RIPbudgies

It is a female Eclectus with self mutalating issues usually related to boredom.

Personally I don't think it makes a damn bit of difference if the bird is show or pet type. Either they are good parents or they are not. I had one particular pair this year that raised 9 chicks and do a super job and then another pair that had only 2 chicks and did a very bad job to the point I have lost one of them. I also have a hen at this time who has raised two babies on her own since they were day olds and neither are hers.

Generally if one foot is affected it is usually the one with the ring as it can get damaged during ringing. Did you get this bird like this? It is most likely a stretched ligament, in which case can't be fixed. Sometimes these things can be inherited but until you breed from the bird you will not know. If the problem is genetic it would most likely be recessive and so would not really be know for two breeding seasons.

Yes the chick is pale, anemic looking, hence why I din't think it would survive. As of this morning thought the little tike is still alive and seems quite strong. The necrosis does look like something had wrapped around these parts and cut blood supply. However the affected areas are many. Maybe we will never know the cause. There area few other eggs still to hatch so will see what the contents of these eggs bring.

This chick hatched today and on both wings and most of the toes seems to be a necrosis of some sort. I have never in 20+ years had anything like this. First picture is the right hand side and the second picture is the left hand side. You'll notice the wing on the right hand side is by far the worse. I don't expect this chick to survive even though it does appear to be fairly tough at this point. http://i359.photobucket.com/albums/oo40/RI.../DSC02605-1.jpg http://i359.photobucket.com/albums/oo40/RI.../DSC02602-1.jpg

The images you put up are pretty good. The two showing scissor beak and prognathism are genetic and both these disorders are also found in other species including humans.

Based on photos so far I am going with plain Cobalt. One of the deciding factors is if the body colour goes right to the end of the feather. In dark fator birds the blue or green colour does not go right to the endge of the feather. This bird shows that trait but it is a very good coloured Cobalt. Don't forget there are good and bad examples of all varieties and colours.

single factor Mutant I Squeak.

Maybe the other grey is a violet grey and the other could be a cobalt or mauve grey which would then look darker.

First bird looks like a hen and looks like a Dominant Pied Greywing Cobalt. Second bird looks like a cock and looks like a Dilute Cobalt.

How can you fight dehydration if you think the chicks are? Because some of my chicks are looking like that in my colony breed situation. They have fresh water, but would putting a couple drops in the beak be okay? or maybe spraying nestbox air for humidity Dehydration in not just about water(Hydrogen and Oxygen). Dehydration is caused when the level of salts within the body fall to a level too low to maintain healthy active celluler activity. The way to fight dehydration is to try and provide adequate fresh water and a good quality scource of vitatmins and minerals in the diet. Exposure to sunlight or equivalent. If the hen has not been adequately prepared before putting down to breed she may well produce eggs but the chick quality and subsquent survivability will be low. This can account sometimes for the chicks who hatch and appear weak at birth and usually don't make it through day one.

That last chick looks dehydrated.

I don't like the word 'illegal' used in the sense that clearwing has used it. I feel this is a term best used in the real world, not the budgie world. In budgiedom maybe as mentioned already 'disqualification' etc. Although cutting is not allowed and never has been this is to mean any part of the bird i.e flight feather thrimming maybe. The spot area of the bird to my knowledge has never been included in the regulation.

Also when you cut rather than pull the effect is long lasting so the bird is in showable condition pretty much most of the time. If you pull chances are the bird will be moulting in new spots when you want to him/her again.

Don't know nothing about them and quite frankly I'm scratching my head as to find a plausable reason for having one.

Don't pull feather just because there dirty. Wash it. I don't pull feather full stop. Too easy to damaged follicles and then have further problem down the track. For feathers that are still sheathed on the head but are almost ready you run a tooth brush in the direction of the feather growth or gently roll the feather sheath backwards and forwards between thumb and finger to break the sheath. As for mask spots I cut not pull. This allows the mask to stay plumb and full as I find with some birds the mask is so full of spots that when they are removed by pulling you end up with a bird that just does not look complete.

Cause it is a pretty colour Mack? Simple as that. Dean blue birds are very hard to photograph due to the way in which light works. Light we see with our eyes appears white but it is made up of 7 colours which by the way aren't actually colours, we just percieve it as such. Classic example is a rainbow. Light enters water droplets in the air and are refracted inside the bubble. The light exiting cannot be seen as colour until the bubble is at a certain high upon the ground...from memory 40 something degrees (I'll check on that)... at this point our eyes are able to see the seven colour of the rainbow. Similar thing is happening with the bird feather. Light enters and is refracted inside the structure and depending on the contents i.e. melanin, psittacine pigment, it will change the light wave that is exited. The psittacine pigment that is absent from the feather allows more of the blue part of the spectrum to be seen and it very hard to capture on film. Even photographers will use blue enhancing filters when shooting the ocean and skyies inorder to retain the blue and in some cases to enhance. The denser the structure of the feather is i.e. violet cheek patches the harder it is to capture on film, digital or otherwise.

What a difference another picture makes. These new pics definately makes the bird look Violet Grey. okay so lets look back at the pedigree to find clues. Cock - Dominant Pied Grey from (Cock - Opaline Skyblue, Hen - Dominant Pied Greygreen) Hen - Opaline Cobalt from (Cock - Opaline Dark Green, Hen - Opaline Light Green) The Grey is from the sire. Assuming the bird is Violet (as it looks like it in the photo) it has to come from either or both parents. Lets take the sire. Could he have been a Violet Grey? His sire, could he have been a Violet Grey Green? The dam is Cobalt but is she? Could she be a Violet Sky? Her dam, could she be a Violet Light Green? Just a couple fo possiblities of how the Violet can be explained.

This is so true. Years ago my dog delveloped hematoma (?spelling) on his ears and had to be operated on quickly. I was on a sole parent pension at the time and so no spare cash laying around. Op cost $200 they would not let me pay it off and held my dog until I found the money. Of course each day they charge board too!!!. 99% of Vets will turn you away. In a business scense they have too and that is a fact! After all if they treat every animals presented without payment and then had to chase up payments later they will suffer and go out of business. They have overheads too. Most vets do though however volunteer their time to animals shelters, rehomers and wildlife carers. People don't always see this side of the coin.

The bird looks like it could be a Mauve but a clearer picture would be good. The breeder may be one of those who cannot distingiush the difference between grey and mauve and this is quite a common mistake. As for the violet, I don't think so. There is none in the immediate pedigree supplied. Violet Mauves are not a dull as a usual Mauve.

If the airsac is ruptured then the crop is allowed to drop into that space. Ahh okay. It's probably that then. Did you manage to treat your birds and how. There is no accumulated air to release but the crop is well and truely displaced. He does seem pretty happy in himself though so I'm not sure what else I could be doing to help him. Just digressing your thread here. The crop can become pendulous if the bird is a 'croaker'. Horse people will know this term as 'wind sucking'. Birds who do it can be heard making a croaking like sound as they suck in air. Over time the crop walls are stretched far beyound their capacity and the elasticity is compromised. If the crop can no longer holds its shape it will droop. Pigeon breeds known as pouters and croppers are based on the ability of the birds to suck in air. The Clavicular air sacs lie behind the crop. If an air sac was ruptured the body cavity would fill with air. I have had one or two birds over the years with air sac ruptures and these will self heal if the rupture is not too severe. The pain is removing the air in the body cavity until the repair is realised for it if it is not the pressure caused by the air will press on organs and cause their failure, not to mention pain and uncomfortabilty to the bird.

Kaz I agree with regards the eating of poop. This is known as 'coprophagy'. It is normal behaviour to help develop gut flora. I just don't encourage this to become excessive by coating food in poop. I have never had a problem with chicks not really knowing what food is. I prefer the chicks to remain in the nest till they are at least 5 weeks of age. If they leave the box I put them back until it gets to the point they just don't stay in. I used flaky bran many years ago as at the time I couldn't get hold of a reliable source of shavings. I found the hens could clean out a nest full of the stuff and leave no trace of it being there. Kaz has found her hens don't clean it out. I have Kaz's nest boxes and they are deeper than mine and so maybe Kaz puts in more than I do and the hen just plain gives up or maybe the depth of the box is more comforting and so the hen feels it is deep enough and does not need to deepen the box. Flaky bran does harbour moth eggs and they will hatch. If you have a zapper no problems, I didn't but had a sticky thing hanging from roof. Problem with them is they wait for passers by rather than attracting like the zapper does. I guess some practices are developed through ones financial status at the time too. When I started in the hobby money was a hurdle so (and it is now again) can't afford to waste things like seed. Splat, seed doesn't attract moths. The eggs are already present. If the seed is left long enough the eggs hatch and eventually there will be moths. Ideally if seed could be stored refridgerated it delays the egg hatching process. I find the pannicum millets are especially bad for moths eggs. I don't really worry to much about moths unless their numbers get to great. At the end of the day I guess we all have our different ways and none are either right or wrong. It is about what suits our particular way of doing things.

All you have is a well marked Spangle. Spangle can vary in markings with some these days almost devoid of markings to the point they are almost be clear-winged. The YF componant has nothing to do with the black markings. The bird looks like a normal version, not Opaline and this too will make a difference.

In reality the birds require no nesting material. In the wild they nest in hollow limbs of trees. In captivity however humans like to put stuff into the nest boxes including myself. My reason for doing do is to guage if the hen has been in the box and is preparing to nest. In the wild they tend to chew inside the log and as we provide a substrate that is hard and non-weathered it is just a matter of subsitution. I use pine shavings that I obtained in compressed block form. There is no dust in this product as it is removed prior to packageing. I can't say that for all sawdust though as it will depend on where you get it. Becareful where you get it from also. Cabinet makers tend to mix up there various wood shavings so you could end up with a mix of MDF shavings and other nasty stuff. Once the first lot goes in I don't add any unless a hen is playing footy with the eggs too much and then just enough to stop the eggs moving about. Once chicks are in the box I only add if a wet nest or clean out completely and replace but this again does depend on the state of the nest. I have never in 20+ years of breeding put seed in the nest box. I don't find it gets them eating any earlier and quick frankly I find it particularly un-hygienic to give food to developing youngsters in a box full of poop.

If you have had problems with this hen binding with a cock then I would suggest that if she has now found one stick to it. As far as the show bench goes the young produced from that pairing will either be Spangle or Normals anyway. If the cock is split for Opaline and/or Cinnamon this will not matter. Lacewings are Cinnamon Inos and Opaline is an allowable combination so again it doesn't matter. All the cocks from this pairing though will all be split for Lacewing.