Norm

CONGRATULATIONS MARLONY...great picture.

Great pictures Bea & the birds look real well too. I have some Cockatiels in the aviary with my Budgies & the Cockatiels beg for nibbles around the head & even get nasty if they are not given. I have never seen a Budgie beg to a Cockatiel. Maybe their snobs & it’s below their dignity.

Thanks KathyW, yes the bird was already caught, when I arrived & was in a small cage. Yes only the one wing is like that, the other wing & tail are normal, in fact it has a very long tail. It’s a 2006 bird, he said it was alright when young, but then went like that, I think it’s been like that for awhile, it just hasn’t happened, that’s why he gave it to me, to get rid of it, also he gave me another Dark Green Normal, the same, but with it, the opposite wing is effected. I have never seen a bird with French Moult with only one wing affected; they always have both wings & tail affected. I’m leaning to the fact that it’s genetic so at least not diseased. If it was my own bred, I probably wouldn’t breed from it, but I think I will try to breed it & if I get some good young without the problem, it will be a plus. Another bird I got from him has one twisted feather, so I think you get some problems like this from buff birds. That’s where feather dusters get their problem. Mating to a different line bird should remove the problem, said he hopefully. Thanks Kaz, I remember that about Mammoth's Dad now that you mention it. :oliveb:

That’s sort of the problem Michelle once you start to breed with birds, it’s not just your sweet little pet bird any more. It awakens their instincts, breeding is sort of like a return to the wild & with breeding it’s survival of the species. They don’t think like humans [that’s my little baby] at a certain stage they think they have done their job of breeding that batch & it’s on with the next one. Then the last batch is treated like any other budgie that comes into their territory. You have to do something positive at this stage, whether you like one bird in a small cage or not, at least temporally something must be done, it’s that or next it will be dead birds & I know that will upset you terribly. I’m sure you can work it out.

This is part of what lots of people on here say, when you start to breed birds, you have to plan ahead a bit & having some where appropriate to put the babies after you breed them is important. They can all go in your larger cage together once the breeding has stopped. You could just try taking out the nest, putting all the young on the floor, maybe providing something for them to hide for protection, like Nerwen suggested. The problem is probably the nest, once it's removed she may settle down.

Thanks Nerwen, It only has these very small feathers there, I must look closer at a normal bird, as I don’t know if the small feathers are all there is of the actual long flight feathers or whether they are just small secondary feathers, not the flight feathers, but if their not the flight feathers, there doesn’t seem any sign of them [no pins coming]. What has Mammoth’s father got in place of flight feathers? I’m starting to think it’s some genetic fault, like you suggest.

I think it would be better than have her kill some of the young ones. Remove the nest & then you could put her back after a couple of days.

Michelle do you want them to go on eggs again straight away? If not maybe you should just remove the mother & let Dad stay & finish feeding the babies. Then you can put them together again later.

It’s hard to say when we can’t see your birds, but seeing the oldest is over a month now, I would advise removing some of the older chick into another cage. Put plenty of seed on the floor of the cage & a largish dish of food on the floor also. And a water dish that is easy for them to see. Once fighting starts it can very easy become dangerous, you are saying it’s the parents fighting, but this is a sign of stress & could easy switch to the young & they wont be able to protect themselves like the older birds. Especially with the mother if she decides they are too old & she wants to breed again they become threats & can easily be killed. I would suggest that you remove up to #3 & then watch the other two very closely & remove at any sign of aggression, at that age it’s better for them to struggle for a couple of days than be killed. I can’t remember if you have wire cages, but if you have you can place them up against each other & if the cock wants to continue feeding them he can.

Yes I wondered where you were, welcome back, lets hope you have some breeding success soon. I thought it was because of the school holidays, we're missing Feathers too, hope that's only because of the school hols & everything is alright with Lori.

Thanks Elly.

This is my new Texas Clear Body Normal cock, I think he is better type than the Opalines. This is a couple of photos of a new Grey Green Spangle cock that I also got.

This is the photo as requested. This a close up of the wing. There doesn't seem to be any problem with the wing end, except that there are no large flight feathers, I hope the bleeding was just from him being caught yesterday, I will watch it & see if any feathers try to grow. In French Moult they seem to keep trying to grow, but are always distorted & often keep falling out, but there doesn't seem any sign of that at present. Thanks for that advise Kaz, maybe it will be just like your bird. Mammoth looks a nice chick.

okay Elly, give me time...it looks like one of the pets you see on here, but only one wing clipped, maybe I should clip the other so that it can fly a little. I know you just like looking at pretty pictures. :

KathyW, I wonder if you are confusing Grey factor with Dark factor, I think this Opaline Dark Green, has Dark factor, I think with the Grey factor when that effects a Green series bird you get a Grey Green & in the Blue a Grey bird. The number of Dark factors effects the intensity of the colour of birds, like in a pure Yellow bird the Yellow will be more intense in a bird with 2 dark factors, than a bird with 1 dark factor & one with no Dark factor. I’m no expert on the Violet factor, I think that’s another separate factor to the Dark factor but I could be wrong. Maybe someone else will enlighten us. I just got the breeding of that Dark Green Opaline cock, yesterday, his mother was a Mauve Opaline split Violet & father a Dark Green split Violet…that’s what the breeder said, but I’m not sure if a bird can be split Violet. The mothers mother was a Violet Opaline & the fathers father a Dark Green split Violet.

looks like it works good Dave & I agree about the dogs...cute.

I can’t see any iris ring, but they are both still quite young, I think. They are both hens & because I can’t see any iris ring, I think they are both Recessive pieds. Beep is a Cobalt Recessive Pied & Tundra maybe a Mauve Recessive Pied …is that yellow on her face or just stain, if she has yellow feathers on her face she would also be Yellow Faced.

I was given two birds that have no flight feathers in one wing yesterday; one especially is a very good-looking bird [show wise] I don’t think I would have got it, apart from the wing being like that. Apart from that the bird looks very healthy, it’s other wing is perfect & also its tail. The one with the main flight feathers missing, is like in French Moult, there was some bleeding in this area too, but maybe because of being caught. Has anyone seen this before & I wonder if it’s worth trying to breed some young from this bird? The breeder said that it wasn’t like that when it was young, it occurred later. I thought maybe the bird has picked the area its self. Has anyone had this experience? Could it be French Moult but only in one wing?

Thanks guys for all your nice comments. I got 11 more Budgies yesterday, I got one more TCB, this one is Normal, not Opaline like the others & I think it might be the best looking one, Picture soon.

That looks like a noisy aviary...lots of nice colours & they have been enjoying their gum branches.

You have some nice birds there Kaz, must be exciting to have all that new blood to work with.

I already put it on one post some time ago, but would take too long to find it. I make a big amount but you can break it down to whatever size you want. I hard boil 6 eggs [10 minutes] & crumb them. Crush 6 Arrowroot Biscuits. Crush 6 Shredded whole-wheat biscuits. A small amount of chick [poultry] starter crumbles. And a small amount of Bread crumbs. Mix it all well & add a small amount of water to just hold it together, but not too much they don’t like it if it gets too sticky. Then a few days a week I add a small amount of Cod Liver oil & corn niblets. I give my Greens separate, but some put grated carrot & some green in it as well.

Nice birds Kaz, especially the Yellow, I love Yellow Budgies.

Yeah, nice birds interesting colours.

These are the other two Texas Clear Bodies photos, the first one the 2006 born cock, I think he has the best colour & it carries through the wing, need a bit of breeding to improve his body shape. At the moment his tail feathers are broken. These are two photos of the young hen Feb/March born 2007, she wouldn’t cooperate & stay still for her photo…she has better wing markings, but has some green through her wings, not the yellow of the body. Those YF2 Spangles are nice but, I especially like the Opaline ones, I have bred quite a few this year.