just joined after going through all 41 pages of this soap opera of epicness. who new that birds could be this interesting
Well, thank you for that. 
And we have the second egg, right on schedule! Little Sophie. Sunday afternoon and Ladyboy laid it right in front of us. I was cleaning the balcony when the wife noticed Ladyboy pivoting her tail up and down in the nest. And it looked like she was trying to push. The next thing we know, there’s a second egg suddenly. That’s the second time she’s laid it in front of me but the first time the wife saw it. Both eggs seem okay.
Stay tuned for August 24. Will try to post a few more photos soon.
I didn’t know you’d ever seen either Ladybody or Little Pidgee actually lay an egg. That’s kind of cool.
Yeah, one time. It’s in one of the posts in the last year or so. She was sort of raised up, and the egg just sort of plopped out. This past Sunday we didn’t actually see the egg come out, she was closer down, but it did appear suddenly.
Now they’ve settled into the usual routine of egg sitting. We’ll be watching this next pair extra closely.
double post How’d that happen?
An extra white one showed up last night! We were sure it must be one of ours but not sure who it was. After carefully comparing its markings with the photo page on Flickr, we think it must have been Patrick, who left two months ago. He’s the second one we took to the vet, back in April. Dunno where he’s been or why he even left in the first place, but we’re pretty sure it’s Patrick. Five months old next Tuesday. We’ll see if he shows back up tonight. (Although now we’re thinking Patrick’s a girl.)
Does Patrick seem healthy, no bumps or lumps?
Patrick’s immune to the virus now. We took him to the doctor in April when he developed pustules. The vet said if a pidgee doesn’t die from it, then it’s immune from then on. (And without treatment, it will die.) It’s Thursday night now, and Patrick (or whoever, but we really think it’s Patrick) is back. Second night. Wonder where he or she’s been these past couple of months.
Tuesday night and it’s been a day of high drama. And I’m not talking about the recent bomb attacks in Bangkok.
Ladyboy fell ill yesterday. 
Suddenly she stopped sitting on the eggs and began mostly moping around in the corner and perched up in the window. Sleeping a lot. Uh-oh. Well, can’t be the virus, because even if she’s a carrier, she’d have died from it a long time ago if it were going to affect her. This morning she seemed just as bad if not worse. (Dad’s been minding the eggs in the meantime.)
So I went quietly out onto the balcony and caught her. She did try to flee but was just sluggish enough that I was able to grab her. Another bad sign is she started dripping what looked like mucus from her bill. Into the shoebox and off to the vet.
The vet took a throat culture and said a protozoan was the culprit. She said Ladyboy’s getting old now, and with her age and her trouble with the eggs last month (we told her about that), her immune system is probably compromised to some degree, leaving her prone to this. So the vet and an assistant cleaned out a bunch of mucusy globs from her gullet. They couldn’t get it all, because Ladyboy started bleeding a little, so they had to stop, but they said they got most of it. The globs had been blocking her up. Then she got two injections of I don’t know what, we got a bunch of medicine, and then back home we went. Smuggled her back into the building.
However, we have to keep giving her medicine, so now Ladyboy is our captive in that carrier we bought earlier this year. Dad’s watching the eggs, which are due to start hatching in another week. But Ladyboy needs the medicine for 10 days. She’s not supposed to feed any squabs until she’s better.
We also got some powdered stuff to mix into a gruel with some water and feed her. The vet said due to the throat swab and cleaning out the gunk, she’d probably hurt too much to eat birdseed. However, she did start eating some seed we put in the carrier in a little container, so maybe she’ll be okay with that. We’ll still try to feed her the gruel, three times a day. But there are also four medicines – one once day and three twice a day.
So what a development! The poor girl dos NOT like this, as you can imagine. The Bully seems a little freaked about his sweetie. But I guess if we want her to live, we have to do this. And I have to say she seemed to be a lot better after we came home.
There’s gotta be some drug that will prevent her from being “with egg” again.
Unfortunately, we forgot to ask the vet about that. She said to bring Ladyboy back next week if she’s not better, but I hope we don’t have to. But if we do, then we’ll be sure to ask.
Giving her the medicines is not so bad, but man, that gruel! It’s baby-bird food, replicates the stuff the squabs get. The servings are large, 5-10ml per session given with a large syringe, and quite a bit ends up outside her mouth. The vet said it’s okay if she can eat regular birdseed, and she is eating it some, so we’re going to test giving the gruel twice a day instead of three and see if she can make up the difference with birdseed. The wife and I cannot both be here for all three, and while I can handle the medicines alone, with their smaller syringes, this gruel is definitely a two-person job.
Poor Ladyboy. She’s probably thinking her worst nightmare has come true, the monsters have finally come to get her. We give Ladyboy her treatment here inside the condo, and I have to say it’s cute watching The Bully peering into the empty carrier trying to figure out where his sweetie has gone.
I am pleased to report that Ladyboy is responding well to treatment. She’s even starting to eat more birdseed again, but we’re still hand-feeding her the gruel. She’s still not eating that much seed, her throat is probably still sore from the procedure at the vet’s on Tuesday. But she seems more alert, wiggly when we first take her out of the carrier. There was a sort of rasping sound when she breathed, particularly after we fed her, that seems to be getting better.
As much as Ladyboy hates being locked up, it’s positively heartbreaking to watch The Bully pine away. He seems devastated. We keep the carrier out on the balcony, and he spends all his time standing by it, mooning in at her. Sometimes he’ll start cooing for her. Occasionally he’ll start doing his angry coo and angry dance, as if demanding she come out of there this minute. He sleeps on top of the carrier for much of the night. He really, really wants his sweetie back.
Unfortunately, The Bully has completely abandoned the eggs. Will they still hatch next week? And what happens if they hatch, and The Bully still blows them off to moon over his incarcerated sweetie? That’s a worry. We’re supposed to keep giving Ladyboy treatments through Friday of next week and release her the following morning. (I guess we could release her that evening, but I don’t want her flying off into the dark out of fright. Better to wait until the following morning.) If the squabs hatch and can’t get care, we’re thinking of releasing Ladyboy early. It’ll be a full week of treatments, and maybe that will be enough. We don’t want to try feeding squabs again, we still remember the disaster with Bob six years ago.
I just want to say how fine it is that you care for the pidgees this way. You and your wife obviously have a lot of heart.
Thanks, but I don’t think Ladyboy or The Bully share that sentiment right now. It’s just before 6am here, and he’s out there cooing for his sweeties.
Just a few photos. We were away for much of poor Herman’s short life.
Here he is with Dad at three days old, on July 5. You can’t really tell here, but his eyes are open, just opened that day. Same day, snoozing.
That was the day before we flew up to the North. We returned on the 20th and found Herman looking like this, although this is the next day, July 21, at 19 days old. That’s him in front, with Mama.
And this is the last photo taken of Herman, age 29 days on July 31. He fell ill a week later and died suddenly on August 8 at age 37 days. 
He was a real cutie (and may have been a girl).
All the photos are on one page here.
And speaking of ill, this was taken last night (Saturday night): The Bully guarding his sweetie, who is in the carrier under quarantine.
And speaking of Ladyboy and her quarantine, we’ve come to a decision, and that is to release her a few days early on Wednesday morning if she continues to appear healthy. she’s seems perfectly fine now. Eating more birdseed, even trying to jump up and try to escape by bumping into the ceiling, which she knows is the door. smart girl. The Bully is going crazy with grief, cooing his head off at her all day long. The vet said 10 days, but Wednesday will make a full week, and I think we’re just going to have to take a chance and see if that’s enough. If she falls ill again, we’ll take her back to the vet and go the length on her treatment, but really, she seems recovered now. She’ll receive medicine for two more days. (And of course, if the eggs start hatching, we’ll have to let her out earlier still.)
Well, I let Ladyboy go even earlier. Yesterday morning (Monday morning). She was trying so hard to break out that she was in danger of injuring herself. She did manage to draw a little blood, I think from trying to “chew” on the slats on the side. So we decided she must be feeling well enough. Now she’s eating and drinking like normal, flying. Seems a little dotty though. But the vet acknowledged she is getting old and said she would probably have more problems with eggs (we told the vet about last months egg-laying problem). Poor old girl. The Bully is happy to have his sweetie back.
The present eggs are showing no signs of hatching, and I hope they don’t. Neither parent is showing the slightest interest in them anymore. Ladyboy stopped paying attention to them a day before we took her to the vet, The Bully after he became concerned about his sweetie.
Three-month-old Gary has stopped coming here at night. Been gone a few nights now. So it’s just Patrick (five months old) and Lydia (four months) left now.
This page talks about something called Diazacon oral contraceptive for birds. But the bird must eat it every day.
This site says to swap the eggs with dummies made of wood, and tells how to do it. But those wouldn’t stop her from laying them, or trying to.
Interesting. I wonder if we can find Diazacon here.
Saturday morning and I think it’s safe to say by now that the eggs are not going to hatch. Thank goodness, because we’d have to hand-raise them ourselves. I moved them to the flower box a couple of days ago, and The Bully immediately reoccupied the tree pot. He was clearly just waiting for them to be gone. I’ll dispose of them today.
Ladyboy seems to have recovered nicely. The couple are even acting sweet with each other again, complete with come-hither wing twitches on the part of both. But she seems a little off, just a little … dotty, for lack of a better word. I think she’s just old. We haven’t seen them have sex again yet, although we can’t rule out their having it when we’re not looking. But Ladyboy may be getting too old for eggs now.
Meanwhile, wherever Gary went off to, we know he’s okay, because he stopped by for a visit the other day in the daytime. Still not here at night, so he’s found a place somewhere.