Daz

I suppose it's time for me to put up my Recessive Pieds The red is true grit that they love. I have to remove it during show preparations.

A bit of an update. Got the trays today so now all I need is the dividers and Breeding season to really start. I am waiting till after the nationals to start this year. It will be easier on everyone while I am in Perth. .................................................... With the birds being sick last week I decided to quickly make up a holding / Quarantine cage in the garage away from the aviary. I ordered the trays today for them. Hopefully I won't need them soon.

If you have kids or know people who have kids, you need to read this - PLEASE read this Australian Police Officer's story carefully. You can also verify the story at http://www.snopes.com/toxins/dustoff.asp Dust Off (or a variant of the product) is available everywhere there's a computer . First I'm going to tell you a little about me and my family. My name is Jeff. I am a Police Officer for a city which is known nationwide for its crime rate (Brisbane). We have a lot of gangs and drugs. At one point we were # 2 in the nation in homicides per capita. I also have a police K-9 named Thor. He was certified in drugs and general duty. He retired at 3 years old because he was shot in the line of duty. He lives with us now and I still train with him because he likes it. I always liked the fact that there was no way to bring drugs into my house. Thor wouldn't allow it. He would tell on you. The reason I say this is so you understand that I know about drugs. I have taught in schools about drugs. My wife asks all our kids at least once a week if they used any drugs. Makes them promise they won't. I like building computers occasionally and started building a new one in February 2005. I also was working on some of my older computers. They were full of dust so on one of my trips to the computer store I bought a 3 pack of DUST OFF. Dust Off is a can of compressed air to blow dust off a computer. A few weeks later when I went to use one of them they were all used. I talked to my kids and my two sons both said they had used them on their computer and messing around with them. I yelled at them for wasting the 10 dollars I paid for them. On February 28 I went back to the computer store. They didn't have the 3 pack which I had bought on sale so I bought a single jumbo can of Dust Off. I went home and set it down beside my computer. On March 1st, I left for work at 10 PM. Just before midnight my wife went down and kissed Kyle goodnight. At 5:30 am the next morning Kathy went downstairs to wake Kyle up for school, before she left for work. He was propped up in bed with his legs crossed and his head leaning over. She called to him a few times to get up. He didn't move. He would sometimes tease her like this and pretend he fell back asleep. He was never easy togged up. She went in and shook his arm. He fell over. He was pale white and had the straw from the Dust Off can coming out of his mouth. He had the new can of Dust Off in his hands. Kyle was dead. I am a police officer and I had never heard of this. My wife is a nurse and she had never heard of this. We later found out from the coroner, after the autopsy, that only the propellant from the can of Dust off was in his system. No other drugs. Kyle had died between midnight and 1 AM I found out that using Dust Off is being done mostly by kids ages 9 through >15. They even have a name for it. It's called dusting. A take off from the Dust Off name. It gives them a slight high for about 10 seconds. It makes them dizzy. A boy who lives down the street from us showed Kyle how to do this about a month before. Kyle showed his best friend. Told him it was cool and it couldn't hurt you. Its just compressed air. His best friend said no. Kyle was wrong. It's not just compressed air. It also contains a propellant called R2. It's a refrigerant like what is used in your refrigerator. It is a heavy gas. Heavier than air. When you inhale it, it fills your lungs and keeps the good air, with oxygen, out. That's why you feel dizzy, buzzed. It decreases the oxygen to your brain, to your heart. Kyle was right. It can't hurt you. IT KILLS YOU. The horrible part about this is there is no warning. There is no level that kills you. It's not cumulative or an overdose; it can just go randomly, terribly wrong. Roll the dice and if your number comes up you die. IT'S NOT AN OVERDOSE. It's Russian Roulette. You don't die later. Or not feel good and say I've had too much. You usually die as you're breathing it in. If not, you die within 2 seconds of finishing 'the hit.' That's why the straw was still in Kyle's mouth when he died. Why his eyes were still open. The experts want to call this huffing. The kids don't believe it's huffing. As adults we tend to lump many things together. But it doesn't fit here. And that's why it's more accepted. There is no chemical reaction, no strong odor. It doesn't follow the huffing signals. Kyle complained a few days before he died of his tongue hurting. It probably did. The propellant causes frostbite. If I had only known. It's easy to say hey, it's my life and I'll do what I want. But it isn't. Others are always affected. This has forever changed our family's life. I have a hole in my heart and soul that can never be fixed. The pain is so immense I can't describe it. There's nowhere to run from it. I cry all the time and I don't ever cry. I do what I'm supposed to do but I don't really care. My kids are messed up. One won't talk about it. The other will only sleep in our room at night. And my wife, I can't even describe how bad she is taking this. I thought we were safe because of Thor. I thought we were safe because we knew about drugs and talked to our kids about them. After Kyle died another story came out. A Probation Officer went to the school system next to ours to speak with a student. While there he found a student using Dust Off in the bathroom. This student told him about another student who also had some in his locker. This is a rather affluent school system. They will tell you they don't have a drug problem there. So rather than tell everyone about this 'new' way of getting high they found, they hid it. The probation officer told the media after Kyle's death and they, the school, then admitted to it. I know that if they would have told the media and I had heard, it wouldn't have been in my house. We need to get this out of our homes and school computer labs. Using Dust Off isn't new and some 'professionals' do know about. It just isn't talked about much, except by the kids. They all seem to know bout it. April 2nd was 1 month since Kyle died. April 5th would have been his 15th birthday. And every weekday I catch myself sitting on the living room couch at 2:30 in the afternoon and waiting to see him get off the bus. I know Kyle is in heaven but I can't help but wonder If I have died and gone to ***. The Officer is asking for everyone who receives this email to forward it to everyone in their address book, even Law Enforcement Officers. Geoff ROBINS Constable Crime Prevention Unit Queensland Police Service Level 2, BP House 193 North Quay, Brisbane GPO Box 1440, Brisbane, QLD 4000 Ph: 07 3234 2111 Fax: 07 3234 2100 mailto:robins.geoffreyk@police.qld.gov.au

For those that are thinking or are building/renovating a breeding room. I have brought this back.

Might be worth a call. Kaz, take your pencil and a large sketch pad with you to the nationals, we'll talk.

The one thing about show breeders is they are always happy to help... Well thats what i've found. Sorry I'm so far away Kaz. I would have loved to help too.

Sounds great, I would love to see a photo of them.

A point to remember with all varieties is that a lot of birds don't strictly stick to the discription. In the show world it is called a fault. eg a double factor spangle with out iris rings.

I close breed. I breed and show birds.

Scott theirs an old saying in England. If the water doesn't freze they be okay. Just keep them dry and out of the wind.

I did a topic on this some where??? Cock birds have pink ceres with red eyes and pink feet. Hen birds have tan to chocolate ceres, red eyes and pink feet. Both are yellow with a white tail and white flights.

If the other two have red /plum eyes they could be fallows.

Hi Adam and welcome to the forum. I think I'd rather get the full one. It would be a longer more enjoyable project

I have just read this and was starting to get worried I believe that the comment on the Dried Soup mix is dehydrated vegetables not Soup mix as in French onion... right????

Well the birds in the flights have been fine. No other birds has looked sick. The ones on medication seem to be going okay. Even the one that saw the vet is still with us. Hopefully they are on the mends.

How are you breeding them? In a breeding cabinet or out in the flight. If you have them in a breeding cabinet leave the chciks with the parents in the cabinet not the nest box, give them plenty of millet sprays and seed but also put a small cecream container upside down with a side cut out so they can go into it if the parents tries to be rough with them. When they look like they are feeding them selves and get to about 42 days old they can both be taken and placed in a cage by themselves with plenty of millet sprays, seed and water.

I am a positive person... I have to be. I lie the situation at the moment. The birds are a live (1) They are feeding and on medication (2) I am happy with the vet I saw (3) There has been no deaths today (4) All good points. The good out weigh the bad... this is good.

Pay.... we don't get paid... well that explains a lot I get a very good pay cheque... It's coming here with some great people. :hap:

an update... The Yellowface is still with us and doing well. A dark green hen who is the sister to a national winner in Melbourne has joined him and a young Recessive pied hen has also joined them. This was yesterday. All are doing well and are on the medication. No other birds have shown the symptoms. But I do have a young light green hen that seems to have it's head in the seed bowl all the time and is losing weight. I have put all birds on the antibiotics even if they never had the corn.

No that is true and you have to have a good eye for pairing, but what I think the gentleman was trying to say is that the health and well being of the birds is paramount. If you have good healthy strong birds you are in a better position to breed than with tired sick birds. (extremes)

When I clip wings the birds can still fly but far. It is better to have a bird that can fly in case it falls. It gets the message very quickly that it's going no where fast.

I was warned about the mung bean spouts but didn't think about the corn. It is so simple. Some people say everything has a lesson or a silver lining. If you find someone like that... buy them a beer and have a chat. I had a good chat to some one like that today and have posted another topic on it. >Link<

While I was at the vets today I met up with a very astonishing gentleman that bred Budgerigars and he ask me this question. I thought at first that he had a screw lose for asking but then he explained and it was like a light being turn on. He ask Do you want to breed budgerigars or do you want to hatch chicks? silly question, I want to breed top show birds. He Asked what do you think is the most important thing about breeding top show birds? being in a vet and about to pay out $244au I said keeping them healthy. He said You are on the right track. I thought about a breeder I know of in Western Australia. Gary Armstrong. He is a breeder that has his birds health at the top of the list of things most inportant. I saw his birds at the last auction. If it wasn't for a strong budget restraint, I would have bought all his birds. They were magnificent. It was at this point that the breed asked again Do you want to breed budgerigars or do you want to hatch chicks? I said I wanted to breed budgerigars. ............ This was a revelation. We went on to discuss my job, I started to work at the age of 12 selling papers on the corner after and before school. When I was 15 I got a part time job selling cloths at a department store. (David Jones ssshh). When I was 18 a took up an apprenticeship as an electrician. I worked hard and promotions came readily. I lost my job 9 years latter due to layoffs. I applied for a job with a company I now work for. I had two interviews the second one I was asked if I had any questions. i said I had none, I had done my homework and could tell the interviewer all about the company I was applying for. He said there was one question I hadn't asked and that was the pay. i told him that I wanted to work, was married, had a morgage. He told me I had a job too. You may be asking your self what doesthis have to do with Budgerigars... everything. I will get there. I worked hard and got promoted. The breeder asked had I asked for raises? No hadn't but they all way came. This was what he wanted. He put it that the pay increases was a result of hard work and that I wanted to do a good job. It is the same with budgerigar breeding. This is what Gary Armstrong knew. If you look after your birds, keep them happy, healthy and breed them when they want to breed the end product will be good birds. Don't worry about hatching chicks that will come. Be more focused in your bird's well fare and they will give you what you want in the end. I have been given many opportunities in life that I didn't ask for. I just enjoy helping people. There are more peiple in this world that can point me out in a crowd that I know about. Because I like to help. it is the same with the birds. I don't tame my birds but I do care for them. Derek was over last week and saw birds flying to me. i explained I didn't train them. This is what happens when you love your birds and care for them and give them what they need. Do you want to breed budgerigars or hatch chicks........... I think I'd like to breed budgerigars, if looked after well, the chicks will come.

I could sit back and say nothing. But I can't. I got it wrong. Remember this photo. Well don't do what I've done with the corn. We have not proven it but 2 1/2 hours at a vet this morning after losing a bird yesterday, one this morning with two more going ill. One of which died to night and I have another one sick now as well. The autopsy on the bird that died this morning shows no Psittacosis , canker, mega or Cocci. But a very bad case of Bacteria Infection.. But how. I have a very high standard of cleanliness. The only thing it could be is the corn. ???!!!! I put the corn in Saturday afternoon and change it on a Wednesday. It MUST spoil during that time.. how stupid of me!!!! I have lost 3 birds and have endangered the rest of the flock. The birds are on medication for the next 5 days. With the last surviving sick bird on special medication. The bird that looks like it's become sick is on the same medication as the flock. I don't want to give him the stronger mediction unless advised by the vet. You have to be careful with every thing you do.