Dean_NZ

French moult.

Yes, essentially you feed the chick until it stops begging for food which is usually when the crop is full. and you dont feed again until the crop is empty or very near to it. The real problem in my opinion is getting the balance of water/formula. If you use too much water then even if you fill the crop to the brim the actual content of formula (ie nutrition and calories) would be sub-optimal. I believe this is often poorly done which is the reason why many hand reared chicks are "behind" in development compared to nest/parent raised chicks who receive a biologically balanced and prepared feed that isnt watered down. On the flip side if you dont use enough water or if the food is too cold you can get crop stasis. So i suppose at the end of the day, a live chick means you are doing your job good enough even if its a bit delayed developmentally.

To stop it happening dont breed in the aviary, breed in breeding cabinets / cages of an appropriate size and design

Its best to weigh them. If i recall, each feed should be 10% of the chicks body weight and the chick should be fed each time the crop empties except at night.

Why is only one wing clipped? This is one of the worst clipping methods as it imbalances the weight, posture and / or muscles of the bird. Hate to be a picky picker, but please balance out the wing clipping.

Good eyes GB. I had to tilt my screen before I could see the yellow wash on the pin feathers. The flash makes it glare and hard to see but you are spot on!

I can tell you they arent opaline At this early stage look at the pin feathers that develop just above the fleshy tail bump, they are the first to show colour. As for mutation, depends on the parents. Cinnamons have pink eyes for the first week or so before darkening back to near normal colour. Opalines get white down feathers which you dont see on the oldest chicks here. Spangles have white (or yellow) primary tail feathers, easily seen as the pin feathers develop. Pieds also have white/yellow tail pins but also have a pink/bald patch on the head and the wings depending on the type of pied. (Bald as in no pigment, but feathers do develop obviously ). Greens very early on have yellow showing in the wings, yours appear blue

Cos the cheek patches look blue not slate blue or grey? At least on my screen!

Just a suggestion based on personal preference - cut the nest box holes hard to one side of the box and then make the concave on the far opposite side. In my experience hens love to lay as far from the nest hole as possible as it feels more secure. They will lay in most style boxes, but I have known a few breeders to experience troubles with nest boxes with center drilled holes and central based concaves where the hen will lay her eggs and repeatedly drag/roll them to the furthest darkest corner. Since your holes are facing away from the light it shouldnt be a problem, but like i said - just a thought

Definitely olive spangle. Some pics look cock some hen, im going with hen.

The way most new recessive mutations are discovered is through colony breeding or controlled line/inbreeding to double up on the hidden gene. This is likely the case for the blues if i recall. Any new recessive is usually paired back to the opposite sex parent to try and create more. There could be tens or hundreds of new recessive mutations floating around out there in a single factor form, 99.9% of which will never be doubled up on. I also feel that since historically, knowledgeable breeders have given up on, abandoned or failed to secure new mutations in the past (eg recessive grey, non-sex linked ino etc) i feel certain that there have been a few backyard breeders or even society breeders who have bred but not recognised a new mutation. The blackface birds were found at a market sale werent they? The more famous of the coalface budgies (the greygreen opaline one) was almost sold a few times as the owners thought it was a mucky / heavily flecked opaline and didnt want it at first. So many mutations slip through the cracks...

Terrific width across the cere on those first batch of babies and some great masks too. All the babies are looking great, well done

But you did me... Not sure if thats a compliment or an insult, I'll choose the former Definitely a compliment JB I think the best breeders are those who can state their opinions freely, but also be open to correction. You could very well find evidence to support your claim, so even after saying what I did, I could always be proven wrong at a later date. Hopefully knowledge of everything budgerigar is progressing everywhere, so while we may have once thought the budgie world was flat, perhaps tomorrow we will be shown it is round...

I think it sounds nice in theory, but in practice its impossible given a bird can only ever get one copy of each gene from one parent, and thus only ever pass on one of its 2 genes in a pair. Having green split blue x green split blue to produce a blue bird wont make that blue ever throw greens. I was talking to a friend the other day, a champion breeder and judge - been doing it for night on 40 years. He had a grey split opaline cock with an albino hen and I asked if he was trying to get normal daughters or split cocks. Neither he said, he wanted albinos. He told me he believes some hens are dominant and can pass on their mutation regardless of what the cock is sometimes. He added to that the thought that every bird can carry/create albinos. Didnt have the heart to correct him.

Given she is a female, im leaning more towards cinnamon opaline dominant pied cobalt.

Interesting post RIP, look forward to any articles or pictures anyone can supply

Some sort of spangle or opaline in there as well. Likely spangle given the lack of spots and head stripes.

Way to young to be out of the nest. Keep them in the nest box. The hen should be able to raise them on her own just fine, get the males OUT of hearing range if possible - they will only distract her. Be mindful that it could have been the hen that hurt the chicks, but given you had 2 cocks with a hen it is more than likely one cock became territorial and attacked the babies which is why you should only breed with a pair and not have other birds around. GOod luck

There are still a lot of myths about pairing x colour to x colour = reduces size. I dont believe its true at all, I always think back to Jim Marshalls birds in Canada. He has repeatedly taken out major canadian and some american shows with two lines - a sky blue line (only pairs sky blue to sky blue) and a light grey line (only pairs grey to grey with no dark factors). He has some monster birds and only after securing those lines for years has he gone back to other varieties, spangles and greens. Both of which he put to his grey line which is better than his blue line a bit, so now has spangle greys and normal grey greens and greens. Also has yellowfaces and some more now I believe as well as a new mutation he refers to as the 'speckle' variety.

Reminds me of one of Jim Bradshaws birds. He's up in auckland.

Hi and welcome Any information / pictures on the dusk would be more than welcome here

Must just be that those with a name beginning with D were due for a run of bad luck so it's easy to see how we get mixed up

You were definitely well treated, thats partly why i asked who it was lol. I know quite a few of the NZ breeders and the local prices so you should be well pleased with what you got. $30 each is an absolute steal, although for a beginner its just what you need. Go back to that breeder when you've bred a few birds and need outcrosses. definitely what part of nz are you from dean? Im in hamilton, but I got my best birds from Tauranga and have travelled a bit to see whats around. Will probably do some more travelling soon. i received an email from a breeder in hamilton who was selling alot of their stock because they were moving if you didnt already know? Yes that will be from Tony and Robyn. I have some of their line. I think their best feature is actually that the hens (at least the ones i've had from her) lay around 10 eggs a piece. As a general rule their birds lack the length that other top breeders have, but they have good width/feather/spot and other features. I can tell you more in private if you like, but definitely some good birds to be had from there if you were to get in quick. I am crossing some of my tauranga birds with a couple of grinter hens at the moment, will be crossing back to the tauranga stock but the grinter hens should produce numbers for me.

You c an always get a cheap dropper bottle of ivermectin from the vet for $5-10 dollars and whack a drop on the budgies in the usual spot just in case (on the SKIN of the back of the neck).

You were definitely well treated, thats partly why i asked who it was lol. I know quite a few of the NZ breeders and the local prices so you should be well pleased with what you got. $30 each is an absolute steal, although for a beginner its just what you need. Go back to that breeder when you've bred a few birds and need outcrosses. definitely what part of nz are you from dean? Im in hamilton, but I got my best birds from Tauranga and have travelled a bit to see whats around. Will probably do some more travelling soon.