Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Spray, Spray, and More Spray
By Blake Ma
Blake enjoys working with lovebirds and has a passion for exhibiting and breeding them
Click image to enlarge
Kahlua and Bailey, the black-cheeked lovebird babies, on February 22, 2007. |
Serenade on February 22, 2007. |
The 10 babies going through the weaning process on February 22, 2007. |
The majority of lovebird shows are generally in the fall, but there are some scattered throughout the year. The next show I’ll be attending is March 17, 2007, at the Chicagoland Family Pet Expo. It’s still a month away, but now is the time to start preparing all the adult and weaned birds! I have started spraying all my adult birds with water everyday.
Spraying water on the bird encourages the bird to preen itself, clean its feathers and fix any feathers that might be out of place. At the moment, I’m spraying my birds with room temperature water and will switch to colder water starting two weeks before the show. The colder water will tighten the bird’s feathers and put the birds in better show condition so they won’t look loose and fluffy.
It’s funny because most of my birds really enjoy the water and come out to perch in front of me when they see me with the water bottle. There are always a couple birds, however, that hides behind their toys and make it difficult for me to mist them. One of the challenges of showing so early in the year is that the birds could be going through a molt, which means loose feathers and new feathers coming in. Birds going through a molt will not be in top-notch feather condition, which is something the spraying process helps with.
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