Lib

I understand your feelings on this. I felt that when I first joined the first club. The second club was different but I am now in both clubs. I hope you have choices about the clubs you join and the only way to get over that feeling is to find them and go along and see what you like from any that you are considering. Good luck :rofl: PS I would have liked to see pictures of the birds you were discussing in this topic Thanks, My regular computer is being fixed at the moment and all the pictures are on there, although if i can find other topics i have posted here in reference to what colours and opinions on birds that i have already i will be able to show you as they are already there. Lib

Thanks, i see your point. The thing i am trying to acheive is to increases the size of my birds so iin one sense it is of interest for me to get the results i am after. I have noticed some of the birds i bred last season that are now mature are smaller than all my other birds are and i am not pleased with this result. I suppose i am seeking some advise from people who understand and have the keys of knowledge on how to do this, it is something i have become passionate about. I would like to have show types one day as my kids get older and i am trying to accumulate as much experience as i can so when i do invest in show stock i am not waisting time & money. i hope this is more direct as to what i am asking. Lib As no-one seems to have any ideas about what i am asking i would like to thank nubbly for the fantastic inteview in the new breeders interview section, just by reading the info there has answered my question. Thank you!!!! I think it was a fantastic idea to start that forum. I have to agree with nubbly about clubs, it is very off putting to us non-club members who have experienced something similar in other ares (like pony clubs, dog shows etc)when there is politics overshadowing what should be a fantastic experience. I would like to join a club but i hesitate because of this. Lib

Thanks, i see your point. The thing i am trying to acheive is to increases the size of my birds so iin one sense it is of interest for me to get the results i am after. I have noticed some of the birds i bred last season that are now mature are smaller than all my other birds are and i am not pleased with this result. I suppose i am seeking some advise from people who understand and have the keys of knowledge on how to do this, it is something i have become passionate about. I would like to have show types one day as my kids get older and i am trying to accumulate as much experience as i can so when i do invest in show stock i am not waisting time & money. i hope this is more direct as to what i am asking. Lib

I will post some as soon as my other computer is back from being repaired. Are there other indicators on a grey looking bird that would indicate mauve. Your probably more than likely right, i was going through my records and the mothers brother is cobalt and her sister is sky blue.

nothing i suppose. If the cock bird was normal green and not split to anything and the hen is green opaline spangle (her parents are olive green spangle cock and the hen was olive oplaine, every mating only produced olive opalines & green opaline spangles) do you know what i should expect. Thanks, Lib

It's funny what you get told by breeders when you buy birds from them. The person i bought my dominent pieds from said if breeding to any non dominent variety you will always get dominant pied chicks.I was expecting a mixture from the dominant pied - spangle pairing from 9 chicks i have got 2 green & yellow dominant pieds, 4 green spangle opalines and 3 olive opalines.

Hi, It's me again!!! (Lib) While i'm putting questions out there i have another on for you. I am about to pair up some more birds for breeding and was wondering what the best thing to do is. I have a nice normal Green cock bird that is show type, he is a nice big bird and i was wanting to improve the size of my breeding stock by using him. What would be the best thing to do. I am unsure if he is split to anything as he is not one of the birds i have bred, he has taken a liking to a mauve greywing which i was considering but i do have another big hen that is running out of time for breeding, i think she is 5 at the end of the year and i have yet to get chicks out of her as they have always been clear. This hen is a green opaline spangle, would this hen be better to put to the cock bird in question or would i be better off going with the mauve grey wing???? If you have an other suggestions feel free!!!! i have Yellow faced blues types 1 & 2, opalines, opalins spangles, cinnamons, dominant pieds, blue normals, 1 x lutino hen. Unfortunately my only normal green hen died a couple of weeks ago so i am lacking in good normal stock. Thanks, Lib

Hi everyone, I have a question for you all to help me with. Recently i bred an opaline hen which i call a rainbow but i think she is Yellow faced blue type 2 (but dilute to the point that only the tips of her feathers carry the colour and under that is white) to a green & yellow dominant pied cock which i bred from a green spangle opaline cock and a blue & yellow dominant pied hen. 2 eggs hatched and we got 1 grey hen & 1 yellow face blue type 1 cock. The thing i'm confused about is i thought Dominant pied is dominent over opaline? if this is right why no dominent pied chicks. Is it a percentage thing rather than a dominence thing Eg: if there were more chicks would my chances have increased in getting a dominent pied chick. The other thing is, is spangle & dominent pied's as equal in dominance as one another or is spangle more dominent? Thanks, Lib

Congrats, Bet you couldn't get another one the same as that, even if you sat there with your camera all day! Treasure that photo. They say never work with kids & animals but it looks like you have a natural flare. Lib

My 7 year old daughter saw the hawk on the aviary and took off screaming and yelling and waving her arms around madly, that along with a full head of fluffy white curley hair was enough to scare it off yesterday, haven't seen it today. Keeping watch. The guy at the produce suggested a fake owl or old CD"S hanging from the trees might work. Lib

Something farmers use to see if there are snakes around is quite simple but effective, it will catch the snake and then you can call the snake catcher in. Get an empty Milo tin ( the medium sized one) or something similar with a removable tin lid, needs to be tin. Put a tiny hole in the base of the tin big enough to poke some thin rope through and tie a knot in, pull it back down into the tin so the tin can now hang freely with the rest of the length of rope hanging out the bottom. Now take the lid if the tin and cut a hole big enough for a snake to put it's head into but not too big (keep reading and you will understand how big to make the hole)smooth the edges of the hole so it doesn't cut the snake. Now take a raw chicken or even better duck egg (shell and all, not broken open)and palce it in the tin and replace the lid back onto the base. Lay the tin on it's side on the ground and tie the long end of the rope to something (maybe the leg if a cage or a chair). The snake will sniff that egg out put it's head in the tin swallow the egg whole and tadda!!!! you've caught your snake, the rope tying the tin to whatever anchor you choose stops the snake from rolling the tin out of sight while it is trying to get out. Now call the snake catcher, it's safe for the snake catcher to pick up as it's head is in a tin and by making the edges of the hole in the tin smooth doesn't hurt the snake. This is a tried and proven method and works on all snakes. The snake is released with a pair if tin snips, just in case anyone askes. Lib

I had a link in my post about the topic we did on the Peppermint tree....there is photos etc here http://forums.budgiebreeders.asn.au/index....peppermint+tree click on the link :rip: Hi, The correct name for the Peppermint tree is Agonis Flexuosa or the common name is the Willow Myrtle, this tree is native to Western Australia. It is easy to grow and available at most Australian Native Nurseries or if you have a local favourite garden centre, if they don't have one in stock could easily order it for you. Grow it near your avairy if there is space, great shade tree and is easily kept under control size wise by giving your budgies a treat whenever it needs a trim. hope this helps, lib

Thanks, some good suggestions. maybe a combo of ideas would be effective. i will give it a try. My husband suggested hanging some budgie smugglers around the aviary***, could be effective. Comedian (not)!!!!!! Lib

Probably a better reply there Thanks guys, I actually have some bird netting that i use for my vegetable garden so i will use it. I have thought about shooting it & the stupid ferral cat that keeps hanging around. The bird netting might also help keep the finches away. Lib

Hi guys, Does anybody have a solution for keeping hawk's away from your aviary. I have a dog but she loves all creatures great and small. this hawk only turned up this morning and now it has found my budgies keeps coming back and sitting on the roof scaring the life out of my birds. HELP!!!!!! Please :thankyou: lib

Hi Ezy, Are they doing this in the middle of the day when it is hot. If so it is just to cool themselves down. If it's from the heat they will usually sit with their wings held out away from their body's and their beaks will be opening and shutting as though they are puffing after a tough workout. If it's from the heat you can try putting a shallow dish of water for them to cool down in by having a birdbath. The other day we had 39 degrees here, all my birds even though they were in the shade were puffing and panting so i took the garden hose to the aviary and turned it in a super fine mist, all the birds flew over and sat under it and found puddles on the floor to have a bath, it is quite a site to see 50 or so budgies having a shower. If you don't think it is the heat, you will need to give more details. Lib

Thanks for all your fantastic information. It all makes sense now. I have been looking around for a lutino cock but they are so hard to come by. There seems to be hens everywhere but they are on the smallish side. the hen i have is big compared to the ones i have seen so far. I am hoping to get a big cock bird so i can hopefully increase the size of my Lutino's. I live near the Southern Highlands in NSW if anyone knows a breeder i could contact with Lutino's for sale. Thanks Lib

okay, Thanks for that. Obviously the bit of infomation i was missing. Lib

Yuk!! did you take a picture. of bugs before you squashed them? It may have helped to identify them. Post again if you find out, could be something to look out for we can all learn from. Hope the rest of your chicks do o.k. Hi, Thanks for your concern. No i didn't take any picture's of the little creepy's, I was shocked to see them and just pulled them off and squashed them without even giving it a second thought. They looked like little maggots but instead of being all white were half black from the head to halfway down it's body. I lost another chick today so now have only one remaining from that clutch, the last chick is weak so i'm not expecting it to survive. I am actually thinking that whatever these little bugs are, are opportunistic and may even be internally destroying the chicks, it is really gross. I will have to quarantine the parents and scrub the breeding cages and leave them empty and hopefully break any cycles that these bugs may have. I am trying to contact our local Uni to talk to the Avian Vet but they are still on holidays so until then i am guessing. Lib Hi again Lib, Do you know what caused the loss of you other chicks? How old is last chick? Do you have any other breeding pairs at the moment. If so maybe check for signs of same thing. :emoticon112: I have no idea what caused the loss of the other chicks, i ended up loosing the last two chicks which is sad. i am still at a loss as to what happened so i am asking the avian vet at the uni when he gets back. I do have other clutches and they seem fine, i have had a couple of chicks die but not anything unusal as they were large clutches and were sat upon by brothers and sisters, all other chicks seem healthy. very strange indeed. Lib

Hi everyone, I am after some help with understanding colour mutations. From the research i have already done about breeding lutino's i was of the understanding that breeding a lutino hen to a normal cock would give me normal hens and split lutino cocks. I bred a Lutino hen to a YF type 2 green/blue cock and got 1 normal green hen, 1 normal green cock (i am assuming both will be yellow face), 1 YF 2 mauve greywing cock and 1 hen, 1 light green grey wing cock and 1 YF Type 1 blue cock. i took the YF type 1 blue cock and paired it to a light green cinnamon wing hen and they have 3 chicks at the moment and there are no lutino's amongst them. (haven't started to colour yet) Is there something i am over looking as far as mutations and how they work or have i just been unlucky. Thanks, Lib

hi, Sounds like mum is going to nest again, hens become very intolerant sometimes if the chick doesn't get the hint and leave the nest. If mum has no eggs yet you could remove her to another cage and dad should take over feeding the chick if it is not eating seed yet. As for hand feeding i am unsure as i have always had foster birds to feed orphaned or injured chicks. Maybe take the chick to the vet to get checked out and they should be able to give you good advice. It's heart breaking when things go wrong but persevere, it is a very rewarding hobby. lib

Yuk!! did you take a picture. of bugs before you squashed them? It may have helped to identify them. Post again if you find out, could be something to look out for we can all learn from. Hope the rest of your chicks do o.k. Hi, Thanks for your concern. No i didn't take any picture's of the little creepy's, I was shocked to see them and just pulled them off and squashed them without even giving it a second thought. They looked like little maggots but instead of being all white were half black from the head to halfway down it's body. I lost another chick today so now have only one remaining from that clutch, the last chick is weak so i'm not expecting it to survive. I am actually thinking that whatever these little bugs are, are opportunistic and may even be internally destroying the chicks, it is really gross. I will have to quarantine the parents and scrub the breeding cages and leave them empty and hopefully break any cycles that these bugs may have. I am trying to contact our local Uni to talk to the Avian Vet but they are still on holidays so until then i am guessing. Lib

Thanks, I will have a look tomorrow, just had a quick search and lots of entemology reports came up with lots of big words. Very frustrating, you seem to sail along with no problems and BAM!!! you get a left hook from out of the blue that puts your plans back a season.

Hi everyone, i have a problem that has taken me by surprise, this has never happened to me before in all the years i've had birds. I opened my nestbox's to do the last check for the day and discovered onr of my chicks had 2 small maggot size grubs attached to it's abdomen like a leach, i pulled them off and squashed them, then proceeded to inspect the chick and the nestbox & breeding cage. I emptied the nest box of the wood shavings and found 2 tiny black beetles about 5mm in size that looked like little christmas beetles (they are now dead). The chick had black dirt in it's ears and nostrils which on closer inspection looked like bug droppings. I have cleaned the chick up the best i could and cleaned out the nestbox and put fresh shavings in the nestbox. Both parents look healthy and have no mites or any other bug problems so i'm puzzled as to what this could be. I was even thinking that maybe it could be something that has come in the wood shavings. I don't usually use wood shavings but thought i would try it out. There were 5 chicks in this clutch now i have 2. Very concerned. Can anyone help?

Hi , This is the original and NEW photo of the cock bird i was trying to work out the colour/description of. In the first photo he was young in the second picture's he is going through his first moult. So what's the verdict YF2 Mauve or grey or green???? Just introduced to the aviary Going through first moult Now a rear view Thanks, Lib