UPDATE: Day 64-Ivory's first Easter with us! (Happy Easter!
)
Today is Easter and Ivory was so excited! He helped find the little Easter eggs outside and spent some time exploring. Unfortunately, our black lab, Sammi, is now considered a threat to Ivory as of today because of what happened.
I had Ivory outside and he was perched on my arm. He lost his balance and jumped off and started running around in circles in a panic (he does that when he gets scared, such as when he's outside and suddenly lands on the ground and doesn't know where he is.
) Well, our yellow lab, Dawson, ran over to investigate and that made Ivory start to flap his wings in fright because he's scared of our dogs. I ran after Ivory to pick him up, but Sammi made it to him first. She had probably sensed his panic and the flapping obviously caused her instinct to kick in. "Flapping, panicked bird=Chase after and catch" in Sammi's mind. And Ivory obviously knew what to do when Sammi ran over to him. He flapped his wings and ran away in a panic, and Sammi chased him. I, of course, was yelling at Sammi and chasing after them both while Dawson almost trampled poor little Ivory in the process of following Sammi who was inches from reaching out and grabbing the panicked baby chick. Finally I stopped Sammi before she hurt him and then I picked up Ivory and brought him back inside.
It really scared me the way Sammi ran after him like that. She loves chasing squirrels and I know that she was probably just using her hunting instincts, so I don't totally blame her. But it still scared me.
And later today, I had Ivory outside again. Sammi came over to sniff at him and I made sure she didn't get too close. Ivory ignored her and kept scratching around at the ground, but when Sammi got too close, he turned around and pecked her in the nose. This scared Sammi a little, but obviously not good enough because she actually tried to grab Ivory while I was picking him up.
So as of now, Sammi is no longer trusted around Ivory. Dawson is fine with him, as long as he doesn't start flapping his wings and running away in a panic because that triggers Dawson to think it's a game of "chase the panicking bird and capture it" or something. So I'm going to have to keep an eye on them both when they are around Ivory and he's not allowed to be unsupervised anywhere except for in his brooder box. He wasn't allowed to be outside alone in the first place because he's still too small and the threat of anything getting him such as a hawk, but now I'm going to have to be even more careful when I'm outside and inside with him as well.
I will see if I can get some pictures later today!
Here are a bunch of random pictures of Ivory at 65 days old!
Fluffy butt!
He also did some feather-grooming today:
Look at his little tail!
Stretching after taking a quick nap!
Look at those buff feathers coming in and look how tall he is!
So far, so good!
He's really starting to fill out now.
I'm in the middle of convincing my mom to get chickens, so if we do, I think we will get a few hens and guess who will be their flock leader? Ivory!!!!
He would be such a good rooster.
Also, today Ivory had fun taking a long dust bath in the mulch in the garden.
Ivory is looking great, such a handsome fella!! Some may disagree, but I'm willing to contend that your Ivory is the most beloved (and photographed!) baby rooster on all of BYC.
LOL he's beginning to be such a handsome little roo, too!
Last night there was a big thunderstorm and during the night I'm absolutely terrified of lightning and thunder, but I saw that Ivory's brooder light was on and I worried a bolt of lightning would come in through the outlet and hit him. At first I was too frightened of the lightning and thunder to want to get out of bed and unplug the brooder light, but it kept bugging me and I couldn't sleep knowing that as long as his light was on, there was still a risk. So I guess my wanting to protect him kinda overtook my fear of the lightning and thunder, kinda like if a predator is after a brooder hen and her chicks she will most likely stand guard and protect her chicks rather than follow her instinct and run away.
) a "her" since HE hatched.
