**Liv**

Good luck at the vets and i hope its easily treated. Its really hard for us to diagnose without seeing her. it could be a respiratory infection etc... but it also could be something that has been sitting dorment in her body until now. A vet should do poo smears and hopefully a crop wash, also should listen to the lungs and heart etc...

Oh no! I am so sorry to hear that

She is an Oplaline Sky blue hen

My club is having a night show ( 08 rings only) so i thought it would be perfect to have a practice prepping some birds for a show. Its not for a couple of weeks and i have been training 3 birds for it (only have 2 cages hehe). As none are bred by me i am not fussed if they don't even get benched, i just want to learn how to get them ready and take them along. My question is... What is with the tail? I understand that the primary tail feathers must be longer than the secondary's. However, i have a young hen who had both her tail feathers snapped off before i bought her. The feathers them selves were fine. About a week ago i pulled the 2 broken feather out hoping they would grow back in time, then i thought i have not done it soon enough . So how long before a show do breeders normally remove dodgie tail feathers to get two nice long and clean feathers in time for the show?? Also birds who have no primary tail feathers at all... is this a genetic thing or what?? i have visited a lot of breeders and all have birds who wont grow tail feathers, and they are often their best birds too... Whats with that??

I freeze silver beet for my birds. I blanch it before freezing, and its soggy when it thaws, but the birds still thing its great (i dont leave it with the birds for more than 2 hours) Careful with freezing eggs. i did this last breeding season and my birds got food poising Keep the egg fresh and freeze the rest, and NEVER leave food more than 2 hours.

I am so sorry to hear about your loss

That is so cool! I love the lips on the door too. Great idea for keeping the door safer I bet sitting in there is so relaxing

Ah yes... Will do pics soon. Still have all pairs in the aviary at the moment as have been doing more aviary swapping and changing - I cant wait for the breeding room to be done so all my birds are neatly in one place - at the moment they are everywhere and have quarantine cages spread out everywhere too, as i have new birds from 5 different breeders in different stages of quarantine I am planning to put the pairs together in the cabinets before the end of the week, perhaps even later today

WOO!! congratulations!!! If they have signed it and it was stated in the contract that you have a budgie then they have approved him too. If they missed the part about Cosmo in the contract, then that's their fault for not reading what they were signing and you will get to have him there all the same. Awesome news!!

Looking at the new photos, i still agree that Birdie is a hen and Sunshine is a cock. Both birds beaks look normal in those shots

She looks unimpressed by them. I agree with Generic Blue. It looks like you need to hand rear them as the mother has lost interest and the father isn't interested in feeding either. It is probably caused by stress. Most birds like privacy when nesting and these guys look like they are in a pretty small cage. Also anxieties from the owner is proven to transfer to the nesting bird. It is essential to be relaxed when birds are breeding. Hand rearing is not easy and is devastating when it goes wrong. I would take the babies to your vet and ask them for feeding demonstrations and lessons. If you are not comfortable feeding the babies yourself, then you need to quickly find someone experienced who will do it - possibly surrender them to a vet. Good luck with them and please do not give the parents a box. Link on handrearing ---> http://forums.budgiebreeders.asn.au/faqs/i...hlight=handrear

He is a young recessive pied cock, probably as young as 6 weeks old

This is a hen, and i agree her beak is not quite the right shape, so keep an eye on it as it might grow too long. This hen is under 12 weeks, possibly 8-10 weeks old as i see no sign of breaking her cap yet. - she is very pretty This little cutie is a cock, and he is hard to tell the age as i do not see any bars on his head. If you can get a photo of his eye then we might be able to tell better. Now that i look at the above picture closely, is his upper beak sitting inside his lower beak most of the time?? Both appear to have beak issues which will most likely require lifetime trimming.

Looks like a boy to me He looks like a double factor pied, possibly a recessive pied. Need more photos of his wings and body to tell for sure.

Hens breeding condition cycle is different for each bird. some cycle every 6 weeks or so, and others may only do it once or twice a year. What type of setup have you got?? inside pets or aviary?

Hello and welcome :rofl:

Congratulations on your awesome results Splat and Macka :anim_19: Good luck at the nest show too :rofl:

You will find your hen is in breeding condition and the males know this and are fighting over her. You can keep her separate for a while and put her back when the males calm down. Or you can buy 2 more hens to even up the numbers (new birds need 30 days quarantine first though) Its up to you what you need to do as it depends on your setup and how many birds you can have.

How did i miss this :rofl: Love the second pair I cant wait to see what comes out of them

Put his body against your ear and listen to his breathing. if he has airsac mite you will hear a clicking when he breaths.

Thanks Dave

Good to hear she is happy. I hope she is better next time around

But the thing is Liv, we have all looked at your Greygreen Gearing and Armstrong birds and recommended you NOT pair them together because they won't compliment each other as well as other options you have available. But still you are tempted because you like the idea of having progeny from 2 top WA studs. Now I will garentee you that if either Gary Armstrong or Cec Gearing looked at that pair they wouldn't put them together either. So this is a prime example of "bloodlines" gone askew. You are tempted to prioritse the bloddlines ahead of visual compatibility. I was just using well known breeders names as an example... nothing more

Lovely babies

I agree with Kaz, sounds like there is something going on and she needs to rest.