Live Crickets..yum yum!

Well, I think Sammy finally has the hang of gaping.  Starting this afternoon, he gaped all on his own and kept his beak open for me to give him a mealworm, then a live cricket and next a live moth.  Yay for Sammy!  Fingers crossed this isn't a one-time fluke!

This video was for my grand-daughter, Tenley, for her daily "Sammy fix", so you'll hear me talking to her again.

I have been stretching out his feedings a bit today, hoping if he got hungry enough he might start to gape.  By late afternoon, I had let almost 2 hours pass by between feedings, and he immediately started gaping, wing quivering and chirping very fast, all at the same time.  He took a live cricket from the tweezers and a bit of his "nestling formula".  I'm still feeding him this, slightly thicker now, throughout the day, just not as much as he is getting insects and mealworms now too. And from this feeding on for the rest of the day and evening, Sammy has gaped, begged and chirped for food and actively participates in taking and eating the food.  A huge breakthrough for Sammy.  He doesn't seem to like his formula as much as he likes the insects and mealworms and I have to encourage him to eat it that by prying his beak open a bit, then he takes it just fine.

Sammy loves to watch out the windows

Sammy watching bugs out of the window

Sammy still has live moths and crickets in his aviary for him to watch and hopefully catch and eat. He did catch a moth that was on his feeding platform and succeeded in eating it.

In the evening when he was brought back inside for bed, he did several long flights up and down the length of our bedroom, which is 26 ft long.  His favourite landing spots and perches are the ceiling fan blades (which are NEVER turned on while he is in the room) and the curtain rods.  Sometimes he flew down to me after and sometimes I had to stand on a chair and scoop my hand under him so he would hop on.

Tonight, he was a little escape artist when I tried to place him in his nest in his cage for bed.  He hopped out of his nest right away and flew out of the cage.  So, I let him have some more flight and perching time, then got him tucked into his nest for the night.

Sammy is now 23-24 days old.

A little bit of preening