Elly

Welcome Julie , look forward to meeting your flock.

They are both very cute Your male is a Yellow Face Type 2 Sky Blue Recessive Pied Your female looks like a dark eyed clear but I am not completely sure I would need more pictures of the front and back. I remember in your breeding post you asked what type of mutations they were.

Yes for me and I think that is amongst many type of birds.

I am so glad you were able to get her to an avian vet although the news is not good you have a peace of mind that now you know what is wrong and the decision to make her happy and comfortable while she is with you is wonderful. Know that my heart goes out to you and that you are in my thoughts. Please keep us updated on Lucy.

The clearwing gene is recessive not sex-linked so both parents would need to carry the gene to produce off-spring that are clearwing. Also if you bred your recessive pied to another that is split for recessive pied you have chance of recessive pied babies. Just adding that too .

the budgie book is correct it says don't breed until they are at least 12 months is what you said so that is excellent advice

Bella is only about 4 months and i have a budgie book that advises against breeding young, advice...? should i take the nesting box out? Absolutely take out the box your babies are only babies themselves and are not mentally ready to breed. It is advised to wait until they are at least 12 months but many will wait at least 15 months to ensure a successful clutch. Please continue to read about breeding your budgies you have a good 10 months more to learn by staying here and watching others, following their journals, reading books etc...and our budgie breeders that are experienced can give you advice along the way when your budgies are old enough to breed. As for your link it just goes to photobucket and not any pictures. Welcome to the forms. As for the newspaper here in the US it is non-toxic in AU I am unsure.

it is amazing transformation when they molt out I love how clean they look and it truly brightens up their feathers you will see within in next couple moults that the yellow face 2 gene will spread on the body because of this some greens are actually YF2 blues but are mistaken for a green budgie.

Thank you Shawna I am glad you popped in . Thank you Birdluv

very nice and healthy too.

Looks like 2 little boys they are so cute Kaz

I would love to see a clearer picture of his cere since it is purplish pink? From the pictures he looks more like 5-6 months because he looks like he went through a first molt that is what is puzzling that his cere hasn't changed but some are late bloomers.

We must have a picture of them chowing down Bea

Thank you ladies....I agree is a handsome boy

I don't see you are adding the link on the post or the IMG coding. If you need help please ask, Kaz posted excellent instructions but even then at times we have questions so feel free .

Tinsel is so cute reminds me of Merlin when he was so little

thank you all...thanks Maise Pretty is so much still in my heart he was such a character very "stinky" he was typical pet type of budige. Merlin is so laid back

Really they should be in their cage all day. There have been incidents of budgies getting trapped behind dressers, flying in to walls quickly and hurting themselves they really need to be supervised during flight time.

and he must also be carrying the blue gene too

how old is he Chirpy?

Good thinking Kaz. I hate when I can't think of it but it is right there . I look forward to pics.

:(Laughing out loud): I know not funny but I pictured you looking at budgie bums okay that is cute on a serious note Kaz knows what she is talking about she is what I call "experienced" in the budgie field and would follow her advice if you don't feel comfortable medicating then again an avian vet trip is advised.

Instead of splitting them up which is stressful I would work on rearranging toys, perches and even give them foraging toys so they are busy. A lot of what you find is bored budgies with nothing to do. Sitting in the same cage day after day with no scenic change I am sure is quite boring .

I know it has been a while. I got a new camera for Christmas but he doesn't like it (Laughing out loud). He can tell the difference my old camera he flies on all the time and I can't get a picture but the new one he flies away. So I put him on the old camera and got pics with the new camera . It will be a year in March since Pretty died and Merlin has been an amazing tranformation. I can truly talk about what it is like to have 1 budgie, then 2 and then back to 1 budgie. Merlin now talks (like Pretty did when he was a sole budgie), he is very friendly, loves to flirt with me and loves to sit on my head and sing. He takes over the keyboard many times. Hope you enjoy. Oh and excuse the fuzzy head look he is just finishing up a terrible molt. I was so worried about him because he got very cranky, quiet and wasn't himself but he ended being okay. He is getting his poof back. The pictures are a little dark because I wanted to capture his violet coloring vs washing it out with the flash.

Bea I was thinking the same as you (Laughing out loud)...I thought it was you. Yes very normal preening is a friendship type of behavior just like in other species of animals . Pretty and Merlin loved to preen each other.