Sick as a chick...

Unfortunately, one of our little Aracauna became sickly yesterday and went downhill very quickly. LaVaughn made some gruel out of chick feed and warm water and tried to get her to eat that. The first couple times were successful, but her health just kept decreasing. I honestly thought she was a goner around 4 this morning, but kept hanging on.

When I woke up a little while ago, I was sure I was going to find a dead baby chick. To my surprise, she was still with us! I sat down next to her box and got her out. She's still very, very weak, but seems to be keeping her eyes open a little more than yesterday. I stuck her little beak down in her water so that she could get a drink. After I did this a couple times, she took a couple drinks on her own! I tried to get her to eat, but she wasn't having it.

If this little girl makes it, she's going to be one tough little broad!

I honestly wish I could say that I think she's going to make it, but I just don't know right now. I don't even know what happened to her! I mean, I know it's kind of hit and miss with baby chicks, especially if they're under a week old. I know she didn't get cold -- there are two different heating lamps on her -- and I know she had food ans water. It's just one of those freak things that happens.

It's really starting to pull on my heart strings. I almost lost it last night when I was holding her and her tired little head kept dropping. It's killing me and there's nothing I can do for her...

I have to get off of this subject.

I wanted to talk about the rats, but I just feel so bummed now... We've pretty much stopped tent time with the rats -- it's just so taxing to get the tent out every night -- and started taking them in the bathroom, like we used to do with Evan and Jonah.

Sally has a blast, while Emilie hides in my shirt. She's worse than a glider when it comes to getting in your shirt! I didn't take many photos of them, unfortunately. If you've owned rats before, then you know just how hard it is to snap a good photo! I recorded a little video of Sally that I think will make up for the lack of pictures, though. It's great!

I suppose I need to go check on the baby chick. Wish me luck!

Love & Peace

-Megan

 Rats make a horrible mess...

 Emilie in my shirt.

 This cute little rat SITS in LaVaughn's hand while she's eating. 

Video

You make me weak...

I was looking around on Facebook Thursday at all the joeys people had for sale. If you're not in the glider community on Facebook, I'll give you a little info as to what I'm talking about.

There are groups on top of groups on Facebook that people advertise on. Some are for cage sets, some are for toys and some are for joeys. I'm a member of 75% of them, so I automatically see what people post about -- even when I don't intend on looking in the first place.

Out of nowhere, up pops this gorgeous little Platinum Mosaic boy that Tracy -- Emma and Eliza's new mom-- has available. I automatically like the photo and comment on it. Then, of course, I go to her page on FB and like a couple more of his gorgeous pictures and then leave it at that with no other intentions.

A couple minutes later, I get a message from Tracy saying, "You know you want Rigel." my response, "Well of course I do, he's gorgeous!" I rambled on and said I didn't have the money, which I don't. We talked back and forth for a while and I told her that I would run it by my sis before I said for sure. We share all our gliders, so she needs to want him too.

Later that night, the storm knocked out the internet and I was unable to talk with Tracy until like 11. We didn't say much and picked our convo up yesterday evening. We talked about everything and got all the details worked out.

As soon as she said, "He's yours." I got weak in the knees!

I would never, not in a million years, think we would get our hands on a Platinum Mosaic! Then again, I never thought we would get our hands on a Platinum, but Shannon made that dream a crazy reality. Oh, did I mention that he's also a WF? He is! I've always wanted a WF plat. I just feel so incredibly lucky!

If all goes well, we're going to pair this little guy with Violet. She's a WFB 66% leu het, so that pairing seems pretty solid. With that pairing as is, they could have: 2nd Gen. WFBs and mosaics. All of which out be 100% Platinum het and 33% leu het. If she proves to be a 100% leu het, they could even have Platinums and Leus! Oh the possibilities!

I'm going to leave you with just one, tiny little picture of his beautiful little face...

I completely forgot about the pictures of Chloe, Violet, Emma and Eliza that I took last night. LaVaughn and I got everyone out for mealies and decided to snap a few pictures of all the girls. It was mainly for Tracy -- she's wanted pictures of the girls for a long time -- but couldn't resist out two beautiful ladies. :O)

Love & Peace

-Megan

Chloe

Violet

Emma & Eliza

EDIT: Yes, I spelled WEAK wrong,,,

Spastic plastic...

I figured I would go ahead and get first February blog out of the way while I'm doing nothing else. I'm not here to talk about Valentine's day or anything like that, I'm actually here to talk about gliders and baby chicks. I know, who would have thought that I, out of all the people in the world, would talk about gliders and baby chicks!

I'm sure most idiots out there start off their February blogs with The Walking Dead. Dude, we get it! All you see or hear anymore is how "The Walking Dead is anticipated more than Valentine's Day". I'm not even joking, that's all I hear and it makes me want to stab someone. I love The Walking Dead just as much -- if not more -- as everyone else. But enough is enough!

End rant.

I would like, if I may, to talk about the baby chicks. We took it upon ourselves to sex all the baby chicks yesterday and I don't think we did too bad. If our calculations are correct, we have 6 hens and one rooster! Are we 100% sure about this? Sure, why not. It never hurts to dream.

The fact that 90% of our baby chicks ended up being hens makes me think that our sexing practices aren't exactly up to code. I sure as hell want them to be, but no one can be sure until they get a little older. All these little guys should be laying by July or August, so get back with me then for the answers to this test. ;)

While were on the subject of chicks.. my aunt has a friend that may be getting us a few more baby chicks! She has chickens of her own and is planing on incubating some and selling us some. I believe the majority of her chicks are Rhode Island Reds, but I'm not 100%.

As much as I love all this chicken talk, it's really making me long for baby ducks and geese. I so badly want a few baby ducks and a couple geese. I suppose I'll have to wait until spring and get them locally...

Now for the glider talk. I took well over 20 pictures of Lilah playing with a milk ring last night. She wasn't doing anything special - just sitting there, chewing on a milk ring. I found it unbelievably cute and couldn't stop snapping pictures. I did manage to slim it down from 28 pictures to 14. I have a serious illness when it comes to taking photos.

While I'm thinking of it.. there's 96.3% chance that LaVaughn and I are going to watch Texas Chainsaw tonight. It all depends on how things go and how fast they are, but I really stoked to see this movie! I've yet to see a Chainsaw Massacre that I didn't like.

I believe I've said what I had to say. I need coffee, stat! I also need to go shower, so on that note...

Love & Peace

-Megan

Prepare for Sugar Glider cuteness!