Norm

I defiantly don’t think your bird has French Moult [Polyoma virus] as all cases I have seen, first off drop their flight feathers & tails; some proceed to drop some or almost all their body feathers. But I haven’t seen any that retain their flight feathers & tails & then develop strange body feathers at a later stage. Mostly French Moult occurs in the nest as others have stated or just after the bird fledges. [Leaves the nest]. I think it is more likely to be just a problem cased by some genetic effect, as since I have come back to breeding Budgies after the introduction of the “British Budgie” with the buff feather factor, I have noticed many problems with feather Quality, so I think it more likely that it is something to do with that. I think that the vet could be right in that it is a mutation [variation in feathers] caused by some genetic factor. Definitely a picture would help us all.

Too many hours looking at monitors Kaz...(Laughing out loud) :(Laughing out loud): But now that you mention it, it does have a reddish look about it.

Yes that's a nice postive way to look at it, at least it didn't pass away in a seed dish all by it's self...sad Kaz...at least you gave it a chance.

Yes amazing Kaz, good luck with it.

Daz is right he is a Spangle Grey cock & like he said very nice too…I think you must be right about his age, as the most recent time we had a Gold coloured ring was 2006. So I guess he is fact a 1994 birds as my colour series doesn’t go back that far. If that is so he is really an amazing bird, I have one that has a Green ring meaning he’s 6 or 7 years old & he don’t look that good. Pity he doesn’t like the girls as breeding some chicks from him would be really worth it.

That’s a good suggestion by Liv: if he was kept somewhere else, especially by himself with no other Budgie around they are great mimics, if it’s not a normal Budgie sound he may have learnt it from something else like a Cockatiel.

Just a bit of an update on my Dusk batches. I should be able to supply some pictures soon, some of the oldest young are getting feathers, both of my Green Dusk Budgie cocks are split for Blue & I seem to have lots of Blue series birds coming on & I don’t really know what to expect as far as colours go, but some seem to be very Dark something like Greys, but a little early yet. In the first batch of only two young, one just looks like a Sky Blue normal & the Red Eye turned out to be an Albion, so nothing conclusive on that batch, but have two batches one from cabinet breeding, there are 7 young so should get something from that & I have another batch about 8 young from an aviary batch, which I suspect the Dusk mated with another hen as her cock died. There are two red eye young in this batch one is definitely a Lutino & Dusk is supposed to intensify Lutino colouring…more soon.

A Budgies single call note is just normal for them; I don’t think there is much you can do about it, if the bird is free in a room. The only way is as others have suggested to cover his cage, but you can’t do that all day. It’s just normal for them to be vocal; it’s just their nature.

Good luck Libby I hope they do well. I have just put my first Fallow to Fallow pair down too & hoping for some eggs.

If you don’t have any foster pair where you can move them, there is little you can do. A pair can successfully raise 6 or even more, but once it goes past 6 it’s a big strain on them. I would wait for some chick to hatch & then if you get 6 out, just remove the rest of the eggs & bury them, I wouldn’t break them or anything as it’s not pleasant to break eggs & see live babies in them. Some may suggest hand raising some, which you could do if you wanted, but I don’t recommend it as it’s a time consuming task & mostly I don’t think it’s as good as parent raised. If you wanted to hand raise, I would suggest removing the oldest young leaving the youngest to be raise by the parents.

Sorry I haven’t ever heard of Mange tout, so can’t say if it’s the same as Snow Peas. I think that some people feed cooked corn, but in my opinion raw would be better. I feed it on the cob or buy frozen nibblets & thaw it out or pour hot water over it & drain it before feeding. Corn from a can wouldn’t hurt them, but as I said I think raw is best.

What Kaz has said is good advice, as I think it is always good not to breed from birds with problems. That being said if they are really special birds I would pair up a feeder at the same time & foster the eggs or young chicks, then when you breed with those young if you have the same problems I would forget about that line.

Yeah me too...a hen.

Yeah looking good Kaz, the TCB looks a bit like a Cinnamon?

Hi & Welcome to the forum, as Libby has said I have some Texas Clear Bodies, I purchased four cocks & one hen this year & have so far bred 18 TCB’s & some splits. I also purchased one Saddleback hen & two split cocks, but as yet they haven’t bred. As Kaz told you, you can search, as there are pictures of some of my TCB’s & the one Saddle back on the forum. As Libby has said, the others Black Faces, Mottled & slates as far as we know aren’t available in Australia. As far as I know Black Faces are only in The Netherlands [Holland] & only one breeder has them & I don’t know the status of this mutation at the moment, as all the information I have seen on the net is from the 90’s. I would like to get some Black Faces myself if this were possible. I’m not that keen on the Mottleds.

Thanks guys definitely some pictures later.

Today I checked the other Dusk, breeding in the cabinet, so the young must be from the Dusk cock…one chick already hatched & looks like 6 or 7 are fertile so surely I should get a Dusk out of that lot. I’m getting a bit excited.

That’s a real nice chick Ravengypsy.

Thanks for the picture Deb; yes it's a Spangle so the bars will only moult out on the forehead & will stay on the back of the head.

Yes I think that's right Elly & Ravengypsy.

The marks on their heads are called bars have we had a picture of your bird? Some mutations keep some of their barring into adult, mostly the bars only clear on the forehead.

Don’t worry Elly neither do I…the first chick looks something like a Sky Blue Normal, but there is something a bit different to it, but Mum has started to feather pluck it so it’s been moved to a foster, the other real young chick is a Lutino, I’m told this mutation adds a strong colour to Lutino, it remains to be seen, there are a lot of Lutino’s in it’s history. I was told it was Dominant so I need to wait for birds that show the mutation, as being Dominant it cant be carried.

Yes I understand about the pet types having thinner legs, boy some of the show types have thick ones, you have to be careful. Lucky you noticed & got it back in time. I had a few do that & nice birds, drew a bit of blood, but healed okay getting them back on in a few cases. Earlier I gave up but found out with care you can get one on to even a quite large bird. But not something I would recommend to people that didn't have lots of experince, as their legs are delicate.

Is curry the only TCB you have Kaz? Did you keep any of his other TCB young? Do you like the mutation & are you thinking of improving this mutation for showing? Just interested.

Is it too old to replace it?