My First Baby

He hatched on September 23, 2000. Oh I was so excited. The previous February, I was able to pair Keikki and Makani. I gave them their nest box on May 1st. To my amazement, I had eggs by about the middle of June. However, they were infertile so I removed them about the middle of July. A few weeks later Keikki laid three more eggs. I kept telling her each night when I checked the box that she was a very “Good Keikki Girl”. Only one of those eggs was fertile, he hatched, and grew to be a beautiful strong strappin’ baby boy. I pulled him for hand feeding when he was three weeks old. He quickly grew, each day increasing by about 6 grams. When I first pulled him he was smaller than the palm of my hand, but by the end of that first week, he was already the size of my palm, almost doubled in size in just those seven days.

I took him everywhere with me, to work, shopping, and to friends. He even had to go to church with me when I was scheduled to help at the consignment sale one Saturday. For being my very first baby, we amazingly had no hiccups. He ate voraciously, but he weaned easily. I started putting dishes of food in his container as soon as he started playing with his toes. Diane contacted me about my ad for him and we quickly became friends via email. Then when she made her final decision, she started coming to visit with him. She came at least 3 times a week and would stay for a good hour or two. She decided to name him Wikki Sweet Potato. Wikki came from a noise he was making that she thought sounded like he was saying Wikki (pronounced wee-kee). Then the Sweet Potato was because of his beautiful orange/red belly.

Wikki finally went home the day after Christmas. He had weaned about two weeks earlier, but Diane and her family had a vacation planned so we chose to keep him here rather than go home and then come back only a few short days later.