Norm

I was given a pigeon that someone found, it had broken it's wing, by flying into something. I just kept it in a small cage so it wouldn't try to fly too much & after some time it's healed, but the wing hangs a little lower than normal & it can fly again, but I guess it's not as good as normal.

I agree they all look great Splat.

Their looking good Aly, even if they are moulting, got plenty of hens there.

Looks great Aly, almost can't recognise her...I think I'd want to have a moult after that.

Nice birds Aly, I wouldn’t mind any of them in my aviary. Great pictures also.

A really nice batch of chicks, thanks for showing them to us.

I have substituted a male half way through a batch & it worked out well they went on to raise the chicks, but as I was advised it is always a risk. I have taken an infertile male out & substituted another male almost straight away & never had problems, but it seem as you see from others advice, it’s potentially dangerous.

Success at last Neat, you certainly got some red eyes in that batch. Just watch as others have said, when one batch is finishing & another starting, is a dangerous time with colony breeding, all of a sudden one hen may decided she wants a new nest & go to the neighbours & commit murder…colony breeding can work for some time, but it’s like Russian roulette, you never know when the loaded cartridge is due. Good luck.

Welcome Jamieo, you have some nice colourful birds there.

Some small luck, that cock that I bought with this batch, [Cinnamon Grey] paired with one of my hens Opaline Sky Blue [not a big bird] has hatched one chick so far & as I said previously, their eggs look fertile. So if one is fertile maybe some hope for some of the others later. Of course he is one of the worse ones I bought, I wouldn’t have even bought this one except that he offered me the last three he hadn’t sold for $5 each. Well as they say you can even get a good bird from a not so good looking one, if it comes from a good breeding line, so I will live in hope. It has a nice broad forehead, which is a plus for my breeding hopes. Two of the cocks that produced infertile eggs & looked very quite in the breeding cabinets have got a new lease of life, now they are in the aviary.

The Lutino would have to be masking YF to get any Creamino’s, as if the Albino was YF it would show…chances are probably very slight as others have said. As Paul said probably mating Albino to Lutino isn’t the best mating, as often unless they are exceptional birds, you will produce smaller birds, better to mate with good quality Normals & then use the split cocks back to the Albion or Lutino. As others have stated, you will probably only get Lutinos unless the Lutino is split for Blue & if it is also some Albinos. The Lutinos produced will probably have a greater chance of Greenish tinge also.

Yeah your right Macka, that’s another risk [old age] buying in birds is always a risk as I have found out. It only has a split plastic ring & because of it’s breeding you would think that it would have been rung. Even if I get one bird from it to breed on with I would be happy, but some I bred so far haven’t even done that for me. I have tried to find breeders in the local area, but there aren’t many, I have got a few from one breeder, but he hasn’t got some mutations. Others I contacted said they didn’t have any for sale & I’ve been told they don’t like selling birds, they rather sell to pet trade, as apparently don’t like others to have their birds. One guy is a well-known breeder on the show scene, but sounded like I was a nuisance, so not ringing him back. Then even though it’s along trip for me to Sydney, I contacted the President of one of the main clubs, he wrote back telling me to contact people in my area, I told him I have already tried them, he never bothered getting back to me. So as I said I’m stuck with looking for scraps wherever I can. With the price of seed many in the area have gone out of birds. One guy sold all his birds [british types at least] to one of the pet shops in town; I pick one pair that looked the most active. The cock is a bit of a zombie, but at least fertile & has produced some nice babies. Even though I had to foster them. The hen has turned out a good breeder, I now wish I gabbed a few more when I had the chance.

He has lost some tail feathers & he holds his wings low a bit, he was very stressed out, I guess because he was just sold to the shop the day before & then moved to my place in a shoebox, as didn’t have a cage with me. He is calming down already, so I hope he will be okay. I thought since this morning one reason why his markings seem a bit strange, maybe that he has Spangle in him, as his check patches are white & the Cinnamon on the top of wings [shoulders] is a fine pencil line, with also patches of white amongst them. Yes his head is very broad, also a wide body with legs far apart. Hope he survives now & breeds. Some time relaxing in the aviary & some good food, hopefully will give him a boost, I don’t have any of the additives mentioned to give him a boost. He is very active.

I bought a bird from a pet shop yesterday, I will be glad when I have bought all the Mutations I want & don't have to keep buying birds in, as it's always a worry, especially when so many talk about disease problems they have on this site. I can't go by a pet shop without looking, hoping to find that one bird I want. The one I bought is a rarer mutations [Lacewing] I only have one, a hen & this is a cock. I worry I might have wasted my money, as it was the only bird sold to them by this person, so I guess my chances that it's a good bird are slim. Life is about taking risks. It's I think as I said a Lacewing, but I'm not sure it could be some kind of Fallow. Maybe I have some chance that it will breed, as it has very poor markings for a Lacewing, just some light Cinnamon markings high on the wings, which fade lower down, but maybe it has some Pied in it, it's hard to tell, with it being all white. It has good face spots & quite good type. The pet shop owner said it was from people that only breed English Budgies. It may have been culled because of bad markings instead of "wont Breed" that's my hope anyway. The few breeders that I have been able to contact around here mostly wont sell birds, so the pet shops are my main source. The picture I'm sorry isn't so great, as it's still pretty stressed out, at least it had only been in the pet shop from the day before, which I could tell was right, as it was fighting with all the other birds & didn't look settled. PS. I just had a thought about looking at his check patches, his are white not Mauve like Lacewings...maybe it's a Fallow...I need some Fallows anyway, so not to worry.

Just as well for some of those less off birds that there are a few “softies” like you around. I wood never buy a bird that didn’t look healthy, sadly being so kind has a few risks, buying even healthy birds has health risks, like Elly said, good that you quarantined. That’s gratitude for you, after you did that for her, she turns around & bites you. I bought a bird from a pet shop too yesterday, I will be glad when I have bought all the Mutations I want & don’t have to keep buying birds in, as it’s always a worry, especially when so many talk about disease problems they have on this site. I can’t go by a pet shop without looking, hoping to find that one bird I want. The one I bought is a rarer mutations [Lacewing] I only have one, a hen & this is a cock. I worry I might have wasted my money, as it was the only bird sold to them by this person, so I guess my chances that it’s a good bird are slim. Life is about taking risks.

Good one Kaz, I hate to see eggs wasted; you never know what can come of them. Like others have said could be show birds. Their feathers have a sort of scruffy look about them, they could have came from the floor…(Laughing out loud)… Your better than me, I’m sure you recorded what you did, I found a spare egg & put it under one pair, then completely forgot about it. Then I got this Cinnamon Grey Opaline from this pair & I thought that’s strange they had had a couple of batches & never had an Opaline before. Then the other day I recalled what I had done & thought I think that’s where I put that egg & it’s quite a nice looking bird, I know it’s mother who was an Opaline, but like yours was in the aviary & plenty of cocks so could have been anyone.

It's a Cinnamon Grey Green isn't it Kaz, one of my favourite colours, I think they look nice. I think both the Cinnamon Grey & Grey Green are nice Cinnamons are one of my favourite colours. Congratulations Elly having a Budgie named after you.

What's a runner?? A runner is a bird suffering from what is called French Moult…[Polyoma virus] the birds loose their tail & flight feathers, some can recover & grow back their feathers, others seem to get so much damage that they never grow back & never can fly, therefore the name “Runners”. According to the experts some become immune as they get older, others continue to carry it & can spread it to others, mostly the damage occurs when the birds are young in the nest, they loose their feathers just before leaving the nest or soon after. Apparently it can cause more problems than this, it can even cause the death of some birds & eggs to not hatch.

I couldn’t find my last post on this subject, so showing follow up here. By the way is there some easy way of finding your old post to add to them? The post was where one of my hens was found dead without any warning, didn’t show any signs of disease or distress. The cock was left with 5 young about two weeks old. Well it was successful, but not totally, I didn’t loose any of the 5 chicks, but they didn’t get optimum feeding. After about a week I notice that the younger ones weren’t getting what I thought was enough food & all chicks seemed smaller than usual & I think it was lack of food not genetics [smaller type] so I took the two oldest chicks away & put them in the young bird aviary, in four days they were up on the perches & feeding well. After about another week, I still wasn’t satisfied with how the younger chicks looked so I decided to put them & their father in the aviary. The first day I didn’t see him feed them at all, but the next day he was giving them small amounts of feed, but as soon as another bird came near he flu away & left them. After another two days he cessed feeding completely, but they [all three] are feeding well.

Thanks guys.

Thanks Kaz, that's an idea, anyway I'm going to live dangerously & keep them for the time being & try some other possible matings. They are nice big birds & I need some more size in some of my birds. Like you say maybe it's just temporary, I have noticed improvements in health of most of the birds I have bought, so maybe a little more time will see results. I've had them three months almost now, so if it was some disease, hopefully it would have showed up by now.

Lucky you didn't bring home the runner Dave, it's bad enough when you get them yourself, without bringing the problem home, as it can spread.

Hi Josh & Sandy, You have some really nice birds there, I like your TCB cock, I have just got some TCB’s myself as I like the mutation, if you want to get more TCB’s… if you want to keep to the Blue series if you can’t get a TCB hen a nice Albion hen would be good. Or if you would like some in the Green series a Lutino hen. With the Spangle hen you will get some hen TCB’s, but you have the chance of getting Spangle in them & I haven’t seen one yet so don’t know what that will look like, the cocks will be split for TCB. If the white cock has black eyes with iris rings it's a DF Spangle too like your Yellow. Unless it's some really light Dilute, if it's Spangle you will get Spangle chicks in possibly both Blue & Green series, if the hen is split for BLue & if he is split for Cinnamons some Cinnamons are possible.

The new Texas Clear Bodies I bought resently, were mostly too young to breed, but I paired one of the older cocks with One of my Opaline Green hens, two or three chicks have already hatched, so a little bit more luck than with my earlier purchases from the bird sale. So hoping for some TCB hens & split cocks for next years breeding, some pictures later when they start to feather.

Update on those new birds...I put three pairs up together, some had not hatched so I checked all the eggs in the three pairs yesterday & all were clear & have been smashed. I have broke up the pairs & paired with different mates from my own birds. I spoke to another guy that bought some from the same breeder at the sale, his were all clear also & he has got rid of them all already. I hope it doesn't mean some disease, most are 06 birds so not that old. I had one spare cock from the same source I paired it with one of my own birds, their eggs look fertile, so I will keep my fingers crossed. Buying from breeders doesn't alway mean it's better, sadly.