Norm

Nice bird Splat...congratulations.

I agree with Neat.

I couldn’t say for sure, there are quite a few varieties of Japanese Millet so could be one of them

I agree Pie your birds look good, especially the cock birds; you should get some nice chicks out of them.

I definitely wouldn’t use iron perches Karthik, wood is better, it’s good to use natural tree branches if you can get them, as they have different diameters which is good to exercise the birds feet.

Karthik, as you say your Budgies will take a little time to get used to any new food that you give them. Most people give their Sunflower seed with the shell on, Budgies are quite capable of removing it, even Canaries can. I don’t have lists of quantities of the different types of seeds in my Budgie mixtures. Our mixtures often vary, but have about four different Millets, French, Japanese, Panicum & Red Millets, I would think in about equal amounts, most have a small quantity of Hulled Oats [Oats with the husk removed] & also include Canary seed, the more expensive mixes have a larger quantity of Canary seed, as breeders & show Budgie People like a larger amount of this seed in their mixture. None of the normal Budgie mixes have Sunflower to my knowledge, but we often buy some & as advised mix a small amount.

Have a safe & enjoyable time Maesie…looking forward to all the news on your return.

Norm…I live at Kempsey Mid North Coast NSW. Breed Budgies…Normals…Cinnamons…Opalines…Grey Wings…Lutinos…Dominant Pieds...Spangles...Yellow Faces... Texas Clearbodies…Black Eyed Selfs [Yellows]…Darkwing Yellows…Cinnamon Darkwing Yellows…Dusks… Cockatiels[ Quarrions]… Fischer's Lovebirds…Canaries [pets]. Guinea pigs.

Welcome Budgie-girl I hope you enjoy the forum.

As soon as I read about the barbeque I also thought about Kaz’s omelettes…Back to the serious side…if you had red mites I would have used ordinary fly spray as an emergency solution, as red mites are bad news. No one uses less chemicals than me, but before Ivermectin the recognised treatment for air sack mites in Canaries was to place them in an inclosed space, spray quickly with low irritant fly spray & close it up for 5 to 10 minutes so that they breath in the spray. I never had any problems with it’s use, in fact I would suggest that Cooperex [which I have never used] would be far more toxic than the usual fly sprays use for humans, as hopefully there would be tighter controls on something that is used in many homes around children, food stuffs etc. The flame treatment would also be a good idea if used carefully [didn’t burn your house or aviary down] but red mites hide in every crack they can find & used alone I don’t think it would give total control.

I think I read that there is a vaccination & it's available in some countries like America, but not available in Australia. That’s why I don’t worry too much, I think if you expose adult birds to it, some time before they are to breed they will mostly have acquired immunity before breeding.

Glad you found that chick in time, I hope it will do okay. Re Precious I don’t think she has any Clearwing in her, I have had quite a few Opaline Spangles that don’t have any Black markings in their wings, if she had any Clearwing I don’t think she would have marking on the wing at all.

Yes I think your right it’s only Sunflower with the shell taken off. Seeing you can’t get many other seeds if you can get Sunflower, even with the shell on, a small amount would be good to give your birds more protein & fats. I couldn’t give you any pictures of plain seed as mostly we buy our seed already mixed for the different types of birds, mostly I buy what we call Budgie mix. Which is four or five grains pre mixed. At the moment I’m having trouble getting grains because of the drought we have had here.

No Michelle, mostly birds that are as bad as that site you show, wont recover & definitely I wouldn’t advise breeding from them, & I think they show a very high lack of immunity to the disease. Why some birds get it or some don’t I think is something to do with the amount of different immunity they have. Also the experts state that after some months most birds acquire immunity & will never get it again, only a few remain as carriers & maybe these birds could even look completely normal.

I agree with Kaz, the first bird that ever had FM in my aviary, went on to grow back her feathers & I have bred with her & no sign of FM in any of her chicks. Since that time some pairs have had problems, but the bulk of my pairs seem to be unaffected by it.

Other adult birds exposed to birds with French Moult can get the disease, but it will have no visible effects, as FM only effects young chicks while they are in the nest. It’s hard to say if your bird really has FM, but there certainly seems to be some feather quality issues there. Have you cut some of his wing feathers, as it looks like some are either cut or broken? Some birds that have had FM when young will have feather quality issues still later in life, some feathers in the tail look like just wear, but if the quality of the feather has been effected, damage will occur quicker than normal.

Looking good LIv...but it's like Kaz said, unless you put BG with a hen in a cabinet or you got a Spangle chick there's no way you can tell who dad was. Like you say the chicks heads do look wide, maybe you will get a better idea when they become adults & develop.

I think your cock is a Dilute Blue. The spot on the hen’s head means that it is probably split to Recessive Pied, but the spot is quite large which means that she could actually be a Dominant Pied. I don’t know about Canada but in Australia many birds are carrying Recessive Pied, so if the cock was carrying it also you could get some & if she is Dominant about 50% of the young could be Dominant Pied.

Your guess sound pretty right, as your hen is a Cobalt Normal & the cock maybe some kind of Dilute, I can't tell as you can't see his wing pattern. If he is some kind of Spangle you could get some Spangles otherwise, like you said seeing Dilute is Recessive you probably will get either Cobalt or Sky Blue Normals…that doesn't take account of any Recessive traits both birds could be carrying or sexlinked mutations the cock may carry.

I can’t tell you what the . BGV is as that’s probably either the bird club initials or the breeders… TAS maybe this means it’s from Tasmania which maybe you guessed already… the diamond & five 05 is the year 2005, as probably you can also guess yourself. He looks a bit better bred than most pet Budgies, but usually if their rung, it means a breeder has bred them, that at least buys rings to keep track of them. I hope that was some help Maesie?

Hi welcome to the forum I hope you enjoy it.

I'm guessing just a few months, maybe not even the 10 Neat...but I think Recessives often are hard to tell & often keep that young look.

Your chicks look good Ravengypsy, I especially like the grey green spangle from Duke & Duchess: Sorry to hear about your loss of the Grey Spangle.

My pleasure Nicknack...don't worry I'm a gardener so any bird mess is welcome. I will just step aside...(Laughing out loud)...

I’m no expert on the subject, but it could help, as I don’t think the mint would be a problem. It’s suppose to have a strong % of Raspberry, I could only find 25% here & I sometime give it to my bird, on one occasion I had a bird with a dirty vent & gave a fairly strong mixture, as I couldn’t find the correct % & it certainly seemed to improve, of course whether it was from the cordial or just got better it’s hard to say. But there is a lot written about how good it is.