It’s the third day since Kiki flew off from the Kitchen window. We are still expecting the return of Kiki, although chances of happening are definitely slim.

Thank you guys for your concerns and supports. I’m truly grateful for all these.

My family members and I are definitely feeling much better, and we learned to accept the fact. We have to move on.

This late afternoon I happen to spot an “entertaining” comments made on one of the notices (refer to picture right) that I pasted at the lift lobby.

Seriously I don’t whether to laugh or not to laugh, after reading the comments.

This anonymous writer added the following lines to my notice:

“How to find? The bird has wings.”

First of all, I had to thank this anonymous person for highlighting these “already known” fact that birds have wings. Even my young nieces and nephews knew that bird has wings.

I had to admit the anonymous writer who made the comments wasn’t completely wrong about this, but he/she seems to have a hidden agenda for doing this. What is he/she trying to portray?

Such comments made during this difficult period is equivalent to rubbing salt on an open wound. Seriously I felt quite hurt when reading the comments.

Why is it so? I’ve my explanations for all these:

First, with these comments, he/she simply diminished our dreams for the return of Kiki. Probably with 50% of hope initially, and now extinguished to 0% of hope after reading it. These comments are absolutely discouraging.

Secondly, I’m very convinced that he/she never knew that such notices placed at neighborhood does bring miracles. Number of owners managed to get back their beloved parrots through the effect of placing missing notices around the the neighborhood. Who knows Kiki happens to be in someone’s home, the homeowner come to realize that I’m looking for her after seeing my notices.

Thirdly, I was greatly upset because someone made this “grafitti” on my notice. This greatly reflect he/she shown little respect for the owner who is in anxiety in finding back the missing companion parrot.

Here are some questions that I had been pondering about:

Why does he/she has to write these comments?
Why there’s always a minority trying to shatter someone’s last glimpse of hope?
Is this selfishness or being sadistic?
Are these the ugly side of the entire human race?

The comments definitely sound sarcastic to me. I don’t know what his/her objective for placing this line, perhaps he/she is trying express something else (probably out of curiosity) that I misunderstood?

Although I’ve yet to know what his/her thoughts for those line, but I’m already badly affected emotionally through those lines.

Finally, I’ve something to share (especially to the anonymous writer) that not all birds and parrots have the full ability or luxury to be fully flighted. Household Parrots are mostly wing clipped (means trimming on the flight feathers to restrict flight to a certain extend), thus I’m very confident that Kiki is still within the neighborhood and not flying anywhere further.

Related Post:
Kiki MIA

I never ever expect myself printing and pasting these missing notices around the neighborhood. I kept telling myself that this could be just the wildest dream I had. In fact, I just trying to be naive and refusing to accept the fact.

Looking at the empty cage of Kiki, the complete quiet household environment, I’ve to admit Kiki can never be back.

It all happen this morning at around 8.45am. It started pouring outside, and my mum decided to collect the laundry hanging outside. Apparently Kiki was happily sitting on mum’s shoulder, but at that split second Kiki decided to take off and flew right out of the window. Mum shouted “Kiki!”, the moment I dashed to the kitchen without seeing the presence of Kiki, I was very certain what actually happened.

Mum clarified that Kiki flew down to void deck. For the moment, I hoped she’s joking, but when she threw all the laundry on the floor and left the house swiftly, I knew I had to accept the fact. Mum and I hurried down to the void deck from our apartment unit located at the 10th Storey.

We combed the whole neighborhood for Kiki, but she was no where to be found. Neither she was hiding in the bushes or canopy of trees. I didn’t even hear any piercing calls of Kiki. She even didn’t response to my calls.

My greatest fear that she might had already ended a feast for the crows and stray cats. When I spoted a couple of black cats down at the void deck, I kept telling myself, this could be one incident that I will be parting with her forever, never seeing her ever again.

3 hours after the incident happened, still no sign and calls from Kiki, I decided to gave up the search. In the end I rushed back home created this Missing Notice of Kiki and got my buddy, Wee Chong to print out for me in colour. I pasted the notice around the neigborhood, and even passed a few copies to the security guards from Regent Heights Condominium and the management of the Mosque. I’m hoping any kind soul who happened to found Kiki would return her back to us.

Another 2 hours later, I decided to conduct another comb down at the void deck and the surrounding areas. Unfortunately still no sign of Kiki. What really sadden me was that my notices at some spot were removed by someone. Even I tried replacing the notices, the moment when I was back at my own block apartment, the notices were gone again.

No matter how hard I worked, everything’s back to square-one. I really felt helpless.

Surprisingly I lost all my appetite I skipped my breakfast, lunch and dinner. Till now I aren’t hungry. My initial thought was Kiki.

Kiki, I missed you so much!

I brought Kermit back to Dr Kenneth’s clinic for medical review. I was glad that Dr Kenneth told me that Kermit’s discharge within the beak was all cleared. Kermit passed his poop test, all the physical examinations. It was great to get a clean bill of Kermit’s health.

Before leaving the clinic, I requested Dr Kenneth to conduct a round de-worming session for Kermit as a precautionary measure. Doing once and for all!

I’m sure Kermit is now the fittest and in pink of health!

Related Post:
Kermit’s Visit to the Vet

Don’t worry if you missed Kiki’s performance at The Best Trick Competition, one of the segment in the National Day Parakeet Competition 2008 held at Lim Chu Kang, Farmart.

I’ve managed to get hold of a short preview of Kiki performing one of her favorite trick - Pull a Car Trick, in the event. Apologised for the poor quality and fuzzy images of the video.

As I mentioned on my previous post that Kiki’s agility level during the event was pretty low. Apparently in the video, you could see slight delay in the performance, but she managed to accomplish the task I cued for.

Thanks Karen for providing the video.

Related Post:
Kiki won 3rd in Best Trick Competition
Kiki will be in National Day Parakeet Competition

Hi Everyone! I’m back again bringing updates about Kiki.

Many had read about Kiki participated in the Best Trick Competition 2 weeks ago, and were really excited to know whether Kiki manage to secure an award for herself.

I’m please to announce the good news, Kiki won herself the 3rd Position in the Best Trick Competition in the National Day Parakeet Competition 2008 Event held at Farmart last Sunday. Here is the list of the winners in the National Day Parakeet Competition 2008.

Here are the lists of Tricks & Commands that Kiki performed:

1. Up & Down Command
2. Turn-A-Round Trick
3. Fetching Trick (a.k.a Retrieval Trick)
4. Wing Flapping Command
5. Coin Depositing Trick
6. Ring Tossing Trick
7. Somersault Trick
8. Waving Hello Trick (Left Leg)
9. Open & Fetch Trick (A Component of Shell Game)
10. Cups Stacking Trick
11. Pull a Car Trick
12. Basketball Trick

Although the agility level on the day wasn’t pleasing, but she managed to perform the tricks that I cued for with some slight delays. Personally I felt that Kiki had already done very well on that day. With scenarios like new environment, crowds, strangers’ stares and interference (from the microphone, vocalizations from other parrots), these greatly affect Kiki.

Remembering the moment when I brought Kiki to the event venue, she was really nervous. It took me quite a while to really calm her down.

Anyway, Kiki really deserved to be crowned the 3rd position. She really met strong competitors like Sunshine, the Sun Conure who is the winner of the event and Darling, the Sulphur Cockatoo placing second.

Although Sunshine and Darling only performed two to three tricks in the competition, but they all performed with great agility. Both of them really deserved winning the placings. It’s also a great pleasure for Kiki to meet them and catch their performances in the event.

Notice the two pictures in the post? The picture on top is the 3rd Position Winning Badge to be placed on Kiki’s Cage. Kiki also received a Bronze Trophy (picture on right), new cages, parrot diets and electrical appliances (the appliances are more applicable to the owners) from the event sponsors.

Kiki surely has done us proud!

I will be sharing more pictures of the event on my coming post, so do stay tune!

Related Post:
Kiki will be in National Day Parakeet Competition

Today it’s Singapore’s 43rd Birthday. Happy Birthday Singapore! Everywhere in Singapore is flooded with the red and white decoration, the National Day ambience is definitely strong.

Kiki and Kermit were definitely happy because everyone in the family is not working today. They knew that we can keep them in company and play with them throughout the whole of National Day.

Anyway, tomorrow I will be bringing Kiki for a big national event, the First Ever National Day Parakeet Competition to be held at Lim Chu Kang Farmart. Kiki will be contesting other parrots in the Best Trick Competition to be held at 12 noon tomorrow. She will be performing some of her best tricks on that day, so come down and support both of us!

Kiki and I are definitely excited and nervous for the upcoming event tomorrow. Furthermore, it’s the first biggest parrot event that both me and Kiki attended at the moment. Thus it’s going to be an eye-opener for the both of us.

My primary concern is whether Kiki can overcome his stress and nervousness on the day. I’m wondering whether the big crowd, new environment, unfamiliar faces and curious stares will affect Kiki’s behavior and performance. No matter how I hope she will do her best, even if she didn’t win the competition I will still be proud of her.

By the way, there will be other activities going on the day like the Hamster Race, talks and dialogue with Dr Thiruchelvam, the well-known avian vet in Singapore. So it’s going to be a fun and fruitful day for the whole family. Do come down, who know you might be able to meet me and Kiki at the event! Cheers!

Most of my friends ever questioned me, why getting a small parrot? Why not getting a bigger parrot like a Cockatoo or even Macaw?

Many with little knowledge on parrots, they tend to have this misconception that the Bigger the Better. Furthermore, when we talk about parrots, what most people can think of and relate with parrots are only large macaws and cockatoos.

To be frank, size doesn’t affect the quality of companionship and affection from the parrot. Small parrots share most common traits and characteristics as their larger relatives.

I personally feels that smaller is better. Small Parrots are easy to handle and manage. I don’t need very big space for their accommodations, flight and daily activities. Finally they won’t be as noisy compared to their larger relative, even if they do scream it’s not going to be like a Cockatoo or a Macaw loud and wall-penetrating scream!

By the way, what actually upset me was when I hear people mentioning that larger parrots have a better and higher resale value. It’s totally an unforgivable statement. First I do agree that larger parrots tends to be high priced, but I what I do not agree with is that many pick them home with an initial thought to resale it. I will consider this as an immoral investment. By doing so, it’s also not fair to the parrot itself.

Getting a parrot should be with an intention of seeking a companionship, able to be committed and flourish the parrot with endless love. Having a parrot is a life-long commitment!

Kermit may not be the best talker compared to any African Greys or Amazons, but he has his own great talents of mimicking sounds. Lately, Kermit managed to pick up mimicking laughter from me. Do take note the first and third laughs were from me, whereas the second, fourth and fifth laughs belong to Kermit.

Sound Clip of Kermit’s Laughter

I’ve to admit that his laughter sounds abit fake and rather low in pitch. I’m very certain that Kermit already did his very best. Furthermore, Senegal Parrots are not known for their mimic abilities.

Many must have read about Kermit’s visit to the vet last Saturday. Thanks to everyone for your concerns about Kermit’s condition. He’s doing perfectly well and I’m confident that his current condition will improve.

Although Kermit is still undergoing medication, he still remain active and positive. Everyday seems like a new day of adventure and he is full of surprises.

Indeed, he did surprise me again yesterday with his new mischievous act.

Notice the blue and yellow colored rings on the playstand in the picture (By the way can you spot Kiki in the picture?) on the left?

Those are actually meant to be foot toys for Kermit and Kiki. Apparently, Kermit had devised a new way of playing them. I truly adore his innovation of “Play Hard 101″. So for now, let me unveil Kermit’s new innovating way of playing the toys rings - “Splash-O-Slam Dunk”.

It’s Kermit’s own verse of Slam Dunk - removing the rings and dunk them in the water bowl. It’s fun watching him doing it and he enjoys doing it, but hard on me! He created a whole lot mess and splashes around the playstand!

Today I brought Kermit over to the vet for consultation. Don’t worry folks, Kermit is alright and he is not seriously ill.

Just that I noticed some slight symptoms on Kermit which I found disturbing, thus I decided not to wait and bring him over to the vet immediately.

Kermit seems to be having bad breathes lately and having protruding breast bone. I can feel the keel is sharp. These are not good signs.

Bad breathes can be a sign of Yeast Infection also known as Candida, and this is what I fear most as candida is contagious and can be spread to other birds that get in contact with Kermit.

Next, the issue on protruding breast bone simply signifies that Kermit can be severely underweight. I’ve a kitchen scale and I do regularly keep weight records of Kermit. Kermit weighs an average weight of 130 grams and this indicates that Kermit is of an acceptable weight.

Based on Parrot Average Weight Chart provided on Avianweb.com, a healthy Senegal weighs around 110 -130 grams. I’m totally clueless about Kermit’s protruding breast bone when he falls in between the acceptable weight range.

I brought Kermit to Dr Kenneth Tong from Animal & Avian Veterinary Clinic located at Yishun Street 71, Singapore. It’s my first visit to the Animal & Avian Veterinary Clinic, but I’m really impressed with Dr Kenneth and his team’s friendliness and professionalism.

Back about Kermit’s check-up, Dr Kenneth did a few Q&A with me to find out more details and situation of Kermit. First, he did a weight test for Kermit, apparently Kermit weighs 130 grams. Kermit indeed seems fine from the readings on the weighing scale, but the protruding breast bone did drew Dr Kenneth’s attention. Dr Kenneth observed the feces samples, appearing that Kermit’s poops are okay without any abnormalities.

As for the issue on bad breath, Dr Kenneth did a close examination in within the beak. He noticed some mild discharge appear in within, but he added that it’s actually a small issue and not to be too worry of.

After several examinations and tests, Dr Kenneth indicated that Kermit seems to be alright and he’s also totally clueless about the protruding breast bone (weight loss) issue. He added it might be the result of stress, as Kermit is undergoing his first molting.

Kermit was provided with Multi-vitamins and Antibiotics to assist him in improving his current physical condition. In three weeks time, Kermit will be coming back for a medical review before making any diagnosis and treatment if his condition doesn’t improve.

Let’s pray and hope Kermit’s condition will gradually improve!