renee

Very, very true. And this is why poor feeder parent to chicks relationships often show chicks losing all their flights in a stress moult type of thing only to grow them back again once they start feeding themselves in the kindie cage. And why only one or two in a nest will be affected only to recover a few weeks later I hadn't thought of dehydration .... I'll move the drinkers in the kindie cage so all the chicks can access them.

I do not think all the birds you posted are clearwings. The wing markings look a bit dirty to me, hence the confusion between Clearwings and Greywings. I was breeding some like those last year and culled all of them to focus on quality Greywings.

It's how that chat up the girls! :budgiedance:

Sorry you feel you are the brunt of ill will. :rip: Make money out of birds? You gotta be kidding! Anyone who thinks they will is seriously delusional. :sad:

This year I have had quite a few babies that when placed into the kindie cage have lost their tails and flights. The terminology for this is 'stress moult'. They have gone to grow all their feathers back by the time they went through their first moult. Notwithstanding I do believe that from about September onwards I had French Moult going through the breeding room. Not an all out chicks with few or no feathers attack but a milder form which no doubt contributed to the stress moulting. Of related interest is that this year I employed the deep litter method so as a result I had quite a few of those pesky little moths flying about when the weather warmed up. Now I did have an electric fly zapper in day and night but it's only really effective at night. I have identified a definite French Moult survivor amongst my adult birds, this bird was bought in last year. I am sharing this information because I am not ashamed to admit that I was perhaps slow off the mark to accept that I had French Moult and I did not act as soon as I could have.

Thanks for the encouragement guys. :sad:

GB, are you breeding for Show or pretty birds? Your Opaline grey cock looks very nice and will complement the pairing with the hen you have chosen. The first pair look like they need to go through another moult to gauge their true potential. Good Luck! :parrot:

Renee, thank you for those beautiful words. It was nice to meet you. Thank you for welcoming me into your home and showing me your birds. You're a lovely guy Dave, it was a pleasure meeting you.

Thats what I figured, I mean a clearwing from Armstrong lines is going to be a lot different to JimmyBanks lines I just found it interesting that there was a 'going rate' And from what I read in Dave's thread they come from some nice lines so $50 is great! There is no "going rate" for any bird really JB.......its all relative Basically you get what you pay for. The $30+ is the price one of the top Clearwing breeders in this state quoted, but of course you can get cheaper, it just depends what you want.

Hi GB, I assume when you're talking about Pieds you mean Recessive aka Danish Pieds? They carry a recessive gene, like blue eyes in humans. If one of the parents was a Rec Pied or both parents were carrying the gene (ie. split) then you would get Rec Pied chicks. It is a recessive gene not a sex link gene (like inos) so it doesn't matter whether it's the cock or hen, it has to be both.

Sunday night I started all birds on the doxy treatment, this includes my chicks that are still in the kindie cage and my retirement villagers. I have been amazed at the rate the treated water has been consumed- last night I gave each aviary 200mls and then had to replenish 3 hours later as the bottles were empty. Another interesting development is that the noise level has increased exponentially and I can see evidence that in the 'suspect' aviary they are tucking into their seed with much more vigor. It's early days yet but the signs look promising.

Hope you have a safe trip Dave and all your birds pull up well. You have bought some beauties which should provide an exceptional basis for the foundation of a fantastic stud. Good luck with the quarantine!

Thanks Nyaree, I surely need it.

The day before yesterday I lost one of my oldies from the Retirement Village. Yesterday the temperatures peaked over 40C at midday and I was horrified to see all my young uns flat out on the floor looking very stressed. Now I know I always say don't spray your birds 'cause you run the risk of bacterial growth .... but I threw caution to the wind and I grabbed the hose and gave them all a good hose down. Notwithstanding I did end up losing one. Needless to say we spent all yesterday evening cleaning out the aviary. Thankfully no losses from the aviary with the retic on the top or the quarentine cage which is protected by a pergola. I too have them all on probiotic.

I have and the going price is $30+ for a show type.

I could never move a bird on so to say if it had an issue of some kind, I know that's how many people operate but personally I think it's unethical. Some of you may remember I had a bird autopsied last year. This bird had bred successfully and when I introduced him into the aviary he dropped dead within the week. Very upsetting, especially as he wasn't mine. The faecal analysis was clear but the gizzard was completely destroyed and some (not many) megabacteria gama rods were detected. Now Mega is a secondary infection that flairs up when the bird is stressed (like having a 5 month breeding stint and introduced into a new enviromnent) .... to date I haven't found any other cause of death for my new birds. Although all birds have been treated for mega with 2 courses of fungilin. Of course I could just dispose of the affected birds and put it down to bad luck. It's not like a lose a lot, on average 1-2 every 6 weeks and it's not like I lose every one 'cause I'm on to it now and most birds get caught early and spend a stint in the hospital cage and recover. But I want to know what the *** is going on so I will wait for my next outbreak and send off the sample. And of course I have researched extensively but to date have not found a definitive answer.

Not necessarily, it depends what it is. Kaz has a theory it may be the paint we used, although we chose a water soluble 'safe' paint, or else it could be mice, although we don't have any holes and the wire mesh we used is mice and snake proof and I've never found any evidence of a mouse presence .... The birds that were affected were 'new' birds which came down with the greeny poos within 10 days of being introduced into that aviary. You could argue that my flock has a couple of "carriers" however, when I have changed my birds between aviaries it's only the new birds in that one aviary that are affected so that seems to indicate that it is an issue in that aviary- not the birds. I'll be clear here, I'm not talking about wet bums or just green poo, these affected birds have what Gerald Binks refers to as, pasting of the vent. That is the poo builds up till it is a mass on the vent.

I cannot agree with treating birds with antibiotic when it has not been prescribed for a sickness. Many on the forum know how I feel about the use of antibiotics and they are probably rolling their eyes as they read this, but I do not agree with using antibiotics as a 'preventative' especially on such a large scale. The reason why so many birds probably have chlamydia now is because of the overuse of doxycycline (and other anitbiotics and other bacteria) in breeding programs. An overuse of antibiotics leads to resistance in the targeted bacteria and other bacteria affected by the drug. If the bacteria are not completely wiped out then the ones that survive are resistant to the antibiotic and they reproduce to create more and more resistant bacteria. If you do not believe resistance occurs then look at some of our hospitals, many have been colonised by resistant bacteria that arose from people being prescribed antibiotics for colds or other silly things, or people who did not finish their course of antibiotics or did not take them as they were instructed. What people need to understand is that abuse of antibiotics leads to resistance which means that that drug will no longer work any more and we have to find new drugs. No new drugs have been discovered for a while. I think the figures were something like: two thirds of the antibiotics that we used to use can no longer be used today. There is no need to fix something that isn't broken. Plus if you have already treated your birds last year for it and introduced no new birds (unlikely I know, but even then if all birds came out of quarantine healthy), you do not need to do it again. Also putting them through antibiotic treatment kills many of their internal flora, giving them gut ache, diarrhoea and a chance for more pathogenic bacteria to colonise the recently empty spot, and can even encourage some fungal diseases. Any resistant bacteria that you create are likely to colonise you as well (they often like to live up your nose), this will mean that you can spread it around to other people's aviaries, make their birds sick with a resistant bacteria . Then what happens if you become sick with the resistant chlamydia? Luckily for us doctors have some potent back up antibiotics, but the question remains: How long will these back up antibiotics work for? I just don't believe in doing that. I appreciate your point of view but I will agree to disagree on this occasion. I don't like treating my birds with antibiotics unless they show symptoms either however, I will do the annual doxy treatment ahead of this breeding season. As I stated before my 08 breeding season was incomparably better than my 07 season and this I believe is due in great part to last year's doxy treatment. It's not only because I am following the advice of one of the country's top breeders, Gary Armstrong, but because I have observed an improvement in fertility and general health in my birds after the 60 day doxy treatment. You may have read in earlier posts that I have a persistent issue in one of my aviaries of green pooey bums, which if left untreated, is fatal.The next time I have another case I will be post the faecal sample to Rob Marshall for analysis- I don't don't think it is psitticosis but I do know that the doxycycline (being a broad spectrum antibiotic) is an excellent remedy.

Great news Daz! Congratulations!!! :parrot: :parrot: :parrot:

Length of feather is desirable. Maybe some if the other show breeders can talk more knowledgeably on this subject. I'm only starting to get interested in my birds' feather quality. What I know is that you shouldn't put 2 buff feathered birds together but it is desirable to put a medium feathered bird to it.

Not uncommon in Show budgies, it's called buff feather.

Well done Liv! They are looking good I know what you mean when you say some just won't sit and pose :budgiedance: .... I have very little patience when it comes to taking photos ....

Keep us posted. :rofl:

It's really ironic that we get so many people moaning about perceived cruelty to their neighbors' pets and most of the time they do nothing about it except whinge a lot. :rofl: And now one of members is being targeted by a concerned neighbor .... and there's not a whinge in sight. :parrot: It goes to show that calling the cops is a viable option .... :rofl:

07 is NOT old at all. :rofl: Seeing as he died so soon after purchase I would be inclined to pop his body into a plastic container and return to the Pet Store and ask for a replacement bird. You said the lady there was friendly, so hopefully she'll do the right thing. Good Luck!