PAdoula

Your babies look very similar to mine. They are all opaline hens from a violet double factor spangle opaline cock and a normal cobalt hen. As you can see, the spangle marking vary. The are beautiful birds, just wish their violet coloring showed better in the photo.

Sorry to be reviving such an old post, but for other people like me, who are always looking for natural cleaners that work well - Please note that this product is "Grapefruit SEED Extract"... Washing up your aviary with Grapefruit Juice Extract would lead to a very sticky bird room!

Gwen suffered a stroke almost 6 months ago. She lost most of the movement on one side. The vet didn't think she was in any pain, but he also didn't expect her to live much longer. I moved her and her mate into a cage with low perches and ladders that she was able to climb and perch on, and made sure she kept warm and well fed. Her mate, Jaleh (the blue budgie in my profile photo), took excellent care of her. She lived longer than anyone expected, and I am greatful for the extra time we were able to have with her.

My dear little creamino Gwen, lovingly known as "Gwen, Gwen - The Big Fat Hen", passed away this morning. She was a sweet bird and a wonderful mama to numerous chicks. Her mate, Jaleh, is at a loss without her... As are we all.

I have a budgie named Ceinwen. It is Welsh(the name, not my bird) and means fair, white, lovely. My Ceinwen is either a "poor" albino or a "poor" fallow. It's hard to tell. She's a beautiful bird no matter what. Right now she has 5 chicks, but some day I'm going to post pictures and see what others think she is. My other birds are: Sun - Named by my daughter Skye - Named by my daughter Phoebe - Means "Bright" or "Radiant" in Greek. From my favorite book growing up, "Eight Cousins" by Lousia May Alcott. Phoebe was the housekeeper's assistant and good friend to Rose, the novel's heroine. Jaleh - A friend's name that I love. Jaleh is Persian and means "Rain" Pretty Bird - He's, well, a pretty bird Aolani - Hawaiian for "Cloud from Heaven" Aleta - Greek, "Small winged one" Ayddenyd - Welsh, "Winged" Bronwyn - Welsh, "White Breasted" Azure - "Sky Blue" Leftover - From a clutch of 6 that I had found loving homes for all but the last sweet bird Orion and Andromeda - Rescued birds I adopted from the local SPCA. The names just fit. Gwenhwyvar - Welsh, "White (holy, fair) and smooth" Liadan - Irish, "Gray Lady" - She's actually mauve, but I couldn't find a name meaning "Mauve Lady" Quetzalcoatl - Aztec god of the sky name meaning "Feathered Serpent" Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego - All birds from "my" very first clutch Princess Blue Heart - Dominant Pied with a perfect blue heart shape on her breast Eirlys - Welsh, "Snow Drop". A beatiful name for this albino beauty Hazel - Named after my grandmother Wind Dancer - My only Show type budgie. Named for the aviary where he was raised RIP Glynis who passed away just before Christmas. Welsh "Holy, Pure" or "Valley" RIP Ocean - My very first bird who started my love (obsession) with budgies I think that's everyone, except for the new chicks. Nine so far and more to come. PAdoula

Unfortunately, he was already clipped when I picked him up. None of my other budgies are clipped, and I have almost 40. My avian vet knows my feelings on wing clipping, so he was surprised to see the clipped wings, too. I literally had not seen this bird before I picked him up. I was on the waiting list and when my name came up I was given the opportunity to get the next blue/violet male available (which is what I wanted). The breeder discribed the bird to me, but didn't have photo's available and didn't mention that the bird would be clipped (and it never even cross my mind to ask). Fortunately, the clipped wings will be taken care of along with the missing half of his beard after his next molt. Please note that I am not trying to start a debate on the merits of clipping/not clipping. Everyone needs to do what they feel is best for them and their birds Warmly, PAdoula

I am thrilled to introduce my new budgie Wind Dancer. He is my first show type budgie. The larger budgies are extremely difficult to find in rural central Pennsylvania, and I was on a waiting list for a long time. His hatch date is 05/11/07 (or 11/05/07 for those of you who think we write our dates backward in the U.S.). He was hand fed by a breeder who lives about 2 hours away from me. Here is a picture of his parents: They are both cinnamon blues and look much more gray in this picture than they do in real life. And here is Wind Dancer: He is a cinnamon sky blue, with a lot of violet showing through, especially around his neck and rump. He is also my first hand raised/fed baby and such a sweetheart. Unfortunately, when I picked him up he had hand rearing formula on the right side of his beard that had dried hard and the breeder was unable to remove. She had cut off part of his beard in an attempt to remove it. I was unable to remove the part that remained and when I took him in for his "New Bird" check up with my avian vet he was also unable to remove it, so he ended up having a vet tech snip the rest of it off with a pair of surgical scissors. Now the poor thing is almost completely beardless on that side. Luckily, I was able to get some pictures from his "good" side, but in the third picture you can see what it looked like before the food was removed by the vet. Poor thing... Oh well, nothing his next molt shouldn't take care of. Warmly, PAdoula P.S. I love the site updates - The only bad thing about it was having to wait to post about my new boy!

I went to check on the babies today. I looked at the youngest one, Sunny, yep definitely looks like another girl. Then I just happened to glance at Gabrielle... What's this? Dark head stripes and no "V" of color between the wings??? Gabrielle is a boy! Don't know how I missed that. I would have sworn that I could see blue coming in between the shoulders and that his head stripes looked opaline. Here are pictures of my boy, who has been renamed "Handsome" by my daughter. Thanks for looking! PAdoula

Well enjoying might not be the word that I use for it. It is hot, humid, plus now were are having severe thunderstorms. At least we are getting some rain, which we badly needed. I would be willing to travel quite a distance for the right bird, no question. There is a breeder about an hour and a half away who raises show budgies who has one on hold for me that she is hand feeding. They are very difficult to come by here in rural PA. I would have been willing to travel much farther to get this bird if necessary. I can't wait! PAdoula

Believe me, no apology necessary. Yes, so far all females have been opaline and all males non opaline. I think I mentioned that in my original post, but it was near the end and easy to miss. If you go through the responses you'll see that I just posted a couple pictures of this pairs previous clutches with both non opaline males and opaline females. The last chick may end up not being opaline. It needs to feather up a little bit more before I know for sure. I can't tell you how much I appreciate your (and everybody elses) responses. And I know from other lists that I'm on how difficult it can be to communicate through email/posts - Which is why I so rarely do it Thanks again for your reply! PAdoula

It's my understanding that a hen can't be split to opaline. My lutino hen could be masking opaline, but if she was wouldn't it mean that both sons and daughters should be visually opaline since the male is also opaline? This pair has only had non opaline males and opaline females in their previous clutches so it is my assumption that the hen isn't opaline ~ But hey, I'm fairly new to breeding and still learning, so I could be wrong! Thanks! PAdoula

LOVELY! What state are you in? Are you goignt o sell any babies? If so I'd love the to almost fully feathered here because they look like my bird I've had since I was two and he is 11 now and I love his color/pattern.If your in ohio I'll scream in joy....(Laughing out loud). Hi Clouds - Unfortunately I'm in Pennsylvania, so I'm close but probably not close enough for you to scream If you're ever in central PA look me up and we'll talk budgies. PAdoula

Thanks to everyone for the compliments on my newest babies. The picture of the littlest one does make it look like a lutino, but it's a dominant pied with just a tiny amount of black on its wings. Here are some better photos: If this had been this pairs first time breeding I would have assumed that my lutino hen was also opaline, but she's had two previous clutches with non opaline males: Last year she had two non opaline dominant pied males and a green opaline female: And her first clutch from this year with two non opaline males and three opaline females: So up until this clutch she had been producing 50/50 opaline and non opaline. I love the fact that I never know what I'm going to get from this pair. Thanks again for looking! PAdoula

Here are a few picture of my 3rd breeding pairs chicks. Liaden is a normal either cobalt or mauve (hard to tell depending on the light) hen and Phoebe is a dominant pied cobalt: I had originally had Liaden in with a opaline normal green male (Quetzalcoatl). They had two babies. A few days after the 2nd chick hatched I found Quetzal laying on the bottom of the breeding cage. I took him to my avian vet who couldn't find anything wrong with him. He was treated for exhaustion and was doing much better in a few days. The chicks were very young and I didn't want to put Quetzal back in with them and I didn't have a breeding pair at the right stage to foster them. I decided to move Liaden and the nest box with the chicks into my large aviary cage with several males. None of them had ever been fathers, but Phoebe stepped up and took over Quetzal's roll. Just before the 2nd chick fledged I found an egg in the nest box. Soon there were 10 eggs resulting in 8 babies. I was concerned at first about their being so many babies, but the parents did a great job taking care of their large brood. The oldest two chicks have fledged so they are harder to photograph. Both are cobalt blue with just the tiniest pied spots: All babies are dominant pieds except for one normal. The oldest five are cobalt while the younger three seem to be mauves: I kept the nest box in the large aviary with the other males who have also helped with the feeding. I would never normally colony breed, but this was an unusual circumstance. I have found these babies to be much more nippy (ouch!). Thanks for looking! PAdoula

Here are some pictures of my 2nd breeding pairs four chicks. Gwen is a type II yellowface albino hen either masking recessive pied or split to it. Jaleh is a normal sky blue split to opaline and recessive pied. Jaleh and Gwen: Names in order of individual pictures: Venus, Fairlight, Cinderella (Cindi) and Mystical (Misty): Their first round chicks were a sky blue type II yellowface normal, two sky blue opalines, and a type II yellowface recessive pied. I was surprised by the recessive in the first round (it was the first time breeding for both birds), and I was even more surprised when their second round produced all recessive pieds. I wished the younger two's coloring photographed better because they are gorgeous! Thanks for looking! PAdoula

I usually just read the posts and pop on to ask an occasional questions, but I'm so thrilled with the second round of babies for my three nesting pairs that I thought that I'd share. Here are mom and dad. This is an old picture so they are not this young. Aleta is a lutino split to blue hen and Adenydd is a blue type II yellowface dominant pied opaline. and here are their six babies: So far all chicks seem to be opaline hens. I know that Aleta isn't opaline because I've gotten normals from this pair in the past. My daughter has named them (in same order as pictures) Princess, Emerald, Beauty, Krystal, Gabrielle, and Sunny. Princess is a sweetheart and I don't know if I'll be able to part with her. Thanks for looking! PAdoula

This is my nursery cage so it also contains 5 babies from another pair. The sky blue baby with the head spot is from Aleta (lutino female) and Adynedd (cobalt blue, type II yellowface, opaline, dominant pied, clearflight). This clutch produced (1) normal looking sky blue male with tiny head spot, (1) opaline dominant pied light green female, (1) opaline dominant pied dark green female, (1) cobalt blue dominant pied male, and (1)cobalt blue opaline female. As far as the sky blue with the tiny head spot, I have read that it could mean dominant pied, split for recessive, or that sometimes spangles have them (I know that he isn't a spangle). Any thoughts on this? Thanks! PAdoula Thanks for the great reply. When I first was trying to figure out this baby's mutation, I thought that it was a recessive pied because it looked so much like my Aolani (except for Aolani not being a yellowface): But then I started to second guess myself, since I thought the odds of my normal looking male being split to recessive and my creamino hen either masking recessive pied or being split to recessive just weren't that great. Warmly, PAdoula

Hello everyone - I am looking for some help regarding the mutations of the parents of some of my new babies. The parents are: Jaleh (Male) and Gwen Jaleh is visually a normal sky blue and Gwen is a type II yellowface albino (creamino). Gwen's eyes photographed dark in the picture, but they are definitely red. These birds had 4 babies in their first clutch, a normal sky blue type II yellowface, two sky blue opalines, and a sky blue type II yellowface dominant pied. Can I assume from the babies that Jaleh is split to opaline and that Gwen's albinism is masking dominant pied (and possibly opaline)? And as for the babies, if Jaleh is split to opaline, then only females can be opaline and males will all be split to ino and half should also be split to opaline. If Gwen's albinism is also masking opaline, then both males and females can be opaline, with non opaline males being split to opaline and ino, and opaline males just being split to ino. Just writing this paragraph made my head hurt! Is my thinking correct or am I totally off base? Thanks for any help! PAdoula

Thanks HurdyBirdy - These are my first babies and I am amazed by the different colors and fascinated by the genetics. Thanks to everyone who has answered my posts and helped me get a handle (a little bit :sad: ) on the genetics. PAdoula

Hi Nerwen, Thank you so much for your response. I think that I used the wrong terminology. I know that the hen couldn't be split for opaline, but it's my understanding that a Lutino could be masking opaline. Is that correct? Thanks! PAdoula

What a difference a week makes! Here is a new picture of my three babies. So far I think...Shadrach is pale yellow with a yellow face, blue markings and a dominant pied patch, Meshach is green opaline (I don't see a dominant pied patch), and Abednego is bright yellow, possibly with green markings coming in (hard to tell at this point), and a dominant pied patch. I'm still trying to get a handle on the genetics. My understanding is that since Shadrach has blue than his mom must be masking/split to blue (she's the Lutino in my first post). Also, since the dad is opaline I was told that any daughters would also be opaline unless the mother was split to opaline, then males could be too. I know that Meshach is opaline, but what about the other two? I am confused by them having normal looking head bars which I thought would mean they aren't opaline, but at the same time they have very little wing markings so they seem to have the V of color between their wings. Thanks in advance for any help. PAdoula

Here are the first pictures of my new babies. Any guesses as to their mutations? I've heard that sometimes you can tell by the dark markings on the chicks if they are going to be opaline, etc. No names picked out yet. I'm calling them Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego until they are older and get their "real" names. Shadrach Meshach Abednego Picture of Mom and Dad (When they were much younger) Dad Adenydd - Blue, Clearflighted Dominant Pied and Opaline Mom Aleda - Lutino So, what do you think? Thanks for looking. ~ PAdoula

Thank you so much for your responses. So, to make sure that I have this straight: Males should be clearflighted dominant pied split to lutino and split to opaline. Colors should be green unless possibly blue if mom is hiding a blue gene or lutino if dad is split to lutino. Daughters should be opaline like their father. Will daughters also be clearflighted dominant pieds (and opaline) like their father? Will only daughters be opaline (in other words, if it’s opaline I know it’s a female)? Now my question is if I get any males and eventually breed them to a normal green hen would I get lutino and opaline daughters? Once again, thank you in advance for your assistance. I'll keep you updated as to what I eventually end up with. Usually I’m pretty good at figuring out genetics. The fact that Adenyyd is both dominant pied and opaline seems to be throwing me off! ~ PAdoula

Hello Everyone, My lutino hen, Aleda, has laid her first clutch and now has 3 adorable babies. The dad, Adenydd, is a blue, type I yellow face, clearflighted dominant pied, and opaline. Am I correct in thinking that any males from this pair will be split to ino? (I would eventually like to breed some inos). The more research I do the more unsure I am as to how the rest of the male characteristics apply. I am assuming that the chicks will be green, unless mom is hiding a blue gene. Should half of the chicks be opaline? (Since there are only 3 chicks I’d like to see the one that’s only half opaline!) I suppose that I could just wait a couple of weeks and then I’d know for sure what they are going to look like… But the guessing is so much fun! I don’t have any recent pictures, but here is a link to an old picture just so you can see what the parents look like. http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c236/padoula/DSCF0049.jpg Thanks in advance for any help. ~ PAdoula

Hello all - I never post (I think my first and only post was back in January), but I could use some assistance. I went to my local SPCA yesterday to drop off some donations and saw they had two little budgies. These poor little things were in a cage that was much too large for them, placed between two doors where people and animals were coming and going all day and dogs constantly barking. To give the SPCA credit, they knew that it wasn't the best environment for these little birds, but they were doing the best they could. Well, of course I couldn't leave the poor things there so I had to bring them home with me. My budgie family had already grown from 10 to 12 from the last time I posted (a pretty little creamino "Guinevere" and a normal cobalt "Azure"). I could use some help with identifications, especially for Andromeda (Annie) the white and yellow bird. She looks just like my Guinevere, except her eyes aren't red. Is there such a thing as a darkeyed clear yellowface type II? Her eyes are definitely not red. I'd really appreciate any guidance. The second bird, Orion (Orrie), is sky blue. In the picture his cere looks brown, but it's actually blue and his stripes look black but they are actually more on the gray side, but not as much as the dilute/greywing birds I aready have. Here is a picture of my Gwen: http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c236/padoula/Gwen.jpg Hard to tell from this photo, but she definitely has red eyes. Now here is Andromeda: Her coloring is almost exactly the same as Gwen's, but her eyes are definitely black And Orion (not a very good photo): Please note that the pictures of Annie and Orrie were taken at the SPCA. These are not the conditions these two sweet little birds are living in now. I did not take any new pictures because these birds are stressed and I want to give them time to acclimate to their new surroundings. Thanks for any help! PAdoula