*libby*

Looks very deep blue but still hen like, any clearer pics?

Haha wonderful i'm being tracked by the google demons LOL! Sorry guys! we've already booked someone lol

Thanks for all your thoughts guys... I have 4 cats throwback :budgiedance: only problem is none venture out back other than the hero (vronsky) to harass us at the back door to come in... other than that they don't venture there because of the dogs... Now usually my dog will catch and kill mice, but due to her being a kelpie x heeler she has short hair that doesn't keep her warm at night, so when they're coming at night she's inside peeving me off at the end of my bed keeping warm... We used to have a kelpie x collie who slept outside all her life, but when she died of pneumonia at age 11 I vowed never to let short haired dogs sleep outside again

Smart Idea Kaz, i'll pull them out and away from the walls (which is how we've seen them climb in) and cover the bars at the front so there's no chance of accessing them...

Good thing I have a few spare new feeders to replace them with :budgiedance: For some strange reason the rats like only this singular cabinet... every time we have caught one it wss in this cabinet :S Where do i get tripple C from?

What meds would you advise? The rats don't lift doors, they squeeze through the bars and got into the nest box through the holes... Tonight just to make sure before the exterminator is effective we're covering all cabinet fronts with 1cm x 1cm wire to make sure there's nothing going to happen to the birds inbetween now and when they're killed

That's the part which annoys me the most! They're not in the aviary, only the cabinets because they manage to get through the bars... Some say I need to clean up seed hucks lying around, but that isn't what is attracting them either, because they're eating directly from the cabinet feeders :@ Lose lose situation, but definatly Dave, they will all be killed now!

I agree, I'm a big softy when it comes to killing animals, but once something of my own loved animals is harmed their life is not as precious as the animals I love. As sad as that is to say as all life is equal I'm not willing to risk any more harm to mine. They were 3 of Mars' chicks Kaz The man is coming round at 4pm to set everything up, including sticky traps(which I feel bad about) but I have no other option now...Perhaps if others feel the same as I did before I could post a picture of the chick it left behind to show the damage they can cause. I really had to see the harm with my own eyes before I realised that it's better them than my animals.

Well some of you may know we have "sighted" rats 3 times lately at night. We've been baiting to keep them at bay, but two weeks back we changed baits from the ratsak seed which got all eaten to the ratsak pellets which have not been touched. Well last night tragedy has struck... we have 5 chicks and one egg about to hatch in a nest, the egg is gone as is one whole small 3 days old chick and half of a 5 day old chick has been left behind (missing head and half of it's belly). I tried to give the rats benefit of the doubt that they were here only to eat excess seeds but after having lives taken I am now VERY PEEVED! We're hiring a exterminator, and Bob and I will be staking them out tonight with a big shovel and smacking ANYTHING over the head as hard as I can... I don't have the balls to drown them, but after lives been taken I will be hitting things! We were quoted 120 for an exterminator with 3 years warranty but since we live in the same suburb as him he's now said 90 so we're doing it. They come back, so does he

Completly. They have recreational sex as much as people do. Budgie sex does no instantly mean a nesting box needs to be added as eggs will not always follow. Some determined birds will lay eggs on the bottom of the cage/in seed dishes and so on, but these birds are in the minority.

What ever caused it i'd definatly say it's not normal :S ? Does she seem under the weather?

Wow! how gorgeous are they! Talk about a bunch of opalines!!! they're identical!

Perhaps try some moulting aid? I don't know specifically how it works as i've never used it, or if it will be effective for him as we don't know what's causing his continous moult, but it's worth a try

Could do with a better close up, but by the looks of it being the top mandible alot of that would have blood vessels in it and very little will actually be able to be clipped. You'll probably be only able to clip off a mm at the end at any one time

No idea... before we contacted a vet about the little one when we realised that the crop needle couldn't actually get to the spot where the air was was I didn't even know they had air sacks... Perhaps an avian vet can source out the answer to that one. From my understanding there is something they can do to fix it as she told us with this bub, but mine was not old enough yet. Yours should be able to be fixed if that's the cause

I personally use nail clippers VERY CAREFULLY. It's very easy to mess up and catch the blood supply in it. The bottom mandible is easier to trim but depending on which part of her beak is over grown and how much will depend on what needs to be taken off. Do you perhaps have any pictures so I can help to direct you where to trim to and how?

I agree with Kaz, it has carried on far too long to be egg-bound. Perhaps it's poopy bum by the way you're describing the dirty "un-kept" look. Does she feel light and in bad body condition? As though she has no weigh to her? Is her vent (bum) really dirty and are her poos runny? If she's fluffed up that's even more of a sign of ill health... I would personally say small cage, warm lamp and a weeks dose of Sulphadim (avaliable from bird suppliers) to stiffen up her poos and hopefully help her

Perhaps she has swollen air sacks...? I lost a chick a few weeks ago who kept blowing his up do to some valve or something that kept letting air seep in... We thought it was his crop being blown up until it started to puff under his chin and other places where crops do not reach...?

I agree, definatly got to add the last one into budgie of the month

looks brilliant

To get creamino you need atleast one of the birds to be YF and the cock has to carry the gene in either split of visual form

It's a sex linked gene Neat A cock who is split will give TCB hens only... A hen alone will give nothing and a hen and a cock together will give TCB's of both sexes... INO mixed into this changes things also

Maybe pair harley to the hen who does sit?

Good to see Perhaps Tiny's leg sponges are on too tight as that can sometimes happen Be weary of sour crop now they're being hand reared... any slow crop processing needs to be assessed or you can lose them in a matter of hours...

Exactly. If intentions are right and the birds are here as a hobby not a job then I don't think anyone can be counted as a farmer.