and more orange to the end of her beak.

Sep 2011 - She seems to let a bit of her feathers and a bit of her tail grow in each September.

Sep 2012 - Now 2 yrs old:

 

 

Jul/Aug 2013 - now 3 yrs old:

Note how much more green has come in to her face at 3.

 

Also notice the coral on the side of the face that comes up between the black marking and the green in the back of the head. From what I have seen the male's coral under the chin stops at the black -

 the black meets the green on the side of the head.

 

 

DaVinia also comes to work with me sometimes on Fridays.

She is friendly but skittish. She seems to like women more than men.

 

Hope you have enjoyed our journey so far.

Diana and DaVinia (aka DaVinci, aka DaVin')

Gianna and DaVinci sitting in a tree...

... you know the rest. :-)

Gianna has been obsessed with DaVinci, my moustache parrot, since I got him in August.
I have watched them interact with much trepidation, but I do think they are working it out, and actually really like each other.

In the morning, I open DaVinci's cage and let him come out on his own. Gianna sits right there and waits for him to come out.

I usually know when he is out sitting on the top of his cage door because she barks to tell me.

Sometimes DaVinci goes down to the bottom of the door and they greet each other.

Here they are saying good morning to each other.

DaVinci loves their toy basket, but Gianna is not so sure about sharing her toys. She gets a little excited when he does this, she paws him, and goes to bite his tail, or his head. I tell her to try to relax, and watch like a hawk.

OK, where'd he go?

Gianna has becone a great baby sitter for DaVinci.

DaVinci gets a new toy for Christmas

...and Mommy gets a new video camera. Uh-oh.

Does he hate or love the toy?:

DaVinci Gets a Play Gym

DaVinci thinks this play gym was for him to enjoy,

but it is really so I can have a break while he is out of his cage,

and it is working out pretty well so far.

Here he is exploring his play gym:Hmmmm.... These look like steps.

How am I doing?

It has a toy too?

He really likes it best right up on top, especially when Mommy hand feeds him treats like this dried banana. Already a spoiled boy.

DaVinci also LOVES his fruit. He gets fruit every morning.

Here is a short video of him eatting the fruit before I even finish filling the dish.

He loves watermellon.

You can see his eyes flashing as he eats the watermellon.

Alice explained that they do this when they are excited.

On the weekends I make DaVinci some warm breakfast.

This is an organic couscous with mango, carrots, coconut and other things.

You can see his eyes really flashing when he finds the raison.

I call it flashing when the pupils in their eyes go from big to tiny and big again.

Take a look when he finds that raison. Oh my! Hee hee.

IS IT A DINOSAUR OR A BIRD?...

My husband and I have been looking for a Moustache Parrot ever since we saw one on last month's PetJubilee photo contest. A breeder seems to be hard to find, but last night on a whim I called the store I had bought Sinbad, and they had one 12 week old baby, and now he is mine.

He doesn't have all his coloring yet, nor all of his feathers. He is bigger than I thought.

But the funniest thing is his blue feet. It is hard to see that he has blue feet, but they are a powder blue.

We don't know if he is a boy or a girl yet, but the store owner says that because she does see the beak getting lighter, she thinks he is a boy. Her girls have a black beak, and the boys have a bright red beak.

He was scared in the store and kept biting. I tried to calm him by whispering his name - Lorenzo - bite, Santino - bite, Leonardo - bite, Santana - bite, Gaetano - bite.

All of a sudden another name came into my head - DaVinci - and he stopped biting and looked up. LOL So he is called DaVinci. Maybe some day he will even tell me, as they can learn to talk.

He is a big boy - bigger than I expected. He reminds me of those baby Teradactyls, the dinoaurs that look like birds.

He has never been in a cage before - so this was new, and he caught on pretty quickly. And he already has lots of toys.

Here is his first morning out with mommy.

Here is his first computer lesson.

Maybe he can take care of all of that paperwork.

I'm sure there will be many more pictures to come.

Sinbad 7/4/91 - 6/27/10

Sinbad, a Sun Conure parrot, was born in July 1991. A few months later, in October, my birthday gift from my husband would be a bird, our first pet together. We lived in a rented condo apartment and they did not allow any other animals, only birds.
So we went to “For Birds Only”, and they had individual large pens with all of these different baby birds running around inside the pen.

I was initially there for a Cockatiel.
When I put my hand in the Cockatiel pen they were very skittish and flitted away, which is understandable. In the very next pen were these baby parrots. When I put my hand in, they were not as skittish, but moved to the corner. All except for one. He remained on his little perch, and when I put my finger out he stepped onto my finger. I know we say that sometimes the animals pick you, and I believe that is exactly what he did.

He was a funny looking guy all speckled green, yellow and orange, but they had 2 breeding adults there, and I saw what a beauty he would become, and he did. Most of the green was placed with bright orange and yellow.

They neglected to tell me that Sun Conures like to scream, and scream he did. We almost got evicted from our apartment. But we then bought our own condo, and a nice big cage for him, and the screaming decreased a bit.

He hated men, esp. my husband. He also thought I was his woman, so my husband was not allowed near me when he was out.

He loved to take a shower by hanging upside down under the faucet, and almost every morning he would come in the bathroom with me while I showered, and we would dance to the music. He loved Salsa and Latin beats especially, and he loved to dance. He was actually quite a good dancer, much better than me.

Well he would have been 19 in just a week’s time, and I guess you would say he lived a healthy, happy and long life, but I guess his time had come. He was never sick a day in his life, but just suddenly got ill. I rushed him to the emergency but after 2 days, he got worse. I have never had to make a decision of putting a pet to sleep before, and it was tough, but I know it was the right thing.

He was my baby as well as my friend, and I will miss him.

God put him on this earth, and I do believe He has a place for him now, where he is flying freely.

Rest in peace Sinbad. You will be in my heart forever.

Sinbad Beats the Heat his way...

Sinbad is a Sun Conure parrot. This is the way he likes to "beat the heat".

He was trying so hard to figure out how to hang upside down for his bath. He even used the little soap dispenser nozzle to hold on to. After these pictures were taken I put a bandaid on the faucet to help him to hold on.