melbournebudgies

Or eat it yourself! My kids think mini eggs are oh so cool hard boiled and put in a salad

Not at all Kaz, my dogs both eat a mainly dryfood diet. Not only do they LOVE their dinner but I have tried feeding a good home made dog food and atleast one ended up with stomach problems. I have no issue with feeding them a mainly dry food diet. We had a vet talk at our budgie club last night. He was saying that the majority of fatty liver problems are simply due to a bland high fat diet and inactivity. A bird which is fed a good varied diet and is allowed space to exercise should be much less prone to it. He also referred to a studied which found that wild parrots consumed up to 80 different species of plants a day!

They aren't all show pairs as I have some people wanting pets so I have a couple of pet pairs going too but that's okay

Well I went from a couple of pairs withone egg two days ago and now I have three pair with two eggs and one pair with one egg (would have had two but that is Ozzie and he smashed the first one). I seperated Ozzie away from his hen this morning and about an hour latr she laid her second egg which I took and fostered into one of the other hens nests, so Ozzie is back in with his hen. Once she has laid a few more seperately from him I'll leave him in for one and see what happens but given how important these eggs were I wanted to have a few safe before I risked another one. Pics: As they were all in the breeding cages I didn't want to mess with them too much so these are about the best I could do unfortunately Pair 1: green spangle full crested(cock) and dark green normal crest bred(hen) (2 eggs, fostering second egg from pair 2) Pair 2: DF spangle cock and green spangle hen ( 2 eggs so far, one smashed) Pair 3: grey green normal cock and green normal hen (2 eggs so far) Pair 4: Pet types, albino cock and lutino hen (just for fun ) Pet types, cobalt dom pied hen and green dom pied cock (2 eggs so far)

Also you can make some of your own. Tie large gumnuts to their perches, try a rat wheel and add native branches with flowers and seeds on them too as they will enjoy those

It isn't recommended that you stay on this sort of diet for a long time as it isn't particularly balanced. It's okay for a couple of months and then you should either take a break from it and try again after a month or if you fall pregnant revert straight back to a normal healthy diet

You have to basically steer clear of salt altogether. Increases salt intake acts a 'buffer' in the same way it does in marine water makes the body chemistry more alkaline, by excluding it this bufferring affect is lost and the body reverts to a more acidic state.

That was my thought too until I realised I can eat as much icecream as I like You can have sweets just not ones that they use salt in the making of (like licorice)

Budgies will frequently sleep on the side of their cages- completely normal The chewing is also completely normal and very important for keeping their beaks trim so keep offering the branches

I can't believe this is still going! 27

Well, here goes nothing I've decided I'll give her a week on her own with the nest box as I have heard that the sperm from the original male can be 'washed out' if she mates with a new cock so I'll give her some time before she gets a new man

Well in this house the three 'men' have decided that they want a baby daughter/sister and apparently I'm supposed to comply

The whole douche issue is one you have to be careful with though and it's possibly not as effective as the diet. The reason being that you have to be very careful with the dilution of the vinegar and also it cannot be placed too far in to the tract (sorry too much info I know), the advantage of the diet being that it changes the entire body chemistry and ensure that the pH is evenly acidic through out

I have two hens happily sitting solidly on their eggs now so I should be okay to foster a couple out I think. I've put the box on and we shall see. I also thought once she has laid a couple I might offer her a completely different cock and see whether she wants to keep laying, that way I'll be able to tell if any of the chicks are from the original cock.

I just went to do my checks and found one of my fallow cocks dead in the breeding cage(no nestbox yet). I also found an egg which the hen had laid off the perch. The hen seems fine and I suspect the cock has got spooked as he seems to have a broken neck so I don't think it is related to a health issue. What I'm wondering is if I give her a nest box now and she lays eggs over the next few days is there a chance they may be fertile? I really wanted to breed this cock so I figure if the hen can still produce some fertile eggs out of him I'll throw a box on and hope for the best and foster out any eggs

Actually there have been a number of studies which have shown the the female diet has plays more of a role than timing. The shettle method (timing) is a long standing method which is now being tested and many scientists believe that it plays less of a role than we think. It comes down to this: The male sperm prefer an alkaline environment and will die much more quickly in an acidic one. The female sperm are toughies and they can handle the acidic environment. So in order to decrease the chances of a male sperm winning the race the woman can eat a diet which creates a more acidic pH which the male sperm can't tolerate

Thanks for that Carolyn, she is only a relatively small breeder herself but she does have some occasionally as culls so she is going to keep me in mind

okay before anyone gets comfused because of my heading I'm not preggers yet Just thought since there are so many baby mad peoples on here you might like to follow through my journey. So here we are: We are hoping for a baby...BUT if we can get a girl that would be nice so today marks the first day of my 'think pink' mission. I won't go into all the nitty gritty and gross details of other things that can be done to increase girl chances but I started the 'girl diet' today. So breaky was a raspberry and strawberry breaky smoothie: handful of berries, small scoop of icecream, 2 weetbix and milk...YUM! This is what I have to stick to: DRINKS - high calcium milk must have 750ml min each day. Or high calcium water (acidic ph) bottled varieties - evian, perrier etc (thats it ladies - I am sorry) MEAT - 130g per day only - more white than red EGGS - okay in moderation Unsalted butter DAIRY - Yoghurt, milk desserts (2 x a day)+ milk as above Bread - low/no salt variety (reduce yeast products) Nuts - almonds, peanuts, hazel nuts, cashews all unsalted FRUITS - apples, strawberries, rasberries VEGES - Potatoes minimal (3 x week max) green beans, onions, leeks, peas, cucumber, radish, capsicum, celery, cooked tomato, eggplant, fresh asparagus, green salad Jam - once per day Rice, pasta, flour Oils,spices, curry powders (no salt) NONE OF THE FOLLOWING Coffee, tea, chocolate, fruit juice, soft drinks, alcohol, pork, ham, ready to eat meals, smoked anything, sauces and gravy, shellfish, cheese (try nimbin low salt variety - this would be okay in small quantities), cakes (store bought) quiche, pizza, corn, popcorn, dry fruit, all other fruit than what is allowed, liquorice, olives, gherkins, tin or packet soup, alka seltzer or antacids...

How does that affect the show prospects of single factor cinnamon spangles Kaz?

I believe it will fit on to a standard 4 ft fish tank stand but I'll double check the depth for you.

I guess what I am trying to work out is whether there is any benefit of using opalines rather than normals. If there isn't then I agree entirely and I'll be steering well clear of the opalines for my show birds unless I come across a 'too good to pass up' opaline.

Thanks Neat, it seems to beone of those things that people are either completely opposed to or all for

No, not really until they actually start to grow although if it was a noticeably strange looking egg then it would probaby be infertile but a normal egg you will need to be patient for a coupl more days

Time to find someone with a video camera that you can press start on before you even take him out of the cage so he doesn't know your taping Then you can just cut out the best part of the video afterwards

My personal preference is that umless absolutely necessary I don't clean cages while they are on eggs, it's not a risk I'll take if at all possible. The best bet is to candle the eggs. If you can get a little LED torch (impotant that it's a LED as a normal globe will get hot and may cook the egg) from a discount shop that will work fine. Once the eggs are about 4 days old you should be able to see little red viens running through them