melbournebudgies

Maybe birthdays should be like that too, every once in a while they could do maintenance and we could all be four years younger :rofl:

You do know you're stuck now Daz Aargh, except dammit, it's set me back about a month on my post count,got about 100 to catch back up on

Well the chick still hasn't hatched but not far off I think. Looking at it now I would say it had only been just starting to break the membrane last night as I can see much more movement in the air pocket now,plus hear a tiny bit of cheeping (I could actually see it flexing in the egg and moving in circles!). There is a spot on the egg where the shell has a tiny hole so I'm leaving it to do it's thing for now. I'll keep an eye on it and if it doesn't look to be making any progress I'll help it but for the moment it's doing what chicks do

This has been a really informative topic, especialy for us still fairly new to the show budgie game. On a side note, good to see you 'back to your old' self 'Daz'

The trick we were told is to read up from the bottom and the first mutation that you get too which your bird has is the one you put it in, does that stand for most of them Daz?

I hae some spare so I'll do that

What if the budgies chew it though?

Here are the beads for those that can't be bothered with links Can someone please confirm it's showing smaller now on their screen?

So Daz do you 'use' opaline at all in your spangle pairingsor would you be just as happy to not have it? Personally I feel I haven't seen anything in the opalines around here that inspires me to use them over a good normal but whenever I say that most people jump up and down and say I should be using opaline to bring out X, Y and Z in my spangles...

I have the same view on opaline spangle as you Daz, I have been carefully recording any odd mutations that crop up in clutches now so that I have that info available when I pair. It such an interesting way to breed, much more fun than just throwing them together and hoping for the best.

midnight

okay, well originally I said recessive pied because in one of those first photos I thought I could see grey on the belly however now I see it must be a shadow. DEC is a combination of recessive pied (the two recessive genes) and clearflight pied (the dominant gene), black eyes with no iris rings and the cere colour confirm this rather than DF spangle or something else

Dark eyed clear?

I should have slept an hour longer

Double factor recessive pied? Grey is the dominant gene

Best thing is to put the amount you want into a bowl and pour some hot water over it, wait for it to defrost for a few minutes and then drain the water off

okay I'll translate "Hellooo, am spa brab barrar, prayem me? Okaaayy, bah bye" Hello, are you there brother, play with me? Okay, bye bye " Hellooo amseeem fissies,shssshssss(with swimming hand movements), Okkkayyy, Bah bye Hello, I can see the fishies (swimming) okay Bye Bye

I planning on threading it onto cotton rope as mine seem to love that. I do have lots of old coat hangers hanging around but I'll keep the rust issue in mind

Another thing I did today too was to sift through my sons dupl and pull out the 'pretend' duplo which doesn't attach to the rest properly, then I drilled holes in the peices and threaded them together and put a loopon the top and a stainless steel bell on the bottom. Some of the birds like them better than other but I have discovered that my galah cock goes nuts for a toy and my corella hen is also quite fond of them so I'm now making more of an effort to provide a range of toys for them which I can swap over to keep them amused.

I also just got off ebay 108 natural australian timber large wooden beads too so looking forward to some toy making in the next few weeks It is a mix of lacquered and unlaquered ones but I have asked her to pick me out a box which seems to have fewer of the laqcuered ones in it as I figured they might not be safe. Also what are the thoughts on painted beads? There are so many gorgeous ones out there but I have resisted the urge since I wasn't sure if they would be safe. These are the beauties I bought, like I say I wasn't planning on using the lacquered ones http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x259/er...ax/DSCN3780.jpg

THese linking rings are a hit with all my birds from tiny budgies all the way up to corellas. They are nice and tough and the perfect size to thread onto perches through the centre hole or join together on rope seperated by wooden beads. They are actually childrens toys which you can get in toy shops and I have seen them used in commercially sold bird toys. I was browsing ebay hoping to pick up some cheap second hand and was thrilled to find a store having a sell out and I picked up 180 for $37.50 including postage

Good idea Kaz, the planters would catch all the drips as they ran off the end and bonus budgie food too. Brilliant!!

The other thing to consider is that we are still learning about the intricacies of how vitamins and minerals are absorbed, stored and used by the body. Vitamins and Minerals in food are accompanied by so many other things that may be benificial in the way they are absorbed, why mess with something that nature worked out so well. First and foremost your birds should have a great diet. If you read the side of most vitamin bottle it will say Supplements can only be of assistance if the dietary intake is inadequate. They are to fill the gaps where despite our best efforts we fall short

Well I have been working pretty hard at eliminating the mouse problem from around my place but it seems the hot weather in the last few days has brought a fewmore up. I just realised that I had forgotten to turn the light off in my breeding room and the birds were having a late night party so I rushed out to rectify the problem and while I was doing a couple of last checks in my flight a big mouse ran across the floor and squeezed out a corner :cake: Needless to say my job tomorrow will be sealing any tiny gaps I can find. I'm not sure what to use though. I was thinking something like silicone (it's got to go between the tubular steel along the base of the aviary and the lino on the floor as the concrete is not quite level) but I guess that will mean having to take all the birds out which is a bit of a pain. Can anyone suggest anything that doesn't give off strong fumes so I don't have to rehouse all the birds for a couple of days?

I must say I have an excellent stockfeed place which is why I am happy to buy my seed premixed, they mix seed to order in the quantities requested and are also responsible for making a number of the specialist tonic seeds used by some of the top members of my club, and lucky for me they are only five minutes down the road :cake: