Norm

If you want to breed birds the same colour as your bird, I would choose a good Lutino.

In my opinion Elly, your Merlin is definitely a Dominant Pied. I probably wasn’t too clear in my first post, what I was meaning about having a Dominant, Clearflight, Recessive Pied… I meant visual in the one bird not split for Recessive, I know they all can be split for Recessive. The problem would be in how to prove it…as the male’s cere may not stay pink & they may get iris rings in the eyes. Also the bird I mentioned in the first post that was paired to a Sky Blue hen, what I didn’t state clearly was that I thought he was a DF Dominant, as he looked like a Recessive Pied with hardly any body colour except on his rump, but had Dominant eye rings. And in his first batch he had all heavily Pied young like himself, confirming to me that he must be DF, but then in the next batch he had some non Pied birds & birds that look like Clearflights, so in that case he can’t be DF as they get all Dominant Pied young when paired to a Normal, don’t they? I will have to wait till the young get older & see if they or any get iris rings. Another hen I had, now departed, looked like a Clearflight, but when paired with a Cinnamon Grey Green cock [not Pied] she produced Dominant Pied chicks [some heavily Pied] & one of the hens that looked like a Clearflight, later paired with an Opaline Sky Blue/Recessive Pied produced a DEC. Showing that definitely she had Clearflight & at least split for Recessive. I have another pair of heavily marked Pieds, paired together, the cock is a Dominant & the hen I think is Recessive, but I should have checked her iris rings, but haven’t yet. In their first batch they produced three male chicks [now mature] all are Cinnamons [as are both parents] all have head spots, some large others very small & one Heavily Pied chick. Their next batch they had four Pieds, which I’m pretty sure, are Recessive, as they had the plum eyes when young. That isn’t a mystery I guess as the cock is probably split Recessive, but the size of the head spots on the first batch differ from large to small, I suppose it’s possible that some could be Dominant & others split for Recessive. All the Pieds from this pair look like Recessive as they have hardly any Body colour, just almost pure Yellow or White. Even though they all look like Recessives, with a Dominant father some should be Dominants.

I understand your idea of the box, but I thought you meant that you had a particular type mouse trap set in the middle compartment, but from what you have said now, I get that is not the case.

My idea is that both the Dominant & Recessive pied can have the clear spot on the head. As the Dominant can’t be split, if it has a white patch on it’s head I think that that means it is already a Dominant Pied, even though that is the only clear mark it has.

Yes I guess your right, so many are split for Recessive these days, both could be that way.

Sorry Nerwen too many months ago, can't remember. I have what I thought was a Dominant Pied [hardly any colour body all pied] that I mated to a normal Sky Blue hen, in the first batch, all six young were Pied so I thought Dom...but on the next batch it's had what looks like a Clear Flight & some Normals [non Pied young]. How do you do the seperate quotes like others do, I can't seem to work out how to do that.

Looks good Zebra, but you will need to wait for others in other countries like yours for advice on heating, as in Australia we don’t really need heating. Budgies in the wild live in arid areas; which sometimes get quite cold at night, but only something like –5c & then hot during the days, so they can survive a wide range of temperatures. I would think that you wouldn’t need to heat any higher than 20c at any time. The thing you would have to think about with any artificial heat is what it would do to humidity. In your situation I would think breeding only in your summer would be best.

I know these two mutations are considered two separate ones, but I sometimes wonder. And also I wonder how you can tell for sure if you have one or the other. The Clear Flight has wing & tail flight feathers White or Yellow depending whether Blue or Green series, they can also have a small amount of Pied on their upper chest & the patch on their head. Maybe these are considered faults in showing. In my experience with lots of types of birds which have Pied marking I have noticed often, it’s the tail & flight feathers that become Pied first & if you select for Pied & pair Pied to Pied the Pied area will become more & more dominant. I just read on one British site on the net, that you can have combinations or all three Pied Types …Clear Flight, Dominant & Recessive in the one bird. Some one advised me on here that you couldn’t have Dominant & Recessive in the one bird as they are on the same allele, but it seems this is wrong. Maybe this is why I am wondering. As I have had what look like Clear Flights from full body Dominant Pieds & what looked like Dominant Pieds from what I thought were Clear Flights. What are your thoughts on this?

I hope it’s interesting to read of some experiences I have had. I have this one pair the hen a Cinnamon Opaline Sky Blue Clear Flight paired to an YF Cobalt Normal. He is probably YF2 but he has no bleed into his body colour, but most of the chicks from this batch have. They are both nice big-bodied birds, what I would call more show types. They have had more than what is considered the right number of batches, as even though they have good fertility the hen is strange; after two chicks have hatched she just lets the other later chicks die. Through not feeding I think. The cock looks what I call lazy, he doesn’t bustle around like some males feeding all the time & feeding the hen like mad when she appears out of the nest. I decided to let them have another batch, as they had only raised two’s & three’s in three batches, because they don’t rush around they both seem fit still. In pervious bathes after they had only two chicks survive, I used them to foster chicks from other large batches, as she always feeds large chicks, it’s only young chicks after the first two get large she neglects. In this last batch I thought I would take her eggs away & give them to others, so I could get more chicks from them as their young looked good & I didn’t think I would pair them together again. But I had problems with some other batches & was desperate for feeders, so they are still feeding, they will need a rest after this batch. I kept taking their young away & giving them to others, but now I have kept giving them big youngsters from others to ease the others loads & now they have 6 chicks, which they seem to be feeding well.

Great chicks & wonderful pics as well Splat.

Good luck Nerwen for a great breeding season, I will be watching for the results.

I’m sorry Kaz, but from reading that description, I have no idea of what the trap looks like, as it doesn’t sound like any trap I have ever seen. If it was possible & not a problem a picture of the actual mouse trap would be great thanks. Just the trap it's self not the whole box complex, I mean.

I agree with the colours & your young birds look extremely healthy chicks…good work to you & their Mum & Dad.

I agree, I think Whiskey is an YF2 Opaline Cinnamon Grey…she was a great help to you while you were raising them other babies. I have noticed that young birds just weaned seems to be a great help to other newly weaned babies, as I see them feed others quite often in my aviary…I also agree the name Blackie is great for a White [Albino] bird…(Laughing out loud). Very obvious what else would you call her.

Not both sexes she can only give a normal gene to her daughters who will get the Ino gene (wither albino or lutino) from the father (and as hen must show this) the sons will get the Ino gene + a Clearbody gene, since this is a par ino gene they will appear as clearbodies but can create full ino daughters later.Thanks your right Kaz, it must have been too early in the morning for me, as I was what I thought was very careful & checked with Ghalib Al-Nasser's site. to confirm that I was giving right information & still I got it wrong. Dragonfly Sky…Kaz is right I got it wrong…If you pair your hen with an Ino…Lutino or Albino…you will get Ino hens & TCB cocks split for INO.

I have done similar things quite a few times & never had any problems, but from all your stories maybe I should be more careful. I have had quite a few cases where I tried one or two rounds with one cock & then found out he must be infertile. I then took out that cock, while they were feeding some fostered chicks & substituted another cock. My thought was that most hens lay before the end of their batch of chicks & if I didn't substitute at that stage I would end up with infertile eggs in another batch. The hens were sort of cool with the new cock for a couple of days, but then he started feeding her & the chick with no problems. I must have been lucky. Or maybe like Splat says my hens are hussies…(Laughing out loud). I have read articles by experts that said that wild Budgies normally mate with several males to ensure that their DNA gets spread with as much varied DNA to ensure their survival.

Sorry to hear your problem is still ongoing Splat, was just thinking about it…hope it runs it’s course soon, even if you don’t find out what it is. Best of luck.

Yeah thanks Splat, I think most Budgies are “hussies” as you put it…(Laughing out loud)…maybe she knew she was with a useless cock. I had a cock that was with one hen for months & she wasn’t a success, I removed her & replaced her, they mated straight away…maybe they know more than us. I have bred her before she is a great mum & her daughters are turning out the same. I hope I will soon have some TCB bubs…

Your bird is a Opaline Texas Clear Body, they are what's called PAR INO it means that they have only partly lost their body colour not completely like the Albino & Lutino. I think that the fact that she has still some Green parts on her body instead of the usual Yellow in the TCB is because the gene has only worked in some areas & not others. If you were showing her it would be considered at fault. I think you are saying that you mated her with an Opaline Greywing Green & you got all Normal Opaline Green babies. This is normal as the male's colour would mask the TCB, but all your male babies would be what are called split for Texas Clear Body. As you ask… if you mated your hen TCB with an Ino cock… with Lutino you would get all TCB babies of both sexes. Probably all in the Green [Yellow] series. If you mated her with an Albino, you would also get all TCB babies, if she was split for Blue you would get some Blue TCB's & some Yellow. If she isn't split for Blue all babies would be Green series, but split for Blue. If you keep some of her male babies & mate them to TCB's or Ino you will get some TCB babies.

Welcome back Aly…good to have you back we missed your input; I hope things are more stable for you now. All your chicks look good & nice pictures also, but it seemed like the first two pictures didn't load for me. Are others having that problem? The first picture I see is Kito & Devi. I'm glad to hear your getting your own special bird room. PS. I don't know what's ahppening, but after I posted this reply the top two pictures became avaiable to me.

If she is just flying from perch to perch & while sitting on the perch she is twitching her wings, it isn't anything to worry about, in fact it's a sign of really good health & she is just bursting with energy. It's hard for us to be exact, seeing that we cant see the bird, but if in other ways she seems normal I wouldn't worry.

I just wanted to let you guys know; of an experience I had with trying to mate hens with different males. I read an article on here about mating good males with a number of different females to maximize the number of good chicks. What I did wasn't exactly like the other person suggested. Just an idea I got after reading the article. I had this hen that I paired up with a certain male bird for a particular reason, but on the first round all the eggs were infertile & she thru them out, then she started on the second batch & because I hate wasting my time & the efforts of the hens with infertile batches, I got what I thought was a bright idea…WRONG!… She was on her second egg & I still wanted to try her out with this particular male, but thought if I took the male out & put a second one in a couple of times, if the first male was still infertile, I would get some chicks from the second male. Well it didn't work out like I thought, the first male had been very attentive, feeding her all the time spending lots of time in the nest box with her…But on removing the first male & substituting the second, it didn't actually work out like I thought…straight away she left the eggs, became really lovey dovey with the second male, within a few hours, both the eggs had been punctured. I had planned in just leaving the second male for a short time & then placing the first back again & maybe doing this a couple of times. But once this happened I just left the second male with her, she continued laying eggs, mostly in the nest, but two on the floor, but even after laying five she hadn't set properly & spent most of her time outside the nest. So eventually I removed the eggs & place with another bird. After a few days she began laying more eggs & now seems to have settled down. What's that saying about the plans of mice & men…well I have left her with the second male [one of my new TCB's] first male is back in the aviary. I just thought I would tell you the story so that you could learn from my experience, maybe with other pairs it might work out, but in my case it was a total failure & a waste of time & I don't think the eggs I took away are going to be fertile either. But will let you know.

I had never even heard of such a thing until I read that other post on here. I would just like to confirm that what I have is actually a “croaker” or not. It’s a male & doesn’t seem to spend that much time chattering like other Budgies, but flies back & forth, just calling out. Most Budgies do this & it’s just a single note, but this bird is different & it’s conceivable that it could be considered croaking. I don’t have any sound equipment that I could record, sorry. I spoke to the guy that sold it to me, he said that he was sorry, as he didn’t know, but he told me he bought it, but was getting rid of it because when he got it home he thought his birds looked better than it, so it wasn’t worth him breeding from it. He said that the breeder was known for croakers. I will probably breed with it & see what happens, if it doesn’t work out I can always cull later. It’s supposed to be inheritable. It looks perfectly healthy. A Grey Green Spangle.

Yeah great chicks Paul, one certainly does look like its Spangle. I at last got myself four Texas Clear Bodies, three Yellow Opaline, one Normal Yellow. Three males, one female. Most are too young to breed as yet, but I did pair one older Male up with an Opaline Light Green & she is on eggs. I am not planning to show, so will probably try them in different mutations to see what they look like later, when I get my numbers up. Plus breed some in the Blue series also. I like that YF Opaline [is it Grey] chick looks nice.

I bought a Budgie from a breeder, he said he didn’t breed it but it was bred by a well-known Breeder in Sydney. After getting it home I noticed it’s single call note is different than a normal Budgie. I did a search on here, as I read about them on here some time ago, until then I had never heard of them. It doesn’t seem to blow its crop up or anything like that, just that it’s single call note is different than the norm. Can you tell from that description whether I have a Croaker or just a Budgie with a different voice?