Sailorwolf

Look how tiny Emmett is compared to the other budgies. He is so light to. But he is is very good condition and because of his lightness, he can fly very well with just 2 feathers in each wing. He is even smaller than the youngest babies, who I thought were small. I guess he must have really small stock or bush budgie closer in his background.

I don't know, you'll have to wait for Daz, Kaz, Feathers or one of the more experienced showers to come on.

I meant new to the forums.

Ooops, well, your new, so I guess it still counts heheh

Vets base their opinions on the number of patients that come in. So he would be basing this theory on the fact that budgies with more mutations, come in sick, with congenital problems, more often than normal budgies. This isn't because they have these particular mutations, it means that with these mutations, other unseen mutations can be hidden and also mutation are usually bred into the population by inbreeding to start off with. Because a particular mutation will only occur in one animal. To get more animals with this mutation, you have to inbreed them. And thus generally the more mutations one animal carries, the more likely it is to carry genes that are identical by descent caused by inbreeding somewhere in their ancestry. My vet is an avian and wildlife vet (which in new Zealand wildlife is birds basically). I think just because he can't tell the difference between a Df Yellowface type 2 spangle and a lutino at a far glance (he didn't look at her eyes up close), doesn't mean there is anything wrong with him. (I thought she was a lutino to start off with) He doesn't need to know the mutations of budgies to be able to tell that they aren't normal coloured, he just needs to know what is normal and what he must do to make that budgie healthy. PS. I have heaps of sex-linked genes in my flock. Infact all my female babies have them. Out of my 6 girls only two don't have sex-linked genes. One of my little brats is both an opaline and a cinnamon

I don't know. I wouldn't think it would be fatal. A fatal gene, means that they can't have two copies of the gene or else they die and thus when parents carrying the fatal gene breed, the babies carrying both genes terminate before they are hatched or born, or just don't fertilize. There are also some fatal genes in chinchillas too and for them it means they abort them, I think. So usually they aren't born and then die, they usually die before birth or hatching, before they are fully developed. I'll have a look for you. Here is a quote from MedicineNet.com. This is a definition of a zygotic lethal gene. Lethal gene, zygotic: A gene that is lethal (fatal) for the zygote, the cell formed by the union of a sperm (male sex cell) and an ovum (female sex cell). The zygote would normally develop into an embryo, as instructed by the genetic material within the unified cell. However, a zygotic lethal gene scotches prenatal development at its earliest point. A zygotic lethal gene is a mutated (changed) version of a normal gene essential to the survival of the zygote. The extent of the mutation can range from a change in a single base in the DNA to deletion (loss) of the entire gene. Here is the definition of a lethal gene from the free online dictionary: Lethal gene - any gene that has an effect that causes the death of the organism at any stage of life cistron, gene, factor - (genetics) a segment of DNA that is involved in producing a polypeptide chain; it can include regions preceding and following the coding DNA as well as introns between the exons; it is considered a unit of heredity; "genes were formerly called factors" So I was wrong about any lethal gene having a terminantion in-utero. Only zygotic ones do that. Ah, here we go. It appears that it is lethal, quoted from centralpets.com http://www.centralpets.com/php/search/stor...ay.php?Story=24 : The Crested Budgie: There are at least three varieties of Crested Budgie. It should be noted that the gene that causes cresting is dominant. Two Crested Budgies should never be mated, as the 'double crest factor' resulting from such a mating is lethal. It doesn't go onto to say, where the lethal gene terminates the baby, but if it is a zygotic lethal gene, which it most probably would be, the two crested parents would still produce babies, just no double factor babies, so you would have half the amount of babies you would normally have.

She is a gorgeous colour. I love that bright green. And her opaline looks lovely. There was this gorgeous opaline bright green english male in the petshop I saw. I went away, thought about it, came back to buy him and he was gone. I so wanted him. But then I went off and bought Emmett, who is a bright green, just like your new girl, but he is a spangle.

Aawwwe, What sweeties. I think Figaro is a little boy. His cere looks very male in that first video of your last post.

I've bought 5 of my birds from petshops and the rest I have bred myself. My vet said that the more showier budgies and budgies with more mutations are more likely to get sick and have problems than more "normal" budgies. Like when I took Emmett and Saffron in to see him, he said that Emmett (who is a bright green spangle) would probably be healthier genetically than Saffron (who he thought was a Lutino, but I then told him she was a DF spangle yellowface type 2 mauve, with which he agreed that was worse). This is because budgies generally are quite inbred, especially the show ones, and the more different they are from the norm the more likely they are to get sick. Which is kinda funny, because the closest budgies I have to normal is Izzy, a sky blue normal, and Emmett, a bright green spangle. (Emmett is also a lot smaller than my other budgies, so he is probably more normal still, because Izzy is a bit of a fatty and a bit bigger). All my budgies are of the pet variety.

Awwe. I feel so sorry for him. Tell him he can come visit them. Or if he can't, send him photos and letters from the girls.

Our moult has just finished. Yay.

So how many pairs do yo have down now? and how many of those were unplanned?

Usually if they are younger than 4 months and have blue in their cere they are female.

Awwe, they are real cuties. How come he had to rehome them? Poor guy.

Hehe, how cute. They really are like pimples aren't they.

I hope she gets better for your and our sakes, she sounds like a real sweetheart. And if she is still having happy moments then I would think that she is still fighting this. Best wishes from me and the gang.

Are there any vet teaching hospitals round? They should charge less for a consultation than your other vet. I would get a second opinion if I was you. I'm lucky in that I have a veterinary teaching hospital 10 minutes away with 2 avian vets, with the best equipment available and I get my consultations free, because I am a vet student. So if there is a teaching unit close by, go there. Poor Sara, she sounds like an absolute wonder. I was thinking, when the lump was big, did she still stand on that leg? Cause if that leg was sore then she would overcompensate and put all her weight on her other leg making that one sore too. In regards to the flight issue, this could be because she hasn't flown in a while and her muscle may be weak. I have some pudgie budgies who are finding it a bit hard to fly, just because they are fat. (I also have skinny budgies too, these ones just eat more than they should!). So hopefully that would be the issue, but like my vet said (and I consider him a really good vet) when he was x-raying my 5 year old budgie "5 years is considered very old for a budgie" and he knows they live longer in the wild, because I queried that. So your little 7 year old is doing quite well. Just give her lots of hugs and cuddles, and keep doing what you are doing, you are an excellent mum. :glare:

Daz you'll just have to make another set for yourself then won't you.

That is a gorgeous gorgeous set up. I am so jealous and your birds are so beautiful. I love the violets pieds they are lovely.

Yes I think your new budgie is a DF dominant pied boy, because the wing markings are up higher than a recessive pied and he has the big giant head spot that dom pieds have. His markings are also very definate too. he's a real cutie. On trusting petshops, when I went to buy Arkady they said he was a girl. Silly people. I knew he was a boy though and he has proven that time and again. (Laughing out loud), especially now that he has his blue cere and has fathered two adorable chicks.

Well if you put Sunny outside with the other two and you don't want to leave Bobby alone, then that is a good excuse to get another budgie hehe.

Wow I love Beep's colouring it is gorgeous. I like her patterning. What kind of mutation is that? Is it a form of pied? Hens love to chew. My little brats have successfully destroyed a ladder and are starting on their spiral staircase perch now.

It's a bit hard to tell due to the flash. Do you have another picture? How old is the budgie?

The best kind of greens are green leafy vegetables, like spinach, as these are a rich source in vitamin D which helps to fix calcium in animal's bodies. This is particularly good during breeding. Eggs are also a good source of calcium and protien.

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