melbournebudgies

I'll have to catch her up tomorrow and take some new pics. Hoping to put her in a show this weekend but it will depend on the last few pin feathers she's moulting out.

Wow how exciting. It will be even more exciting for you when you get to start attending clinics. I worked as a 'untrained' vet nurse for a while and I can still vividly remember the first surgery I assisted in (it was a ceasarean for a bulldog), you'll have a great time and some amazing experiences. The only thing I'll say is get ready for lots of POO!!

My hubby used to live and work in Marysville so that has been a particularly sad loss for him, we don't yet know if he knew any of the people who have been lost.

Sure If you need the space I don't mind leaving her where she is until she starts to get some development starting on her cere and then give you a yell, she's straight pink at the moment, not crusty at all.

Well on one of the hot days she smashed all her eggs and threw the out of the nest which were about two weeks developed at the time. She seems to have gone out of condition now but prior to that she layed two eggs on the bottom of the cage which I've fostered in with a reliable sitter, the first looks fertile the second still looked clear a few days ago and I've misplaced my torch so haven't been able to check since

Actually even in that first photo I would have said girl as I can see white cere rings.

I'll take them Splat, will organise something while I'm up there :doh:

They have not shown any signs of stress at all Elly, I wouldn't have considered pairing them if I felt they weren't up to it :doh: Since I am not using my Q aviary now that they are finished I have turned it into a breeding area so I'm keeping a close eye on them but they look like they are doing wonderfully I'll be in Shep on a course which also runs over the weekends so I'll be horribly busy but Ill see how I go

GB I just checked the CFA site as I'm only five minutes down the road from Diamond creek and the only fire listed in that area was at Upper Plenty which was a small grass fire now listed as safe so tell your sister there isn't much to worry about there. That page is on constant update so if it's not on there it isn't burning

Look for a hen who likes to blow her frontal feathers if you can, that's going to be VERY important

I wasn't stating that as fact I was simply saying that it MAY be one cause of clear eggs. As I said quite clearly, personally I have never seen the value of that kind of pairing anyway simply from a size stance so I steated from the outset that I had no personal experience with it

Best bet would be to breed him and then put him to his hen offspring if none with the feathers appear in the nest to test the theory, not something I would normally do but in this case probably the fastest way to determine the inheritance. Also if it's anything like the crests on the noggin then test him with as many of his daughters as possible as not all offspring will be carriers

As I said earlier I've never seen the value of a crested/crested pairing but the theory works for me. In a hen may lay 8 eggs with only five or six being viable a breeder may not even notice. Similiar genes exist in many species, an example I know of is the bobtail boxer(as opposed to the ones that have their tails docked which is now illegal in Aus), you shouldn't breed bobtail to bobtail as the gene is lethal in the double form so bobtails are always bred to a normal tailed dog.

Just bear in mind that it may take a generation or two (or four) before you see any the same so don't give up after one pairng.

I'll be just down the road from Splat for two weeks from next weekend until the end of the month, might have to do a night time raid

Well after a nice rest and Q time after arriving from Splat's I recently paired up two birds that liked each other in the quarantine aviary and I thought were worth pairing. These two have two eggs and she's sitting great: I also accidentally paired these two up because I read the wrong pedigree and thought they were older than what they are , now seperated but two eggs already layed went in as fosters into the nest of the other pair so they actually have four in total. They'll get a good rest until later in the year before pairing them again. This photo doesn't really do the cock justice, he much better in real life and so is the hen for that matter!

I'd ask to hold him and check to see if you can see any scarring on him, I had one with svere inuries and even her feathers went the right direction. If you can't see any obvious old injury then I'd buy him

I PVA and nail when I make mine

The only other thing I would add is I'm not keen on the humped backs that alot of show birds have, he has it a little so I would go with a hen with a nice straight back He's a beauty, you can definately flat pack him to me when he's done the rounds of your ladies

His blow looks better in that last photo but definately go for a hen with a nice head on her and try to steer clear of loose feather it's the bain of my existaance!

Noooo.... don't go loose feather, there are not enough birds any more with that great tight feathering. I am desperately trying to tighten the feather up on my birds, his nice tight feather is gorgeous!!!! I think a hen with as much blow as possible as he's a tad bottom heavy, could do with a tad more blow on him and also one with good length of mask to help balance him.

No, there are some who think they may have immunity type issues or something similiar, making them more prone to becoming ill and simply not thriving as youngsters, resulting in nest losses.

Actually Hills there are concerns that this weather change may actually make things worse as the change of wind direction is pushing fires into areas that were previously safe and the bush is still so dry.

I don't think anything is really a definate when is comes to crested Kaz. You tend to lose alot of size on crested unless you cross them out to good non cresteds anyway so the way I see it crest to crest isn't really worth it anyway

I think SW is probably referring to the failure to thrive and health problems associated with babies from crest/crest nests, this is the reason that crest/crest-bred or crest/non-crestbred are the recommended pairings