Rainbow

***bump*** Nerwen, if you get a chance??....pretty please?

The official definition of a rainbow budgie is a yellowface opaline whitewing blue. I think Belle may be a Rainbow. Her wings look grey, but it is very difficult to get a whitewing with actual white wings. I think she is a poorly marked whitewing, and I base my opinion in part on the color of her tail. It is close to normal, and whitewings have normally colored tails. Clearflights have white tails to go with their white wings. I have a link to a rainbow breeder's site, but it is not up now, so will post it later if you want it. But Belle looks similar to many birds on the site. I think Blossom is a dominant pied. She is also opaline, which may be causing some confusion. You may have to look closely for iris rings, as they are not always readily apparent. My Blueberry will be 3 in February, and she still appears to have baby black button eyes (so cute!). But she does have barely-there iris rings, and I am positive she is dominant pied.

An opaline does not have the normal stripes on the back between the wings. Where the stripes normally are, is only the body color of the bird. This gives the distinct appearance of a "V" shape when viewed from behind. It is difficult to find a "clean" opaline. Also, the color of the edges of the shell marking feathers on the wings will be the base color of the bird, and not the head color, which is usually the case. Opaline also changes the barring on the head of the bird, so that instead of showing up in evenly spaced rows as a normal budgie, they come in looking "off center", and not marked as well. Reverse barring is a good term Dingo. The barring is also not as dark as is normal. The best opaline I had was Mystery, she had the cleanest back with almost no barring between her wings at all. this picture is a bit dark, but you can clearly see her back and the "V" shape everyone describes. You can't see as well, but the feathers on her wings are edged in the body color and not yellow, which is her head color. Here is the one from above, it shows the coloring of her wings a little better. Here is a picture of the normal barring on a budgie, compared with the barring on an opaline. I have used Blueberry as an example of an opaline, as the black markings on her wings are of normal intensity, so you can tell how much the opaline gene lightens the barred feathers on the head. You can also see how the barred feathers do not form even lines on the head, like they do in a normally marked bird. Both of these birds have head spots of about the same size. I hope that helps.

LOL. Too funny!

Riebie, I personally think that all birds need a wide variety to stay healthy. Since you won't really know what an older bird grew up on, I would supplement that variety with a good high-potency pellet like Harrison's to replenish whatever they may be lacking in. The fun part will be getting them to eat it. As far as books go, I have two favorites. "The Healthy Bird Cookbook, A Lifesaving Nutritional Guide and Recipe Collection" by Robin Deutsch. It is copyright 2004 by T.F.H. Publications, Inc. Also "Holistic Care for Birds, A Manual of Wellness and Healing" by David McCluggage, DVM and Pamela Leis Higdon. It is copyright 1999 by Howell Book House (IDG Books Worldwide, Inc.). The second one has a nutrition section in it, but is more a general care book.

That's a good question Dingo. Referencing your other thread about DF dominant pieds, I can tell you the two full-bodied greywing normals that I got came from a type 2 yellowface australian variegated pied hen and a type 2 goldenface dominant pied dilute opaline clearflight cock. They both must have been split to greywing. I can also surmise at least one of them carried the violet factor, as I got 2 visual violets and a light lavender/blue dilute also. Not knowing what stock they came from, I have no way of knowing their heritage. There is such thing as a dilute greywing, but I think of that term as describing two different types and both are better described in other terms than dilute greywing. The first is just called a dilute as the body color and wing color is usually diluted by the same percentage, and if very light it is hard to call whether the bird is greywing or diluted normal. The second is a normal greywing, which has a 50% dilution of the wings and of the body. The 50% dilution is actually not a light grey, but a medium grey, with more of an actual medium grey color than a light greyish-white color. In this case, the term dilute greywing is redundant, and the dilute part can be left out. Many birds are called greywings when they in fact are not, they are poorly marked clearwings instead. I have read from many different sources that it is very difficult to breed a well marked clearwing, as the flight feathers have a high likelihood of coming out a very pale, washed out grey. I think there are many birds that are mistakenly called greywings. I do not know what percentages you would get from your greywing/full bodied greywing cross so I will go with nerwen on this one. But I am curious now. Maybe we can get nerwen to look in her genetics bible.

I got a normal and 3 pieds, you can see pics of them in the breeders chat forum the post is "pics of my four"- http://forums.budgiebreeders.asn.au/index....showtopic=12199 so what does a DF dom. australian pied/clearflight pied look like? would it look the same as any other DF dom pied? anyway you just made me think of something.. but I guess that'll have to be another thread. Those babies of yours are so cute!!! Here are pics of the 2 DF dominants I got. Front View: Back View: They were marked very similarly.

He does look so happy to be up there, doesn't he? I hope he will sleep up high with the others once you put the platforms in. That is a very good idea. This is such an uplifting, wonderfully touching story. The kindnesses we give to each other make life good, don't they?

I think at 4 she will probably be okay having a clutch. If she is in good condition and good health, the fact that she is so primed to breed speaks loudly. Are you worried only because of her age or something else? 4 isn't necessarily that old for a budgie. I think the age cutoff of 3 or 4 probably pertains more to show budgies that spend their lives as breeders. I would think a bird that has produced two clutches every season to be in more need of a rest after a few years of that, whereas a healthy bird that has never bred, or only had a clutch or two would not have the same level of nutrient depletion. My oldest hen is about 5, and because she has had only two clutches, and that was almost 3 years ago (my how time flies!!) if she were bonded to a male and was very keen on eggs I would not worry about her because of her age. But I know what kind of condition she is in, what kind of mother she was, well...I just "know" my bird. She has not slowed down any since I brought her home over 4 years ago. She regularly goes for flies around the room, has a good appetite, great feather condition, etc. You are the only one who can sit back, look, and make an honest determination about your hen. And knowing what I do about you from your posts, I believe you have already done that. I hope everything goes well. I am looking forward to updates too.

I thought a bird could not be split to spangle? The mix of white and blue occurs in pieds as well. Blueberry is like that, so was Cloud, Sunny, and Patches. Yes, you will get DF dominant pieds from and australian dominant and a clearflight dominant. This is the mix I got my chicks from, and had 2 DF dominants out of 9 babies. You will also get some normals (I got 2 of those also). If there are any hidden genes on both sides, they can come out as well. My 2 normals were fullbodied greywings, and neither parent was a greywing.

That is such a wonderful story! Cheeta, you certainly have a prize in Daniel. How wonderful! How did this all come about?? I'd love to hear! (Bubbles, hope you don't mind but I had to make it all fit in the same window...)

4 would be fine.

lol, at least he has spots sometimes! Look at Blueberry in my signature - not a spot on her! And sweet Sky is lopsided. I love how the pied gene throws in the unexpected.

I know lovey, my feeble mind just has a hard time with it, that's all! LOL

You can lower things if you want, but budgies usually like the highest spots, so he may start hanging on the side of the cage near the top if there are no perches there. He should be able to navigate around the cage fine using his beak, and he will learn to balance again. It is out of the cage that I would be more worried, until he realizes he cannot fly and comes to depend upon you for all his transportation needs.

I would have said Chase was dominant pied. The flights look like a variegated pieds, and the shell markings are not that sporadic. I just love that picture of her laying down in the palm of your hand!!!!! She is such a beautiful color too.

I missed that one...I didn't know that either. I thought they were from the pied gene in a pied bird.

I'm sorry they cut so many off each side...he got a bad wing trim. He is probably a little off-balance. Plus 26" isn't that great a distance, so I wouldn't worry about him not flying in the cage. All the wing feathers will give balance as well as allowing flight. Are there a lot of toys in the cage? Maybe he cannot fly from one end of the cage to the other without bumping into toys. Also you must remember if he was flying before the wing trim, it will take a few days for him to learn how to navigate without those feathers.

I think the patchy barring is due to the pied gene. If you remember, doublefactor dominant pieds usually carry even less barring than what your bird has. If by spots you mean the lack of them, don't worry about that either. Many baby birds are born without proper spots on the mask. Whatever they will have will come in at the first molt. Some pieds never get any spots at all. I have one that has absolutely no spots whatsoever, and another one that the spots only came in on one side. The cheek patches as nerwen said can be blue, violet, grey, or white. They can also come in any combination with the white. Your baby bird is beautiful.

No problem! Actually, it was me...I didn't get what you wrote. It just went right over me. You were correct, I was just out there somewhere when I read that.

Hello and welcome!!! I lived where you are for 26 years! Small world, isn't it? I would love to see pictures of your flock! I look forward to reading more about you and your birds.

Kinda make your head spin, doesn't it? If that is the case, then I think the 6 you have now will be fine to start out with. The same logic applies though, in that if you mix and match the parents out of the six you have, you will limit the combinations you can make while keeping the bloodlines unrelated. Best of luck in breeding that little yellowface blue opaline spangle! How were you thinking of pairing your birds?

That is good in theory shellball, but here is where I think you may run into a bad case of multiple bird syndrome... Say pair A/B breed, pair C/D breed, and pair E/F breed. They each have 4 eggs that hatch (per clutch, normal double clutch). You now have 30 birds. What if you do not get the results you were hoping for? Next time you pair A/C, B/D, and keep E/F. They each have 4 eggs that hatch (same thing, 8 babies per pair, total in the breeding season). At this second mating, the babies from the first mating are about ready to mate themselves. Do you mate them only to babies from E/F, since they are the ones you know are not related? What if the second pairing of E/F does not give the results you wanted, or you notice a genetic problem begin to crop up in the first clutch of babies from E/F and you cannot breed from them (or their babies) anymore? I'm sure you will part with some of the babies but if not you now have 54 birds that unless you have kept scrupulous records and know for certain that the babies from A/B will only be mated with babies from C/D (as if you bred babies from A/C to either A/B or C/D babies they will be closely inbred, which you want to avoid) then you will need more birds. It gets even more confusing if you switched up E/F also. And remember the 4 babies per clutch is just an average figure, there could be more. And sailorwolf is right - you would only get all yellowface babies if the apparent whiteface were actually a DF yellowface. My bad, I stand corrected.

Actually, you will get 50% single factor pieds, 25% double factor pieds, and 25% normals (no pied genes at all). Any hidden genes can manifest on any one of the birds.

When she does go, what does it look like? It is a huge runny, liquid mess like diarrhea or is it like a normal poop only much, much larger? Is it easy for her to go, or does she seem to strain? If she can go, it does not sound like she is eggbound, as I think that stops them up so nothing can pass. Breeding hens will only go to the bathroom a few times a day instead of the every 15 or 20 minutes like normal. Hens lay eggs every other day, and when they are laying the area around the vent will look a little swollen. The thing you will notice most though if she is laying eggs is that the vent area will look purplish, like she is bruised. Can you give us any more details? In the meantime, I would keep an eye out on her, try to keep her warm. Watch for signs of illness, like fluffed up feathers, "sad" looking eyes (no spark), not eating or drinking, not moving, or obvious distress (trying to pass something but nothing comes out).