White-cheeked turaco

Firstly i apologize for the lack of posts in the last week, i have been on a mountain with no wi-fi. i will be posting more regularly now.

White-cheeked turaco
Tauraco leucotis

Origin: Ethiopia, Sudan

A mid sized (25inch) bird from the Musophagidae family. They are often called ‘banana eaters’.

This member of the family is a forest inhabitant, it is generally found 2200m above sea level feeding
on fruit and plant material. It will also take small insects and other invertebrates. They tend to hop and bounce around the limbs of trees with short direct bursts of flight.

The most commonly kept species of turaco, mainly due to their buoyant personality. Being very curious  they will become used to their keepers and will tame down with time. White-cheeked turaco will breed readily once a pair have bonded laying two eggs in a nest made of loose sticks.

Yes this is a picture of its legs, more importantly of its feet. Most birds have one position for their toes either, three facing forward and one back, or two facing forward and two back. The Musophagidae family are able to have their toes in both positions enabling them to hop through the canopy with ease. I think i am correct in saying this is the only family capable of doing this.

These are one of my favorite characters in the animal area as they have become so friendly. And i really hope they breed for us here at the Japanese Koi Company.

Ready and waiting

All aviaries are now built, i have taken some panoramic views of the area so you can see how it looks. You should really come down and see for yourself but this will give you an idea.

Please click on the pictures for a larger view.

In the next couple of days i will go through each aviary, i will describe the animal that inhabits it and how we designed the enclosure around it. I have some amazing images from a couple of the guys that i work with, so these will go on as well.

Can you guess what it is yet?

Taking shape

Here is a selection of images of the aviaries getting finished. We decided that we wanted the enclosures to have  more of a rustic feel, so the roof on each aviary was specially made for us. The results are fantastic. 

Paving the way

With only two days to go, we had a lot to get done. The builders arrived early to start paving and made a good start. Only one thing held them back, the lack of paving slabs!! A lot of time was lost, but still plenty of time to get the work done or so we hoped.
Of course like all the best made plans, things had to be changed and slightly altered. Somehow I had managed to order too many aviaries. To compensate for a minor mistake we simply made a bigger paved area. Phew!!!!!
Only one day to go and the builders did not turn up. This of course presented a problem as no slabs could be laid but it did give us the chance to extend the area.

Bransby Bunny were the company we used to build the aviaries and i have to say 'what an amazing company'. They arrived before 7am after a three and a half hour drive. By the time i got there one aviary was already up. Builders were paving around them and things were going in the right direction.

I want to say thank you again to Bransby Bunny. Amazing aviaries and brilliant service.

As the work was going on outside, the guys and girls on my department were making calls and collecting materials for decoration. We wanted to make the aviaries the best homes for the animals we could. We spent alot of time thinking about each animal and their individual needs, making sure they would have places to retreat to and plenty of room for exercise.

After a busy day the area was coming along brilliantly.

For Nikita: A tribute

Twelve weeks ago today, Nikita from the reptile department came up to me. In her hands were two lifeless, wet figures.  These were chinchillas. Their mother had discarded them, they were freezing cold and not able to regulate their own body temperature. They would have died without us intervening.

As Nikita dried and tended to the little ones, I went off to raid the internet for care tips on how to hand rear chinchillas. We used an infrared heater to warm them up and after a couple of hours they were dry and awake. I managed to find a good recipe for milk which they took to readily.

The picture above was taken two days later. Our new babies were doing really well. They had to be fed every two hours, this meant through the night as well. Unfortunetly one of the two young chinchillas was never as strong as the other and we sadly lost him in the first week.
The remaining chinchilla was strong, healthy and feeding ravenously. He went from strength to strength and we all became rather attached.

The aptly named Chinchi came home with us, and was loved by everyone. Being hand reared made him ever so friendly and he would sleep with you, play on you and on occasion go to the toilet on you!!! Nikita took on a full time role as mum towards the end of the weaning process. This process takes up to eight weeks and they are fully weaned at twelve weeks. Today we said goodbye to Chinchi as he was picked up by his new owner. He will be well looked after.
This tribute is to two best friends, Nikita and Chinchi, pictured below.

The Beginning

So, in order for our new animal zone to take shape, alot of work would be required as the area would need too be cleared. The site we chose opposite the front of the shop had an area of roughly 30m x 30m. Which meant we had plenty of room to build our new enclosures.
Firstly we cleared the area , took away some trees, leveled the ground, and moved some  of our existing aviaries containing budgies and white cheeked touracos. The touracos have been a hit! These birds are amazing and have settled down fantastically, even jumping on our hands for food before it could even reach their bowls!!!!!
However, with the aviaries ordered and only four days left before they arrived, the site still looked like this........

With the trees removed, the ground cleared, and help from a digger, we formed a rather large pile of mud......

Luckily, by the end of the day it had completely transformed with three days still to go ...