Rainbow

Yeah, my curiosity is piqued too since I can't see the pictures...

Congratulations on your engagement and all the fluffy baby budgies. It really sounds like you have a very busy time ahead of you. I hope everything goes according to plan and you get situated again soon.

Some budgies take longer than others for the cere to change color. I have a hen who's cere stayed that whitish-tan color until she was over a year, and others turned at 5 months. It depends upon how much estrogen her body is producing. I wouldn't overly worry about it. Any chance it is a recessive pied? If so, and the cere is pinkish, it could be a male.

Do you have an update? My fingers are crossed that it is not serious.

The purpose of the flight suit is so that you can take your bird outdoors with you. You wouldn't let them fly on the lead. It is for safety, to keep them with you. A lot of people take their birds (bigger ones at least) out and about with them for socialization and to get them used to different things. I've seen birds go into pet stores with their owners and pick out new toys, LOL. Also good for use at the vet's if your bird is socialized and you don't want to keep them in a cage or carrier while you are there. If I thought they'd tolerate one, I'd get one and take a bird or two out with me, but I think at two years old they probably wouldn't like me much if I tried to get one on them. I think I'd have to trim them to take them out as well for safety's sake, and I don't necessarily want to do that.

LOL, I just found this one too. Congrats nerwen!!!!

Yes, today is March 1st.

And what is the difference again between a recessived pied and a dominant pied? Genetically, the dominant pied bird carries one pied gene and one normal gene. The pied gene shows up over the normal one. A recessive pied bird carries two pied genes. If you breed two recessive pieds together, you will get 100% recessive pieds, as they have no other gene to give. If you breed two dominant pieds together, you will get a percentage of pieds and a percentage of normals, since the dominant pied carries a gene for normal coloring.

Javi, they are beautiful. :ausb: I would guess they are both greywings, but I am a bit confused about one of the pictures. You said one was with a skyblue opaline clearwing, but the clearwing looks like a greywing too... :bluebudgie:

Yes, but doesn't the show standard say three evenly sized spots on each side? So technically wouldn't lots of spots be a fault? Hath, I really like those grey pieds. :bluebudgie: The grey is such a nice shade.

Chico and Ariel will give you pieds. If they are both recessive pieds, you will get nothing but pieds. Odds are you will get yellowfaces. For a good discussion about the yellowface gene, see here for a rather unofficial discussion of yellowface genetics. :bluebudgie: And I have purchased from that store before and have been very happy with them.

Out of my 5 opalines, only two even have the required number of spots on each side. #3 has excellent sized spots, but only on one side, #4 has very small, faint spots, and Blueberry doesn't have any at all. I didn't know opalines usually have excessive spots. I thought it was just normal show budgies that tended to have them.

You're not wrong, celery is mostly water and has about as much nutrition as plain lettuce. Dark colored veggies are better, nutrition-wise, but I wouldn't be adverse to giving celery at first if it gets them interested in trying veggies.

Congratulations! It will be hard work, but the rewards far outweigh that, don't they? Go for it!

So what you are saying lovey, is that males have two x chromosomes?????? That doesn't make sense at all. In all animals females are double X and males are X and Y. That's the first rule of biology genetics. So can I. Lovey is correct. In budgies the female is xy, the male is xx. This is the reason hens are not split for any sex-linked characteristic. If they have it, it will be visual.

No, I buy sprouting mix. But I have used a plain seed mix in the past.

Keep us posted on your progress. **topic moved**

I soak them for the first 24 hours completely covered in water, then rinse well and shake them good to get rid of the extra water. After that I rinse and shake out extra water about every 6-10 hours for a day or so (they are slightly dry when I rinse), then the birds get them. I don't let them germinate much, once they get little 1/2 inch "tails" I feed them. Even though they are dry when you refrigerate them, they still continue to grow some, just more slowly since it's cold. I only make enough to last about 4 days, so I'm almost constantly growing them to make sure they are fresh. The link I gave above has tons of information about it, if you have time go through it.

I agree too, what you are doing is fine. They don't have to be housed together to be happy, and it seems there is more discontent when they are all in the same cage. Birds can be just like people, sometimes we can tolerate someone in small doses, but no way would you want to live with them, LOL. There is no reason to second-guess yourself here.

They were seperate pieces, not a set. I just fit a couple until I found two that matched. I figured if they didn't work, I could still use the pieces to strain spaghetti and you can always use a mixer bowl.... But I have had excellent results with them.

I used to use kitchen paper too, but now I use a very fine mesh stainless steel "strainer" and a "mixer" bowl that it sits in. Like this.

Those last two of Ceaser are so cute! All of your birds are great, but I must say I really like Ceaser.

Misty, just keep trying. Since you have more than one bird you should have an easier time of it. I know with mine, all it takes is one bird to try something and all the rest want what they have. Have you ever tried sprouts or soaked seeds? They are close enough to what your birds are used to, yet much more nutritious and may be all they need to start trying veggies too. You can go here to find out how to grow sprouts. I've ordered from them before and they have a very high quality product.

From those pictures I think she looks like a normal cobalt. What program do you use to resize your pictures? There may be an option in there somewhere to lighten your pictures, or depending upon what camera you are using, you may be able to change some settings so the pictures are lighter.

Just re-read this thread, terri....happifying??? LOL - love it!!!!! Someone else who makes up words!