Ravengypsy

hahaha love the bird prints.. but the concrete looks really great job. watching with interest on the progress... I hope one day I can have such a big aviary. Your's looks quite large... (trying to convert meters to inches in my head)... what type of breeding cabnits are you planning to have made?

excellent purchase and I'm looking forward to seeing your progress on the aviary.. lots of photos! (Laughing out loud)

oh yes, they all have nice little clip locks on them now.. sneeky little devils.

stunning bird.. just beautiful.

The Great Escape: Duchess, the brains of the whole operation, discovered last night that her new breeding cage has neat little slide up feeding doors. This is where the plan begins, as she deftly advises her mate Duke to hop onto the feed dish and while she lifts the door he can make his great escape and of course let her out too once he's on the outside. What they didn't realize is that the security cam caught them in action before they could complete the great escape! The Great Escape Part I Video The Saga Continues: The following day, we prove that budgies are indeed psychic. The two sons of Duke & Duchess are in the nursery flight cage upstairs and receive the mental message from momma on how these nifty little escape hatches work now that hers has been locked down. And Blueberry, our little intelligence officer, gets the message loud and clear. He promptly begins his search for these so called escape hatches. And VIOLA! He finds one while his brother, Frost is suspiciously innocent in getting a nice refreshing drink of water at this precise moment. Of course Frost is prepared to make the escape while Blueberry lifts the door. Unfortunately for them the plan is foiled by pure inexperience and youth with a nice water dunk in the process... but of course Blueberry is still determined to follow in his mother's footsteps! Little do they know that they are also not the quietest in escape plans and are caught on video! The Great Escape Part II Video

I agree, he's a lacewing

mine usually hop out of the nestbox between 26-35 days old... I usually put them back in the nestbox if younger than 30 days.

thank you so much!!! *happy mom smile* .. (Laughing out loud)... and yes they adore her as much as she does them. And she's always wanting to let them out of the cage.. hahaha.

Just goes to show that even a 4 year old can tame a bird... my daughter, Kira is the offical "millet holder" for all the young budgies and not only are they tame... they love her for it. My birds are bonded with myself as well as my daughter. She is surprisingly gentle and good with the birds, and loves them as much as they enjoy being with her. So I thought I'd share some photos I took just the other day. Blueberry decided that after a nice meal of millet from my daughter that he needed a kiss... then he proceded to climb to play on her head.... then Frost flew over to get in on the fun.... http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x271/ra...ks/IMG_4389.jpg http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x271/ra...ks/IMG_4397.jpg http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x271/ra...ks/IMG_4399.jpg

thanks... the GG spangle is a show type, the other 6 chicks are from a pet pair so they are the smaller bush types

so so so so so SO CUTE!!!

you're chicks are looking good, waiting with anticipation for them to feather up.. very cute, well done.

hahaha I love these photos, mine never like baths much so it's cute to see yours enjoying it so much. Adorable!

I'm so sorry to hear this

okay well here they are, the grey green spangle from Duke & Duchess: photos taken yesterday of Tenjin & Yoshe's 6 chicks... Chick 1: clearwing or greywing Chick 2: a dark green Chick 3: Chick 4: Chick 5: another clearwing or greywing Chick 6:

I use hold 1 for my non-biters and hold 2 for the biters or for feeding chicks. When clipping nails I usually have someone use a towel with hold 1 while I clip the nails for the biters as this calms them down.

I have a tray built to the side of my aviary for holding fresh food dishes as well as two plastic tupperware trays that I dump seed into to avoid waste of seed. They like to "forage" the seed from the dishes most. I used to have hanging feeders but they generally ignored them so I took them out of the aviary. I also have two large jar feeders on the floor for the ones who prefer to eat down below. (note that my birds are in a basment without rodent or bug issues *knock on wood* and the birds enjoy them.) I also use the jar feeders in breeding cages as well as seed trays for the wire breeding cages.

I agree with Norm

sad to say but the gray spangle passed away one night after fledging, we've been over everything short of taking the body to a vet for biopsy and no cause could be found. Crop was about 1/2 full, enough feathers to stay warm in a 65 F temp and no wounds or feathers missing. Which really is upsetting considering how beautiful that bird was turning out to be. The grey green spangle in the nest (#3) is still healthy and happy and due to fledge any day now. I'm keeping a close eye on him just in case. so far we have 3 pairs with infertile eggs all are maiden parents... Dawn & Footsie, Lady & Zeus, and Brownie & Daisy. I am going to do some vent trimming and let them all try another round. on the bright side, Precious & Dusk do have several fertile eggs that are due to begin hatching this week and I'm crossing my fingers for luck. They laid 9 eggs so far. Depending how many hatch, I may foster some out to Dawn & Footsie. Images are larger than required size, so here are links to some photos.... Tenijn & Yoshe's 6 chicks: http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x271/ra...08/f22b51b7.jpg Tenjin's oldest chick: http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x271/ra...08/c2f3f95e.jpg Grey Green Spangle from Duke & Duchess (taken a few days ago): http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x271/ra...08/d82dbc60.jpg the grey spangle that died this past weekend: http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x271/ra...08/c55dd705.jpg Precious with her fertile eggs.. http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x271/ra...08/ef097666.jpg Blueberry (from Duke & Duchess) at 1 month old: http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x271/ra...ks/e80cf5f5.jpg http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x271/ra...ks/31d0572f.jpg Tinsel, right before transfering to the aviary: http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x271/ra...ks/3b667066.jpg

Like Kaz, said... you do NOT want to breed them while molting. Moulting is stressfull on their neutrients as it is, and breeding is even more so... you're just setting yourself up for heartache if you do because the budgie is likely to die from malnutrition and/or stress.

when I first started with my birds I had moved to a new home that had been repainted about a week prior... upon moving the birds in they all 4 of them died durring the 2nd night due to the paint fumes still in the house (the room I had them in had not been the one repainted)... about 2 weeks later I received new birds and they were fine... so I can personally tell you that toxic fumes WILL kill your birds... and even another room of the house is not safe. It's best to find another home/building to house them in while doing painting and even a couple weeks after.

I haven't tried to freeze mine since my birds eat it before it goes to waste, but it wont' harm it to be frozen as long as you serve it thawed. I have purposely dried it out to make a type of hard biscuit that the birds enjoy munching on as well.

your fallow chicks are looking good... I love the look of the white ones

It had not occured to me that BEC was a genetically different variety than they DEC.... what is the genetic info for the BEC? I'm curious if there are any visual differences or is it just a recessive mutation that looks the same as the DEC?

Tonight I received a reply from Ghalib Al-Nasser, who said that this bird looks to be a cobalt slate. Although he is not of good quality (he's a pet type), which I already knew of course. I'm very happy to hear this, as it explains the 'oddness' of the coloring. I'm looking forward to breeding this bird, he suggested that I test breed him to a sky hen. Unfortunatly my sky hens are yellowface and my white faces are all male! so it will have to wait until I have one to breed him with.