Dean_NZ

Funny you should say that dave, because the grey greens are hens and the smaller normal green is a cock.

I am really terrible at maintaining and updating these breeding journals. My apologies! The AI chicks are looking fab It is interesting to note the size difference between the two grey greens and the normal dark green. I will be observing future clutches to see if this is a common theme as the grey greens seem superior in general - especially size to the green. I currently have other chicks coming up including a sky blue, a SF violet sky blue, a cobalt and a SF violet cobalt which will be handy for comparitive colour shots. Umm the weird purple/red chick died. I think i might have mentioned that earlier. Oh, another crested hen has shown up in round two of the same nest as the first one - I suspect its from the hen as the cock has had 12 chicks last year with no crests to another hen, and this hen he is now with this is her first time breeding - one female has had a crest in each round. This second female isnt as widely developed as the first - she has a solid crest on the left of her cere and a weaker version on the right side however the circular twist and feather disturbance is very clearly present. The first chick with the stronger and more even crests (bilaterally - meaning even size/shape/location on both sides) is now beginning her adult moult - looks to be moulting especially hard around the crested areas. Photos to come...

Im a nursing student and when we draw up meds, you draw up the capacity of the needle on top of the required meds. When you attach the needle, yuo push the plunger down to the desired level of medication and then inject. This should allow you to deliver the required dose and the remainder in the needle is not necessary since you accounted for it in the first place and only the desired amount of medication has passed through, leaving whatever is in the needle free to be disposed. Eg 1ml capacity needle, 3 ml meds required = draw up 4-5 ml of meds. Add need, push out air and liquid until the bung reaches 3ml line, then inject patient.

Are there any other problems you can see? I had such a chick, but there were two major things besides size that i noted - it had RED skin while the others had pink skin, very clearly different. It also had a large purple belly and even though it survived for almost 3 weeks it never looked right and eventually the parents stopped feeding it.

Probably a lightly coloured Yellowface type 2 dominant pied cobalt. If it is YF2 the yellow will strengthen after the adult moult and slightly alter the body colour from cobalt to a greenish blue.

Hey libby, my wife has the same cell phone and once that bright light turned on but she didnt know how she did it and hasnt done it since? Where is the button or option to do that? Hehehe!

I think Macka is just a bit frustrated that people hardly seem to say "i have a nice sky blue or cobalt" they alway seem to ask "is this bird a violet? it has a bit of purple on it, I thin it's a violet!" Or they say "this is my violet blah blah blah". I agree, many people still have a lot of difficulty identify sky blue violets and normal cobalts, relying mainly on visual violets which are typically SF violet cobalts but I had a DF violet sky blue that was as purple as can be.

I have a sky blue, a violet sky blue, a cobalt and a violet cobalt chick all coming up with feathers. Will post some side by sides soon to help people distinguish.

Contact your local budgie club and look around at a few breeders on their list - you can view their aviaries, ask about their feeding/breeding/bird management and see what colours are available before purchasing. Most breeders are well aware of the bloodlines of their birds, and a lot will have records following the generations of breeding.

I tend to have my violets normal or yellowface type 1. Yellowface 1 adds a nice contrast to th violet, but doesnt blend with the colour.

Here is the first chick YF cobalt cock split opaline: Here is the second, a SF violet normal cock split opaline: And the last, a albino hen masking opaline: Dad is doing a superb job of feeding them. They have very full crops day and night. Hoping the feathers will start to regrow soon.

Well, I just purchased a cheapy with a USB camera and up to 300x magnification. I'll let you know if it does the job or not - but for $22 I'm not going to be too put out if its no good!

Oh i don't doubt you would have kept him - I just mean he has made the decision for you and that is one less bird you will have to consider or number =/ Though it is a sad thing for sure.

Gendering from pictures at a young age is not 100%. It is much easier to do in real life with the bird in front of you. Even with high definition photos, I have taken two photos of the same chick where the cere looked white in one picture and pink in the next. One would guess female for the first and male for the second photo of the same chick when i know it to be a male in real life.

If it's not one thing it's another with budgies huh! Sorry to hear of your continuing trouble! I guess in a macabre way, thats at least one bird you wont have to make a decision about culling... Kinda hepful in a terrible way? Keep the best babies anyway and move forwards!

By rights the green gene should be absolutely functional in every normal sense of the word and it would produce normal greens if that gene was passed on. What is interesting to me is the 'new' hybrid b1b2 gene. Does that mean the hybrid gene alone can produce yellow? A true dominant yellowface type 1? Or does it mean that the gene is double flawed and will never produce yellow?

Yes I have seen some on ebay for that price. At that price you are guaranteed quality and long lasting stuff. But to be honest - if it shows what im looking for, then thats all i care about at this point So i'll start cheap and if it doesn't pan out i'll look at the good stuff later lol.

I would cast my beedy little eyes over australian e-bay and pre-loved item websites. I think you only need as far as 400x magnification although apparently 1000x can be useful for some weird and obscure things. Sperm observation, faecal screening etc only need up to 400x though. Im going to buy a childs microscope with up to 600x magnification PLUS it is powered by and comes with USB attachment which is the main thing for me. The USB camera can fit over the monocular lens, and transmit images to the pc to take pictures and video - plus it can give your eyes a rest. For me its about 2 things - magnification and being able to transmit to PC to take videos so i can go back over samples for something i might have missed. Oh, and im not paying more than $60. The cheaper the better! I'll let you know how i get on - I have my eye on two such microscopes - one is currently at $20, the other at $40. Woop woop!

Sounds like a good setup! Look forward to pictures!

And no budgie hybrids

Who's looking after the babies ? Dad at this point. It was early evening today when I found the hen in the middle of plucking, she can't have been at it long but any plucking was too much for me so out she went. The chicks all had very full crops and so I will be up early tomorrow watching throughout the day to ensure dad is feeding them. If not, I will have to intervene. There is little chance of fostering them at this age (they are about 3 weeks old and half feathered) and the other two nests have 5 and 4 chicks respectively. Either dad feeds them or I will have to, but I believe dad would do a better job with seeds/veg/softfood than I would with formula. Edit: There is millet and seed in all my nest boxes - the chicks may at this point be starting to partially feed themselves as is typical where such seed is available from a young age. Fingers crossed.

Ugh. I had a hen pluck her 3 chicks down feathers completely off at the end of this week. I figured as long as that was all she did it would be fine, but I was suspicious. So have been checking up on her lately, this morning all was fine, crops full all happy. Came back about TWO hours later and opened the box to find she had started plucking pin feathers. I am soooo mad!!! Fortunately she had just started doing all 3 heads, some less than others. One has a little bit of blood in its ear and she had a mouth full of pins so I (gently but angrily) moved her back into the main flight. Now she is calling constantly to the cock bird but I could care less. Argh! I hope the feathers grow back. Theres an albino hen, a YF cobalt or violet sky blue (not sure which yet) and a violet cobalt in there. They were GORGEOUS. Pics tomorrow

Theres my two cents without reading anyone elses attempts (now to go see what i goofed up on lol)

I have a rather in depth genetic article I review periodically because each time I go back I understand a bit more as I am constantly learning from other sources where possible and then I go back to the more complicated stuff to see if it's less gobblety-gook. At any rate, I was reading about intragenic crossover and found that mathematically/genetically it is possible to produce a green budgie from two blue budgies. Basically it would go something like this - instead of having a b1 b2 (yellowface type 1 with two recessive blue genes 'b1' and 'b2') bird, the genes cross over (rare occurance) during replication in such a way that you get one gene that is b1 b2 (both flawed sections cross over onto the same allele) and a second gene that is now completely functional (ie dominant green gene). However, this could only occur in a pair with at least one yellowface/goldenface bird and one normal blue bird given the need for the flaw to be on differing locations on the same allele. Bizarre! I never would have guessed you could get a green bird from two blues!

Plucking the problem feather wont help, it will likely regrow and may form another or secondary cyst. I had a budgie with a cyst, tied it off TIGHTLY with cotton and it fell off after a few days (maybe a week). Surgical is the best option but may be expensive. Others may have better suggestions. At any rate, be sure you tie off the entire cyst if possible. You need to kill the feather follicle of the twisted feather shaft.