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WK #3
- Thread starter Sydney65
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I must not have your patience as our guineas are far from cuddly! The adults are reasonably comfortable with my presence but the juveniles find me pretty scary. We held them as babies, but they got flighty fast. I just took a few pics on a windy day of the juveniles foraging near the house. The one off by herself and with the closeup pic is Violet, although I’m not positive that she is actually violet in color. Our royal purple girl, Queen Anne, was the low bird in the flock, but recently Violet has become the fringe bird. Last year’s purples had grape names (Welch and Concord Pie) but this year’s purples have royal names (boys Kaiser and Kingpin, girls Viceroy and Queen Anne)I remember @R2elk telling me that when the hormones kick in, the cuddly protectiveness goes out the window. At the time, Nugget was so much smaller than the others that I thought for sure I'd lose him.(- I say "him", I used to say "Her" - that ine is still so quiet & prone to trills & cheeps that I still don't know, where as the rest are obvious). Anyway, at the time, I commented that the others seemed protective of Nugget, & he said that was the norm until those hormones kick in & then the shunning begins. But the only age diff I have is that the 3 grays are 1 wk older.
When they were still in the brooder, Blu took to being a toe pecker. I think that's when I started becoming interested in behavior. At the time, though everyone was being handled, Nugget garnered more attention just bc he didn't seem to be growing like the others & after the trauma of losing so many at the start,I worried. Anyway, I read something abt jealousy & behavior issues. Either it wld work or not, so I made a point of more hands on with that one. Now Blu is the cuddliest of them all, will snuggle into my fleece jacket, lay her head down & close her eyes.
View attachment 1971797
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- #44
Well, you, and most others, have significantly more than I do, plus other birds, plus in some cases, other farm animals. My 2 dogs, my grans & these 6. That's it. But..
Lol..I'll tell you a secret...
I started writing this thread after 18 of the 24 shipped to me died, panicked and desperate to keep these last 6 alive. Along the way, I read stuff elsewhere, most of which R2Elk wld say was BS. But he didn't rebuke the info that said these birds weren't and cldnt be domesticated, not to expect them to be like chickens (I really don't know what that comparison is, never having had chickens), & "don't expect them to be your friend or even LIKE you. If you're lucky, they'll tolerate you." WHAT?!
After all the trauma and research & inconvenience of having these little Skeksis living in my house, altering our habits, giving them a room if their own, building them a house our grandkids are jealous of, having special food shipped to them bc it's "better" - these tyrannical little terradactyls aren't even going to LIKE me?!! That's not acceptable. Keep in mind, I wanted a Conure. These guys were HIS idea.
So in the process of mother-henning them, checking the temps, sitting w/them while they ate, washing their dirty little feet and bums, we got used to each other. I don't think you can stare at someone that often w/o learning their personal behaviors. PJ still likes his belly rubbed. I wldnt dream of doing that to Nugget. The Royal couple are far more docile than the grays. They all eat out of my hand but the Royals pinch me in their greediness where as the grays are very gentle abt it. Reva never bites, but she always gets ahold of the tip of my pinky and looks at me like she's making sure it's still attached. When trimming nails, if Lucy had a chance, she'd rip that pinky right off. Nugget gets indignant about sharing the food hand, so he just uses it as a perch and eats between his feet, blocking everyone else (the glory of being the runt).
At one time, having a huge bird jump on me or fly right by my head or a group of them flying AT me would have been terrifying. Mb since they can't scare me, it's better to just get along?
Lol..I'll tell you a secret...
I started writing this thread after 18 of the 24 shipped to me died, panicked and desperate to keep these last 6 alive. Along the way, I read stuff elsewhere, most of which R2Elk wld say was BS. But he didn't rebuke the info that said these birds weren't and cldnt be domesticated, not to expect them to be like chickens (I really don't know what that comparison is, never having had chickens), & "don't expect them to be your friend or even LIKE you. If you're lucky, they'll tolerate you." WHAT?!
After all the trauma and research & inconvenience of having these little Skeksis living in my house, altering our habits, giving them a room if their own, building them a house our grandkids are jealous of, having special food shipped to them bc it's "better" - these tyrannical little terradactyls aren't even going to LIKE me?!! That's not acceptable. Keep in mind, I wanted a Conure. These guys were HIS idea.
So in the process of mother-henning them, checking the temps, sitting w/them while they ate, washing their dirty little feet and bums, we got used to each other. I don't think you can stare at someone that often w/o learning their personal behaviors. PJ still likes his belly rubbed. I wldnt dream of doing that to Nugget. The Royal couple are far more docile than the grays. They all eat out of my hand but the Royals pinch me in their greediness where as the grays are very gentle abt it. Reva never bites, but she always gets ahold of the tip of my pinky and looks at me like she's making sure it's still attached. When trimming nails, if Lucy had a chance, she'd rip that pinky right off. Nugget gets indignant about sharing the food hand, so he just uses it as a perch and eats between his feet, blocking everyone else (the glory of being the runt).
At one time, having a huge bird jump on me or fly right by my head or a group of them flying AT me would have been terrifying. Mb since they can't scare me, it's better to just get along?
Not to hijack this thread... but here are more pics. I got two from a local breeder. She thought that one was slate and one was violet. Both looked a lot like your keet pic above. One is darker than the other now, at 4 mo, but they could both be slate or some other color? Here are some more juvenile and today’s pics of the two...The adult color of a Violet is black without any dots.
Violet keet
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Yes, that’s a great site! I thought that our “slate and violet” keets looked like these pics, but now I’m not so sure! They don’t have an adult look yet, so maybe they are still just feathering in...
The juvenile feathers are not the best time to identify guinea colors. Most of the keet colors are well documented as well as the adult colors but the in between stages are hard to distinguish.
The Guinea Fowl International Helmeted Guinea Fowl Color Chart used to be the best place to figure out guinea fowl colors. Unfortunately shortly before the big change in the Internet operating system, they handed control pf the site over to a person who has since arbitrarily changed the names of some colors, arbitrarily decided that certain well known colors don't exist and is now claiming that solid colored guineas are lightly spotted. They have also reduced the thumbnail sizes so small that you have to click through to be able to get an idea of the color. Some excellent photos that had been present have also been removed.
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- #49
Yes, in the right light she has this beautiful mix of colors. Whatever she is, I think she’s gorgeous! The “ slate” girl is also lovely. I hope those two survive the winter and give me some fertile eggs! We shall see how they develop.
Btw, great job taming down your keets!!!
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