renee

Good choices Dave, it looks like you have developed 'the eye' :rofl: You do realise that it's all downhill from now Do resist the temptation to mortgage your house in the pursuit of your budgies ..... And let me know when you start dreaming of budgies

I kid you not Richo. My cock birds chat each other up all the time - nothing newsworthy there - but I have never seen one arch his back like the hens do and then proceeded to be mated. Hence the post.

I currently have my breeder cock and hen birds segregated separately before pairing up a second time. I have this one Sky budgie that I'd really like to breed with but so far this year he hasn't filled an egg. Last night I saw him humping the wire front of his holding cage and made a mental note to put him down sooner than later. This afternoon I was doling out the soft food and I noticed he was flirting uncontrollably with a Recessive Pied cock. Then to my amazement he arched his back and the Recessive Pied cock bird jumped on and proceeded to mate him! I promptly removed him from the boys cage and popped him in with a hen I have on her own. okay, so my question is, obviously the boys are randy as, is this what prompted the same sex copulation or could he just be innately gay?

thanks kaz it was very expencive but needed as i never seen anything like it ever in my years of breeding or owning birds Hey GB, sorry to hear your bird didn't make it. I look forward to hearing what it was. It does sound remarkedly like what I heard about the tumour on the brain i really dont know what that very last word is renee is their a way to say it so i can understand how to pronounce it as so i can know what you are saying anecdote.this word An ect dote, meaning hearsay, ie. someone's story of an experience.

Well I've decided to start this topic in the health section as it's more of an educational breeding journal. I've mentioned elsewhere that I have a fantastic looking Lutino cock whose chicks inevitably have very badly deformed leg issues, way more serious than splayed legs. Last year I paired him to a lovely Lute hen and all the chicks had to be euthanased at 2 weeks. Earlier this year I paired him to another beautiful Lute hen with the same result. Different hens, different nest boxes, same result although the hens have gone on to raise healthy nests with other cock birds. So I have come to the conclusion that the cock bird must have some genetic fault he is passing on to his chicks, but I don't know for certain. Hence this post. This time around I have paired him to a Dark Green Opaline hen, she's not much to look at but she is in condition and colour-wise it makes sense. Photos of the pair to follow. But the real point of this post is to follow the chicks development from Day 1 to Day 21.

thanks kaz it was very expencive but needed as i never seen anything like it ever in my years of breeding or owning birds Hey GB, sorry to hear your bird didn't make it. I look forward to hearing what it was. It does sound remarkedly like what I heard about the tumour on the brain anecdote.

Well this arvo I thought I'd try Mojo in a foster nest as I'm concerned he is not making the transition to seed feeding. I have an extremely reliable cock bird who takes in foster chicks of all ages and rears them wonderfully. It was not to be I'm afraid. Mojo behaved quite disgracefully and pecked at all the other chicks who came up to him to make friends. Then Papa approached him, in quite an amiable way I thought, and Mojo pecked at him too! Papa's friendliness evaporated quite quickly after that and I had to remove him asap. So I've popped him back with Mate again.

Well DONE Liv! :thankyou:

Any green leafed vegie :thankyou:

I would be inclined to say a water spider as it doesn't look like the ticks we have in NSW Ross I'd say spider also, the legs look very spidery :thankyou:

Sorry, sorry , sorry! Didn't see your post, wasn't ignoring it or anything. okay, I can't be of much use I'm afraid as I've not experienced anything like it. However, I have heard anecdotally of a hen that went round and round in circles and then started to have fits: she had a tumor on the brain and eventually died.

okay, I will go on the record and explain that I really DON'T want him to be a Feather Duster despite the indications. So that means that I will be the last person on this planet to accept it. So he has really long feathers but is NOT hungry all the time and does not have a croaky voice. But I'll keep taking photos and we shall see with time.

Well done! He's a stunner

I agree with everything you've said

Aha, I read wrong, I thought the Lute was the hen .... well that will change the outcomes above. Look if you want to use her go ahead. I'm really fussy about these things and unless I know one of my Inos is split I don't mix the Green and Blue factors up. But that's just me.

okay, well here's the thing Dave. Lutino are Ino birds bred out of Greens. By pairing Grey or Cobalt you adding the Blue factor and are more likely to get suffusion. However, try the Cobalt and you may get Albino cock chicks or at the very least split Blue.

No, that's the thing, he doesn't have a special voice at all. And as for his tail feathers, it's still too early to tell. One very notable feature he has is he amount of down he still has on his back. I would have thought it would have gone by now but no. I checked to see if he has fewer feathers like Liv's FDs but that's not the case either, while his feathers are super long they are also grow quite densely.

Well I have heard that the best colour enhancer for a Lutino is Dark Green, it gives the yellow a rich buttercup colour. Cinnamon is used to reduce suffusion. I'm not keen on Lute to Grey pairing, unless of course both birds complement each other beautifully!

Well here's the little chap all cleaned up ~ or as good as it's going to get In the end I stayed away from the HP as the gash is quite near the eye and I didn't want to risk a drop getting in it. So I just bathed the area in warm water and put him outside in the sunshine to dry off. I have to say I'm pretty certain he's my first Feather Duster .... his feathers look almost 2 cm long. But he's not underweight in any way but I guess that's because I crop feed him regularly. I have put another 'special one' into the cage with him now - Mate is 3 weeks older than Mojo and his leg was broken in the nest, I almost put him down 'cause I didn't fancy his chances but he surprised me and despite his wonky leg he gets around fine. Any way, I'm hoping that Mojo will copy Mate when he eats - that's the theory! So if you can please take another good look at Mojo and tell me what you think.

Wasnt it used on a show budgie once to disguise or try to disguise flecking ?? do you recall ? Yes, I do recall that incident in the not too distant past that is now part of National No, Nos folklore So I will take that as a yes, it will bleach his feathers .... I may try a diluted solution Pics to follow after the 'tidy up'

okay, jokes aside - will it bleach his feathers?

Thanks Dean, HP never heard of it - sounds a bit like a hair bleaching product! I suppose I can get it from the Chemists?

Rats do real damage when they attack ... whereas when a bird dies sometimes the others will peck a bit at the carcass. I'm leaning towards mass poisoning seeing as the quails died at the same time, do you live near an industrial site of some kind? Also ask about the neighborhood to see if anyone did any fumigation on the day in question. Whatever you do don't put rat bait inside the aviary! :question:

Small and puny Thanks Libby, good tip about the wound :question:

I'm not a great believer of mixing different birds together in one aviary, but that being said I would do a complete clean and clean out of the aviary you intend to house your parrots - scrub the floors and inside walls. Then if they are going to be on their own you can do the quarantine in that aviary. Be very cautious you don't import an illness into your set up! Make sure there is no air flow from parrots to budgies. Some diseases are carried via feather dust on the wind.