renee

Oh that is really bad luck. Sounds to me as if she just isn't quite mature enough yet (psychologically). Give her a complete rest, remove the nest box, and wait and watch. When she is ready again to go down she will let you know. Or alternatively you may decide not to bred with her ..... it's up to you.

So you've been breeding Show Budgies for a while and you have already made the commitment in time, money and effort (read blood, sweat and tears) to carry on and breed that elusive "perfect" budgie. You have the bug! And a newbie crosses your path. They've seen a pretty budgie down at the markets or the local Pet Store and it has a leg ring and naturally they are intrigued to find out more about this stunner which sits head and shoulders above (literally) anything they have seen previously. So they come to visit and naturally you are delighted to show them your budgies and your set up, perhaps this could be a kindred spirit you ask yourself, maybe even tomorrow's next champion breeder?! What do you do? Do you tell them the truth or do you gloss over the difficult bits? Or maybe a bit of both? Do you tell them how much you have spent on this hobby? Do you mention the numerous illnesses you had to deal with in those early years when you brought your new birds in without even understanding the concept of quarantine? How about the challenges you faced in building those aviaries? Or the pit falls inherent in NOT KNOWING what to do when not everything went 100% to plan in your first years of breeding? How through nothing more than blissful ignorance you did EXACTLY the wrong thing (like in my case leaving my best birds in a metal aviary in the middle of the lawn with no shade on the hottest day of the summer ~ needless to say that was not a happy day ) Maybe you reason that all the above in not your responsibility at all, perhaps it doesn't really matter whether they fall by the wayside disillusioned with the whole show budgie thing after a few years. You cannot know whether they are serious or not or whether they will go on to strive for best practises and do the very best with their available resources. So you could just extol the joys of breeding that first chick, or the thrill of your first shows, or the enduring friendships you have developed with other "budgie nuts" .... Or you could mix it up and mention a bit of both .... But then, inevitably with all beginners, they can't drag their eyes off these boofy beautiful budgies and they just have to have one (or two). Do you show them the door and tell them to come back when they've built an aviary, got those breeding cabinets and set up a breeding room?! :rofl: Do you 'gift'/undersell them some of your good birds to give them a head start? Or perhaps you would like them to value your hard work so you make them pay the going rate? You know sometimes I think you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. Not very long ago I was a beginner too and today I blush as I look back at my expectations and the boldness of my ignorance. You can laugh but I actually had the temerity to ask one of this State's leading breeders to bring out his good birds 'cause I knew what a National winning bird looked like .... and my budget at the time? $100! And not even very long ago I bemoaned long and hard about a fantastic cock I had been gifted that didn't fill an egg. Only now do I know that I had I had more experience I might have been able to try something different or even give Artificial Insemination a go. Hard as it is the most valuable lesson you learn in those tricky years is that all your problems are not someone else's fault. Yes, you need to buy other breeder's birds to start off and everything that that entails but the fact of the matter is, as soon as you buy that bird it is your responsibility to care for and nurture. You do not know what you are doing and you can not expect any thing to go smoothly ~ because it doesn't. http://forums.budgiebreeders.asn.au/index....showtopic=18980

Aaaahhhhh. Skittishness is not s good sign I'm afraid. Ideally you want a dopey, placid hen. But you need to work with what you've got so TRY not to disturb her. A look in the morning and late in the afternoon is all you need to do. Remember a chickie can go for many hours without being fed. Its peeping stimulates the hen into feeding it. Leave her alone and fingers crossed Nature will take its course.

So sorry to hear this Liv, you have done such a wonderful job at providing the best conditions possible for them both. I hope Cirrus can continue to enjoy life without his brother.

Maiden hens can be notoriously difficult which is why it is always wise to put a couple of pairs down at the same time with a guaranteed back up 'super Mum' among the mix so you can intervene and foster a chicks that isn't getting fed. However, sometimes that is just not possible because you only own one pair. A healthy chick is bright pink when it is born. Unhealthy chicks have a 'yellow belly' which indicates the yolk sack in unable to be absorbed properly or are a whitish colour or are bright red. Any chicks with these characteristics have been infected while in the egg or from their parents or have a genetic misnomer. These chicks will not survive and many times the parents will simply not feed these chicks and they will die. To reduce the instances of unhealthy chicks it is very important that your budgies are themselves very healthy to begin with. Many breeders give their budgies an extended course of doxycyline before beginning to breed. Best of Luck with the next chickies and keep us posted!

Well done Humphrey in navigating the perils of Photobucket and posting such good photos! okay, your hen: her cere (the fleshy bulb above her beak) looks like a dark chocolate colour with some white tinges. This would indicate that she is going OUT of breeding condition which may explain her lack of interest in the nest box and breeding. When a hen is READY to breed her cere is a light tan colour, she chews anything in sight and actively engages in flirting with the cock. The way you have set up the breeding cabinet looks absolutely fine to me so congratulations on that.

You are too kind

Here's some previous threads that discuss just that http://forums.budgiebreeders.asn.au/index....showtopic=18890 http://forums.budgiebreeders.asn.au/index....showtopic=25745

Very good advice! Many topics have been dedicated to soluble additives, remember the Search function is your Friend!

Yes chocolate brown is normal ~ black .... mmmm, not so good. Pictures required!

So hard to say with just a description .... Do a Search on Half-siders (seach tab is right-hand corner of your screen) this may answer your question If not pictures will definitely clarify matters.

When you are a member of a Budgie Club you have the option of ordering rings to put on your chickies, this system works the way micro chipping you cat and dog - it is a unique code that identifies that bird, every ring has a number and that is what identifies the bird. You can purchase coded rings that have your own unique ring code -mine is R&T, Kaz's is KM, Nubbly's is G&G - you get the picture? OR you can order uncoded rings which are generic rings with the Club's code - South-West is SWBC, Metro's is MBC, the Western Australian Budgerigar Council is WABC, etc. Every year the colour of the ring changes depending on when the start of the new year is - previously is was 1st January but this year the Australian National Budgerigar Council changes it to 1st September. The current ring colour for this year is BLUE, last year it was RED (09), before that BLACK (08), before that GREEN (07), before that GOLD (06), before that PURPLE (05), before that BLUE (04) ..... I think you may find you pink matte ring is either a Purple or a faded Red .... When you read the ring you will see that first of there is the year printed horizontally: 0 9 Then the generic code: WABC and finally the birds number: 657 For ex.: 0 WABC 657 9 In the case of a generic uncoded ring such as WABC you need to contact the ring registrar, probably Kaz when she gets back, and she will be able to consult the records and tell you who bought that ring.

All my 08 greys are double factor. This was before I realized that was perhaps not the best breeding practise...... Yeah she's nothing to look at which is why she was slated for the Pet Shop but then Kaz decided she wanted her along with 8 other hens. But you're right, with the right cock bird she will produce nice chicks as her parents were way better than she turned out. Main thing is that she's a good Mum and looks after the chickies well.

Yooo Hooo! They look magnificent! ~ Well done!

First of all Welcome to the BBC! Just recently another Perth-based member was asking the same questions as you, try reading this link - http://forums.budgiebreeders.asn.au/index....mp;#entry325934

CONGRATULATIONS on all your achievements to date and Best of Luck with the upcoming exams!

Well you'd want it to be fed by first thing tomorrow morning. Sometimes a maiden hen takes her time in figuring out that she has to produce crop milk and feed it. Do you have a more experienced hen lined up to foster it to?

He, he, he - I'll save you the query, I know she's mine 'cause Kaz told me she got her from me! Glad she is doing good things for you!

I regularly run out of coded rings and use uncoded for some of my birds, perhaps she has 2008 SWBC FYI she is a daughter to the John Kobilanski Yellow Face cock bird I sent over to you. Chickies looking good, I don't think you can jinx them by taking their photos ~ but I am not superstitious

She looks familiar! You say you get her from Kaz - I don't suppose she's one of the hens I gave Kaz earlier in the year when I did my major cull? Check her ring code!

You're doing the right thing by taking him to the vet. Best of Luck and keep us updated!

This is my first try at breeding "Harlequins". I'm using the sky normal cock to get the size into them. Cool, well if your focus is Recessive Pieds then this is the way to go! Remember that the chicks will be split for Rec Pieds/Harlequins and you'll need to breed 2 split Rec Pieds together to get the improvement. If you do not have another Rec Pied budgie to breed more splits to breed back to the chicks from this pair, I would recommend you let this pair do one round together and then split them up and introduce the hen to another cock bird. Yes thanks for that. My cock bird is already split. A very generous friend that i work with has given me all of my birds to get up and running. He already had a pair ready to go for me to save me a year. He also gave me another rec pied hen that was breed this year that I can use next year. Brilliant! So now you have answered your own question then :yes:

This is my first try at breeding "Harlequins". I'm using the sky normal cock to get the size into them. Cool, well if your focus is Recessive Pieds then this is the way to go! Remember that the chicks will be split for Rec Pieds/Harlequins and you'll need to breed 2 split Rec Pieds together to get the improvement. If you do not have another Rec Pied budgie to breed more splits to breed back to the chicks from this pair, I would recommend you let this pair do one round together and then split them up and introduce the hen to another cock bird.

Precisely! Hormonal imbalances can indicate testicular cancer but as you have just noticed it I woudn't go so far as to say that has developed already, try a few weeks of the iodine and if there is no improvement take him to a Vet. Cocks have their own cycle of fertility which is shorter than that of hens - I cannot remember how long it is so perhaps another member can - so Splat's observation that he may be entering his non-fertile period could also be correct.