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Post by meandem on Apr 15, 2009 9:57:19 GMT 10
First of all I hope you all had a wonderful Easter. Ours was good until..................................................... We were extremely busy over Easter and didn't quite get the time with our birds that we would normally get. On Easter Sunday we found two of our finches dead on the floor of the aviary - if that wasn't bad enough - the very next day we quicky did a check in the aviary (as we had to rush off to work) and bugger me that were another two finches on the floor  So by now we are both into P A N I C mode, thinking there must be something going on in there. In Mick gets and checks around finds a few more finches with heads missing  and then proceeded to check some of the nests. All the cane nests were fine and then when he checked the boxes..............OH MY GOD!!! There were another 8 finches in there with their heads pulled off. So we were really starting to stress now, frantically checking everything. We got to the last nest box and low and behold here is this little mouse/rat like creature in the box. It wasn't a mouse, and it really seem big enough to be a rat. Someone told us that it is some sort of marsupial creature that inhabits our area. Not sure what it is called - that might be a google thingy when I have a bit more time. Anyway I caught the little critter and relocated him out of the aviary. Today no more casualties, but all the birds are coming out of that aviary today and we have a few changes that have to be made. It was devistating in the fact that first of all he killed them, but that fact that he didn't even eat them - he was just storing them up. My heart is broken, my poor little finches.  |
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Post by Robyn on Apr 15, 2009 10:13:41 GMT 10
OMG that was shocking. Lucky you noticed when you did, would have been awful if you went away for Easter goodness knows what you would have come home to.
Fixing the problem will be piece of mind for you both and the birds.
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Karen
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Post by Karen on Apr 15, 2009 10:35:22 GMT 10
oh crap! I can't imagine the horror that must have been finding that!
Do you still have enough to keep the lines going? I mean it's not the end of your finch aviary I hope? Bet it took alot of willpower not to take the critters own head off!
Did you get a pic of the little monster?
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Post by vankarhi on Apr 15, 2009 19:04:59 GMT 10
Geesh Ellen, I was shocked when reading this. You poor thing. |
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Post by sypher on Apr 15, 2009 21:18:50 GMT 10
Oh No Ellen!! Do you have a pic of the culprit? I have never heard of a creature like it. So sorry to hear, Im sure you would have been completley shocked...I dont know what to say..
Shaun
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Post by megzly on Apr 15, 2009 23:04:07 GMT 10
Phascogale? did it have a hairy tail?
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Post by mrsmacka on Apr 16, 2009 7:10:09 GMT 10
I am so sorry to hear of your losses. A met a man last year who we had lent our Californian Quail to for breeding. He had to buy me a replacement as a bush rat got in & took the heads of most of his birds including all his "Callies" so perhaps that is what you have |
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Post by meandem on Apr 16, 2009 8:52:32 GMT 10
It is probably the most horrible thing I have had happen with any of my birds over the years. I can handle accidental deaths (only just), but to find their heads ripped clean from their little bodies was shocking! He had expensive taste - he killed my Pied Cordon male! That has p'd me off more than anything. He was such a little cutie. He also killed, 2 Jacarini's (breeding pair), 2 orange painteds (breeding pair), 2 red painteds (breeding pair), 2 red faced parrot finches (not sure about these, because we left the babies in the aviary this season), 1 hen Melba, 2 spice, 1 female cuthroat, 2 masks and my beautiful white front gouldian with orange head (the one with the chest like "Arni" and also killed one of his babies. Sorry no pics of the little critter, I was more interested in getting rid of the little.........umm......I am trying to think of a nice word...........pest. It didn't have a hairy tail, but it was a fat little thing (maybe because it had eaten some bits of my birds - who knows), but it had fairly big ears and a long snout. Mrsmacka, I had a look at the bush rat on google, and it isn't one of those. Mick did a bit of surfing and from what we can "google" it appears to be something like a dunnart. I had never heard of them before, but looking at the pictures of these little critters, that is what it appears to be. It will not stop us having the finch aviary, it just means that we are going to have to make a few changes. Yesterday after I finished work (lucky I only had one cabin to clean), I spent most of the afternoon in the finch aviary - with the wonderful help from my son, I love school holidays  and we caught most of the finches. We had to leave the long tails in there because they have three babes in the nest. All the neophemas are still in there - lucky he didn't chow down on them! Now all my poor little finches are in holding cages - crammed in like sardines. Mick has just about finished making a warming box for winter for the finches, it is a lot roomier and they will have room to fly around in it. It is going into the bird room so they keep out of harms way and of course a little warmer! :'(I am sorry to grizzle to you all, but I was just so devistated, and because you are all "birdies" you know how lousy I must feel. There has been a lot of bad come out of this, but I have to look on the positive too, we caught the little...........umm........here I go again..........pest.............and he is no longer terrorising my finches. |
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Post by madaussie on Apr 16, 2009 9:04:53 GMT 10
Oh sugar that reaily sux i would have umm yer the little so and so .
j
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Post by meandem on Apr 16, 2009 9:11:25 GMT 10
That really wasn't quite the words that Mick used |
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Karen
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Post by Karen on Apr 16, 2009 10:54:57 GMT 10
I couldn't imagine how mad with the little pest I'd be if that ever happened. I mean, if the mongrel was going to eat the birds is one thing, but to just kill all those birds and leave them there is such a waste! Just when you'd gotten your aviary set too with all the little beauties. |
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Karen
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Post by Karen on Apr 16, 2009 11:00:21 GMT 10
Scroll halfway down on right side is a list of Aussie Marsupials - might list the blighter there: australian-animals.net/ |
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Post by Laraine on Apr 16, 2009 11:57:11 GMT 10
Oh dear that is so sad. Poor little finches. How did this creature get in, does it dig? |
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Post by meandem on Apr 16, 2009 16:08:30 GMT 10
Oh dear that is so sad. Poor little finches. How did this creature get in, does it dig? Yes he did dig, Mick found evidence of a hole 2 days prior, but he filled it in thinking it was only mice. He filled the hole is so good that the little blighter couldn't get back out again, and from the looks of what went on, he really wasn't even interested in getting back out. For him it was like dining at Sizzlers. If only when Mick had found the hole and thought it might be more than a mouse, he would have checked, but it was really the last thing that we would have expected. I guess, we live and learn! Karen, it did look a little like the bandicoot, but it was between the size of a tomato and an orange, I thought bandicoots were a little bigger than that? I'm no wildlife expert, and there seems to be so many different types of these little critters. For all the years we have visited here, and now for almost four years that we have lived here, it is the first time that we have even seen anything like it.  |
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Karen
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Post by Karen on Apr 16, 2009 21:02:44 GMT 10
Maybe if you hadn't seen one before it might not belong there and might have been dumped or stowed away?
Phascogale are really small and eat birds according to the info on that site but are not native to your area.
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Post by meandem on Apr 17, 2009 8:29:30 GMT 10
Yes I did look at that site that you told me to go to, (and I had a look at a few other things whilst I was there thankyou  ) and it certainly did look a bit like one of those, but as you say they are not native to this area. We have been talking to a few locals in our area (that have birds) and a few of them have had this problem with the same critter. I wish that had of told me about him before  No more deaths in there today and I think the stress factor maybe gone. As I said, they are all in the bird room now, Mick was frantically working away last night after work to get that "winter box" ready. Today we should be able to get them all sorted out. I have moved my budgies into the finch aviary, so they are happily flying around with all the neophemas. I think I might leave them there for the winter, it is a big aviary for them to enjoy and fly around in. The worst part is, I have to go away tonight for three days and I won't be home to keep on eye on my birdies. Mick will be here, but he has to work all weekend, but I am sure he will be vigilant this time around. |
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Post by vankarhi on Apr 21, 2009 20:16:02 GMT 10
so where did you go Ellen and are you back yet??? How did the birdies fair???
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Post by meandem on Apr 23, 2009 9:23:50 GMT 10
I'm back I was babysitting my mum (she had an operation), I was away for five days, and I am still wishing I was there with her, but I had to come back to work. We have lost only two more finches, but I am thinking a lot of that had to do with stress. Catching them all out of the aviary and then putting them into these holding cages is never a good thing. Everyone else (the other 150 birds) seems to be OK. I missed all my birds terribly and I couldn't wait to get home and cuddle my Pickles and Cherry (the two baby eckies). They looked to have grown so much, and they were so excited to see me. I fed the wild king parrots yesterday just after I got home and they were chattering so much, it was like a tupperware party! I had twelve of them all over me, my arms now look like I have been through a blackberry bush! You will be all happy to know that I only bought one bird while I was away! I was to busy looking after mum! |
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Post by Laraine on Apr 23, 2009 13:02:56 GMT 10
Glad you're back and everything seems just about normal. What did you buy?
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Post by sypher on Apr 23, 2009 18:31:35 GMT 10
Good to have you back Ellen  Do you really have wild king parrots land on you at your place? Shaun |
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and we caught most of the finches. We had to leave the long tails in there because they have three babes in the nest. All the neophemas are still in there - lucky he didn't chow down on them!
) and it certainly did look a bit like one of those, but as you say they are not native to this area. We have been talking to a few locals in our area (that have birds) and a few of them have had this problem with the same critter. I wish that had of told me about him before 
No more deaths in there today and I think the stress factor maybe gone. As I said, they are all in the bird room now, Mick was frantically working away last night after work to get that "winter box" ready. Today we should be able to get them all sorted out.
Do you really have wild king parrots land on you at your place?