Ravengypsy

I love the first two couples, very cute birds. I look forward to watching the progress

just and update (I'll add some photos tonight!) for you all, Tenjin & Yoshe had 6 chicks hatch, eggs 2 & 7 were no good. Chick 1 is a green opaline greywing (which means Yoshe was split to dilute or greywing, YAY a nice surprise!). Chick 2 is a normal green. Chick 3 is an opaline green and not sure yet if normal or greywing. Chicks 4-6 are still pink little bubs. I don't know if they are carrying any dark factors or not yet till they feather up (mother had 1 dark factor, so a 25% chance some greens may end up dark green). So far all are healthy and being fed by the parents, I am very happy with this clutch. I may even keep a few of them although many are already promised to people. The little greywing is very cute. Zeus & Lady had 8 clear eggs. I'm going to remove them soon and let them try for another round of eggs. I trimmed down the vent feathers of the cock, as he has buff feathering so that might be part of the issue as well as trimmed his nails down since he managed to puncture of the eggs with his nails. Hopefully the 2nd round will do better. I will also trim Lady's vent once I remove the eggs just in case. Dusk & Precious have 7 eggs, which I've not candled yet. A great pairing, and I hope some are fertile. Brownie & Daisy have 6 eggs, not candled either. An agressive hen, so I keep my nestbox checking to a daily minimum. Hen refuses to have her eggs in the concave and moves them to the flat surface every time I've tried to move them. She removes the bedding still and lets the eggs roll around, sometimes the eggs aren't under her when she's resting when I check so not sure if she moves while I'm checking or if she isn't nesting on them well. I doubt we'll have any hatch because of this, but we'll see. Footsie & Dawn have finally laid their first egg. I'm expecting infertile eggs because of the cock's foot which may keep them from mating properly, but they'll be good fosters if needed and are happy to be breeding. This pairing was formed in the aviary, so I let them go ahead with their chosen partner. Roka & Bambi have 6 eggs and expecting the first egg to hatch today. Duke & Duchess are still happily feeding their growing chicks. Chick 1 "Blueberry" is weaned and eatting veggies and seed on his own so he's been moved to the nursery cage upstairs. He loves to be carried around and sleep on my shoulder and finger. Chicks 2 & 3 attempted to fledge early and were put back into the nestbox, they are doing well. Turns out that both chicks are spangle! 2 is grey spangle hen, 3 is grey green spangle cock. Tinsel was moved to the aviary, Frost is in the nursery cage with Blueberry.

Congrats on the show wings, well done. Sounds like Goliath is doing a great job, good luck !!

she is a Yellowface type 2 (double factor), opaline dilute. as for color... violet isn't showing well on my screen so not sure if that's correct or not but I would have guessed mauve. However, often is the case that violet doesn't show up well in photos so it's quite possible she is violet.

1) Can a recessive pied be bred from a pair of dominant pieds? yes, only if both parents were carrying the recessive gene in hidden form 2) Can a dominant pied be bred from a pair of recessive pieds? no, dom pied cannot be carried in a hidden form on the parents to be passed down 3) There are no known dominant varieties with red eyes. Is this statement true or false? True 4) Is it possible for a bird to be visually carrying the color gray, violet, dark factor, sex-linked, dominant and recessive traits all at the same time? Don't understand the question exactly, so sorry if the answer isn't what you're looking for. In general a bird can have grey, violet, dark factors, a sex-linked gene and a dominant trait and a recessive trait expressed at once. But some of these visually override each other. So although violet is expressed visually, you may not be able to tell on a grey violet with dark factor (it will only look grey with varying darkness depending on if the violet and dark factors are in DF or SF forms without breeding you may not know which is which, but it will visibly alter the color intensity of the grey. And some varieties such as recessive pied + dominant pied are located on different alleles so you could have a bird who visually is both but the dominant pied will generally be the mutation it shows visually over the other to my knowledge. However if it was something like ino (recessive) + dominant pied, the ino would visually over-ride the pied and would visually only show the recessive, and over-ride the other genes (gray, violet, etc). So although it's possible to have a bird carrying all these in a non-hidden form, the grey/violet/dark factors combined are not "Visually" able to be differentiated although technically they are all expressed. 5) The yellow face on a yellow face blue is considered to be a dominant trait. What is the white face on a green considered to be? A. also a dominant trait B. does not exist (not yet anyways!) C. a recessive trait D. a sex-linked trait 6) Name four varieties for each of the following. Dominant Recessive Sex-linked Actually there is a difference between dominant, incomplete dominant and co-dominant. Dominant: Green clearflight pied Incomplete Dominant: Yellowface Mutant 1 (complex visual inheritance with white face blue) Yellowface Mutant 2 Goldenface Dominant Pied (Australian & Dutch) Spangle Melanistic Spangle Anthracite Co-Dominant: Dark Factors Grey Factors Violet Factors Dusk Factors Recessive: Blue Recessive Grey Greywing (co-dominant with Clearwing, dominant to dilute) Clearwing (co-dominant with Greywing, dominant over Dilute) Dilute (recessive to Greywing & Clearwing) Ino (Albino and Lutino) Recessive Pied (Danish) Fallow (3 separate types: English, Scottish & German) Saddleback Crested Brownwing Blackface Faded Feather Duster Sex-Linked: Cinnamon Opaline Clearbody (dominant over Ino) Slate Not to mention many of the composites: Lacewing: Ino (recessive) + Cinnamon (sex-linked) Creamino: Ino (recessive) + Yellowface/Goldenface (dominant) Dark Eyed Clear: Recessive Pied (recessive) + Clearflight Pied (dominant) Opaline Spangle: Opaline (sex-linked) + Spangle (dominant) Full Body Greywing: Greywing (1 recessive gene) Clearwing (1 recessive gene) Rainbow: Opaline (sex-linked) + Whitewing (recessive) + Yellowface/Goldenface (dominant) 7) What are the only ways to breed a [visual] sex-linked cock? Mark all that apply. A. hen has to be normal, cock has to be normal B. hen has to be normal, cock has to be split C. hen has to be normal, cock had to be sex-linked D. hen has to be split, cock has to be normal E. hen has to be split, cock has to be split F. hen has to be split, cock has to be sex-linked G. hen has to be sex-linked, cock has to be normal H. hen has to be sex-linked, cock has to be split I. hen has to be sex-linked, cock has to be sex-linked 8) When a bird is said to be masking something, what does that mean? Also, give an example. A. split for another color or variety B. preventing the true visual color or variety to be seen For example INO (lutino/albino) can “mask” dominant pied. Although they may have this trait, the Ino prevents the pied from being visually displayed. C. dominant for large spots on a deep mask 9) What dominant varieties change appearance when they have two genes for the trait? these are called Incomplete Domianant Traits (shown in my list above) 10) What does it mean when a bird is said to be split? A. two colors present as in a pied B. not visible on the bird but carrying one gene for another color or variety C. two colors/varieties present, dividing the bird down the middle; halfsider

I'm not sure I understand the wording of Question 4....

they are looking really good Kaz

added :budgiedance: with a few modifications...

Raven's Birdie Bread Recipe I find that my breeding pairs love the basic recipe for feeding young chicks, and I put this in the cage at night. But the non-breeding budgies enjoy it as a nice treat. Can also be used for larger birds! 1 cup cornmeal or polenta 2 tsp. finely ground cuttlebone 1 cup millet/seed 2 tbsp. honey 1/4 cup whole wheat flour 2 eggs 4 egg yolks 1/4 cup of soaked pellets or baby bird formula/starter 2 tsp peanut oil or linseed oil (substitute vegetable oil if necessary) 1/4 cup of fresh fruit juice Optional: 1/2 cup of vegetables, fruits, or nuts (diced, mashed, grated or crushed) 1/2 cup of Wheat Germ 3 tbsp. cut oat groats Mix the ingredients and pour into 1 medium or 2 small flour-coated bread loaf tins. Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes. Allow to cool, then cut into slices and serve. You can store the unused bread in a sealed container with a small slice of bread to keep the moisture. Added to FAQ - Pics were not uploaded to BBC Photobucket

yes you can replace the cornmeal with polenta, Kaz :budgiedance: luckily this recipe works great for substitutions and additions... and you can easily add grated carrots and probably zuchinni as well.. you can also replace the soaked pellets with breeding bird formula or budgie starter. It just adds some extra powder/flour-like component that gives good nutritients for the birds. I've also added cinnamon or other spices/herbs to the ingredients as well for extra flavoring when they are handy... the birds seem to love it. To make it more veggie-ish, you can add extras in a mashed, grated or diced form without issues. It's a great way to trick some birds into eatting their veggies.. for those who have issues with that. Also for larger birds you can use this same recipe but add things like nuts and other specialty bits that they enjoy.

Lady & Zues have 7 eggs now (many are not fertile though and I'll probably let them take the remaining of Tenjin & Yoshe's hatchlings), egg one is due to hatch tonight if it's good. Tenjin & Yoshe have 4 chicks currently, egg 2 didn't hatch so 3 more fertile eggs to go. The remaining ones will be fostered to Lady & Zues once they hatch. Chick 1 from Duke & Duchess has fledged the nestbox, but I put him back in last night and so far he's stayed there. I'm sure he'll jump back out today... (Laughing out loud)... at first I thought was a hen but the cere is starting to darken up. Chick 2 is a grey spangle and chick 3 is a green normal (the colors haven't completely come in so not sure if green or grey green yet). Roka & Bambi (pet types) have 6 eggs so far, looking nice and fertile.

thanks! and here is The nestbox from Tenjin & Yoshe... 3 chicks so far: and mom coming to check on her bubs...

some photos of the chicks in the nest (Duke & Duchess): here is a photo of the nest of 6 eggs from Zeus & Lady:

I made this over the weekend for my birds, and thought I would share the recipe and photo. I find that my breeding pairs love this for feeding young chicks, and I put this in the cage at night. But the non-breeding budgies enjoy it as a nice treat. 1 cup cornmeal 2 tsp. finely ground cuttlebone 1 cup millet/seed 2 tbsp. honey 1/4 cup whole wheat flour 2 eggs 4 egg yolks 1/4 cup of pellets (soaked in water to form a soft mush) 2 tsp peanut oil or linseed oil Optional: 1/2 a mashed banana (did not use this in the photo below) 1/2 cup Wheat Germ I mixed the ingredients and poured into two small loaf tins and baked at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes. Then cut into slices and served once cool. I usually store the unused bread in a sealed container with a small slice of wheat bread to keep the moisture. For the Australian & UK folks, I understand that cornmeal is hard to find, here is info on where you can get it... you can also use ground dried corn or maize usually found in feed stores. It looks like a very course corn based flour. http://www.panzers.co.uk/ has actual cornmeal avialable in the UK (look under baking products) http://www.usafoods.com.au/products.php has cornmeal avilable in Australia

I'll take your recommendation and steer clear of them then.. good to know. Right now I have a friend who's a woodworker make my newer nestboxes that I designed, so I guess I'll just stick with the wooden ones I have... I wonder if a replaceable wooden concave could be added to the bottom though to make them usefull when the temps are hot. hrm..

just saw the photos and WOW the dusks are BEAUTIFUL! Stunning depth of color and definatly unique, I can say I've never seen one quite like that. Beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful. as for the oddly opalinesque colors, never seen that before... would be interested to find out their pedigrees.

Kaz, your photos are stunning... and your birds all look happy as ever. The chicks are looking great too!! I can't wait when those lacewings are fully feathered. Do you have another thread with pictures of your aviary and bird room setup? I'm curious to see it, because it sounds really nice with the birds so content and spoiled.

first chick looks like a green spangle... the 2nd pair.. If the grey is single factor you'd get: 50% of chicks will be spangle 50% grey factor 50% violet factor 50% dark factor so you'd get these possibilities (not counting any possible hidden factors): grey sky cobalt visual violets (violet cobalt) violet sky (looks like a vibrant cobalt) grey violet (like a dark grey) ..all those colors in either normal or spangle. OR If the grey is double factor you'd end up with all visual greys (to varying degrees of darkness due to dark factors and violet factors added)... and 50% spangle

I'm located in the US, so it's still the end of winter here (we just had 10 feet of snow last weekend and more due this comming weekend. But spring is just around the corner! It's running late this year)... apparently the budgies know it's spring time comming! I'll be taking new photos tonight so hopefully I'll get some good ones to post.

I love those new photos Enna!! they are looking good, I can't wait till they hatch. What nestbox are you using? I havne't seen the plastic ones in use much, do they have a concave in them? curious where you get them as I'd import them to the US if I could find ones that work well, I'm sure they are alot cleaner and long lasting than the wood ones.

well if 12 quail eggs makes a large omelet.. and lets say 3 x 12 (to account for size differences)... then you would need 36 budgie eggs for a nice omelet .....

hrm.. how much bigger are quail eggs to budgie eggs? http://www.myquailfarm.com/recipes.htm

I can't wait to see the next chapter the bubs are adorable, especially the greygreen spangle and the greys... love them! The lacewings look like they are comming along nicely, what a nice healthy looking clutch. Maybe I could smuggle them out of Australia.... hmmm.... (Laughing out loud).

here was frost on his first flight at about 35 days old:

Dusk & Precious laid their first egg today I split up Spazz & Hera for the time being as they were not in the breeding mood... instead I paired up Dawn & Footsie for one round as they were caught mating in the aviary.