Norm

Sorry to hear of your problems MB, what a blow, I hope the rest pull through & you find out what the problems is, nothing worse than having things like this go wrong & not knowing what the cause is. Best of luck.

Looks great Kaz…are you sure your not moving in & putting the birds in the house? I have done a few tiling jobs myself, just takes a bit of time & care & I tell you I have had lots of so called “professional jobs” fall off, whereas it hasn’t ever happened to any of my jobs. They are too fast use too little adhesive…your birds should thank you.

I’m with TB natural is best, the more you feed antibiotics when birds are not really sick, the sooner you build up immunity in the bacteria & then the antibiotics are useless when they are really needed. This immunity of bacteria can spread to humans also.

:budgiedance: :hap: Where do you get this stuff Neat!! Good name for a budgie MO JO AAARRR YEAH BABY!! It’s because despite what she says “SHE IS THE SMARTEST CRAYON IN THE BOX”…Must be hard being a Budgie there with all these tough regimes…poor Neats better half he must be on a diet of lettuce & water only…you crack me up Neat…LOL…

Comon Pie…brighten up their existence…give them something to get excited about. Just keeping & breeding Budgies is too boring for them…they need something more.

Better wait for Pie to spill the beans …Kaz's clue could be anything…looks like a stunned mullet to me…not a baby…could have been a big night out…???

I was thinking of asking the same question, but seeing it’s been in the cabinet, so long it’s looking like you might have a Recessive Grey Libby. That’s the thing with those Recessive genes they can remain hidden for ages…this means both birds must be carrying the gene…must be like the odds of winning the lottery.

The cheek patches certainly look Grey & in what you can see of the tail doesn't show any Blue...interesting Libby.

It sounds to me Deb that that must be your main problem, take him out & maybe take him out of hearing range & then see if things improve, the hen should be able to feed them & certainly will do a bitter job than while being hassled by the cock like you telling us.

Nicknack HEAVEN.

You could try it with an Albion cock, but to get Opalines like it, it would have to be masking or split Opaline. Like Kaz says Neat the small spot is most likely Recessive & the TCB must be split Recessive also

I agree with Kaz & Liv, Neat it’s not a TCB…it’s a Recessive Pied…can’t see any Opaline in it either, could have Yellow Face2 Blue, what were it’s parents?

I was just thinking the other day, I wonder what’s happened to Nicknack…he had been seen lurking on site, but not a word not even a mention of CAKE…well that’s better now I can see you really have recovered from that operation…back to his old self…CAKE…CAKE & MORE CAKE!!!

Anyone in NSW know a stockist for the Golden Cob seed mentioend above? I find that most produce stores stock it…it's supposed to be good, but it's one of the most expensive I think. The mix I use is just over $30 per 20 kilo bag, but I think it's more like $50. On the Hemp seed, yes it’s supposed to be great for birds…when I was young you used to be able to buy it at birds seed stores, maybe it was denatured so you couldn’t grow it, but it wasn’t a problem in those days…my favourite store was Austen Seeds at Sydney railway…don’t think there would be too many around now that remember that place, I used to love it had just about anything you could think of for birds I used to buy British Cage bird newspaper every week. About 1955…sigh…LOL.

Yes it certainly is possible Neat, the problem is if it has White flight feathers it’s difficult to tell if it’s a TCB. You would only be able to tell from the colour of its breast & that can vary. A photo would be good.

What you are doing Deb is the best you can; boiled eggs added to any bought mix will improve it. Just keep a watch on her & if she looks okay don’t worry too much, the problem is that once birds show they are sick it may be too late. I have stopped birds breeding that looked like it was getting too much for them, but still lost them later on. Hopefully your birds will be okay.

Lucy TCB’s are sex linked that means if you mate a hen with a Normal bird all her males will be split for TCB, but her females will not. The only way to get a TCB first generation with a hen bird is either to mate it to another TCB or a bird split for it. If not & you want to breed Blue series birds, you can mate it with an Albion cock. If you don’t mind whether it’s Blue or Green use a Lutino cock.

At what stage is she in her breeding? Is she feeding large chicks? I would think that if she were feeding a batch of chicks she would normally loose some weight. Maybe you are worrying too much, if she doesn’t show any signs of being sick. I normally wouldn’t be catching my breeding birds unless really necessary, as I think that catching up a bird is a really stressful event for them & I avoid it as much as possible. Every birds is different, some can raise batch after batch without any ill affects others are exhausted with one or two. I mostly find when I buy in birds you get some problems with them at first but after breeding your own for a couple of generation & selecting the best & strongest, you seem to get less & less problems. As well as her egg & biscuit is she getting plenty of fresh greens, as I find feeding birds like plenty of them & it supplies vitamins & minerals.

I agree with DrNat…it would be an interesting effort, you might breed something new, of course it wont be easy. I have just bred a strange chick also it was in my Dusks nest, but I fostered some chicks there, as they only hatched three, so I haven’t checked it’s ring yet. It is extremely small, which some of the chicks from the Dusks have been, it looks like a Normal Dark Green, but I think it is really an Opaline only time will tell. It’s marked like a Normal, but in the triangle area between the wing butts it is almost Black. It was the last chick in the nest & being so small I was worried when I first put it into the aviary, but it’s a real goer. I like birds like it, once I had a chick where Mum died & Dad stopped feeding it, it was in the late pinfeather stage & I never hand feed birds, so I put it in the aviary & it survived. Some have every chance in the world & still die, I like the survivors…my kind of birds.

It would be a more peaceful existence Kaz, as they will never give up, they are a constant menace & in suburbia you can have neighbours complain that you are attracting rats & mice & then that really complicates your problems.

I always have a few pairs breeding at the one time & mostly if they start feather plucking I foster them. In cases where I have no other pairs I just put up with it until the bird is a bit older, then take it from the nest & place it on the floor of the cage, maybe with some protection. Strange they only seem to do it in the nest once the chick is out of the nest I have never had it continue. I always agreed with the others, that once a feather plucky always a feather plucker, but this year I was proven wrong. I had one young hen that started it, I fostered her chicks. Then on the next nest her cock died she was left to feed them by herself, she never plucked these chicks. Since then with a new cock bird she has never plucked a chick again. I have found that most hens start at a certain time, usually it's the late pin feather stage, if I have a known feather plucker I try to remove her chicks to a foster before this happens…as others have said feather pluckers are high on my culling list. Also I don't think it matters if they were plucked as chicks I have had plucked chicks breed with no problems at all. Like others have said it seems that even Budgies have psychological problems. Mostly I like hens that just leave the nest allowing you to check the eggs or chicks, but with the more show birds [English] I am finding that they sit tight & often are very aggressive if you try to inspect, maybe it’s because they are quieter birds [tame] & don’t fear you as much. I have had some really aggressive ones. I have a young Lutino hen bred from Texas Clearbodies she is on her first batch, she is so aggressive I have trouble putting my hand in the box & she screams all the time, she must be very nervous as when her chicks first hatched I found some with wounds on their heads, now she has calmed down a bit & they have been raised & she didn’t feather pluck. She is quite mad, when I even look into the cabinet if she is out of the nest she drops to the ground runs into a corner & screams at me…so you get all types.

Yes I have one about 300 something gig, good to store stuff as my PC getting a bit old [20 Gig HD] need to update get a more powerful one, as you need more when doing some things these days. Haven't had much trouble with it, only slows down my PC on boot up. If you get an expert on the job Libby, you should be able to retrieve what you have lost…I’m no expert, but you see the Police taking criminals computers away to check, as apparently even when deleted things can be retrieved. I save important stuff on a couple of discs & hard drives you can never be too careful, non of this technology is fool proof, I have had discs of all description fail me & if you only had the one you would be stuffed.

I buy a Budgie pre mix, I changed to a new supply a few months ago, even though it has a bit less Canary seed than I like, but a couple of other places I was buying from were so unreliable I was always running out & they didn’t have stock. It’s got a mixture of a few Millets, but not so much of the large white one, which other mixes had, as I don’t think birds like that too much, they love it if you plant it & feed the seed heads green, but don’t seem to like the dry seed so much. Canary seed & hulled Oats. I buy 5 bags of the Budgie mix & one bag of Small parrot mix, which has Sunflower & Saffron, which I mix in. I agree with others often a Finch mix has more variety & I may buy some Pure Canary to add later.

You got some nice birds there Sunnie. Re your DF Spangle & MB's one I'm still wondering that's why I still haven't made a comment on either. A test mating with a nice Normal may help clear it up.

Nice birds Lucy...I agree with Libby.