Day 16

Ruger continues to eat, sleep. and poop at this point. He has responded really well to target training and I'm excited to see the application for that down the road. We continue to play the sound conditioning cd and he sleeps through all of it. I don't know if it will have a major impact or not, but it's worth a try.

Some people have asked what cd I'm using. Here is a link to it: http://www.spookless.com/productsandservices.html

Tonight I installed braided dacron anklets on him. There was no fear chittering and they went on super easy. I really like this style anklet. I've used them on coops and several falcons and they hold up well with no abrasion. The only issue I've had was with a lanner that liked to pick at his gear. Other than that, they are wonderful.

One thing I have done different with Ruger's imprint tank as opposed to Apache's, is I changed the lining material. With my birds in the past I've lined the imprint tank with a shower curtain or other plastic material. The mutes would hit the plastic and slide down. I would then change it as needed every couple of days. The only problem was that the wet mutes would pile up at the base of the plastic and the odor was pretty strong if not changed often enough. With Ruger's, I lined it with a canvas painter's drop cloth. The canvas absorbs the liquid and has really cut down on odor (which makes my wife happy). I have 2 drop cloths that I rotate since all i have to do is throw it in the wash to clean it.