Hamish

Hi guys, I've got some show cages in good condition for sale. I've got seven in total -- no idea what they are worth so if someone names a price that is reasonable and needs some show cages, I'll sell them! Should probably note I am in Greenslopes in Brisbane and these are the Australian budgerigar show cages. Cheers, Hamish

What sort was it Kaz? Turn out to be a Dugite? Lucky Ken got outa the way!

Today I went to the produce store in NZ and saw that all the rabbit pellets they had available contained Cycostat -- An additive that is designed to prevent the outbreak of coccidiosis. Do the ones you feed your birds contain that? If so, hows it going? If not ... What do you think this would do as far as the birds health is concerned?

Gota love a good vet Great news Krosp It'll be money well spent!

Cute chicks Daniel, what was your reasoning behind moving mum out?

I know that some top breeders are very cautious about moving hens around when they have been with a previous partner. Apparently they often get quite aggressive and cause a bit of damage if they suddenly have their cock bird replaced. I would think that as far as her cycle is concerned, removing her and giving her a new cock bird after two weeks with chicks would just throw her out of sync and cause her to go out of condition. I don't know that for sure but I am skeptical as to whether: 1. She would accept the new cock bird having just been rearing chicks 2. She would go down to breed having just been removed from two week old chicks. The idea of the cock raising the babies as they get older is that the hen gets a chance to rebuild the stores she used up sitting on the eggs and rearing the young chicks, I don't think your plan would allow for that to occur. That is my opinion, people will have different views I am sure but for what it's worth I wouldn't do it.

great work kaz, the aviary looks fantastic and what satisfaction you must be feeling Specially with them using the new perches!

Which vet did you take him to? I am hoping for the best!!

Splat you are right about the birds having the same look about them! I would say they have a very square look about their top end. This is created by their great width across the head and the back skull they all seem to possess. If I were you, I would try and get some depth into the mask of the grey and dominant pied lines. The new dark green baby looks to have better depth than both those cocks already so you are obviously moving in the right direction!! But yeah, that would be my comment, great shoulder, great width across the head and back skull but they could do with a bit more depth through the mask! Keep up the good work :celebrate: Your birds are beautiful!

Sorry GB!! I didn't really know how to warn anyone because I wasnt the one starting the discussion! I'll turn it into a link! now you can edit your post and the picture will be a link forever and no one else will get a shock!!

http://i832.photobucket.com/albums/zz243/cheola/P1020609.jpg Krosp the link above is a photo of the testes in situ. You can see the digestive tract has been displaced towards the tail (it would normally be sitting on top of the testes), maybe you should have a feel and see if there is any sort of lump in the region. If the vet could feel a lump by the vent I don't really understand how it could be the testes unless it was VERY large? I have done a few post postmortems on birds with fatty lumps in the digestive tract cavity, and to be honest, most could not be palpated from the outside without a lot of pressure so they must be relatively pliable in the warm animal. If the lucrin helped then you could assume that it has to do with the testes, is he in good condition at the moment? Cere blue and bright? Could it be that his testes are SO large because of the breeding season that they are impeding the flow of feces?

Krosp, have you got a photograph of what the crop looks like? The previous thread that you have is in a weird format for me and it means I have to click and open every reply that has been posted and I am tired of it so thought I'd just post here. I have a bird with a distended crop, she fills it with food and looks as though she has a big growth on her chest, but then when she is empty she doesn't look any different from any of the birds in the flock. Anyway, I asked the Avian health lecturer at university and he told me that normally the birds with this end up with food that sits down the base of the crop and it starts to ferment there and causes a few big problems for the birds. He talked of doing surgery to staple the crop in bigger parrots which meant that the food carried on down the digestive tract as it should. Without a photograph or reading all the individual posts from your last thread I don't know whether I am completely barking up the wrong tree but if this is what it is, I looked in an avian medicine book and it said that you can flush the crop via crop needle which will remove all the fermenting seed. It gave a solution to use to flush the crop but I honestly can't remember what it was. If you would like I can go across the bridge to uni and check it out for you. Otherwise maybe try and google distended crop ... it may come up with something useful, but may also yield useless results as the internet often does. If you need anymore information about it get back to me and I'll head across to the library and scan the pages you need. All the best.

Good work Renee That means your certainly heading in the right direction :rofl:

Looks great Kaz, the birds are going to love you You have certainly done an outstanding job

Not really too sure to be honest, I would guess and say it is just luck of the draw. I have heard that males are better at mimicking than females but females can learn a few words. I know in bigger parrots some babies start mimicking really early on in life and these ones you can pick because they have learnt early, but with budgies, I'm not so sure sorry!!

Nice work Dave, looks like we are all with you.

okay thanks guys, maybe a grey wing then! I might give Dave a call after these exams are over and see if I can get some of the records for the parents so I will hopefully know for sure. He certainly doesn't look like a dilute to me now that I've seen the photos of your dilutes, as you say, he is much too coloured. We'll see how he grows up anyway and I'll post some pictures later to show you how he turns out! Thanks for your comments about the two other chicks, hopefully they keep growing! The younger one is a real show off but is so small in the body I don't think she will ever be an outstanding show bird, I guess time will tell.

haha I was thinking the dominant pied and the opaline would benefit them It was said a little tongue in cheek I don't think we will be using him for breeding!

haha maybe I can put him into my clearwing line then!! He sounds ideal for breeding .... Dilute opaline cinnamon dominant pied light green ... He would certainly add something to the stud ... Quite possibly something we don't want Maybe he'll make a nice pet

I read some things that they were filming and it sounded as though the camera men were following Mick around at a show where he had some birds entered. So I am sure there will be some interesting pieces of information for the novice or "nobody" breeders like us, but I also gather it will be a bit of a "Day in the life of a champion" kind of doco if you know what I mean. How much is it? I heard whispers of 45 euro? Seems a lot when you convert it back to AUD. If only someone would upload it onto the net and we could have a sneak peak and see if it's worth the money. Maybe some of the forum members would like to form a syndicate and buy a copy and get together for a movie night haha

Hi guys, I need some opinions. I am pretty sure this bird is a dilute. He has shown up in a dominant pied x grey green nest. The hen is the daughter of Dave Ganza's dominant pied national champion and the cock is one of his. http://i832.photobucket.com/albums/zz243/cheola/P1020877.jpg http://i832.photobucket.com/albums/zz243/cheola/P1020880.jpg http://i832.photobucket.com/albums/zz243/cheola/P1020889.jpg http://i832.photobucket.com/albums/zz243/cheola/P1020883.jpg http://i832.photobucket.com/albums/zz243/cheola/P1020884.jpg http://i832.photobucket.com/albums/zz243/cheola/P1020885.jpg Now I think this bird is a dilute opaline light green dominant pied. The way I understand the dilute inheritance is that it is recessive. This means that some how, both the parents must be split dilute. Firstly, do you think this bird is a dilute? I have attached a photograph of a cinnamon bird for comparison. Secondly, how often does this happen? It seems to me to be the sort of thing that can just lay dormant for generations and then when the right pairings are made these bizare dilutes appear? Let me know what you think. Here are a couple of photos of some other birds that are starting to look not too bad at our place!! Let us know what you think about them, the younger one is still a couple of weeks from leaving the nest and the older one fledged today. They arn't much, but they are a start I guess!! http://i832.photobucket.com/albums/zz243/cheola/P1020893.jpg http://i832.photobucket.com/albums/zz243/cheola/P1020892.jpg http://i832.photobucket.com/albums/zz243/cheola/P1020896.jpg http://i832.photobucket.com/albums/zz243/cheola/P1020895.jpg

There was a lot of discussion about the DVD on the UK version of this forum. It might be worth having a look at a couple of the threads on there, that might give you an idea of what it's like. A word of warning though, 95% of the people on the UK forum are in love with the guy who made the DVD so the opinions may be somewhat biased Let us know what you find!!

Looking good mate, nice masks and spots on a couple of those birds

Your very helpful Renee Nice work

Beautiful birds, those two greys certainly are something special! Your doing something right