Denise

Yes he has plum eyes. I paid $30 each Yes Norm, I'm sure my hubby is expecting it......(Laughing out loud) They are not related they had records of which birds come from which breeders through their leg rings. I'm not breeding to improve the lines just to increase the number of birds I have.

I went to the shop to get my mother a zebra finch and spotted this pair of budgies that I just had to have - that's definitely the last pair I told hubby.....(Laughing out loud) Not sure what they are but maybe the cock is white with cinnamon wings and beautiful purple patches on his cheeks and the hen is maybe a blue spangle opaline pied (don't laugh at my descriptions I'm just learning) Is this a good color combination to breed from?

The hen was albino and the cock was an aqua/blue color

This was the story my son was told, they only started off with 1 pair and if the hen died with the egg half delivered it only left the cock so I don't know??

Yes I was very proud of my son for what he had done with them, he'd even put newspaper on the wire bottom tray so they could walk on it properly. What sort of soft food would I offer them?

The pictured aviary was for sale on ebay, but we are getting it made this week hopefully. No we aren't go to colony breed in it, it's just for non-breeding budgies. We are breeding in breeding boxes and once one pair started they seem to have put all the others on a roll too. It's all very exciting.

I got home this morning to find 3 baby budgies in my kitchen under a warming lamp! My 14 year old had been down the road at his friends house and they had these budgies (about 6 weeks old possibly). The boys mother was just going to open the cage and let them go, it turns out the hen died on the bottom of the cage with an egg hanging half out of her and the cock sat on the eggs that had already been laid until the hatched and he fed them but one of her other children left the cage open a couple of days ago and the cock flew away so the chicks have been fending for themselves since. They are in the middle of moving house and they couldn't be bothered taking the babies with them so they were just going to let them fly away so my son said he'd take them. He bought them home and gave them water and some millet as he didn't know if they could eat seed. I checked them over and 2 seem okay but one of the white's keelbone is quite prominent. They can eat seed and were quite frightened and skittish at first but they have been eating all afternoon and are now cherping and appear quite happy. The woman came to my front door this afternoon and had the cheek to ask me for some money for the birds and I told her I was quite happy to pay her for them because she would need the extra money to pay for the fine she gets when I report her to the RSPCA on Monday, while I went to get my purse she was gone when I got back??? Below are some pictures of them.

Sounds great Denise Very responsible and you seem to have thought things out in advance. Are you using cuttlefish, a calcium bell in the cage or calcivet in their water at all ? Yes they have cuttlefish in the cage and a calcium bell. The only shop that I have been able to find calcivet in our area was out of date (they told me it would still be alright but I didn't want to take the chance) so I'm still looking for it.

I'm very sad to hear that, Pickle was a lovely little budgie

Love the bath pics, just wonderful.

Thanks for the information. We will put laserlite sheets on the roof to let the light in. We have bought 500mm cement pavers for the floor and will put down sand over top of them. I will also look into getting a shadecloth sail for the summer months.

I think you've got 2 more beautiful birds Norm

I just wanted to ask if I'm missing something or should be doing something else with our budgies? (Hope this is the right section to post it) We have had our first eggs laid this week (very exciting) and wanted to check that I'm not forgetting something. Each cage gets a plate of fresh silverbeet, broccoli, grated carrot and apple each day, fresh seed mixture and fresh water also cuttlefish and shellgrit is always available. Should I be giving them something else also? We have also put $1200 into what we call our Budgie Account to cover vet fees or anything else that comes up - is this enough?

Hi Nic, The breeder was in Whittington (suburb of Geelong). If you want his telephone number I will PM you with it just let me know. We found him in our local newspaper, his father also is a breeder but is in the same suburb, I have his number too. Denise

This is a photo of the aviary we have under construction: It is 4000mm x 2000mm x 1800mm 1300mm covered roof and 2700mm wired roof. After reading through the Aviary posts I have learnt that you shouldn't have an open roof because of the wild birds pooping. Could we put shade cloth over the wire on the roof or would it be better to cover the whole roof in (birds wouldn't get any sun if we do this)?

Thanks for that. the breeder was more into the showing side of it so you would be right. Would the Grey Double factor dominant pied or the Sky blue (or violet sky) spangle opaline be a better mate for our Albino hen?

As a beginner I found this very useful information Kaz, thank you very much.

Yesterday we found a breeder and bought some of his birds. He also gave us some good information and asked a lot of questions before he would even sell us any birds, which I thought was good. He confused me a little with a comment he made to me, I told him I had an Albino hen that I would like to mate with the yellow/green pied below and he told me he wouldn't waste his time and when I asked him why he just kept shaking his head??? Can I not breed them or does anybody know what he would be talking about?? I'm sorry I can't remember sort of budgies they are we were there for about 1 1/2 hours and my head was swimming with information when we left. This is the cock I wanted to breed with the Albino hen?

Denise, these birds are lacewings not lutinos. They have the red eyes too like lutinos but they have cinnamon wing markings unlike a lutino Sorry I have just re-read my post and I didn't explain it very well...oops I meant that the one on the left's head is bigger/fluffier than the one on the right. They don't look the same birds, if that makes sense?

Thanks Macca, I wasn't intending on going to the show this year but maybe I will now. No leg rings on this hen or the cock I bought which I thought strange and the others I have bought there have had them on?? She is much better now, no diarrhoea, eating and drinking fine and swinging around the perches. I have still kept her separate for know just to make sure. I've given her a bath this morning and cleaned her all up so she's looking pretty good doesn't feel skinny, so fingers crossed she's okay. Her mate is pining for her, would it be alright if I put the cages side by side or should I wait?

Congratulations and best wishes

Beautiful looking bird

I can't see the pictures either??

We are looking at something like this size for an aviary and wondered how many budgies could we have comfortably in it? Size is 4 metres long, 2 metres wide and 1.8 metres high.