krosp

I hope Levi is okay, he is such an adorable little guy. Sounds like you're doing all you can. I've never seen anything like that before, but you're right- it does sound less serious than other kinds of hard lumps could be. I am amazed that you managed to squeeze a pus-filled sore on him! Cosmo would put up quite the protest, and would probably continue punishing me for several days after that!

I think it's good to pick them up and check them over every now and then just to be sure they're okay, but not too often and probably no more than once a day. You can do it more the bigger they get too. Sounds like you can see enough without touching it though for the time being. Probably good that you've been leaving the new time mum alone and not stressing her too much just yet. But it should be okay to pick it up. I don't know what colour eyes TCBs have, but albinos would be red.... sometimes you can already rule out some things it could be or tell something of what it could be just from the eye colour!

Does it have black eyes or red eyes?

Ooh exciting!!! Congrats! I can't wait to see what these babies look like as they feather up.

Yeah... I can't remember how we managed never to have too many when I was young, since we never gave any to pet shops. We did give some away to people we knew... we didn't have heaps of breeding pairs at once I guess, and some died. Probably it was mostly because we didn't constantly breed lots of them all the time, but maybe only had a few clutches a year for a couple of years in a row. Not sure what I would do with all of them if I did start breeding properly. I think I'd be very reluctant to give to pet shops, not knowing where they'd go or how well they'd be looked after, but trying to give them away individually to people coming around advertising privately etc would be a huge amount of time and effort. What do you guys all do?

I'd have to give away so many birds if I wanted to keep my flock fairly small. No wonder so many people give to pet shops

Yeah I'm just curious, because I worked out that theoretically, if you deliberately didn't let them breed to anyone related, by the fourth generation they would all be related (would all trace back to all three of the original pairs). It would definitely involve excellent record keeping and control!

Where do most people draw the line at inbreeding? Cousins?

I'm not about to start breeding again any time soon... although I would like to in a few more years if we live somewhere with a bit more space. But I have just been thinking hypothetically lately about how many birds I would need if I were to start breeding again. If you only want a small flock, what is the minimum number that is okay to start off with? And what would you say, as a rough guideline, is the number of the babies you should keep to breed with? Like say I'm thinking of starting out with three pairs, and never want to have more than 20 adult birds at a time eventually. Would it be okay to just start out with the three unrelated pairs, and carefully breed the offspring so they're not breeding with relatives, or would it eventually get too inbred? Is it better to introduce new birds and get rid of most of your offspring? Just wondering

It is okay for her cere to stay brown that long - it's okay for it never to go back to white. It doesn't mean she's necessarily fully in condition, but if she had a mate and a nesting box (and possibly also if it is the right time of year) she should get into full breeding condition pretty quickly and start nesting.

Oh phew! In that case it is cute. I was like.... what happened to its beak???

So far when I've tried dropping him lower he doesn't like it, and immediately flies to my shoulder. Maybe it's a good reinforcer that biting is not on, even if he doesn't see it as a dominance thing. I think his moult will last a lot longer, it's only just started. It's cool seeing his new feathers come through but they're still mostly baby ones.

Thanks everyone okay that is great advice because the daylight hours are a lot longer at this time of year, so I've probably been letting him have more sunlight than I would have say a few months ago. Glad to know it's probably related to the moulting too. JB - interesting theory. He doesn't like being lower than my shoulder area usually, so might be interesting to give it a go.

Just the last few days, Cosmo has been really aggressive. He is also going through his first moult, and spends a lot of time doing mating dances with all his toys or anything that moves. Basically... he now jumps onto my hand sometimes and will just attack and bite my hand really really hard that it actually hurts. He never used to do this. Now I don't know when he gets up onto my hand whether he'll be nice or whether he'll get fully stuck into it! I haven't noticed any pattern to when he does this apart from that it does seem to be when he's excited. Like if he's just been doing a bit of a mating dance... or sometimes after biting me he just flaps his wings on the spot. ANY ADVICE? What can I do to stop this biting?

Not in my experience - I have had male and female normals from both combinations of parents and it makes no difference. Even had male and female normals from a pair where neither parent was normal

I wouldn't think so, unless anyone else says they have done it without any problems. Onion related things are often bad for animals.

Hmm you know what Kaz... your thread about "what is moulting" http://forums.budgiebreeders.asn.au/index....ic=22897&hl= has quite a few birds with similar looking ceres. Cosmo is moulting... .maybe it's related?

Thanks! I will try that, at least it will moisturise it if nothing else...is just normal cooking oil or olive oil alright?

Thanks... here are the photos.. hard to get something so close up without flash!

Hi everyone I'm back! And just got Cosmo back from my parents. They looked after him well and he was no trouble at all, seemed to cope very well with moving back and forward. Thing is, I just noticed his cere is flaking just a tiny bit. Just looks a bit dry... nothing massive. In my vague memory I'm sure I've seen budgies ceres like that before not get treated and never amount to anything. Is this automatically scaly face, or is there a time when ceres flake a bit and it's nothing? What should I do about it? I know there is tons of information on this website about scaly face but honestly I am too exhausted to look it up right now. Should I apply oil, or is there something i should buy instead? Thanks

Haha I didn't notice the turn on thing either but it's sitll funny to picture a naked 25 year old biting and scratching while being dragged off the beach

When they're quite young, I would almost say the opposite -- blue is a girl and pink is a boy. I don't think hen's ceres are ever pink. They are usually white with a pale shade of blue especially at the bottom. Whereas little boys' ceres are pink all over, then goes purple, then bright blue with maturity.

My mum gets pretty bad migraines so there's no air fresheners or candles in the house! They've had budgies since I was a kid, and still have 7 of them so it should be fine. My mum just rang me to let me know that he did really well overnight and came out for a short play this morning, and preened everyone's faces. So there's nothing to worry about... I was just a bit worried at how he'd settle in because he'd been so nervy this week. But he's pretty adaptable. We took him over yesterday afternoon and stayed for dinner with his cage next to us so he had time to get used to the new place while familiar faces were still around. He was being super cute when we had to leave though okay... I'm off! See you all in two weeks

Beautiful, thanks for sharing. Blinkie looks exactly like one we used to have called Peter. Peter was handraised after his mother mutilated him, and he was always a bit smaller than the others and had an attitude. But he was very tame when he wanted to be Nice seeing another one like him.

My goodness! That is shocking about your daughter. I hope everything that can be done will be done, both in terms of her safety and dealing with the person who did it and giving her the support she needs to deal with the shock. Well done with the finches, that is a lovely thing to do and hopefully will be very rewarding for you.