Sailorwolf

you're welcome

Fine. Your powers of persuasion have overtaken me. An old sketch from my sketch book This is one I'm working on currently hence the reason I have only worked on its head. The rest of him is undetailed, it just has a base colour I'll just go find my favourite Here's my favourite: It's a tui, I've never finished it

hmmmmmmm *thinks about it*

Roxie is GORGEOUS!!! What mutations is she?

haha. I'm an evil selfish child. I don't like to share (worried they will be copied).

Is Black eyed self on that Budgie and parakeet Place? What are the genetics etc?

Sorry. I just edited my post to put in spangles. I don't think they had been developed yet. I'll have a look. Apparently Spangle appeared in an Australian aviary in 1974. I've read elsewhere that it first appeared in New Zealand. Shouldn't be surprised Aussies are always trying to steal our stuff. Since the mutation appearred in the same year the book was published then I would say no it is not a DF spangle

Your first baby of the 2nd nest is not a spangle. therefore the mother is not a DF spangle. Probably a DEC, that would be why you have recessive pieds and clearflight pieds. Your third baby is not a spangle either. Neither is the fourth Your baby that you think is a DF spangle is a DEC. Infact none of your babies in that clutch are spangles therefore the mother is definitely not a DF spangle as a DF spangle mother to normal cock will produce only single factor spangles. The cock has to be spangle to produce a DF spangle baby. Picture of parents please Your first lot of babies seem correct though. A good trick to determine whether your babies are spangle early on is if the two middle tail feathers are clear of colour, so will be white in this case

That's because it would be sensitive, but not necessarily painful all the time. However I'm not a budgie so I, nor anyone else would know whether it is truly painful or not. You can ask them though and they will tell you (if they can speak english). Alex the famous African grey, when asked how she felt during moulting said something along the lines of "dreadful" or "uncomfortable". She didn't point out any pain, but she may have meant it or she may have meant she was just tired and grumpy (she might not know a word for pain). So birds certainly have a tough time when they are moulting. Mine have never had any problems (that I can tell). By all means moulting may be painful. It just seems like it would be unnecessary pain. It is not a means to an end. It's a normal process and wouldn't be causing tissue damage. It would be very sensitive though.

There are lots of animals that like to defy what we expect of them and I'm glad BG is trying to be one of those. YAY!!! He's saying, "I wanna live!!! So there!" Vets try not to get people's hopes up and will tell you the most likely result so you are prepared for the worst. Sometimes it can be hard trying to pinpoint things, because so many diseases present so similarly, especially in birds! Who when they are sick either fluff up, don't eat, sleep more or poop funny. Getting a TPR (temperature, pulse and respiration) is hard too, cause they are soooooo tiny and their hearts go at like a million per second (not really ). And then trying to find a mucous membrane to see what perfusion and hydration status is. Bah! You know what I mean . So that is why you keep hoping for the best, because miracles happen and we (everyone) don't know everything, medicine is a science after all. Good vibes from loving people do a lot, I think. Lets hope BG just had a little sickness but he's over it now.

I have got out this book called "Best in Show; Breeding and exhibiting budgerigars" by Gerald Binks. And it has listed in its mutations the yellow, which is described as "Mask: yellow. Cheek patches: silvery white to very pale pinkish violet. General body colour: back, rump, breast, flanks and underparts yellow and as free from green suffusion as possible. Primaries and tail: lighter than body. Eye: black pupil with white iris." There is also the dark yellow and the olive yellow. White is similar and his decsription is "Mask: white. General body colour: back, rump, breast, flanks and underparts, white (suffused with the colour being masked). Wings and tail: white, bluish or light grey. (It should be noted that there are blue, cobalt, mauve, violet and grey shades in both light and dark suffusion.)" He goes on to describe lutinos and albinos separately pointing out the red eyes. He does not have spangles in his book but I don't think spangles had been developed then. So probably not a DF spangle My question is. Does this mutation exist today? If so what is its current name and am I completely forgetting some obvious mutation because before this book I had not heard of yellows and whites before. Also does any one know its genetics. This book was published in 1974

They use willow as food for stock along with poplar trees. I don't think that moulting is a painful process. It is probably just draining and a little itchy, because they have to put in extra energy into growing new feathers. Pain is usually there to stop tissue damage (make the animal rest more or get out of a damaging situation. It doesn't make much sense for moulting to hurt

Sorry to hear this Liv. At least you know he had a good life with you and he is as comfortable as you can possibly make him at the moment.

Sorry to hear that MB

Practice makes perfect. What I do, is I really study animals and how they are formed. Then I Picture them in my head, by being able to know where their joints are and how long different parts are and their proportions, It makes it much easier to do. Study skeletons. Being a vet student certainly helps me, as now I not only know where joints and bones are but I know where and what their muscles look like. If you can form a 3d model in your head and rotate it, you're set. I would suggest having a sketch book you carry everywhere and drawing in it any time, even when it is one of those random doodles you do when you are on the phone. Try drawing things with out pictures for reference for a while. This is what you want to get better at, so practice it. Don't care if you think it looks stupid. You will always think that when you are starting out and they won't be good as you want them to be when you first start. I've been painting since I was 5 (maybe younger, can't remember >.<) and I don't think my pictures are stupid, because I know they are not. You have to make some "stupid ones" to make awesome ones. I also do studies of different parts too. I will draw a leg or a foot or just a head. Whatever I want to practice on and I won't make it a pretty picture with composition, it is just a study. It's how Leonardo Da Vinci did it too. Sometimes it helps to draw a skeleton and flesh it out, or imagine your subject moving.

I think that having budgies in aviaries is one of the better ways to keep budgies. They get huge areas to fly in. They get lots of fresh foods and seed and they get to have companions and fresh branches. As close to the wild as possible. To those people in that forum that think that having more than one bird is cruel. I think having less than two is cruel (especially if you don't spend much time with them), because birds and budgies are especially social animals. To be alone like that would be quite a lonely existence. Imagine if you were the only human being kept by big beasties, and when they were all out at work you would sit in your cage and play with your toys for lack of anyone to talk to you. It is equivalent (actually worse because interspecies) to living in a country where you can't speak the language, plenty of company but no one you can talk to. Wouldn't you be lonely? wouldn't you long for someone to love you back? By having a friend it is closer to what they have naturally evolved and developed to live with in the wild. (If you do have one budgie, I don't think you are cruel, because I know you all spend time with your bubbies). I feel bad because I only have 3 budgies inside 1 gets to miss out on a girlfriend, however if I'm to bring in another, it would a) mean having to break up other relationships and be much more noisier. I'm happy in knowing that at least the extra is a boy so at least he will still flirt, and he still has other budgies to sing and play with, plus he's had babies before so he hasn't been completely deprived of a sex life (plus his last girlfriend was his daughter, I know that doesn't matter so much to them, but is still a little bit icky). Plus breeding is a natural driving force, birds that are breeding and are being bred responsibly are happy. That's why even for my bachelor bird in the aviary, (I know this sounds gross), I leave in his (yes HIS) plastic budgie so that he can have a sex life too (lol). He's an adult he has needs lol Also it states in many pet books that breeding, if done responsibly, will rarely produce a profit

yeah, put some of the fake eggs in with storm and she may learn that she can't smash them. I have a hen that does that. She lays it and as soon as she has she turns around and eats it.

Last time I checked I was the 11th highest poster and I've been on here for almost 3 years. LOL. Looks like I'm going to lose that spot soon. Slow and steady wins the race

They are gorgeous, very cute.

Here is some more of them playing today. Arkady included!!! Enjoying some millet Hey what you want? Actually I might sit there Bacardi and Arkady *floof* Arkady. He got a bit of a fright because just as I took this picture Bacardi and Izzy took off and had a little spaz around the room. These pictures appear really big, but I swear I put them to 450 by 350. Is confused

okay. That would be awesome if you could do that article Norm. Maybe others could contribute to it as well.

Good to hear they are picking up.

There is one sitting under my window that looks like a thistle. I'm too cautious to try it though. Is it a sow/milk thistle. Will my budgies live if I feed it to them? I probably still won't try it. The white specks are pretty pretty raindrops

Thanks Norm

Well as long as you buy birds with white faces you will not get any greens.