ShadowGhost

Thanks for the link Liv, I went through that post about 2 days ago, though I had no idea what the different types were I was hoping to learn. I will read it again for reference sake (and again, and again...) Interesting info jaz, my violet pied Crumbles seemed quite small, though so does her brother who is isn't violet.

Wow I think I must be starting to get the hang of this mutations thing... I had a look with the intent of trying to practise what I've been been reading and guessed Normal Cobalt cock possibly with recessive pied gene. Now I don't consider myself to know anything still, but it was nice to see all the replies echoing my guess!

okay I've been reading up on mutations and genetics but I'm far from understanding any of it Wouldn't a recessive pied that showing it .... not be recessive, but just pied?

Interesting. Does recessive mean that it carries the pied gene but it's being masked by something else?

No it doesn't. I think its only 4 months old.

Males can have iris rings too... or am I mistaken?

Not very old is correct, but how do you figure it being female?

Sorry, I'll try again. I had lots of wierd problems with the forum last night.

He's got black eyes, only about 4 months old, no black dots, cheek patches are silver.I have one albino and one white which I am guessing is a white DF spangle, but I am a total n00b to genetics, so my guess goes with a grain of salt and black pepper. http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm164/k...11172008119.jpg http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm164/k...11172008120.jpg http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm164/k...11172008117.jpg http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm164/k...11172008114.jpg

I didn't honestly think there would be, but the thought occurred to me when I was reading about mutations and realised that Saphyre was a violet cobalt. I'd had both birds for 6 months and they came from different places. And of course this new bird has violet on him too. I'll try and get a photo of him soon.

Probably... I really loved Crumbles and I wanted to breed her. Just out of interest sake, what kind of mutation is a pure white (non-albino) bird, and a pure white with a violet rump patch?

I now realise that the two budgies of mine that died, both were visibly violet. One was quite clear, the other was a violet cobalt. They were my only violets, and the only two birds to die, within a week of each other (from different breeders). I just bought a new white on the weekend that appears to be molting to male (because I have 2 white females), but after a closer examination that night I found a violet patch on his rump, covered by his wings when not in flight! He seems to have a balance problem too :/ *ponders*...

Great article! However, it leaves me asking more questions than I had before I read it! Now, I know nothing about genetics, so perhaps some of it is covered in there rather than being distinct to budgies or birds. What's the difference between a variety and simply having a different colour and / or pattern? What does "split for colour" mean? Does sex-linked simply mean that only the male can pass that feature on, and non-sex-linked mean only the female passes it on? Do you commonly get mixes of the colours and varietys? okay, that'll do for now. I'm just a simple programmer, not a geneticist!

Nice :laughter: My budgies do that with the cover we put over them... they've torn it to shreds and drag attached bits all over the cage. They also like to play tug of war with the stalks of millet spray...

Thanks Elly. That's a good idea, I hadn't thought of that. The rest of them at the moment are looking decidedly healthy, but obviously now is the time to get things checked out! No I don't clean their water daily. I do it at least 3 times a day!! (dirty little buggers keep pooing in their water, and when I put greens in there, even though they demolish them, the water still ends up green with greens in it!). To clarify in case it matters, I have been discarding their seed onto a dedicated patch of our garden, and been feeding them greens that grow from the seeds.

No. I suspected not. Something in my gut said it wasn't, but my partner had the opposite opinion. We will know better next time :/

It might be worth it, though I disposed of the body quite quickly without thinking of such a thing (now unretrievable). Is sunlight a reasonable substitute for lamp light when they are sick? Yesterday was quite warm and 100% sunny here and we left her in the sun with a tiny bit of shade instead of using the light. I'm thinking that probably wasn't the best idea, that I should have kept her under more controlled conditions, but my partner made the suggestion and it sounded like a nice thing to do for Crumbles at the time. Knowing my luck, I'm sure I'll have another opportunity to provide a body for autopsy sooner than I'd like

Thanks Jodie. I'm ready to give up on budgies at the moment, that was a very painful loss.

She died before I got home

Thanks Kaz. They're all cage birds at the moment, though I'm hoping to get them into an avairy quick smart when my house is built. I realise that I should have a 25-40W, but 60 was all I had, so I monitored her for a few hours to see if she was getting too hot, but she kept moving to the side closest to the light when I moved the cage or the light. I can't say I have any sulpha meds, bird medicine is fairly new to me. I guess I was super lucky when I was a kid, that my budgies never seemed to get sick (except for when we put them in an avairy build from treated pine, but I know better now... ) *sigh* I wish normal vets did avian too...

Yeah... I wish we had an avian vet less than an hour from home...

It's that time of the week where another of my budgies is starting to slow down and look ill. I spotted it last night and while I wasn't quite sure if she was sick or not, catching her gave me the answer, in that she normally squawks and bites me a lot, this time she didn't even struggle. So I put her under the lamp all night (60W, its all I have), and I found her in the bottom of the cage this morning, but no worse than yesterday. She is eating a little, and drinking a little too, but she has green poo. I've been trying to look over the faqs here because I'm sure I've read about this before, but its a little hard while trying to work as well. Crumbles happens to be one of my favourite budgies, I wont be very happy at all if she dies, not to mention I will have to start panicking about megabacteria and other plague like diseases... Maybe I just fed her too many greens?

Not really. Most looked a little dirty and that was about it. All the other birds still look fine.

My partner said it looked like he needed to wash his hair... was a bit oily looking.

Thanks maesie. I don't want to lose any more of them.