Pearce

that in my opinion is one of the best food regime's I've ever seen. How does it all go in the ice trays? How long does it keep for?

Clearbodys.

shannon the perfect bird in my eyes may have nothing to do with showing. The perfect bird, in your opinion may be a show bird, doesn't mean mine has to?

Hi Cameron no I will no longer be showing birds, I will breed for colour and size, not style and show standard etc.

I want to see if the problems I faced 2 years ago show up again this time around. I like the pairings to be random and be surprised by the chicks outcomes. I also like to know the parentage, which is hard with colony breeding, I cannot have both. Thankyou Bird_paradise.

I am going to try colony breed again, its been a while but I'd like to see how its turned out. 6 breeding pairs in the aviary.

Brown mark above the cere also is a sympton of psitticosis if I am not mistaken, or it could be a vitamin defiency, or respitory infection. Since you cannot get to the vet, I would isolate him in a warm cage with heat. Give him chamomile tea (it helps with the respitory infection, if that is what he has) make sure he is eating. And book an appointment for the vet asap.

I wouldnt trust anything a pet shop retail assistant says. Half of them are just out of school looking for a part time job, and they have absolutely no idea about anything pet related. I dont buy anything from pet shops, all they are looking for is $$$ and will convince you to buy anything to make it. This doesnt go for all pet shops, but 99% of them in my experience, have no clue what they are talking about, and sell products that do not work.

Thankyou all. Thankyou Carmen for the article i will read it now.

Look at the size of that bird, can you pick her up with one hand? Very nice.

The clearbody chicks.

Who told you that? You can breed a pet budgie with a bush budgie, a bush budgie with an exhibition budgie, etc... you may encounter problems but you get problems with any breeding pair. The chicks will be smaller if you breed an exhibition bird to a bush budgie, so no one does it.

Tomorow I will post the chicks from freckles nest. They are definitly looking like clearbodys

Freckles was found dead in the nest box today. It looks like she was squashed

Freckles is the "Runt" of the nest. She is not growing fast at all, very slow infact. This is not the average size of a 10 day old baby budgie. usually my birds are rung on day 7, but I will not be able to get a ring on freckles for a few more days. However I'm still going to keep the thread going because we will all see how she turns out in the end Day 10

He has no down yet.

day 9

Hi. The hulled oats are just in the box for the photos. I dont use them as nesting materials. Shavings and seed are the only nesting materials that I use. Thankyou all for the comments Usually at 7 days of age my birds are being rung.

I have decided to continue to update the thread. I hope they are clearbody, and I cannot wait to see if freckles is in fact a lutino. These are the siblings FRECKLES day 8 Are their are pet breeders out their with 8 day old babies this small? I am beginning to think their is something wrong.

For those who wish to view the progress please go here, I will be no longer updating this thread. http://pf-budgerigars.webs.com/day142.htm

I just messaged a member about it renee. She looks very small for 7 days old. And yeah the ring would fall off at this stage. Not a pet bird either, not from big parents but they are exhibition birds none the less.

day 7

The 5 cent piece was spent on crop milk. he/she has 4 brothers and sisters in the nest box, yes I put freckles in a different box to take photos. I should add that I am not jst trying to show the size difference in the chicks growth. I also like to show the feathers. You may notice I dont have the camera at the same height every photo, it doesnt bother me, I can still see the difference in growth everyday.

day 6day 6

He seems to do it alot Renee. Thankyou for the comments.