Dean_NZ

You may be right. I refer to it more as a spiral than a crest, but it is definately 'directional' feathering. Im still in the very early stages of breeding show birds (having started with pet type stock and lesser show quality birds) so I don't have a great amount of experience with directional feathering. All my chicks have had pins either sweeping straight back over the head laying flat, or they have been sweeping back but standing up more like porcupines (those are better birds with better feather). I have had chicks with varying degrees of feather sweeping out over the brow, but never had such an obvious disturbance of feather that clearly was and is growing forward at the front, out to the sides and then finally sweeping back further up the skull. This could be standard in all birds with good blow, but then it makes me wonder why no-body mentioned this as normal when I posted the pics? Many of you have far better birds than I, and no-one had seen or commented on seeing such a disturbance in the feathering before. I watch a lot of breeding journals of GOOD birds here and havent seen it either. So is it standard directional feather? Is this disturbance present in all birds with great blow? Or is it just another way to get the same appearance? Edit: You would be surprised at the parents. They are not large birds, nor do EITHER of them have good mask length, blow, or feathering. The cock is mediokre at best, average size, smallish head etc etc, decent spots but poor mask length etc. The hen is even worse lol, but she was a violet and I took any show-bred violets I could, knowing the genes passed on may produce better offspring. The best features of either parent is fertility - the cock will mate with ANY hen I put him to and fills every egg, an EXCELLENT feeder. The hen lays 10-12 a round and successfully raised 12 chicks in 2 rounds (foster parents killed half her first round). This last round has 8 siblings, 6 cocks 2 hens so.

Lol thanks shannon. Im very happy with all the girls from this pair so far

She is looking to be a real stunner. Her younger sister from the next clutch is gorgeous too. I' HAVE to show you her! She is also a single factor violet opaline, the one with the 'half' crest i mentioned before. She is about 8 weeks old Click here for a larger version of the above picture Click here for a larger version of the above picture Im in love

I loved that hen as soon as I saw her Glad to see she's growing up so nice!

Finally found some time to get some recent photos of baby #4 from the pair that seem to be throwing some sort of crest. So far it has only shown up in hens, 1 from each round. 'Spiral crest' Hen #1 had 2 very distinctive spirals just above each cere, her sister in the next clutch had a small one on the right and one on the left the same size as her sisters. Here is the first post about Hen #1: Now for some updated pictures - she started her adult moult about 2 weeks ago, it has been a reasonably heavy one and looked especially itchy around her head, I can definately see the new adult spiral feathers coming out in different directions and of ALL my hens, she has the biggest blow by far - she ir probably blowier than almost all my boys bar two! Here she is with a half sister (from the same father). The half-sister is an sf violet opaline sky blue, the spiral hen is a sky blue opaline. This cock seems to produce far better quality hens than cocks: Here she is again in front of an 8 week old from another pair: And here she is blowing a bit: Click here for a large version of the above picture Click here for a larger version of the above picture A similar picture with flash: Click here for a larger version of the above picture

Not entirely true. Raspberry Cordial has long been rumoured to aid the stomach. Recent studies are now showing that raspberry cordial (minimum of 20% real raspberry juice, preferably higher) does in fact have anti-biotic properties. It basically keeps the GI tract healthy. Of course birds with GI problems will breed better if you take care of the sickness. Any sick birds breed better healthy lol.

Congrats and agree with the others! Pictures please!

Mis-post

Just a month or two ago i had a first time hen lay 4 eggs and sit fine. After about 10 days she had a night fright, came off the eggs for a day or so and after 3 days started laying another 5 i think. 1 of the previous four somehow survived and was fostered out, the others all hatched too although a few died during a freakish cold snap (coldest cold snap in 30 years out of the blue).

So sorry to hear. How old was he? Perhaps it was adult moult time?

Pictures will definately help.

Yep, just keep an eye on them. Make sure there is plenty of seed and millet, lots of soft food and veggies. They tend to be floor eaters so if the bottom of the kindy cage is grated, lay down newspaper so seed can collect.

Haha I loved your picture and your post GB. Well done, you had my vote

Wooohooo! Great news! I knew those studs would find some hot ladies

Sounds like splayed legs. If it is, it should have been identified and corrected early in the nest, as it will now be permanent. If the leg is jutting out at a weird angle, this will surely be splayed legs. It severely effects the life and ability of the budgie concerned. Most learn to adapt, but it is either a result of calcium deficiency in the egg or as a chick and secondly it results from poor footing in the nest box (a floor which provides unsuitable grip, causing legs to jut out at weird angles and the bones harden and set at this angle as the chick grows).

I dont think the father is cinnamon because he has daughters that are NOT cinnamon. Therefore he could only be split for cinnamon which we already guessed. It doesn't change the daughters variety, I still believe she is what we mentioned above.

Its not actually a 'problem' per say. For a time, longflighted birds were dominating the winning benches until it was discussed and they were excluded from judging. The reason it became popular is because show birds are getting bigger, longer and buffer - having normal flights can leave you with a long bird that lacks proportions so the longflight gene was found to be a solution. As far as I know the longflight gene is partial dominant so it has a lengthening effect on the flights in a single factor that adds nice proportion to the longer birds that were starting to look like they had stubby wings (as show birds should have the flights almost touching, and sitting just on or near the start of the tail if i recall rightly). Double factor adds further length and these birds as I said started to dominate in some shows. It is very obvious when you have double factor longflights - as it appears with these chicks and so these birds are (if i recall rightly) not considered for judging. However a long bird with a single factor can be very hard to judge as being well proportioned or longflighted so it is said that double factor long flights are very handy to pair with a looong bird with normal flights in the hope of getting long chicks with proportioned wings. Consider we are trying to breed birds with good blow, good spots and mask length, buff or double buff feathers, wide, long, strong off the perch, well proportioned and smooth line from head to tail in a 35 degree angle... its no wonder why it is a life long pursuit :hug: Add in long flight genes and the difficulty goes up again in getting the bird with that 'winning' combination of qualities. Edit: It would have come from both parents by the way. Both are likely single factor long flight :rofl:

Looks to me like you've doubled up on the long flight gene with those babies. Im not very experienced at recognising it, but the flights are definately elongated. They should suit them a bit better once they reach adult hood, but long flights are barred from show as far as i know? Single factor is okay but not double factor. You should put those chicks to your longest birds with shorter wings because you need a long bird to really make the most of long flights. Thats my thoughts at least.

thoughts go out to you all

Yep, boxes IN the cage tend to be low down or even on the floor, usually a 'wah wah' flop as far as breeding goes. Nest boxes should be fitted externally, as high as possible (with a few inches clearance from the roof of course).

He could very well be masking or split for opaline, but while some chicks look op spangle, there is definately a plain spangle in there that i can see.

Splat is saying every clutch is 50% cock and 50% hen. But due to the genes of the cock, all hens will be opaline and all cocks will be split opaline (not counting any other mutations). So what splat should of said is 100% cocks split opaline and 100% opaline hens, but given the 50/50 chance of having a male or female in a nest it was written "50% cocks split opaline, 50% opaline hens" So the DF spangle dad means all chicks will be single factor spangle on top. So the cocks will all be SF spangle split opaline and the hens will all be opaline spangle.

There is definately a violet greywing in that photo - the middle chick. As for the parent - its likely the dad but its hard to say. I have had a violet pop out of a YF2 sky blue and a light grey hen. Neither parent anyone would suspect as being violet or carriers.

The grey factor is not to minimise suffusion - its to eliminate the fleurescence. Blue based white birds that are clean of suffusion still have a blue 'sheen' to the feathers in the light, and depending on where they are viewed and at what angle they can look pale blue. To eliminate that grey is used, however you can just as easily get grey suffusion as blue - the grey simply helps eliminate the additional fleurescent sheen to the feathering. P.S Fab birds! Shame about the slow breeding and progress though. Suppose things will really take off sooner or later. You'll have spangles comin out your ears!

Yellow face recessive pied cobalt spangle. Look at the chest and back area - looks like a vary heavily marked recessive to me.