Norm

Congratulations on your new addition…sounds like & looks like he is going to be a great pet…yes looks like a male to me. If you want to know his mutation, he’s a Sky Blue Normal.

Thanks guys...she was a "big one" Elly...big Mumma. The biggest bird I had.

Congratulations Kaz.

That’s good new, some Dad’s are real good feeders even without the Mum some not so good. If at any stage he seems to ease off, I would suggest putting the bubs out of the nest on the floor of the cage, they learn quite quick to start nibbling.

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s133/gr...BlueSpangle.jpg This is a picture of the type of bird you need to look for Zebra. It's an Opaline Spangle & maybe it's YF too...the colours not too strong so can't tell for sure. Sorry Aly I just noticed to late that it's one of my old photos before I learnt how to resize them...smack on the knucles. No problem, Norm

I agree those chicks look good Nerwen...so that's one of the secrets they think helps get the best show birds Daz...slowly we are finding the secrets...I always give mine plenty of greens they seem to feed better, I thought when given plenty of different greens I thought I was doing the "right" thing. At least I think they will be healthier. Pump em full of starch eh....(Laughing out loud).

I lost the Sky Blue Opaline hen on the right of the picture about a week ago, I found her in the nest box dead, she was laying & had lain two eggs of the batch, it could have been from being egg bound, but there was no sign of her being sick. She was never what I would call a healthy bird, but was massive, she barely could fit in the hole in my nest boxes & I had to provide a step for her to get up into the box. Her first nest of 7 eggs was infertile with a cock I bought with her at the bird sale in June. After that I put her with one of my males a smaller bird, as I thought she was too large. I took the first batch away from her as she got injured, only two of these eggs were fertile & one hatched, but I was unsure that it was hers or the fosters chick. That's why I have waited, but I'm glad to say now the chick has got feathers it was one of hers. So at least I got one of her blood, here is hoping that it turns out a nice bird. It's a Green Opaline Spangle, as she was paired with a Green Opaline Spangle cock. The other two cocks in this picture have been failures so far & are flying in the aviary at the moment for another chance later, the Green Opaline is quit old 6 or 7 so don't know if he will come good.

Thanks Kaz. I certaqinly wish the west was a little closer, as I have seen some nice birds over there that some of you guys have.

30 degrees wouldn’t be a problem with Budgies 125 is pretty high, but Budgies come from areas in their native state that have high temperatures, so it shouldn’t be too much of a problem, also on days of extremes you could assist with spraying them with water & in other ways.

I can’t get your new photo to load for me, so I can’t see it. As you say Melanistic Spangles are rare, so I guess the chances are small that it would be one of them. Mostly you have to have the mutation to breed that type of bird, but even though they are very rare, [mutations] birds do mutate, that’s how new mutations occur the first time.

- Quote "that's definitely the last pair I told hubby".....(Laughing out loud) Oh yeah Denise…I tell myself that also…until I see another great bird…best of luck with your promise he he he… I agree with the others on the hen she is an Opaline Dominant Pied Spangle & even though it's hard to be positive from that photo I think the Lacewing is a cock. If so if he was mated with her, because the Lacewing is sex-linked you will get Lacewing hens. All other colours will be cocks split to Lacewing & Opaline. All young will be Blue series birds. There can be other mutations depending on what the Lacewing cock especially is split for & to a lesser extent the hen. I don't think the Lacewing could be too closely related to the hen, as to get a Lacewing cock you have to have a Lacewing hen mated to either a Lacewing cock or a cock split for Lacewing. If the cock was an Opaline split Lacewing it could happen that the hen is a sister.

Like Macka has said, some may have had small batches, but there is lots of variation in Budgies some are “stuffed” after one batch others even after three batches look still great & feeding well, mostly the accepted thing is two batches, but you can use your own discretion especially if you have a really good pair that is breeding great chicks for showing or some other reason. And then you can foster chicks from good birds so that they don’t have it too hard. In my experience the hardest thing is to stop birds, most of mine have eggs before the last chick from the previous batch has left the nest, if I want to stop them often I remove the hen just before she would lay & let Dad finish off.

I also totally agree with LIbby...nice birds.

Glad to hear that things have improved Mick.

Yes Julie I know it's very sad, all you can do is look on it as learning, it's like the saying about spilt milk, once something has happened there's nothing else but to go on wiser. You can't turn back the clock. Don't hate your Albion it's only her nature, maybe like most things agressiveness can be carried on genetically. I certainly wouldn't return her to the same aviary just now, can't you just keep her separate till you organise your bird room? With that type of agressiveness in Budgie, it's probably a sign of a good breeding hen. If you persist you will get to your hand taming Budgies...just be patient...good luck.

Sadly Julie, this is the problem with breeding under the colony system, which it sounds like you are doing. Probably you have read other posts on here about the pros & cons of cabinet versus colony breeding. This is the danger with this type of system & some hens are more aggressive than others & in the colony system will always be a problem, but if bred in a cage of their own it wont be a problem & most probably she will be a good breeder. It’s probably not a juvenile situation, with maturity she would probably become more aggressive while breeding. The danger of these type problems is always present when birds are bred in colonies in an aviary, tomorrow it could be another bird, it’s not rare. I’m sorry to hear of your losses

Hopefully it’s a more simple problem, not the worse…it’s only a possibility, but I think you will find it is the more simple case.

Like Macka says breeding is the main attraction, but I’m sure more comes into it than that, but I think we would have to be a Budgie to know. For certain birds like some birds better than others & if they have a choice will pick a certain partner over another, as if you pair them in a cage & they breed, once you return them back to the aviary they will often go back to their first choice.

Sandy about getting some more birds like your cock bird, I think it’s some kind of Dilute, which means it’s Recessive, so it will be difficult to get another like it, unless you mate it with another bird similar to it’s self or to a bird split for Dilute. Re your Cinnamon Violet chick or chicks…Kaz maybe correct that the hen is a Sky Blue Violet, but seeing you are breeding colony style I would put my bets on the Opaline Greywing Violet being Dad…maybe Mum has been straying…Budgie like a little variety you know…(Laughing out loud). Macka was right it took me some time to read up on the whole post to work out who was who so hopefully my advise was right…phew…might be good to keep batches in separate posts.

The pair with 8 eggs now have three chicks. Looks like all have hatched so far 5 more to go. The other pair with 4 chicks, the last one to hatch is a Lutino, but the two eldest chicks are not & have very light yellow pin feathers so I have high hopes they are both TCB hens [don’t count your chicks…as the saying goes Normie]… The pure TCB pair are still laying more eggs.

Good news Kaz & good luck, if they turn out real successful maybe I will have to fly into the west next time you are selling...(Laughing out loud)...I have a brother in the west also.

Yes a couple of nice YF INO's.

I have never seen a beak that long, in a Budgie, of course some birds have problems with beaks & toes growing long for various reasons that hopefully a vet could diagnose. As Kaz said it wouldn’t be anything to do with not having cuttlebone. Of course the worse case scenario is that it could be beak & feather disease, which I believe is very contagious, so I would keep it well away from other birds till you are advised whether it is or not. I can’t see any feather problem from that photo, but I’m not sure if they can have trouble with this disease without feather loss being included. Luckily I haven’t seen many cases here of late, I had seen years ago many Sulphur Crested Cockatoos with it, but I think because of the noise they make & issues of keeping birds in small cages, they are not such popular pets these days. Some one had a picture of one on this forum some months ago that was visiting their backyard, in Canberra I think. It's sad that anyone could let a bird get in that state without doing something, as trimming would be quite easy if they were careful.

Some birds have strange hobbies, like some humans…(Laughing out loud)…I had one hen in an aviary, every time I went near the aviary I would hear this loud “twanging” noise, I found out this one hen sat on a rail in the aviary “twanging” on the aviary wire, every time I went there she was at it, how long each day she did it I don’t know.

Often a young chick will not be fed for some hours when real young, just be careful you don’t take them away too early before the mother has had a chance, of course if they don’t feed to long a wait can be fatal, but of course sometimes the problem is with the chick [something wrong with it] which may have been the case, as you tried it with a few hens, not all babies survive, even if we hope for this. But also trying it with a hen that doesn’t have chicks of similar age or is due to hatch may not work. If you breed some will die there is nothing you can do about it, it's part of life, don't blame yourself.