Sailorwolf

Congratulations!!!! Good effort, he looks lovely.

The only problem with light is mixing colours doesn't work like paint. Paint primary colours are red, blue and yellow. Light primary colours are red , blue and green. In our eyes we have three coloured recepters called cones. There is a red cone which only recieves red light, a green cone which only recieves green light and a blue cone which only recieves blue light. TVs work on this same principle. The electrode cathode ray Tvs (however you say that!) have only red, green and blue lights, but they manage to make yellow and purple and orange colours! Yellow is produced by red and green light mixing together. I don't know what produces violet for us. Perhaps it is blue and red, but that might make another colour. Humans are trichromatic (can see 3 colours, red, blue and green) in their colour perception generally and birds are tetrachromatic (they can see 4 colours, red, green, blue and UV), although it is not uncommon for some women to be tetrachromatic. So girls some of you out there can probably see some form of UV light! So if the pink was to be produced by light reflecting crystallised structure of feathers it may not come from the violet. Although I would think it would anyway. Thus the colour red may be produced by some other means that we may not have even thought about yet. Onto Mutations: DNA can mutate any time. Infact each of us have many thousands of mutations in us at the moment and we will just continue to accrue more. The thing with budgies is that they could have a mutation in their DNA that could change the structure of the feather or the protein to reflect red. this could happen randomly and may happen in just one feather follicle on a bird, or in one area of the bird or the entire bird. The mutation may be somatic, meaning that it occurred in the body cells and will not be passed on to its young as body cells are not involved in reproduction. The mutation could occur while it was an embryo, a foetus an adult bird or and elderly bird. However if the mutation were to occur in gametes, the cells that produce eggs and sperm, the mutation will be passed down. It may not be seen in the parent bird where it originated from, but the offspring bird will carry this mutation in every single cell in its body, including its gametes and thus it can pass the mutation down. The mutation that occurs may be a new mutation or it could cause a throwback to a previous mutation that existed in the bird's ancestors. i.e. the mutation that caused it to be more budgie-like may be reversed by a new mutation to make it seemingly revert to a previous colour. What I mean is that somewhere in the budgie's ancestry there may have been a red bird. A mutation could have occurred that caused this red to either be hidden or changed to yellow (or some other colour). A mutation in a present day budgie may cause the previous mutation to revert, causing a genetic throwback and a red budgie. This can happen in humans too. One example that I think fits is when humans develop more than one set of nipples. Mammals have a mammary line that runs down both sides of their ventrum and is very well observed on dogs and cats. Humans have it too, however nipples are only ever stimulated to grow up the top. But if something goes wrong humans can grow nipples all the way along this mammary line and look like a dog. This is a throwback to our pre-primate days. We still have the mammary line left over, but it isn't used. So a red budgie is definitely possible, it just depends how many mutations need to occur to produce and then show the red colouring

Yes my DF spangle baby had a very deep green suffusion. When his pin feathers were coming through I thought he was going to have a green tummy even!

That's awesome! Good on you and all the hard work you've put in! This forum is slowly building up its vet numbers. How long is the course over there? 5 years for Aussies and Kiwis. I have some Canadians and Americans in my class and they say the whole time they spend at uni is 8 years over there!!!

And then you have the question of whether the test bird you put in with the "carrier" bird actually contracts the disease. Mind you if a bird can carry the disease and not be affected by it, it may actually have some good genes to bring into the population. so that you could breed a whole aviary of psittacosis resistant birds. Although of course you would treat the carrier first so it wouldn't spread any disease.

I don't know about tangelos. But poplar trees and eucalyptus trees are good. Apple and pear trees too. I had a whole heap of eucalyptus trees (gum trees) in our gully at home which I would use to make perches with. The two main types of wood I use are eucalypt and poplar. Here is an absolutely awesome site with all the safe woods and all the poisonous ones: http://www.mdvaden.com/bird_page.shtml What is a tangelo again? I always got them confused with some citrus fruit, are they citrus? According to that site citrus is okay.

Wow you are good setting them free (I know your a huge animal lover). I was just getting a little upset at people calling them horrible and nasty and murderous. I use humane snap traps and still get a pang of guilt in my tummy when I catch them, but I think, "them or my birds" and I chose my birds.

The boys look like they are swimming in that cage!!! So much room for 2. It'll soon fill up though and I bet they're loving all the extra space!

While I don't like rats and mice in my house and around my birds (currently have mice around my cage and have trapped and killed one) as they prey on your pets and can spread disease (any wild animal can spread disease though). You have to remember that they are wild animals that are trying to survive, just like a fox praying on chickens or lions on sheep, so they are just as murderous as we are. I personally love pet rats (used to have a couple) and found they were very smart and very clean and they definitely kept the mice away (they eat mice and mice are naturally scared of the smell). However in this circumstance you have to choose between your pets and the rat and it is better to kill 1 rat than let it kill several pets. When I see a wild rat I get a fright and don't like to go near them (as you would with many wild animals). They are very good predators and I have lost some baby bunnies and pet mice to wild rats in the past, but I respect them and acknowledge that we are also living in their homes as I'm sure many people here do.

That's so horrible. Poor family. When I read that it sent shivers down my spine.

That is sad about the first guy. How horrible that is and how stupid of the newspaper. The second guy should have gotten hold of the parents of the albino bird. Because that mutation may have occurred after it was conceived meaning the mutation is in the somatic cells of the body and can't be passed down to next birds, although it may have a genetic predisposition to developing the mutation. The parents may create babies that are genetically predisposed to mutating this way. But if the mutation occured in the somatic cells with no genetic influence then the mutation won't be passed on to its young. It would be awesome to have a red budgie.

I like Donatello

Oh wow, what a lovely story. Some people out there are so wonderful.

Budgies seem to get that from time to time. I don't think anyone knows what causes it, but it doesn't mean anything and often goes away or comes back. I think it might be grease

Yeah I hear kookaburras quite often. You know what's weird, I'm not in Australia!!!

It is quite common. I don't know anything about showing though

Yay, what good news!

Now that I've seen it it doesn't look like it could be a yolk, however I can't be sure with out actually holding the bird in my hand. Their skin is very see through, you can see their organs normally. So I would think that you could see a yolk too. Chryso: I guess a lipoma could happen anyway even in a healthy bird, just less likely. Cause a neoplasm is when the cells aren't under any control and they do what they like. Get her checked out. Bring babies along.

Haha yes Nicknack they can fly. Although for some it can be tough getting the height. lol Elly, you can see in the background of Bacardi and Arkady there is a hamster wheel. None of them have used it since Saffy passed away though. Jimmy. Alo is short for Alopex which is the latin name for Artic fox. He looks so snowy, so I thought it suited him The problem birds at the moment are Itha and Kito who are very fat. Emmett has always managed to stay skinny though and Alo isn't doing to badly.

She looks pretty perky. Just keep an eye on her. It does kinda look like a yolk. (I don't know for sure) Saffy had one and she was fine. But just keep an eye on it.

It could be a yolk that did not move into her uterus and is now floating around her abdomen, if this is the case 2 things could happen. It will be reabsorbed, or she could get peritonitis. I think it is a yolk, maybe because it is yellow. Is it hard?? If it is then it can't be a yolk. Does it move around? Does she look distressed? How is her breathing? Listen to it. what does her breathing sound like? caution: Do not give antibiotics if they are not prescribed and you do not know how to use them or for what. This is quite dangerous and can result in a mass infection of your flock with a resistant bacteria in the worst case scenario.

That sounds awesome Chryso!!! Guess what. I had a path test on Monday too. I don't think any of the stuff regard your uni will reach us. Sounds like you had a better week this week. Mine has just been full of tests. Cry. parasitology practical test on thursday.

They are most fat. My parents looked after them over the summer and fed them solely on seed bells . My mum says she likes seed bells, because she doesn't have to worry about forgetting to feed them or getting confused over husks. She is scared she will kill them, so prefers fatties to dead birds. Cause she knows I would come down on her like a house of bricks if any died. Here are the rest of the pics that it wouldn't let me post: Isis Robbie Nikio Alo Bacardi

Here's some pictures of my flock enjoying their enforced time out ( the little fatties don't want to come out much lately) Arkady. Look at how much weight he's lost!!! Compared to before: Fatness abound. My very own flying tennis ball!! Izzy Alo, Emmett, Izzy and Albert Izzy and Albert. The flash was just a little too bright for Izzy Arkady Bacardi and Arkady Isis, Robbie and Kito Izzy and Itha Alo and Emmett. Emmett is missing some tail feathers. it's moult time and everyone is looking a bit uglier than usual Nikio and Albert Alo and Robbie on the play gym Bacardi. Look you can see how plum her eyes are. She is a cinnamon, but it is disguised by her opaline spangleness Arkady. Compare his eye with Bacardi's. Arks is a normal boy.Sorry they came out huge. Just fixing

I was going to say, I hope you get paid for it. but oh well. I hope you enjoy it.