Animal Wonders 2012 Calendars are completed! We absolutely LOVE the pictures the animals gave us and we can't wait to share them with you. What a great Christmas present for those animal loving friends. Teachers, share the animals with your students by hanging them in your classroom. Or just keep it for yourself and enjoy the beautiful and sometimes funny photos of the Animal Ambassadors.

Please order your calendar asap so we can get them out before the Holiday mail rush. Contact us by email, phone, or Facebook today to put in your order.

animalwonders@email.com
(406)241-8964

$15 per calendar
$5 for shipping
Convenient free pick-up location in Missoula

I wanted to give another update on Lovie the lovebird. He has reached his original weight again and is eating solely on his own. We're so proud of this little bird that we could burst! As his beak grows out we will continue with anti-fungal treatments and watch for a occurrence. We hope that this ordeal is behind us. Lovie deserves to be happy and comfortable.

Animal Wonders has a new Animal Ambassador!!! We are so excited to be able to share this amazing and unique animal with our fellow Montanans. Has anyone heard of a toucanet before? They are toucans just a different genus than the popular Toco and Swainson's Toucans. This little known toucan is called a Crimson-Rumped Toucanet. He is a bit smaller than the Toco and he is green and blue with a black and maroon beak. Of course he has a patch of red right above his tail giving him his name.

As he settles in he will be learning how to become an Animal Ambassador. This means that he will learn the "training game", it only has 2 rules: 1. You get a treat when you're good 2. You get no treat when you're not good. There's never punishment involved, jut positive reinforcement or nothing. So, he will be learning all about how fun and rewarding it is to be good. By the way, good just means he doesn't bite or get scared. Once he realizes he gets rewarded for being calm, he'll naturally learn to be calm all the time. Isn't positive reinforcement training amazing!!!

Today was a different day for the mammals at Animal Wonders. The new Mammal Room door is being installed which leaves the room open to the cold air of an encroaching Montana winter. Too cold for most of the mammals. So they have spent the day in the house to stay warm. Lucky most of them are nocturnal and slept through the extent of their stay in their crates. Now that the sun has set, it's a different story. As Jake and Rick hurry to finish up installing the new door and complete the new partial wall, the nocturnal beasties are awakening!!

The diurnal animals spent most of the day entertained by Chili Pepper as he explored the room and said hello to them all in turn. Maybe he was bragging because he got to lounge on the couch while the others were confined to safer areas of the room. Now the day dwellers are settling down for their slumber to sounds of the night critters getting impatient for breakfast.

Lovie has gained a gram each day now. Good progress! Today he started eating from the syringe on his own. Which means he's feeling much better!! He just has to continue to gain weight for the next few days and we're in the clear. Good ol' Lovie bird!

Lovie is struggling a bit the day after surgery. I personally know how it feels that day after... crappy. He's having to deal with the physical pain of having surgery on his beak as well as learning how to move about without the curve of his beak. He can't climb the bars on his enclosure and he can't pull himself onto a perch. He's already missing two toe nails so he has trouble gripping perches anyway. But once he gets a hold of a good perch he stays there. So we're hoping he adjusts quickly.

He's not eating, which isn't that surprising since he mostly eats seeds and it would hurt me to see him crack open a seed right now. Most birds will only eat their favorite foods when they are feeling under the weather, so Lovie isn't interested in much right now. Since he had lost weight before the surgery he was weak going in. My priority right now is to maintain Lovie's strength. Since he's not eating on his own I've been feeding him with a syringe (mashed up pellets, banana, and peanut butter, delicious!). Sometimes this can be hard to do with an adult bird, but Lovie is so sweet and gentle that he's taken to it with resignation. As long as he keeps his strength he should start eating on his own again soon. So until then, Lovie will get fed his mush 3-4 times a day.