nubbly5

You should have tried to judge this fellow. I could not get him from humping his perch long enough to actually get a proper look at him - it was slightly embarassing to have to keep trying to stop him............

Hmmm forgot about the yf thing. Having yf babies means that only one parent is split for blue where the other is actually split for yf. YF being recessive to green but dominant to blue (in allelic series) would mean one parent has one green gene/one blue gene and the other would have one green gene/one yf gene. That would mean in theory that you could not get a normal blue from these parents - all would be yf as the only combinations of the available genes from parents (green split yf from one and green split blue from the other) would be: gr/gr - both parents donating a green gene - green chick gr/bl - one parent donating a green gene, one donating a blue gene - green split for blue chick gr/yf - one parent donating a green gene, one donating a yf gene - green split for yf yf/bl - one parent donating a yf gene, one donating a blue gene - yf (techinacally split for blue - or single factor yf)

Join a club or at least go to some meetings so you can see if you really want to get into it before you take the plunge. Ask lots of questions and be prepared to spend some money. If you do decide to get into it, find a mentor in the club that is willing to take you under their wing and help you with advise on genetics, breeding, bird health etc. Make sure your parents are willing to support you in your budgie breeding ventures otherwise it will be very hard for you to succeed. It's a rewarding hobby but it takes time, money and dedication.

Yes and I covered the night disturbances part earlier on in the thread too but as it seemed to need repeating again, I did. Broken record, broken record...... Sooooooooo many reasons for early chcik death....... disease, disturbances (including mice, cats, whatever), toxins (in environment or food sources), difficult hatchings, stupid hens, cocks that get into the nest and kick eggs and chicks around, hens not feeding chicks, large size differences in the nest, blood mites (suck the life out of small chicks).... etc, etc, etc.

Its a boy.

Why I have a BIG HUNGRY german shepherd! Plus several whippets (but they like inviting people in to steal things :rofl:).

Mice can also disturb nesting hens causing them to sit badly or abandon nests altogether. Other disturbances at night due to outdoor environment (cats, dogs, owls etc) can also affect this. Sooooooooo many reasons for early chcik death....... disease, disturbances, toxins (in environment or food sources), difficult hatchings, stupid hens, cocks that get into the nest and kick eggs and chicks around, hens not feeding chicks, large size differences in the nest, blood mites (suck the life out of small chicks).... etc, etc, etc.

Alpaca boy is correct Dad must be split for cinnamon and both dad and mum are split for blue. Dad is definitely dilute and as visual dilute cannot carry any greywing genes.

Hey Garret! So good to hear of kids with spunk these days but sorry to hear that she (and you too) had to learn a hard lesson. Pet shops are there for one thing - to make money for the pet shop owner! Although she is not talking show budgie breeding, it might pay to find a local budgerigar or avicultural club and attend so that both her and yourselves can meet like minded people as well as find a source for information and help. You never know, she might want to join the wide world of exhibition budgie nuts - it's a rewarding hobby!

There are many reasons why chicks die in the nest. Newborns not being fed, too many in nest of different sizes as clearwing stated, disease, poor mothering (crappy hens or disturbances in the night) causing chilling, diseases from yellow belly to psittacosis and french moult. I would lose probably somewhere around the same as clearwing but I have not actually ever analysed it - probably should....... **** Kaz, hope hubby is not too bad. Give him our regards and wish him a speedy recovery from us!

Its not exactly normal and in chicks often disappears. But I have a certain line of birds from a breeder who shall remain unmentioned whose birds even as adults often carry barring above the butt of their wing as your yongster does. It's one of the ways (along with looks) that I can recognise this very well known breeders birds. I even noticed it on a bird of theirs at last years nats.

O.M.G. as in Oh My God!

Opaline Spangle Grey Green Hen Yellow Opaline Lacewing Cock Normal Grey Cock Yellowfaced Skyblue

No actually I didn't think at all - that was the problem. As I said, just a brain fart - it happens to us old ducks now and then :rofl:

Another greywing or a split greywing would be best but even a clearwing or a dilute would give you greywing babies.

Yellow faced mauve opaline greywing! Very pretty.

okay here goes my very last post in this thread. It's been a rewarding breeding season and I'm looking forward to 2010/2011 with excitement. The only poor results have been my fallows with only a couple of splits bred and a couple of half mutant semi-********* chicks at that. I need a restart for this variety or a long rethink on where to go with it if at all. Otherwise I'm really happy with how my planned pairings have worked out. So the very last ones are my BESs. The first 3 are older chicks and I only initially put down one pair. In the last round I paired up 2 pairs one for colour preference and one split. The colour pair bred 4 chicks and the split pair only hatched one but quite a nice little on at that with good feather for a BES. Of the first 3, 2 are big birds like their mother (5th place at Busso bought at auction) and one is smaller. The 2 big chicks will be really useful in the breeding program but the hen is a bit strongly coloured. Breeding these things is a lot like clearwings, I've decided. You breed for good clear colour and few markings and down goes the size. Try to upsize and you bring back the body colour and the wing markings taking the birds closer to the raw cinnamon dilute rather than the selected clean BES. Why on earth I started with BOTH clearwings and BESs is beyond me but more or a reason to drop fallows now maybe...... This and the bird below are the same. This is one of the large BES from the first round. He's nice with good size and colour and not too heavily marked. The next two birds are the same. Again one of the big chicks. Too much colour and slightly heavier markings but will still make a useful stock bird. This is the one chick from the split to BES pairing. Great feather but already you can see the heavy body colouring so she'll end up closer to dilute than BES. She is fully cinnamon but obviously without some of the colour and marking modifyers that better coloured and less marked birds have. These next 4 were from a pairing chosen for me by RIP for best colour and although small birds, they do have good colour and should not be too heavily marked. So that's it. Thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoyed this thread!

Oops sorry! No Ratzy you are 100% right! Just had a brain fart is all ignore me.... Opaline on it's own I mean........ sorry for the confusion.

All three are really nice Kaz! Frans a bit dumpy though Oops I mean Frannie ........ snh snh snh

Looks like it but cinnamon and opaline together dilute out body colour so she might just be cobalt - but I would go with skyblue if I had to back one or the other.

My young birds often stress drop tails at weaning but have never stress dropped flights or other feathers. If flights are all still nice, tight and present and correct I would not suspect FM. Anyway USUALLY FM affects fledging chicks that are still in the nest. Tail feathers should grow back just fine.

Awwwww! Ratzy they are really cute and it looks like dad is a cobalt not a skyblue - just as you said. The only way he and Marigold could have the little monster Thimble (who is a mauve (can't be grey as neither mum or dad are)) is if both Skye and Marigold have a dark factor! Marigold is definitely a dark green so Skye must be "Cobalt" not Skye

A green bird carrying violet would also have a violet coloured cheek patch compared with the bird pictured which has a steely blue/grey cheek patch indicating that the bird is a grey green. Nice hen! A good pickup there!

Good luck! It does sound like canker rather than mega what with the wetness and froth. Try and learn how to crop needle as canker basically blocks up the eosophagus and the act of crop needling canker affected birds can often help to dislodge some of the white protazoal buildup. Also allows you to apply medication immediately rather than waiting for a bird to uptake it via water. Budgies being non-obligate drinkers can make this hit and miss. Hope she is okay.

Excellent thread Robyn! Great to see the before/after and chickie results and if I see this in my aviary I will know what to try.