Hamish

Welcome It's good to see more kiwis becoming involved here! How do the budgies get on with that lovely weather you get in dunedin?

If you could post a picture that'd be great But I would say that it was just part of the natural moulting cycle. In my experience birds make a bit of a mess of their feathers if they start feather picking. If the feathers are all the same length and look in good condition I wouldn't be too concerned. Put a photograph up though and we can check it out further

Good on ya Liv, uni's heaps of fun ehh? Nothing like a bit of hard work to keep you interesting. All the best with everything you are doing I don't have a family to juggle and I find vet school and budgies and hockey enough on my plate so good stuff!!

This is some information I found on the net, it is interesting reading and probably worth everyone having a look at. Especially probably the last disease. It is important that we as bird keepers are always aware of possible diseases that may be associated with our feathered friends. I have edited the document that was originally very long and have tried to explain some of the more technical terms in brackets, if you need any more explanation just drop a note here and I will try my best My thoughts are with you LBB in your recovery. Source: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/PS019 Avian Diseases Transmissible to Humans Zoonoses refer to infectious animal diseases that are communicable to humans. Individual susceptibility and the seriousness of these various microbial infections varies with age, health status, immune status (immunodeficient or immunosuppressed), and whether early therapeutic intervention is sought. Chlamydiosis, salmonellosis, arizonosis, and colibacillosis are the most common of these infections. Chlamydiosis, salmonellosis, eastern equine encephalitis and avian tuberculosis may be serious and even life- threatening. Chlamydiosis Chlamydia psittaci , an unusual bacteria-like organism, occurs worldwide and affects more than 100 avian species. It causes a disease called psittacosis when it occurs in psittacine birds (Budgies etc). Chlamydiosis is primarily transmitted by inhalation of contaminated fecal dust and is spread by carrier birds, which act as the main reservoirs for the disease. The organism is excreted in both the feces and nasal secretions. Chlamydiosis can be transmitted bird to bird, feces to bird, and bird to human. Human to human transmission can occur, mainly by exposure to patient's saliva. In affected birds, diarrhea, coughing, and ocular and nasal discharges are common signs. In humans, chlamydiosis manifests itself as a feverish respiratory disease. There is usually a sudden onset with chills, muscle and joint pains, headache, cough, loss of appetite, and chest pains. Complications may result from an enlarged spleen, inflammation of the heart muscle, and a reduced heart rate. Affected humans are treated with tetracycline for at least 21 days. Because this antibiotic may become irreversibly bound to certain minerals, the calcium content of food needs to be kept low during treatment. Salmonellosis This bacterial disease occurs most frequently in stressed individuals. Many infections are subclinical. Common clinical symptoms in all species include diarrhea, vomiting, and a low-grade fever. Infections can progress to dehydration, weakness, and sometimes, especially in the very young or very old, death. Salmonella are transmitted by ingestion of food contaminated by fecal matter (fecal-oral route). In most cases, treatment of salmonellosis simply involves treatment of the symptoms with fluids and electrolytes. Colibacillosis Colibacillosis is caused by Escherichia coli infection. E. coli is a bacteria which normally inhabits the intestinal tract of all animals. Transmission is via the fecal-oral route. Colibacillosis is often food- or water-borne. In most cases, symptomatic treatment (fluids, antidiarrheals) is all that is required. Arizona Infections (Arizonosis) Arizona infections are caused by the bacteria Salmonella arizona . S. arizona occurs worldwide. It occurs most frequently in reptiles and birds, but all animals are probably susceptible. The young are at greatest risk. In most poultry species S. arizona infection results in reduced egg production and hatchability. In humans, diarrhea is most common. Many infections are subclinical. Transmission is by the fecal-oral route. There is some transmission through eggs. Infected birds can become long-term intestinal carriers. Numerous antibiotics reduce case fatality, but do not clear intestines of the carrier state. Eastern Equine Encephalitis Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) is caused by a RNA virus in the genus Alphavirus , family Togaviridae. Outbreaks can occur in commercially raised pheasants, chickens, bobwhite quail, ducks, turkeys, and emus. Abdominal distress and dysentery are the most obvious signs. EEE is mosquito-borne. The virus circulates in a mosquito-bird cycle in which passerine birds (i.e., song birds such as swallows, starlings, jays, and finches) are the most common reservoir. The mosquitoes become infected and feed on birds, horses, and humans, further spreading the infection. EEE usually affects persons under 15 or over 50 years of age. In adults there is a sudden onset of high fever, headache, vomiting, and lethargy, progressing rapidly to neck stiffness, convulsions, spasticity, delirium, tremors, stupor and coma. Avian Tuberculosis Avian tuberculosis is caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium avium which is closely related to the human and bovine tuberculosis bacteria. In birds, M. avium causes a chronic debilitating disease with tubercular nodules. In humans, M. avium infections can cause local wound infections with swelling of regional lymph nodes. The infection is most severe in immunocompromised individuals. M. avium is spread by ingestion of food or water contaminated by feces from shedder birds. Tuberculous poultry flocks should be depopulate (killed). While most Mycobacterium infections are treatable with antibiotics, M. avium infection is the exception. M. avium is highly resistant to antibiotics. Surgical excision and lymph node removal are often necessary to eliminate infection. Cryptococcosis Another fungus that prefers to grow in soils enriched with avian manures is Cryptococcus neoformans. The incubation period is probably weeks. Infections are seen in many mammals, but occur most frequently in humans, horses, dogs, and cats. Infections are rare in birds. Transmission of cryptococcosis is usually by inhalation of this yeast-like fungus, although it can occasionally occur by ingestion. Humans can pick up cryptococcosis from exposure to old pigeon nests or droppings. In humans, cryptococcosis is manifested as meningitis or meningoencephalitis, and it is usually preceded by pulmonary infection with cough, blood-tinged sputum, fever, and malaise. The course of the disease is usually chronic (fast acting with a fast course). There is usually fever, cough, chest pain, and spitting of blood from the respiratory tract, followed by headache, stiff neck and visual disturbances. As with histoplasmosis, this disease is avian-associated, but not a zoonotic disease because the reservoir is soil and not the birds. Cryptosporidiosis Cryptosporidiosis is caused by protozoa of the genus Cryptosporidium . There are three known species, C. baileyi , C. meleagridis and an unnamed species in quail. Cryptosporidiosis normally causes respiratory problems in chickens and turkeys. It can also cause gastroenteritis and diarrhea. In humans, it causes abdominal pain, nausea, and watery diarrhea lasting 3-4 days. In immunocompromised people, it can cause severe, persistent diarrhea with associated malabsorption of nutrients and weight loss. Allergic Alveolitis Allergic alveolitis, also known as pigeon breeder's lung, budgerigar dander pneumoconiosis, and a variety of other complex names, is one of the most significant avian zoonotic diseases. It may occur as an acute, subacute, or chronic problem. Clinical signs are caused by reduced lung capacity due to a hypersensitivity reaction to feathers, dander, or fecal dust. Inflammation of the pulmonary air exchange units (alveoli) is the inciting lesion. The acute form of the disease is usually precipitated by an overwhelming exposure in a previously sensitized individual, such as that which might occur in cleaning out a pigeon loft. Symptoms occur within a short time, and include cough, difficult respiration, fever, and chills. If exposure ceases at this point, the symptoms resolve and no treatment is necessary. Chronic, low-grade exposure is more serious, and symptoms may be mistakenly attributed to a stubborn cold or flu. Affected individuals have a chronic nonproductive cough, exercise intolerance, and weight loss. Permanent lung lesions may develop, including pulmonary fibrosis that reduces gaseous exchange and lung capacity. Chronic allergic alveolitis can develop in as little as 2 years, but usually takes 10-20 years. Patients diagnosed with the chronic form of the disease may have no choice except to eliminate all exposure to birds. Exposure to even minute quantities of feathers, dander, or feces may precipitate a recurrence of severe respiratory distress. The severity of the disease can be reduced by wearing face masks while cleaning cages, cleaning cages daily, bathing pet birds frequently, and installing air purification systems. <a name="SECTION_2">

Good on you man, join the clubs I would say. Even if you can't make all the meetings, I am sure you will learn something and in time it will make you a better breeder.

good job! That hen is doing a great job with 6 chicks in the nest Keep up the good work, well done

The trick here is that the spangle markings are suffused with the grey green body colour which makes him difficult for you to tell what he is. The green markings on his yellow wings make him an opaline spangle, google image search opaline spangle and normal spangle and you will soon learn the difference.

I like the width across the top and the feather above the eye on this chick Kaz. The mask should moult out nicely too. See in the body on the left of the bird, is that some wing marking coming into the chest colour or is it the way the chick is sitting? If it is the wing marking, what are the other chicks like in that regard?

Looks good Renee! The birds will love to have the extra room to fly the length of the flight! You should post some photos of your red ringers as you move them into the flight!

Sounds to me like she was just showing him what he was supposed to be doing

I thought you sold your birds dude?

I normally get it from a produce store. The avian vet would probably not give it to you as it is not a registered avian product. Go to the health section of this forum and there is a big pinned topic on the pro's and con's of using ivomec. It is not too expensive, you can normally get it in pretty small bottles from your club (who bought a big bottle and divided it up for club members). Maybe it would be worth joining one so you can share knowledge and ideas with others from your area, this way you will easily find out little bits of information like that easily!! Ivomec wont affect anything in the aviary as long as it is used correctly, lots of us use it on chicks in the nests. The mite is microscopic, it burrows into the cere and dermis of the skin around the legs. You can't see it with the naked eye, but as nubbly said you can see the tunnels it makes when burrowing. They lay their eggs in the tunnels under the skin which sometimes causes an inflammatory response. Basically if I were you and you only had 20 birds I would suggest using the spot on treatment (putting a drop on the skin on the back of each birds neck) on every bird in your aviary. This way anyone who the cock has been kissing or sharing food with will be covered and you will hopefully not have to worry. Do a bit of looking around on the forum, the health section has a lot about scaly face mite and also about ivomectin. Have a read and if you have any more questions I am sure people will be more than happy to help :thumbs_up: Good luck

Un-named looks to be a grey green recessive pied, how old are they? It is difficult because they are recessives but I would say the Grey green (un-named) is a cock bird and the grey recessive (Dunkin) is a cock. I may be wrong though

Dean it is probably worth mentioning that the bird I believe you are referring to was a halfsider feather duster was it not? I doubt very much whether a full feather duster would have the ability to father offspring, and in all fairness, that is the way it is meant to be. I have done a few post postmortems on feather dusters and although what you say is correct, that the stress of feather growth puts more strain on the body, in my opinion what kills them is the massive amount of food they must consume to survive. The three dusters I have looked at have all had massively swollen and infected proventriculus, gizzard and intestines. Just thought I'd bring those two things up ... On another note, I have the utmost respect for Liv, the care she is giving is a massive commitment and it shows her to be a wonderfully caring individual. Good on you Keep up the good work.

Superb babies!! I especially like the opaline cobalt. Can't wait to see a photo once it moults out, that feather is fantastic.

Sorry to hear that, it was always going to be hard on him, at least it sounds as though he didn't suffer and wasn't in pain.

Something important to realise is that the hen has crypts in her oviducts where the sperm kind of wait around for the oocytes to be ready. So when an egg is released from the follicle, even if mating hasn't occurred for a number of days, the egg can still be fertilised by the sperm that is waiting ready to go. This is especially important if you lose a cock bird or he gets sick, and you have a hen that is laying, the eggs can be fertile for a fair while after the cock bird has been removed. It is certainly a wonderful process.

wow I am very jealous!! That aviary is pretty much better than my flat in Australia!! Excellent job!

As a general rule, you can just put them together whenever as long as you don't have a nest on the side of the cage, most budgies will live happily together without mating. If they decide to mate and just lay on the floor of the cage, then you can just remove the eggs and you wont have babies! Good luck!

I don't use artificial lighting, not because I don't want to but more because I don't have the facilities to be able to. It'd be lovely to have lights in the bird room and be able to spend evenings out their doing what we love. I know some people have been using the UVB lights which I hear help to aid in the synthesis of Vitamin D3. I have never seen anyone who had lighting to individual cages and I am not sure why you would do it instead of just lighting the whole bird room. It would certainly give more uniform light and the birds might find having a light globe in their cage a little bright I would imagine. If you are to use the artificial lighting to simulate longer days then I would definitely suggest just lighting the breeding room, that way if you need to you can still be out there working with the birds, with the point source lighting of each cage it would make it a pretty patchy experience unless you had lights on the roof too, in which case there would be no need really for the lights in individual cages. Those are my thoughts on the subject anyway! Cheers

Glad to hear your bird will be okay Hospital cages work wonders thats for sure!! How many birds do you have? I'd say just borrow Kaz's for the time being! It's a pretty big investment if your (hopefully) not going to be using it too often?

Yeah, it must be said that at 14 the budgie has had a long life. Surgery (if successful) would probably prolong that life for a little while but the recovery will be slow, and the stress of anesthetic on a bird that age would, as you say, probably kill it. So I would suggest keeping him somewhere nice and warm, easy access to food and out of the cold New Zealand winter and letting him enjoy himself for a while longer. It may get to the point where he is in a bit of pain and you need to put him to sleep but when that time comes I am sure you will know All the best with him!

cheers Daz

Hi guys, I am after some of the jar type feeders for the breeding cages but can't find them anywhere. People have said that some clubs have them for sale but I don't know who to get in touch with. I have details of a guy in bribee island but he only has two left and I don't really want to go all the way there for two feeders!! Any of the breeders who use these may know where they got them from and any help would be appreciated! Thanks guys

as a general rule the flecking will come up during their first moult. You will hear people talking of "moulting out clean" which basically means that during the moult the new feathers don't grow out flecked. A clear baby in the nest can moult out to have flecking, but realistically if a baby in the nest has flecking, its just going to moult out worse. It is the same with spots I suppose, a baby with great spots in the nest will get greater spots, and a baby with average spots may grow some nice ones over his or her first moult. Follow?