Daz

Thanks Macka. The cock was an Opaline light green and the hen was a grey green spangle. Out come was hens as Opalines and Spangles Opalines with cocks being Spangles (Assumed split opaline) 2nd Pairing was (I thought) Spangle to Spangle but found the out come to be Hens Spangles and Spangle opalines and Opalines.. Cocks Normals and Spangles. I was going to Pair one of the Cocks from the 1 st pairing to a Spangle Opaline from the 2nd pairing in hope to achieve Hens in Normals and Spangle.

Good Idea, I get them up when I get to work.

Hi Macka, Good to see you.

Yes your dominants are green (over blue), Grey, Spangles, Dominant Pieds, Yellowfaces (in the blue series) So you can have a Dominant Pied Spangle for example. But they will show them. Unless there is a masking gene such as ino. Recessive Genes include. Greywings, Clearwings, Yellows, Whites , Recessive Pieds, Dark-eyed Clears, English Fallows and Crests. Your birds can be split for any of these genes.

The cere of a hen will have nosstral rings and start to roughen slightly. A cock will be a soild colour and be smooth. Some varieties like Recessives and inos are dificult. I had a resessive that was 12 months old and still couldn't work it out.

Still in the nest Daz, but their feathers feel loose and fluffy when I handle them. Their father won a first in Novice recently ...he is a nice sky violet normal....very long bird Sky violet...what is the hen? What is the other chicks.. These are Sky Blues. ... I'll try to work out the violet factor for you. Edit; Derrrr it's on the light factor...

jjg first things first. You will need to join a club. Arrange closed rings for your birds. Register as either a Beginner or a novice. The show cages are to Australia Standards. Your club can offer you the Standard that has the plans in the back. As you are listed in Brisbane, your club will need to belong to the SQBBA. Here is their website. http://www.sqbba.com/

Kaz.. love the feathering. Are they perching and what is the feather length around the perch?

To answer your first question. no a bird can not be split for a dominant gene. They can carry recessive genes and be split to sex linked.

I don't try until they are 3 weeks old. Some you can tell younger some older... some never.

Very good information, Thank you. I am currently breeding two pairs spangles to normals. I am also going to breed a spangle/opaline cock to a Spangle opaline hen. The out come should be Opaline Cocks, Normal/opaline Cocks, Opaline Hens and Normal Hens. For the normal Hens and Cocks I should get 50% Spangle and 50% Normals. The Opaline Cocks and Hens will be Culled. I will keep the best spangles and normals for the next pairing.

Just adding to my first post in this section. Since that post. I did put 6 birds into the next show. I had a 3rd, 4th and Best Club Young Bird of Show. The next show I won Champion Young Bird of show. The next show, Best Spangle Novice Section. The last club table show I won nothing. But I did enjoy it and got some great advice. It was good to reread the advice I gave at the top. I do believe that it is a way of going. Maybe not the only way, but it seems to be working. One thing to remember is that nothing is set in concrete and you need to alter your plans to suit.

Thanks

For show, the Texis Clearbody has to have clear flights. Pairing Clearbody to normal will enhance the body colour and wing markings but will darken the flights. Clearbody to Lutino will lighting the flights but will lighten the body markings and the wing markings. Breeding for show, you have to get the right balance.

Sorry Salorwolf, the condition is called opalesance. It is caused by the opaline gene but the bird need not carry it. Eg. a normal/opaline cock to an normal hen. Will give Opaline hens, normal hens, normal cocks and normal/opaline cocks. Any of these chicks can have the opalesance and need not be split to Opaline. It is a fault on the bench.

I run The Budgerigar Program and Bird Tracker. You might find Bird Tracker is better if your not showing birds. It will give you the possible results of pairing two birds. You can also down load a trail free. http://www.cabinsoftware.biz/

The percentages of out comes are worked out over 100s of chicks. So don't think you'l get the outcome in one clutch. eg Spangle to normal should give 50% normal and 50% spangle. Some breeders find that they get a lot more normals and some find they get a lot more spangles.

Well commonn sense should prevale

The Frustrations of losing Birds. I was fortunate to study Zoology at grammar school which interested me, unlike most other subjects about which I could not see their use and consequently failed most of them. Algebra is still a complete mystery ! Zoology was however to prove a very useful source of knowledge in understanding the basics of animal and human anatomy. I could see that having started breeding budgerigars at the age of 12, that this subject could prove useful but I did not realise ,and still do not, how difficult the diagnosis of disease in our birds was going to be. As I grew older, I naturally lost birds from time to time and I quickly found out that the Veterinary Profession was sadly lacking in advice and help when I needed it. Subsequently, I was advised that the Veterinary Colleges only spend about a week on all birds in a five to six year course. Perhaps I am being cynical, but I think many students must have taken leave during that week because so many vets that I have tried over the years struggle to help you. One actually said, “ You obviously know more than I do so what drugs do you want ?” Hardly comforting so I quickly dropped him. Today I know that there are Specialist Avian Vets upon whom to get some help but usually they are at a distance and getting a bird to them is near impossible to be of use. Unfortunately such credible Vets are rare and you need a Vet who has the vital laboratory equipment backing him / her. I worked in laboratories for BP for many years so I fully understand what is required and there is a great deal of expense involved in acquiring essential back up equipment.This will reflect in charges that are levied in addition to the avian expert`s knowledge. When I left BP to start BW Magazine 24 years ago, my charge out rate for work carried out for other Companies was, even then, £65 per hour. What it is today I can only guess at but the moral is that you only get what you pay for. All of us need to understand that following the death of a bird (s) a carcase starts to degrade and deteriorate rapidly.I will give you an example later.So sending a bird via the postal services however speedy is useless and I quote David Jones former Chief Veterinary Officer at London Zoo and later Director of London and Whipsnade Zoos.It is far better to get two ailing birds that can be euthanized and the body tissues examined immediately if you want accuracy and correct diagnosis to be the order of the day.Many UK and European Fanciers will remember the late Mick Mapston who was not only one of our finest Judges but who also possessed a great sense of humour.Years ago the UK Budgerigar Society used a Veterinary Service for its members (no longer) and pretty well every diagnostic report that the member would receive about his dead bird contained the assertion that “Cranial Haemorrhage” was a cause. Mick said “ I know the answer to that. When you take the bird to the Post Office addressed to your Vet, it`s the woman behind the counter who bangs the package with the Post Office Stamp” Mick`s humour is sadly missed. I referred earlier to the immediate changes that start to occur in a carcase after death. The proof of this ,to give one example, was that in 1970 I was approached by a Lady fancier of note to help her solve a major problem with her stock. Unfortunately these sick birds exhibited the same symptoms as 15 other diseases we know about. Fortunately they also were noticed to be creating “dust” in their seed bowls and were constantly eating by grinding up the grain into tiny particles to get a few down into their crops. Fungal treatment was not effective, so what was the primary cause? Various Vets had been tried before I was approached but all failed without an accurate diagnosis. I decided to write a full report to my Vet which ran into six pages. That was sent up to London Zoo Veterinary Dept. and then I was asked to obtain several live birds that were suffering and take them up to David Jones himself. He passed these birds to a young and very able qualified Vet called Gordon Henderson. Henderson euthanized the birds and quickly established that the problem was caused by two different protozoa called giardia and trichomonas. Where the former vets had gone wrong was not realising that these protozoa either disappeared or died within 10 minutes of the death of the birds.Also the gut contained fungi which lined the oesophagus and was destroying the linings of the gizzards which were ulcerated. In due course Henderson found that the primary cause was ingested trichomonads probably from wild birds and especially pigeons via open flights. Note: Avian Flu could be contracted easily without covered flights. These “bugs” then swim in the gut and change the PH (acid / alkali levels) with the result that the fungi were getting a firm hold and reducing the diameter of the oesophagus and other internal damage. Now you know why posted carcases can be a wasted exercise. Late last year a very nice and dedicated fancier (Mr A) who had developed a high quality stud of light greens and grey greens started to lose all his hens and eventually all died and he was devastated. The damage was done before I heard about it. His cocks still looked fit so these were passed to a friend (Mr . Later Mr B called me saying he was very worried as his birds were now suffering and informed me that Mr A had bought in a bird(s) from a fancier in Yorkshire but had not quarantined them after purchase as the “looked” perfectly fit. The trouble started soon after. I advised Mr B to now do the sensible thing and take two birds to a known avian specialist vet. However he was not keen to do so saying, “ But he will charge £300 to check everything.” I felt that was folly and I have heard nothing since. The fact is that we all have to understand that any new purchase from an aviary that exhibits poor management with uncovered outside flights, can be supplying birds that are, even unknowingly, “carriers” of disease. It has to be in all our interests to confine new introductions well away from the main birdroom under quarantine conditions for 30 days and run them through a course of antibiotic , an antiprotozoal drug and a de-wormer in that period. Immediately following, put them through a course of a multivitamin solution such as abidec to restore their metabolism back to normal quickly. Not difficult to do but how many of us actually do it ?? Not many is the answer, but the penalties are a disaster if you do not. I have to confess that even with the quality aviary and facilities that I have here, I still find there is great difficulty in wondering why I lose the odd hen when she is breeding for no apparent reason and why with clean surroundings you get the odd sick bird appearing, but often just ill without any external symptoms so that you know exactly which drug could be the answer. So often in such circumstances the bird is lost even with great attention to its welfare with being kept warm with a heat source and treatment. Taking such a bird away from the heat source to a vet can accelerate matters as well, as so often a Vet will not offer a drug without seeing the bird. That is understandable, but with Vets being inexperienced with birds you are mostly on your own with the odd infected bird. Only when there is a major infection across the stud are you forced ,if you are sensible, to pay out for a real avian expert. Frustrating ? You bet it is because none of us likes to lose birds unnecessarily and of course “It`s always a good one that is the cause for worry” . Have I any real solutions? Frankly no. As one famous fancier said to me some years ago, “After 45 years in this hobby I feel I know nothing about budgerigars” I couldn`t agree more !!! By Gerald Binks.

Kaz.. make sure they don't dehydrate. see if you can mix up a batch of aloe vera. Leave the skin intact. it will act as a laxitive. Also the enzimes will help strengthen them. You have to wait 24 hours to use it. All the best.

I use both Bird Traker and The Budgerigar Program 2006. Both are very good programs. I prefer to use The Budgerigar Program. But if some one could put both programs togeather it would be a best seller.

Pine Rivers Budgerigar Society meeting tonight 7:30pm Lawnton Show Grounds.

I like to hens to have a light brown or tan cere just before going to the chocolate brown. This, I have found to be best. The hen should be very active and like to chew on things.

okay the Albino and Lutino are hens. The Blue and yellowface if cocks are probibly split to ino If they are hens they are normals. In show breeding we would pair the grey to an ino to produce inos any splits would be culled. Is the blue and yellowface are cocks and of normal features they would be culled. It's not good to work a second generation split.

If you want an on going remody, use Aloe Vera.. It is a good all rounder.. But paul I would start on the worm gel. I use that as well.