Sailorwolf

Oh, good.

Aspen should be okay as it is a hard wood. Idon't like the idea of pine unless it has been aired for a while as it is a soft wood and has fumes, that aren't very good for rodents, let alone baby budgies. Aspen is a hard wood and doesn't have this problem. If you do use pine, you should air it out for a few days before using it. And never use cedar, it is worse than pine.

I would say it's a girl

Don't worry about it. If she is a first time mum, she probably won't have much of a clue. Wait it out.

I can't resist looking. I always have to look and then I feel sad afterwards, because I want them all.

It is hard to tell when you breed with an ino, because the ino phenotype masks all the other traits. So basically... you could get any thing. But no inos. (Laughing out loud) Until the next generation. Oh and half or all of your babies will have the violet gene. And you will have no green budgies.

They like the feel of it in their mouth. When I first picked Arkady in the petstore, he was harassing all the poor cockateils by pulling and nibbling their tail feathers as they tried to get away. Such a brat

I learnt to give them more outside time, and feed them a better diet. They love apples and dandelion. I have changed their seed to a better brand, with a greater variety of seeds, pellets and fruit chunks, which they kindly throw to the floor. And they now have 3 play gyms!! They didn't used to have any. Also I have learnt that 2 is not enough. :(Laughing out loud): and that there is always a cage better than the one you have at the moment. I can't upgrade anymore or else their cage will be as big as my room. :(Laughing out loud):

I looks like you have two recessive pieds there So you will get 100% recessive pieds It is hard to tell whether the yellow is a full yellow or a yellowface. I think full yellow. In that case all or half of your babies will be yellow based, depending on whether you male is split for white based or not. Looks like all of your babies will be grey as well or grey green.

Cool, keep us posted

Well he may be just a bit confused, because all the info we have given him has been in bit and pieces etc. okay First of all. Your new budgies. I happy to see them in a seperate cage from the others, that is good. First though, you should put the two cages in seperate rooms, this is so that if the babies are carrying any diseases they won't pass them on to your old budgies. You should keep them sperate for 1 month, (4weeks) in that time any diseases that they should be carrying will show and you can deal with it without the others getting infected. okay. Your second pair of budgies, your older pair are too young to breed at the moment. Both budgies in the pair must be at least 12 months old to start breeding. So take the nest box out. In 5 months time you can breed them, which should be their breeding season and you will have healthier chicks then too. In one months time after quarintine of your new budgies is over, you can introduce them to each other and keep them in one cage. In regards to breeding all your budgies when they are in the same cage. You can do this, but it is generally not advisable, because the hens will fight with each other, destroy each others eggs and chicks etc. So when you want to breed them you should breed them in seperate cages. This will make it safer for both mother and babies of each pair. I hope that helps.

Haha, yes, good Idea.

Hehe. Use pencil, it doesn't wash off so easily. Apparently it is a virus: polyomavirus. I don't know how it works. I read about it in Australian Birdkeeper magazine

Haha, juggling act. Sounds like a puzzle.

Where did the 11 month old female come from? Just as long as your new birds are not in with your original birds. If you want reason's for quarintine, just ask Karen about what happened to her birds when she didn't quarintine.

I would say the carrier would be the mother of the chicks with french moult, because it is passed from mother to baby.

You won't get any greens as you only have white based budgies. All of your babies will be pied though.

That is so sad. Kirby, don't blame yourself, even if you had ridden with her for that little bit longer it still probably wouldhave happened. Budgiebird, I am also sorry to hear about that as well.

Read budgiebird's post on this topic, I replied to that one.

Firstly it is not a good idea to breed two pairs in one cage, as they will fight and kill each others babies. Yes take out the box

okay firstly DO NOT kill them. I have just read an article in the Australian BirdKeeper magazine about French moult. Baby budgies are incredibly lucky in that they tend to survive very well, grow all their feathers back and appear normal as an adult. Their only problems are that they will have deformed flight feathers (which is quite hard to tell apart from normal flight feather) this means they can't fly and ar commonly termed "runners" or "creepers". French moult or polyomavirus, is carried by adult birds (it does'not affect them) and passed on to babies. It (the virus) disappears in 6 months. The article suggests, rather than cleaning and bleaching your nest boxes, you should burn them instead. This is the only way. And to clean out you avairies immensely. The reason why I say this, is I believe that I have a budgie that had french moult. I as an unsuspecting young bird lover, bought her, without knowing anything( plus the petshop assistant clipped her wings when I bought her). Now four years down the track, I think she had french moult when she was a baby, as she has never been able to fly, and her flight feathers are slightly curled in at the ends and her tail feathers stick out at odd angles. She is the yellow DF spangle in my siggy. I am very annoyed at the breeder who sold a diseased budgie to a petshop who in turn sold it to me who as a young enthusiast (who had no idea what french moult was) bought her expecting her to be able to fly and have fun. I do not regret, buying her, although she is a grump who can't fly, but she is absolutely adorable. My point is, don't cull your babies, they can still go on to live a great life. Just seperate them and parents from the rest of the flock for 4 months. Have them retested for the virus and then quarintine them for a further 4 weeks, before reintroducing them. Remember where there is life there is hope.

Your budgies are too young to breed. You must wait until both the male AND the female are 12 months old. At 7 months they are still babies themselves. Also it is not a good idea to put more than one pair together in a cage with one nest box. And yes you should quarintine your new budgies for 30 days.

Kirby, what I posted in my first post is whhat you will get. It is correct. I did not get your two birds confused. Chico is not an opaline, because he does not have any of his body colour on his wings. I'm doing genetics as part of my vet exam, so I do know a bit about it. Also just because chico's mum and siblings are opaline doesn't mean he is. You said his father was a normal? Then chico will be split for opaline and you should get the ratio I proposed in my first post if chico was split. Remember, opaline is recessive. It is generally the father who determines what kinds he will get as babies in regards sex linked chromosomes.

What lovey said first was right. You can't be split for a dominant gene, because when a dominant gene is present, it will always show. YF is dominant. Greens, should be able to carry the YF gene, it just isn't visible, because they already have a yellow face.

Thanks. Yeah study is good. Exams in two weeks!!!!!! aaaaaagh