the pie

What ratio of Apple cider vinegar to water do you use? (for Daz )

I guess that as Daz feeds all his birds better than I eat he will be fine nutrition-wise.

wow he sure is getting ......feathery

First day off today for me (shift work) and it was 40c outside so I spent the morning reading the paper and making new toys for chook, in the usual budgie way......ie much enthusiasm and getting in the way. After a day of running around playing soccer with the beads and bells and flirting with a plastic bag for hours ) he found his true love (himself in the mirror) I was starting to think he'd gotten into my rum!!. Well by this afternoon and hours of chatting himself up he fell asleep (still chatting himself up!!) yep laying down like a dog sleeping- he actually had his legs layed backwards for a bit!!

This'll make you laugh but....they're acting like Emu's!! The male does all the nest building and incubating, the hen just lays the eggs and goes and finds another male to lay eggs for!! All the emus with babies you see out the bush are males (not that you'd see them over there!)

Keep an eye on the chick to make sure the hen is looking after it, make sure you give the parents a range of foods- grated vegies, sprouted seed (keep it fresh), good quality seed and mineral blocks,this will make it easier on the parents to keep nutrition up to the chicks and keep them healthy for the next few weeks (although they should be fed like this all the time) It will be 6 weeks before the chicks are weaned (approx-some take longer some are quicker). What size cage do you have them in?- that will depend on what you do with the chicks when they are older, are you keeping them or do you are good homes lined up for them? Before taking the responsibility of bringing babies into the world please take time to read up about what is needed- this forum is great for information. Good luck with the little ones- what colour are the parents??

yep, they're real cheeky, we used to have one come in for afternoon tea every arvo with the kookaburras and magpies- you can throw some meat up and they swoop down and get it. We tried to outsmart it heaps by throwing it fast in different directions but they alwasy caught it- very acrobatic.

:(Laughing out loud): kinda like that- have them all sitting side by side on your arm and the one that bites you last

That'd have to be my favourite thing about having male budgies- when they start their "crazy talk" and the eyes dilate in and out!!!!

Wow I didn't think this would still be going!! Basically just talking about the blue bird now (the green spangle in the picture just happened to be there when the picture was taken) yes out of her clutch there were 3 (4?) identicle hens with the spot also 'classic' looking recessive pieds. As far as I can remember there were more females than males with the spot that she was breeding. She had breeder box setups and pretty meticulous records so not much chance of 'something else' getting in. Also not all the babies had spots, there were some recesive pieds, some split(spot) and some normal. I actually was hoping she had a few Dom Pieds around as that is what I was after but as much as I looked there were none, so no mistaken identity birds were there either.

Cheers for that- will have a read through it looks intersting.

As much as I would love to get into the world of show budgies I am 8 hours from the nearest budgie club, actually just wondering what people looked for when choosing one at this age. My budgies aren't show birds but why not start learning what to look for in a bird now, it can only improve the breed as a whole? She won't be a pet, more of an aviary bird.

okay how do you know which one you are going to keep? I'm trying to decide at the moment as I have 3 very similar girls. They are all light green opaline but have narrowed it down to two (I know everyone will say keep both!!) but how do you narrow it down? The difference between the two I have is one has lovely head markings-big spots and full cheek patches while the other is slightly taller and holds herself better but the spots haven't come through as much. So which one? The three (two back ones in question) First one with the spots The other one

That can be a problem with handraising birds- some don't wean to well. Can you leave him in a cage with a bird that is eating? Even if you layer the floor with seed and have him where he can't sit up on a perch but has to be down there. They get bored and eventually start picking. It may take a day or so for him to start eating, weaning onto seed should start at 4-6 weeks depending on the bird, leaving them in a cage with seed while you are not around can work but sometimes you have to be creative as they will not automatically go to the seed dish. at 12- 14 weeks it will be harder, he may lose some weight until he gets the hang of it- he is just being lazy and because you are still willing to feed him without making him learn to eat.

Lovey the birds parents were recessive not Dominant so even with the spot she can't be Dom. The lady was only breeding Recessives and had no Dominants at all in her aviaries. The other bird with her is not related, just happened to be in the picture. Haven't bred this bird yet, am treating her as a normal as I'm not breeding rec. pieds so cannot utilise the split. The breeding that I did was a Dom Pied to a normal green (with headspot but I don't recall her coming from Rec pied stock so I'll leave her be for now.) Nyos- thats exactly what her birds show when they are split, the article was good. The main cock she had there was a evenly marked huge bird, she got out of showing a few years back but he would have been up there with the best I reckon. Just wanted to bring this up and see if anyone could enlighten on this situation. Also haven't noticed this happening with 'pet' style birds more the larger show type.

Be interesting to find out what the person that you are seeing says about this bird, he doesn't look to be the 'typical' featherduster but there is definately something wrong- there are heaps of different human disabilities affecting co-ordination and looks so its more than likely its not a featherduster but has a genetic (not necessarily hereditary) problem

Colouring? mmm they were all blue but thats irrelevent I spose. Its just she had a few lines of Rec Pieds going that threw headspot splits that she was breeding together to produce really nice large rec pieds. Just wanted to know peoples thoughts on this as everyone says if there is a headspot it Has to be Dom Pied. Not a real good picture but they all looked like this:

Hee Hee- This is gonna be hilarious looking at all the photos people post!! Good idea okay, these are without me taking photos just for poofy heads-all I got already on the computer The newly fledged bubs: Dad (poofiness really does run in the family!) Mr poof and his little poofy friend Mr elegant with the little poofy friend (he's actually called spunky!!) Big mama- aka Grumpy

so what will they be looking for in those two birds? What do YOU look for when selecting youngsters/ or adults. I find this really interesting and would like to find out a little more about what goes on. If you have 2 /3 young ones out of a clutch with similar body shapes do you then go on markings or colour- or will that change after the first moult? I spose some babies that look mediocre could come good after 6 months?

Seeings as everyones fired up already about certain topics I thought I'd throw another 'debate' into it. Now I've noticed that if a bird has a 'headspot' it is automatically classed as a Dominant Pied, Test number 1 was breeding a Dom Pied to a "headspot" dom pied and result was no pieds (2x) (you would think with 2 Dom pieds you would get at least 1 out of the matings) I also purchased a large blue hen from a breeder (show) that specialises in Recessive/Danish pieds, she had a very large blue /danish pied cock (one of the best I've seen). She was using splits and all of her split rec pieds had headspots (small) the clutch my female came out of had 4 hens the same colour with headspots, the ones that didn't have them she didn't use as they were proven not to carry the gene. *I spose the only way to test out the theory to THAT one is to breed her but am not a big fan of rec pieds- not quite sure why I got her but thought she would make a nice base bird when bred to a normal or other. Any thought on this one??

He looks like he will be a little terror!!! :devil: Its the budgie look in his eyes!! Very cute boy, I really like him!!

:ausb: :(Laughing out loud): Ha Ha Ha, they always look so cocky!! Awesome pics, your closeups are always so clear. They make me laugh!!

Glad you have worked out what it is and is now on the way to getting better- you are a good mum!! (the description turned my stomach a little too :ausb: )

Dark room and cover them up works well- mum would have a coffee in the morning then get my old budgie up, if she was any longer than that he'd spit it and make that angry chattering noise cos we'd forgotten him! He'd then fly down into my room, sit on my forhead and continue to talk and chew my eyebrows til I woke up (he'd actually say 'wake up' too!!) If he got too noisy/naughty during the day he got sent back to the dark room and covered too for a bit

Basically thats just water with a bit of carrot and some seed added. You can buy pellets with all the vitamins and stuff added to it, or grate/blend a range of different vegies and sprinkle some vitamin powder over it if you think it still needs it- I'm dubious of adding some vitamins as adding something without the addition of something else can cause problems (with dogs adding just calcium restricts/prevents the amount of some other vitamins to be absorbed causing a deficiency there too) if they are getting vegies and good quality seed they shouldn't need it. Just read Pauls post too about adding a little oil to the seed for egg laying hens- read that it sounds quite good and a way to get the oil into them you described. Cuttlebone I've heard isn't that nutritional anyway. Good for there beaks though