Moving Day & Stick Monsters

The littles have gotten bigger, too big for the makeshift brooder I was raising them in. Doodle was fine in that box for at least another two weeks, but there was only one Doodle. There are four of these little guys.

Look at my little ducks turkeys all in a row <3

So, for lack of better equipment and with a surplus of mad jury rigging skills, I have converted an old dog crate into my new brooder. I taped up the side with a plastic bag and filled it with bedding. Seems to be working nicely so far. The babies have plenty of room to stretch out, now!

My original makeshift brooder was half that size.

They were pretty alarmed at first. These guys handle things differently than Doodle. Whenever I introduce Doodle to something new, she gets super excited. She makes happy tweety noises and cutts like nobody's business. She loves new things--new objects, new surroundings, new foods: bring it. She's been like that since she was a little baby. These little guys, however, face everything with fear and alarm... Once, I tried to give them a stick perch since they enjoyed perching up on my arm...

Uhm, nope!

...And I learned that, to these guys, stick-on-its-side = snake. They could not be convinced otherwise. Every single one of them huddled in a corner making fearful cutts. They sounded like baby popcorn. I could poke it, tap it, and tell them its okay as much as I like. I clearly didn't know what I was talking about this time. Upright-stick is okay. They have no problem with that stick so long as it is upright. But stick-on-its-side is an evil snake monster that is going to eat them all.

So, no perches.

"We'll take the arm and lap, thank you!"
(Cal & Pastel)

"You'd never eat us like that awful stick, would you, mommy?"
(Ami)

"Don't be silly, Ami! Who but an evil stick-monster would eat a turkey?"
(Chibi)