krosp

It doesn't matter what combination its parents are, it will only get one allele from both of them. If it got the YF from both of them, it would be a YF, not a green. So it makes no difference to be a Green-Yellowface that has parents that are both Green-Yellowface, or if it has a Green-Green parent and a yellowface parent.

Thanks RIP - it's starting to make sense now :yes: Let's see if I have it right yet.... It can only have two of the alleles... and we already know that to be visibly green, it must have green as one of them. So it's either going to be: Green-Green Green-Blue Green-Yellowface

Yes I think 2 budgies will turn into 100 budgies, and inbred ones at that :yes: That's if you don't control things carefully, but just let them breed whenever they seem to be wanting to.

Yes I agree-- I don't know whether they need to carry blue to carry yellowface. My guess is not necessarily, but the yellowface will never manifest until some offspring down the line is eventually blue anyway. It would be interesting to know how it works.

I think it is possible for them to mate recreationally without fertilising an egg if there's no nest, although I have no idea how they manage to do that! I just know that I have had ones that did that, but as soon as you put the nest in then they do have eggs :yes: If yours is going to lay an egg, it doesn't sound like you have the right set up to let her raise a clutch and it doesn't sound like you have anywhere to keep the babies once they're older. And once they have one clutch they don't stop there. So if you don't want to breed her, don't. It might be a good idea to take away the newspaper or do something that prevents them building a nest. But hopefully other people will have more specific advice on how to distract them from building a nest.

I actually have no idea about the YF genetics, but I always assumed that YF is a blue variation, not a green, so a green might be carrying it if they're split for blue, but it doesn't "show" up on them in the same way that the blue they are carrying doesn't show up (even though green has both yellow and blue pigment- which is why it doesn't need to "show up"-- it already has a yellow face; it already has blue in its feathers, regardless). I'm probably wrong though and this probably made no sense :yes:

Has he got a name yet?

Sounds like you've really been thinking things through a lot and making some positive decisions... I think 2009 will be a good year for you

You've only had him for a few weeks right? Then it's no surprise that he's still a bit jittery with sudden movements around him. Most budgies would not be completely tame by now, there's just the occasional handful that are surprisingly easy to tame so maybe you're comparing him to Chevy and perhaps Chevy is the one who was out of the ordinary! (in a good way) Henry will get there. As fo the clumsiness, it's hard to say but I would guess it's probably got to do with not being used to the clipped wings yet. Has he worked out how to climb around his cage yet or does he still try to depend on flying/jumping to get where he wants to go?

I am so sorry :glare: he sounds like one of those really really special pets that stay special forever no matter how many others you have. Try not to be too hard on yourself -- you did think to remove him even in the middle of the crisis, and you brought him back when you thought it was safe, it was just that you probably misjudged how much fumes were still in the air. But you weren't irresponsible- you did think to move him, and many people may have forgotten to do that.

Sounds like you are good at giving advice to yourself- you even know the tactics for tricking yourself :glare: But it is good that you are also finding yourself slowly learning to accept support from others too, because it can be very tiring doing it all on your own. I hope 2009 has a lot of great things in store for you too

Wow MB... what a lot of combinations! That would definitely be exciting and interesting. And Cosmo could be masking anything else too for all I know. Yes he is a cobalt, and I don't think he is violet. Not sure how I would tell though, because he has a bit of a murky green shade to his blue. And would all the blues be yellowface in this combination or not? I'm guessing probably not.

That's okay, it's pretty funny! It is all good advice I suppose, whether you got it from the stars or not :thumbs_up: Still hoping things get better before October though. I am planning to move house in April but am looking forward to that.

GenericBlue - I love it! I have seen pics of your flock before and these are the exact birds that I have been secretly admiring from afar :thumbs_up: I would love to have a clutch like that. Too bad it's only a hypothetical situation But I would like to start breeding in a few years if we buy a house, so it may happen eventually (just probably not with Cosmo)

Where did you get all that? lol I don't know anything about astrology except that I am a capricorn. Not sure whether I like your predictions or not.... they are mostly okay except for the things won't get better until october part :rofl: although, it wouldn't surprise me if that came true.

Should be fine, but it really depends how hot the house is I guess. If it's two storey, downstairs is usually a lot cooler than upstairs, and bigger rooms will probably have better ventilation than small closed rooms. She will need drinking water, but you could also leave a small shallow dish of water for her to bathe in if she needs to. Budgies can regulate their own heat to an extent, by bathing or sticking out their wings and panting, but it's probably not good to have them in a really hot stuffy place for too long. But they are naturally desert birds, so I think as long as they have water they can usually tolerate hot better than cold.

Ahh I like it, I feel the same way! 2008 was a really tough year for me and my family and for a lot of my friends. I really hope 2009 is a much better year for all of us!

:rofl: the bars of your cage must be really wide then! I don't think a baby old enough to fly could get out of a cage with standard sized bars that were bent. How scary that must have been and very lucky you got them!

I have just been reading so many lovely posts about nice pairings recently, which led me to think of what would be a nice hen for Cosmo. But before I start, I would just like to say that I highly doubt we would ever breed Cosmo, because he is a pet, and by the time we have a house of our own where we could get an aviary and start breeding, he'll probably be too old. And if we do get a friend for him in the next year or two it would probably be a boy. So there is absolutely no plan in this, it's all hypothetical. To me, an interesting pair to breed (since I'm not into show breeding) is one where you can get a whole variety of babies from the one pair. So with Cosmo, I was trying to think of what would give me an interesting mix. I have no idea whether Cosmo is split for anything else, but he is a YF2 cobalt normal. My guess of what would be an interesting partner for him is a sky blue dominant pied. I have no idea about pied genetics because I have never had pieds before, which is why I would love to try breeding with them eventually when I do breed. But I am guessing that between them, we would at least get a mixture of dominant pieds and normals, which could be sky or cobalt, and yellowface or not? Could there be YF1, or does YF2 always produce YF2? Depending on what else the pair carries I guess there could be other combinations too. I'm sure something I have predicted is wrong so feel free to correct me on this, and I'm also interested in any thoughts you have :rofl:

Haha when I was growing up we had a period of time where our budgies lived freely inside, and it was a lot like that. When we moved house we never did that again because they cause so much damage to things and become the boss of everything They didn't actually mind going from house to aviary though luckily. I have to be careful if I have Cosmo on my shoulder if I'm eating or drinking anything too, or he'll climb down and want to stand on it. Doesn't usually eat it but just wants to stand on it.

It looks like a yucca to me but I'm not expert at differentiating between plants so hopefully someone else can confirm

Ooh that flexible plastic stuff is a good idea -I've got a clear one under the cage to protect the carpet. (I have tried to feed him on that but he won't stay there because it's on the floor). I can get some more of it from spotlight.

Thanks MB. That is a good idea, I will try it again... but in the past when i have used paper he just goes crazy over ripping it up and flips it all over and stuff I guess I'll have to keep trying things like this with trial and error until he gets the hang of it. Also wondering whether those mini pegs you can buy from gift shops might hold things in place on the side of his cage..but I think it probably wouldn't.

I like to give Cosmo nice things like sprouted seeds (just the sprout, not the seed) and spinach, and he loves them too. But the only way I can manage to get him to eat it is if I'm holding it. If I put it in his seed dish or another dish, he will always drop it through the grill on the bottom of his cage within seconds. He seems to move about a lot when he eats... he even manages to get seed husks on the top of his seed dish (it's one with a clear lid/cover)... I think he picks up the food and just seems to move himself around a lot while he tries to eat it. And so he picks up the seed sprout, and barely gets to nibble on it before it's gone. I am getting a bit tired of hand feeding him... he is a big boy now, and he would be able to get a lot more of these veggies and stuff if I could just put a lot in his cage rather than feeding him one sprout at a time But I can't think of any way he won't drop it. Even if I feed him on his play gym, which has a smaller but flat surface area, he picks it up and waddles his way over to the edge with the sprout twirling around in his beak until he throws it over the edge. Any tips?

Ah yes I see she has a blue colour abover her tail in that first picture. I guess she was just really pale still as a young baby.