Rainbow

I love your budgies. Merlin has SUCH a poofy head in the third picture!

They are quite a nice looking family. Comet looks great for 11, you must really take care of him that he is still active enough to father babies. Thanks for posting them!

Hello and Welcome! Love your user name, by the way! And I most definitely am not one of those you have to watch out for either...or maybe I am. I forget. :ausb:

Oh wow. On my screen it looks like the feathers are edged in the same light yellow her face is. But it would be wonderful if you would take a look at the birds in your aviary and let us know about the wing edging colors. Do you mind?

I think so. The shell is good for them too, so if you offer hardboiled egg, crush the shell in with it. I think milk was listed so often because it is a source of those dietary essentials, not because you should offer it frequently. Why offer milk at all, knowing that it may cause digestive difficulties? The amount that would be necessary to cause problems I think would be so miniscule anyway if you take into consideration the small size of budgies and how little (by our standards) they need to eat every day. I wonder if you could give them a small enough amount for it NOT to cause problems eventually? To me it is not worth it since there are so many other sources of those nutrients. But that is just my opinion.

No, she is just overweight, although fluffy in that picture too. She was 2 in February, so not a baby. None of my birds have very dark iris rings, although blossom's are darker than most. They don't come out very well with my camera. Learning from the best..you have helped me out alot also according to Daz's post wasn't he saying they are YF1? Or am I just confused on the YF gene :beer: Thank you. Go back to that thread - there's been a few more posts on it. I was confused too, but Cheeta made an interesting observation. Mine are definitely YF type 2. Thanks to all for the nice comments about my little fluffballs.

Nerwen, let me throw something else into the mix about wing patterns. The flight feathers. In the Australian variegated pied, the birds will have some black flights and some white ones. Occasionally the flights can have both colors on the same feather. My Skittles is a variegated pied. Chase carries both colors on his flights too. Do you know if this type of pied refers to just the patterning of the flights and can be in addition to other mutations, or does this type of pied refer to just that - the type of pied. If so, the AV pied is a dominant pied. I am hoping in your mutation book there will be some reference. If not, I'm off to the web for some searching!

Daz, can't see the picture. Can you try to re-link it so I can get in my head the difference? I knew that third picture looked color enhanced, but never paid attention to the color of the wings. Good point about the wing patterns. I had not really paid attention to that. If that is the case, then Daz, your first bird is type 2 because the wings are yellow, and daughter is type 1. Daz, have you noticed about the wing edging before? All mine have the yellow edging to the wings, except my opaline. But I guess whether type one or type two the opalines will not show any head color to the wings so it may be harder to tell about them. This thread is becoming very informative!

Wash with warm soapy water, rinse well, then scrub them with a weak bleach solution, rinse several times very well, and let dry in the sun for a few days before putting them in the aviary. You shouldn't be able to smell the bleach when you put them in for use by the birds. Fruit tree branches (like apple) are safe, just make sure they have not been sprayed with insecticide.

Poor girl. You said she was fine before...do you think there is any chance she got in a scuffle with another bird and got her toes or the base of one leg bitten? I don't know how easy it is to catch her, but I think I would get her again and give her a thorough visual going over, and check her feet and legs extra carefully. She seems to lean to the left in all of the pics you posted. I think I would seperate her just in case, keep her in the house where she will be warm, and take another bird from the aviary that she seems attached to. If she is sick I know you should keep her away from all the birds, but since they all live together anyway if she is ill the others have already been exposed. She will be happier with another bird around. A check with the vet on Monday sounds like a real good idea.

Welcome to the forum Bryan! You have some very nice looking budgies. Are they all English? The pied and the green look a little smaller. How long have you been interested in budgies?

You got it! See, you do understand a great deal about genetics.

Lovey, they are all blue.

Maybe the flash is making them look type 2. My Skittles looks like your hen and she is type 2. I thought any of the yellowface blues that looked turquoise were type two, because type ones would just be varying shades of blue with no green tones, and turquoise is greenish. Type 2: type 1: (scroll down about halfway) http://kathylibby.tripod.com/id2.html Unless you are using a different definition of type 1 and 2? I vaguely remember there being some discussion about that in a different thread some time ago. Daz, can you clarify?

Thanks, and actually she is a violet skyblue, the flash washes it out. She loves head scritches, and her name is Blueberry. I find the females are friendlier and more apt to not be afraid of new toys, food, etc. They tend to be more jealous than the males, but that works in my favor keeping them tame because any attention I give to one bird they all want it, LOL. I used to have 11, (5 males and 6 females) and have always had an easier time of taming hens. Sky is the one in back, and next to Berry is Skittles (the mom of them all ) and next to her is Blossom. Sky wants to be the center of attention always. Skittles is the most curious and Blossom loves to be talked to. All of them like to preen me. It's so sweet.

Dad is spangle, mum is dilute pied and possibly spangle (hard to tell because of the dilution for me), baby is pied spangle. And very cute!

He's got some flecking too. Thanks for posting those, it will be a help.

Daz, they both look like type 2's on my screen. :ausb:

Why do you think they were trimmed wrong? A wing has 10 primary flights and 10 secondary flights. The primaries are the long ones, secondaries occur after the bend in the wing. The secondaries should never, ever be cut. To illustrate: Most pet stores and even some vets will trim 7-10 flights. That really is too many in my opinion, as it usually only takes 4 or 5 to reduce lift. The primaries provide lift and steering capabilities, whereas the secondaries provide stability and braking. Hence the reason to never cut the secondaries. Just because you can't see the long feathers in a clipped bird when the wing is held normally against the body doesn't mean the trim is wrong, especially if there are only a few feathers gone. The shorter ones just cover where they would be, were they there. As far as the line in the stomach, if it looks like this it is normal. It just marks the area where the breast muscles come together.

All your birds are type 2's. I love them, they are all so individual looking. Romeo and your female might get even more yellow with the next molt, but I'm not sure. Do you remember my Sunny? In the nest box I thought I had another white bird, although when he fledged I could see he was really tinged yellow. After the first molt though, he was very yellow but his cobalt remained blue-it never tinged green. Hard to believe it is the same bird, isn't it? Before 1st molt: After 1st molt:

They are all okay, they just have new homes. I won't go into it, but it was a necessity. I keep in touch about the birds, and all are doing well and making other people very happy. The girls do miss the others, but are very much enjoying themselves with less competition for food and attention.

Shawna, he sounds type 2. It sounds like instead of having a yellow face with a white and blue body, he has a yellow face, yellowish body, and cobalt blue on him - is that right? If so he is type 2.

Very cute Bea. Do you think Blinks is trying to tell you something there? :rip:

I just LOVE little Bao! That looks like the same color as the greywing twins I had. What a cutie. I'm glad you found your missing bird. Who knows what goes on in those little budgie minds? :rip: