Norm

I wouldn't worry about the rubbbing Phillip, I have seen plenty of birds, even hens rubbing themselves on perches etc...Budgies are pretty highly sexed, they live to breed, it's their survival, they calm down as they age like most of us...(Laughing out loud).

I agree YF2 Blue Spangle one of my favourite colours.

yes I have done that plenty of times, I see a bird I like, then go away & think later I should buy that bird & when I go back if it's still there home it comes with me. I have often done that for a couple of weeks & it's still been there so as Kaz said it must be meant to be.

Welcome to the site Sarah, even though the picture isn't that clear as others have said I'm going to guess it's a boy. I wouldn't be worried about how quite your Budgie is at this time if you only got it. It will be very scared with its changing surroundings, give it a day or so. Like you say it might be better if you located the food lower in the cage like you say, to stop seed going everywhere, just don't locate it under any of the perches, so it wont get soiled. When you first place new things like the honey stick it may take some time for your bird to get used to them & to try them, so don't worry.

I agree with Nerwen about what you will get, should be some nice colours. I have bred some YF2 Spangles this year, they are a nice Mutation in my opinion. On a personal opinion note, I’m going to try & keep the Pied mutation out of my Spangles, as I love the wings on Spangles & it seems a pity to loose it under Pied. What do others think?

In future if only one parent dies, if I were you I would have left them with the remaining parent, as often they will keep raising it themselves. Especially if it’s the mother that’s left, a mother is quite capable of raising 3 or 4 by her self. The fathers aren’t quite as good, I have found, but I had one hen that just dropped dead of late & the father raised them, even though they were a little smaller than normal.

Hi Birdluv, thanks for the picture.

With chooks you often get a real small egg, I have put it down to the last egg of a batch & then later they lay normal size again. But with a Budgie that was laying normal eggs & now hasn’t laid anything else but the unusual size eggs, would suggest to me that something has gone wrong in side with the oviduct system, sadly I would think you are right that she may no longer be any good. I had a hen that I bought & she laid only real small eggs, but they had yokes, but were infertile, in her case I put it down to being too old, but yours is still young.

jjg, I think that Lutinos & Albionos are difficult ones to start off with, as usually it's hard to get good quality birds. Like others have said Normals are a good start then you can use the good ones to improve other colours later on.

Nice birds Stuart, but if I were you I would remove that electric cord, from where it is up close to the cage wire, otherwise they could chew through it & electrify the whole cage or fry some birds.

Why Elly? I thought you had been on this forum long enough to know you can't breed with one bird...sorry just couldn't help myself...being nasty. :(Laughing out loud): I'm in trouble now... no more nice comments about my birds.

Thanks for those pictures Lady, yes I understand it will depend on the amount of bleed of each bird, I don’t know if I have any YF1’s but my YF2’s vary in the amount of bleed.

Your bird could be a female, but the picture is not conclusive, but it looks a bit like a Recessive Pied, so it still maybe a male as male Recessives keep a Pinkish cere through out their life. When it gets it’s adult plumage it will be more certain.

That’s going to be hard, your lucky mine in the aviary start chattering soon after 5am. Budgies like to make noise it’s part of being a Budgie, re when guests arrive I can only suggest you move them to the other side of the house or something like that.

Sorry to hear of your experiences Mel, Mega is often carried in the system of most Budgies & stress can make it flair up. Also when you get a new bird, it is always a stressful time for it, changing its environment & feed. Budgies & other birds are very small things that don’t live that long in human terms & when you keep them some deaths are probable, some have birds that live 10 or even 20 years others only live a few years, it’s the luck of the game, as they say. As some have said, birds kept in small cages are venerable to draughts, so that’s something to look out for. I hope you don’t give up & your next bird will live a long & healthy life.

Thanks for your picture Armchairangel…good luck for your coming event.

Thanks guys. Even in the cabinet he still hasn't enough cofidence to fly up to the perches, as couldn't fly for so long.

Well I had some little luck or good news yesterday, the eggs I took from the pair mentioned in this post, that I put with another pair, well one looks like it hatched, there were four eggs & I checked them a few days ago & three looked totally clear so I took them away, but one looked fertile so I left it, it hatched yesterday, so maybe with some luck my first TCB, either hen or a split cock. It seems to be getting fed okay, but the batch I put it with is a bit strange. They are a really good breeding pair & usually have six eggs, but she stopped at 4 unless something happened to two & I didn’t notice. So it was this batch that I choose to put the orphan eggs with. Only one of their four eggs hatched & it’s about a week old, so the new chick is somewhat smaller, but had food so I think it will be okay. Another strange thing happened, after I gave her the other eggs, she laid two more eggs. These eggs may still hatch also, can’t remember having that happen before, such a long gap between the first 4 & 2 more. So that was the first good luck yesterday & the second was that bird I had been given, because it didn’t have flight feathers on one wing, has grown them back, but that was tempered by finding two young with French Moult in two different nests that were just leaving the nest. Since I had that first batch of FM a couple of months ago, I have seen some young birds in the next aviary to where it occurred drop their tail feathers & grow back pale coloured feathers, which I think is the FM spreading. The two nest in cabinets were in the same shed complex, I have two separate aviary/birdroom areas separated by a few hundred metres. So I’m hoping this FM isn’t going to develop into a worse problem. I may have to stop breeding for a year & that would be a blow.

I had one bit of what I call good luck yesterday, that bird I showed here, with one wing minus its flight feathers. Yesterday I had a vacant cabinet, so I thought I would mate that bird, Grey Spangle cock with an Opaline Light Green hen, I had bought from the same guy. I had noticed that it seemed like some feathers were growing back in that wing, but when I caught him up I found that all the flight feathers are coming back, there doesn’t seem any trouble with them now. I wonder now what was the problem, any way I got him for nothing & he looks a nice bird, so here’s hoping some nice chicks maybe on the way.

I put the Cinnamon Opaline cock with the Opaline Sky Blue hen. Looks like all the eggs are clear, don’t know whether to let them go again or to change cocks. All three of these pairs that I bought are now on eggs, the other two batches should hatch soon [hopefully] I haven’t candled them, I usually don’t. Hope I have at least some luck.

That DF Spangle chick that I thought might be a Lacewing. Well yesterday the chicks had started leaving the nest, looked like a nice batch, the hen [mother] is a show type bird, throws some nice big birds. So I went to start writing down their ring numbers & of course the DF Spangle chick has dropped its flight feathers, the only one in the batch, so far. French moult [Polyomas virus] see Splat what did I tell you.

See Splat I was right, it’s dangerous to have thoughts like that…just joking, but it’s sort of right every time I think “that’s a good bird can’t wait till I get some chicks from that” it’s fatal…so many times something happens. The heavily buff Cinnamon Grey cock that I put a picture on here a couple of months ago about, I was waiting for it to get old enough to pair it up see what I got, now it can’t even take off from the ground any more, just climbs up the wire. Maybe it’s just while it’s going through its adult moult. These things are sent to try us, we just have to battle on remain strong & hope we win in the end.

I agree with you Nerwen, looks like YF2 DF Spangle, don’t know what else it could be. Timbo.1 did anyone ask you did you just buy the bird? If you bred it or know what it’s parents were it would help…if not what Nerwen says is the best we can do & like she said, once you breed him & we could see his young maybe it would confirm.

Paul I have had this experience lots, I mentioned it before in some of my other posts. From what I have seen I have a theory, but it would be hard to prove it, that even chicks in the same batch share food after being fed by their parents. I’m a lot tougher than lots of people on here, I often throw chicks straight from the nest into the young birds aviary. As in cabinets I have found it impossible to keep them from going back into the nest & fouling the next batch that some of my hens seem to start so quick. It’s take them out or spoil the next batch, which often causes so much trouble, if that happens. I watch them carefully & some have a couple of tough days, but I have seen older young from the same batch, which a day or so before could hardly feed themselves feeding younger siblings. Also I have seen unrelated young birds that have been feeding themselves only a few days, feed unrelated birds. The thing I have notice too, is that the ones that get this type of feeding seem to struggle the longest, as they spend so much time begging for food from others, while others that didn’t get help are feeding themselves like experts. I haven’t lost any young through this treatment & I think it’s a normal occurrence in nature & they are sort of programmed for a short period of difficulty after leaving the nest.

Splat I’m so sorry to hear this news, I can’t believe the bad luck & troubles your going through at the moment. One would be enough without two at once. Everyone was telling me recently in one of my posts, of the risks that I took putting a new cock in with a hen, straight away after taking one away. I know hens are grumpy & often vicious, but “touch wood” I have never had this experience so far. It’s like I have said before, it’s amazing how something seems to happen to birds you have a special interest in…I have had that happen so often, that I’m often scared to start thinking “that’s a good bird”. Hope things are ready to turn around for the best for you, pretty soon.