melbournebudgies

Depends what sort of chicks you want... If you want albinos then another albino would be good but albino boys can be hard to find. What colour chicks are you hoping for? Also do you know what her parents are?

Cara if this is with regard to your new girl with Ricketts, a calcium supplement at this point won't fix her legs but she still needs to have access to it.

Of the last lot of three babies I sent to new homes the female had the nicest temperament!

All the birds in my aviary recieve calcium supplements, as long as you are not over concentrating the liquid I can't imagine it causing a problem.

A few members including myself have 'special needs' birds. I have a girl with splayed legs and funny toes who gets around the aviary really well. I also have a little girl who was attacked in the nest as a baby who has a twisted foot (it's twisted at the ankle and she has no use of her toes either) she will actually sit on that foot while she grooms with the other foot! I think they just get on with it, so if they are only a a little twisted then it shouldn't bother her too much.

Did she only starting sitting when the last were layed? They look like they are all about the same age.

I have a few VERY similiar to that one. Is it definately a green or could it be a Yellow face type 2? I have some YF2 splangles which are very similar and if the yellow has gone through all the feathers it could well look mostly green in the body.

My little boy and I used some big old raw pine shelves that we didn't need today to make our first proper breeding box. We made it big so that I have the option to use it for tiels if I need to. Because it's so large we couldn't use a 'cage front' so I need advice on the best way to put doors into aviary type wire or whether I would be better off just cautting a door into the timber on the opposite end to the nest box. We will be cutting a hole in the side to accomodate the entrance to a nest box that will hang on the outside. Another one with the wire on, now where to put the doors... http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x259/er...ax/DSC00584.jpg

I have had a similiar problem with the hens I want to breed not being in condition. I was advised to put them in a cage together for a couple of weeks and then add a nest box apparently by the time the nest box arrives they'll be DESPERATE to breed.

This is where I was reading about opaline spangles, maybe I've just read it wrongly though http://www.budgieplace.com/c_spangle.html

okay, sounds like I'm assuming correctly then

Definately black eyes

I have one pair on eggs, the rest are just being lazy

I new that about the sex linked opaline, must have been having a moment there I'm not harrassing the mum to take photos but she is visually a violet bird so I assume that makes her DF and the cock has only a little around the neck so SF? If that's right I guess a reasonably high percentage of violet chicks. According to the research I did the opaline gene in a spangle is what causes the spangles to come through as the body colour rather than as black/brown. If that is the case the blue spangles suggest that he is opaline. In my aviary this is supported by the fact that most of these sort of birds are females.

If it's the same as YF then most of my birds are df, the one I want to breed to the pied girl is sf. Am I making the correct assumption about my pied girl? If she is yellow and blue pied coming from GF stock would she only be yellow due to the GF? She is much the same as chrysocome's Millie... I am figuring this as if she was a yellow based bird then the blue patches would be green so that suggests that she is a white based bird and the white areas have been coloured yellow due to a seperate process, I was figuring GF df

I have been trawling your page alot Raven Is there a visual difference between single factor and double factor GF? Whenever I call them YF I get told they are too bright must be GF, but when I call them GF people tend to refer to them as YF :hap:

Bad lighting and the little bugga wouldn't sit still He is definately a lovely snowy white, no yellowface there. He is definately a opaline spangle, he has lovely pale blue spangles on his wings. I'll see if I can find a back or wng photo in my files.......nope, no wing shot but here is a photo of his identical brother's wing. There markings are pretty much the same.http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x259/er...ax/DSC00515.jpg

What cuties! Tell me, what colour do you class Milly as out of curiosity?

They have just had a nice break, I only just started putting up nest boxes again. It's just frustrating when there are plenty in condition but just not any of the ones you want

Other than a couple of fatso rescues in there all my budgies are lean, mean, chick producing flying machines!

With what they get fed they should all be breeding like rabbits! They get: mixed seed, apple, carrot, celery, bok choy, fresh corn, soaked lentils, peas, broccoli,egg and biscuit sprinkle plus all their vitamin and mineral supplements. I spend more on fresh food for them than I spend on myslf!

I am beginning to suspect that this is such a complex situation that it might simply warrant a test breed. I have two similiar females, the only difference being that one is opaline and one is spangle. I shall pair one with the original GF that I wanted to breed with and one with a pied and we shall see what we get!

From above, this is what I believe they are: As they are recessive and I don't have a male split for recessive pied that I know of I was going to mate with a non yellowface recessive pied male. My recessive pied males are nice big boofy boys (still pet type but boofy) so they would certainly make some nice babies. Would I get yellow face this way?

My nestboxes are attached to the front of the cages at a sliding type 'cage door' if I close that door so they can see the entrance but can't get in will thatbe enough or do I need to cover the hole completely so they can't see it?

Thanks Kaz, I'll give that a try. Why no nestbox? Does it confuse them or something?.... got the edit They need to dream of chicks and contemplate the time ticking away a little first huh.