Allison

So sorry you had to find that. It must be a horrible feeling, hits you in the pit of your stomach. :sad:

What a cutiepie! :ausb: He has quite the personality. I love it when they are cheeky.

You know us Americans, always looking for quick and convenient ways to do things! Since I have only a few birds, cutting up just enough of a variety of fruits and veggies for 1 day can be annoying, ith lots of left overs. So I tried something new and it's working great. Just shred a mix of organic fruits and veggies with a food processor (or by hand), fill an ice cube tray with the mix and stick it in the freezer. Then you can take out one (or more) cubes per day, microwave for 20 secs. to thaw, and you have a nice variety of fruits and veggies for your birds with minimal effort. My birds love this! They even jump on the dish as soon as they see it coming and nip at my fingers to get me out of the way. :feedbirds:

Norm, Thanks for the welcome. I'm not sure what Pistachio is. I thought that she was a dilute, maybe with yellow face also? Her wing markings look more grey than brown. This picture makes her look blue, but I think that's an effect of the camera or the flash or something. I've been trying to get a better picture of her, but she is hardly out of the nest box now and not too thrilled with the camera.

Thanks for the cooling tips Feathers- mom and dad both took a bath and they seemed pleased. The babies don't feel too hot, but I cracked the top of the box slightly to allow hot air out just in case. Fortunately for all of us, it gets much cooler at night and there are only a couple of hours over 80 per day. Wow, how can you tell so soon about the opaline? You must have a lot of experience. I didn't even realize that Pistachio was an opaline until recently. I didn't expect to get anything other than normal out of this coupling. But it was love at first sight between them (at least for Pistachio). I would love to find a dilute male for her, but she is the only dilute that I've ever seen in person. We don't have that much variety available here.

Hello, I am new here. I discovered this forum about a week ago and the advice about budgie breeding has been so helpful! Thanks to everyone for your great tips and comprehensive info. Here is my current flock: This is Pistachio, the new mom: And this is the new dad, Plato: And their 7 babies: This is Storm: And, last but not least, Rocky: This is my first time breeding budgies and I can't believe how many babies they have! Pistachio acutally layed 8 eggs, but she dropped the first one from the perch and it didn't make it. I guess she figured out after that to lay them in the nest box. Thanks again for all the advice and information! Also, I have a question: how hot is too hot? The weather has been almost 100 F outside lately and without AC it can get up to 85-90 F in the house. I would guess that it gets even warmer than this in the original budgie habitat, so can I assume they are fine? I always keep them out of direct sunlight (though they get plenty of indirect).