Hello again,
I am glad that what I have done brings you happiness.
I am sorry I did not get back here and unable to reply to all of you.
My shama Yingshiong is keeping me busy and I need to spend time
to record daily all I have done.
This was two weeks ago.
Since then, he came to stand on my hand as well.
And just today, I succeeded in getting him to do pure recalls, without
having to wave food at him to make him come to me on cue.
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YingShiong mash had been made and introduced
to him. So far, he did not keel over and die as yet.
I have been making daily entries of my experience with
YingShiong my shama since I got him. You can follow
that from YingShiong URL link in
http://www.geocities.com/shanlung9/You can follow the mash making process from 2nd
November below.
http://www.livejournal.com/~shanlung/2005/11/The 'getting to know you' process with YS is finishing
soon. In this
period, he hovered to me like humming bird starting
from a week ago. He was so timid and shy in the first
couple of weeks that I despaired at trying with him
what I did with Tinkerbell.
What I have done with Tinkerbell may yet be impossible
with YingShiong the shama.
Photos of that hovering can be seen in
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shanlung/sets/1329275/Use slide show and set at 1.5 seconds.
I will be going into formal clicker training with
him now.
Even before that formal clicker training, it pleases
me that 2 days ago, he flew and perched on my hand for
the first time. That was to get his treat. But I am
now hopeful that I can get him to fly to perch on me
on cue.
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Then a few days ago, I send this letter out.
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A rescue that I am involved in
At about 11 am 2 Dec 2005, I received a call from my
friend CM. He was excited and explained to me he
caught a very colorful bird walking around and unable
to fly. We met up around noon to take over that bird.
I was surprised that the bird was as colourful as he
said and not exaggerated at all.
I bought a small cage on my way back to keep that
bird safe while I try to bring him back to recovery. I
placed in water and YS mash. I dared not keep that
bird with Yingshiong and decided to quarantine it.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shanlung/sets/1493533/I did not know what this bird was and request from
some of the bird groups I was in an indentification
assistance. At least I need to know what this bird was
and what to feed it. I could not find that on my own
I received swift replies that the bird os a blue
winged pitta and that the diet is similar to the
shama.
My friend CM saw it in a shopping mall. The pitta was
unable to fly and was so weak as otherwise that clumsy friend of
mine would not have been able to pick him up. CM was afraid
that cats or dogs or other people could get at that poor bird.
My first reaction was to decline when he called me on
phone, which I did. Then I felt I could not just walk away, and
changed my mind and went downtown to get the pitta from CM as he was going
into a meeting for the whole afternoon.
So it was karmic destiny that the pitta is now into my
hands. I checked out and definately, the pitta was unable to
fly meaningfully.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shanlung/sets/1493533/So you understand my reluctance now to place the pitta
back in the shopping mall. Especially more so as the pitta is
weak.
After my morning session with YS, I checked on the
pitta again.
The pitta is recovering and look much better today
than yesterday after given Yingshiong mash which I thought is a good
generic first fix as I guess that bird was an insectivore prior to
identification. I thought that may be a babbler at first.
I did have some fears of bird flu at first. I am much
more relieved now and his former weakness might have been from lack
of food, or inappropriate food. Might have been likely to be a
captive bird not looked after properly and then abandoned to die in a
shopping mall.
Luckily for the pitta that I now do have some
knowledge of insectivores, a far cry from the early days when I
first came here and stood on a soapbox pleading for help.
I added mealworms to the mash bowl and hopefully his
strength be even better.
With the intensive training of YS, and as I got a
certifed killer Ivan at home, a spare room is now a temporary home for
the pitta. I do not have time for another bird or even the
facilities for another bird.
When he is good and strong, I probably will take it to
a more appropriate habitat and let him get on with his life.
(more of above written in the livejournal diary and updated daily
if you do like to follow this saga starting in
http://www.livejournal.com/users/shanlung/2005/12/02/http://www.livejournal.com/users/shanlung/2005/12/03/)
Shanlung
http://www.geocities.com/shanlung9/
