melbournebudgies

I have it in one of my seed mixes here JB so I'll show you what it looks like

Niger or niga as it is more often spelt here are the teeny little round black ones that kind of look like poppy seeds, there is also another one often called niga which is also black but more long and thin like a canary seed.

Oh and any from that same clutch as the opaline hen that aren't opaline will be cocks.

I created a false floor for my aviaries using either pavers or timber plywood layed on top of timber to keep it off the ground, I then have lino layed on top of the ply for easier cleaning. If you decide to use lino hang it over the clothesline for a few days to air it well before using it as it does have a very plasticy small when new.

No probably not but what I can do is just put uncoded rings on all of those and then it won't matter which ones each of us decide to have in the end as either of us would be able to show them

The best thing is it will be easy to tell before I put rings one, from the lacewing pair all hens will be opaline so they will have white fluff, all the cocks will have grey fluff so we'll know very early on if we have a nice even split there From the other clutch we can expect all normals and spangles so we can just see how it goes there. Will be interesting to see if we get any ring in mutations

Thanks GenericBlue, but I'm only getting show birds now. I still have some pet types which I breed and I do keep the odd baby from them but I have to resist the urge to get more as I need the space for my show birds now I like to have somepet types as they are less prone to problems when breeding so they make good foster parents if there are problems

Hey JB, are there particular mutations you are hoping for from these two? I'm just thinking along the lines that if we know you are after one thing and I am after another we could probably try and divide babies up in such a way that suits us both. I know you are after lacewing in the future which I'm not that fussed over so I would be happy for you to have all the cocks from the lacewing pairing for example as they will all be split lacewings. Personally my preference is for spangles and normals but not worried which sex(as that isn't sex linked). I think it would still be good obviously for both of us to have some chicks from each clutch but if we can do it in such a way that it works out better for our future breeding plans then that would be great too

What I find really bad though is when yo find yourself using their made up wordsin conversation. Me waiting for my hubby to finish mopping a little while ago, "Darl, are you goint to be much longerer... I mean longer?"

I would go with the plastic container for the moment and just keep an eye on the parents, atleast that way you couldswap it each day and wash it out throughly for the next day until you are sure they are free of mites.

Have you got a new nestbox? If you have a cage which is almost identical with the nest box in the same spot then you should be able to transfer them with no problems. I have found that once they have chicks they are more accepting of movement Anyway as the chicks make noise and kick up a stink if they don't get fed.

Wipe it on with a tissue avoiding the face of all the babies. At this stage you may still loose a few babies as the pa;eness is anaemia due to blood loss from thmites so itmay be too late for some of them but if you can killoff the mites then hopefully they will have a chance to recover. Do you have a new box that you could put them into after applying the spray? Personally for any nests that you know for sure have it I would move them into a completely different cage ane nest box while they recover and you continue treatment.

They sound like red mites. It's ard to know what you could do for tiny babies though as I'm not sureit would be safe to spray them with a mite product. BUT if the situation is that dire maybe it is a risk worth taking, I would spray some mite spray onto a tissue and gently wipe it on the babies. Give all your nestboxes a good spray with a mite spray too. Iam abour to start experimenting with dried rosemary in all my nestboxes as a deterant to red mite. I'm also buying other herbal remedies too, for example you can actually buy the pyrethrim daisy at most garden shops, scrunching the flower heads up and rubbing them in the corners of all nest boxes and allowing them to dry would be very affective.

I think it depends how much of it they actually eat, my birds have fresh branches almost every day (basically unless it's pouring and I can't be bothered getting it for them) and I've never had a problem. I see it like this. In the the wild a budgie would have access everyday to native leaves and bark, grasses and anything else they could find, I see no issue with supplying this sort of stuff to my birds every day. Soft greens, etc are not part of their natural diet and they aren't evolved to live off it which is why these things are more treat foods. There would be certain times of the year when these things would be more common in the form of dandelions, etc mainly in spring when the rains come but for most of the year the ground would be too dry for the very watery plants, the greens they eat in the wild would be tougher, drier grass types. When supplying fresh grasses frequently avoid the very soft high water content species and you'll be fine

It's less an article and more a dpertment of wildlife info sheet, it's full of typos and errors and certainly wouldn't be accepted into any reputable journal. I do find it a little concerning that it was revised by a university biology prefessor though and he didn't even pick up on the errors

The nasty ones that poisoned many of Kaz's birds are a close relative of Eucalypts and basically look and smell like one though so it can never hurt to be too careful

Well I reserve the right to be wrong especially since it's harder to tell in photos but that's my 'informed guesses' at this stage I know that opaline one is an opaline as it has white down and the others have grey...

Good as gold Oh and the botanist is me Pretty much all Eucalypt species are fine. There are a couple of allied species which are from Western Australia which may be not so good but they are quite different and distinctive with broad oval leaves an flaky bark. I think Kaz knows the one of which I speak and may have a picture to share

For the same reason thatmore women go into labour in the night than in the daytime, way back in evolution the night time was the safe time to have babies(and still is if you ask a zebra) so that is programed into almost every mammal

okay, well I have about 45 birds in my record system with a photo on every record so if anyone wants me to I'll post a full list with all the foot colours and feather colour/mutation

1. cobalt normal 2. green normal 3. opaline presumably green if it's from the green parents and it will be a hen 4. Maybe another cobalt normal 5. Looks like maybe a green dom pied 6. green series not sureof mutation All hens from the green pair will be opaline so any others will be cocks

Whole egg is very good for getting them going if they are skinny. You can either use whole egg powder or boil an egg and mash the whole thing including the shell for her.

Good luck Jenene, have you got your whelping area and all the emergency supplies ready yet?

Jobs for tomorrow: Complete alterations to unoccupied breeding cages Make cage for light fitting if I can find the right bits to do it Rearrange perching situation in flight area to make access easier for cleaning Get wood to make a large storage box for unopened seed bags(to provide protection from mice) Other than that I'm impatiently waiting my orders of toy making bits, finger drawers and a few other things to improve the aviary and breeding cages in general

The budgies had a late night tonight while I started some renovations on their aviary. Something I have been wanting to do for along time was install a flourescent fitting inside the flight to give extra light so I finally decided tonight was the night. Well after a bit of drilling and alot of dust (I had to climb on the aviary roof to insert the bolts in the holes), and alot of fiddlyness trying to attach it to the roof (a couple of times I thought it might fall on my head) it finally got up and I turned it on. WELL!!! There was instant noise from all the budgies as they loudly discussed the new development, it certainly sounded like happy noise so I hope they enjoy it and I get even more nice eggs from them now I can't afford two sunlight tubes for it(it's four foot long) but I plan to have one normal tube and one sunlight (arcadia type) tube in it to provide the all important UV waves The only thing I will have to do before I can use it all the time is install some sort of safety cage over it as in order for the UV waves to actually make it to the budgies it can't have a diffuser or glass over it so for the time being they will only have it on under supervision so I can watch that they aren't chewing it.