CHAPTER 1

The Tiny Tim Saga
Friday, December 2, 2011

Birds and animals are amazing. We can learn so much from them.

The Tiny Tim and Mary (A Masked-Weaver chick and his/her mother) saga started when I noticed that one of the weaver nests broke apart in the wind.  I could hear a chick tweeting but could not find it.    By watching the behavior of the male, Boytjie, I knew in which vicinity to search.
I looked around but could not see anything.  

My cat, Amber, who is never far from me, jumped forward and looked up at me and then down into one of the low shrubs.
At closer inspection I saw him, a very young, alert fat round little Masked-weaver chick sitting on the ground looking back at us with much interest.   He was too young to know that the cat, or me, could be a threat.

From past experience I know that if I leave the chick to fend for itself, it will die from exposure or become a tasty morsel for a feline prowler; the chick always dies.

I just had to take it in and try to hand-feed it, I thought to myself.

I chose to put it into a small open topped mouse cage instead of into the birdcage.   The chick cannot fly so there was no need for an enclosed cage.   It was a lot easier to get my hands into a cage that is open at the top.   Getting to a chick inside a birdcage is such an 'omslommernis' (nuisance) so I created a nice warm nest inside a padded plastic cup and placed the cup and chick in the cage.
The chick was very quiet. It just sat there with its mouth open.

I mixed some Pronutro, which we keep in the cupboard to feed injured birds, and gave him some until he no longer kept his mouth open then I put a woolly cloth over him and tucked him in for the night