nubbly5

Looking good Shannon! Exciting times moving into new facilities.

Dave and I will be driving all that way with the team so we will be definately proping up the bar when we get there... .... France and Germany... very nice and warm that time of year. Make sure you prop up the bar AFTER you get the team there though Hopefully Dave won't have a terrible illness again next year coz he managed to spread it around very well in a big open community centre - I imagine a few hours in the car would be no obtacle whatsoever!!!!!! I'll be thinking of you guys when the time comes.......... hehehe not!

Just to clarify A sex linked trait attaches to the X sex gene. In birds boys are XX and girls are XY (other way around for mammals). Both Opaline and Albino are sex linked but recessive to normal. For a male bird to appear as opaline he needs 2 oplaine genes (one for each x sex gene) whereas a female bird only requires one opaline gene (as she only has one X sex gene for it to attach to). For a normal split opaline cock pairing to a normal hen (assuming the Albino is not masking anything) then the breeding outcomes are: 25% Normal/Opaline Cocks 25% Normal/Albino Cocks 25% Opaline Hens 25% Normal Hens As far as being split for albino again because it is a sex linked gene that attaches to the X sex gene - cocks have 2 and hens only 1 so cocks can be split for albino but hens cannot. For ANY sex linked trait hens are either visual or they do not have that gene at all. As for the opaline. If you breed a split with a normal hen you will get: 25% Normal cocks 25% Normal split Ino cocks 25% Ino hens 25% Normal hens Dave it's not until you put an Ino cock to a normal hen that all the hens will be ino - as the only X genes that the cock has to give to the hen carry the ino gene.

Bit of a generalisation don't you think? A friend of mind has a full blown bird phobia. If she see's a bird she is in mortal fear of it understandably she hates them.

Lovely Greywings with great feather Kaz and so nice to see Lin's efforts put to some good use. I think you might be representing WA with these little guys.

Breeding over warmer months is good but that means Vit D production over winter is limited so maybe breeding in winter is better as the birds have had a chance to store some calcium and Vit D over summer. Dunno. I have always used breeding aid on my seed for breeding budgies and I see that has substantial levels of Vit D3 maybe by adding more in the form of soluvite d I'm taking a bit of a risk..........?

Just a little note folks - excess Vitamin D can cause toxicity. Another little note - apparently due to Vitamin D being a fat soluble vitamin it is very hard to supplement via water - so what gives with Soluvet D being disolved in water...............?

This is the sort of thing that bothers me.......... Vitamin D IN BIRDS & MAMMALS How Much Vitamin D Should My Pet Receive? Ron Hines DVM PhD Adding vitamin D to the diets of pets is always risky when those commercial diets already contain correct amounts of Vitamin D. This is because too much vitamin D is as bad or worse than not enough. Vitamin D (also known as cholecalciferol in it’s D3 form) is required for the intestines to absorb calcium to regulate important blood calcium levels and to produce and remodel bone. People, cows, horses, and pigs and people can synthesize their own vitamin D from dietary lipids of animal or plant origin, if their skin is exposed to natural sunlight. Too little vitamin D, the wrong kind of it, not enough natural sunlight, inadequate calcium or inappropriate calcium to phosphorus ratio in the diet cause a disease called rickets. Dogs and cats cannot synthesize vitamin D-3; in the wild they would obtain it by eating prey so it is added to all their complete commercial pet foods. Parrot-like birds appear to do well with about 600 iu of vitamin D3 per pound of dry pelleted diet fed – slightly higher , with increased calcium when they are laying eggs. In the bird species studied, none were able to utilize vitamin D2. I seem to recall that the human recommended daily allowance of vitamin D is about 400iu**. To the best of my knowledge, all commercial pelleted avian diets contain added vitamin D3 in similar amounts. It is a fat-soluble vitamin, so it persists in the body and can not be added to the bird’s water effectively. Signs of too little or a bit too much vitamin D can take considerable time to show themselves because it is stored for long periods in the body’s fat. As I said previously, birds seem to only absorb vitamin D3 whereas people can absorb or synthesize vitamin D2 & D3. Vitamin D is added to milk, marketed in the United States, as irradiated ergosterol. The problem with vitamin D is that in high doses it can be very toxic. It can cause hypercalcemia (too much calcium in the blood) which affects the heart, other organs and will cause liver toxicosis. In fact, some rat baits are just vitamin D analogues although most are Warfarin-based anti-clotting agents. It causes me fits in iguanas where it is involved in metastatic (wrong place) calcification of the kidneys. Overdoses can do this to birds as well. At 3-5 times the required amount, vitamin D3 can cause calcification of the kidneys and stomach (proventriculus) of birds and gout in mature birds – probably due to kidney damage. You can get that high if you feed your birds a lot of egg yolk, or certain fish oil supplements in addition to their regular diet. Vitamin D/Calcium/sunlight problems cause me fits in iguanas when it causes calcification of the kidneys. In birds of prey, therapy has been suggested at 1,000iu/300gm/wk. Macaw and parrot chicks seem most susceptible to D3 overdose which at four time the recommended dose causes calcification of the kidneys and stomach and in mature birds leads to gout through kidney damage. So don’t go overboard with vitamin supplements – feed a name-brand, complete pelleted diet instead! Many are available through our web page. I have read scientific articles that claim that cruciferous vegetables - cauliflower and broccoli contain oxalic acid, which combines with dietary calcium as insoluble calcium oxalates. Macaws and parrots can synthesize their own vitamin D3 if they receive plant lipids in their diet and natural sunshine. So it’s all very complicated and poorly understood because so many things are interacting – I have only mentioned a few.

You'll have to have a drink for me Daz coz I won't be making it to Rocky next year unfortunately........ will actually be sailing around canals in France & Germany at that time so you'll have to hold up the bar without me ..........

Dunno Renee but I'm willing to give it a go in the breeding pairs to see if I can see any differences. My thoughts however are that my birds get good access to direct sunlight (IF they want it) for a good part of the year but I'm not sure how long natural body reserves of Vit D hang around in birds. Also it is a fat soluble vitamin so is not readily expelled from the body as water soluble vitamins. The exact dose that causes toxicity in humans is not know so tell me what the dose needed to cause toxicity in birds is????????????? So I assume there is some chance of overdosing with this product but how much of one I wouldn't know. I'm assuming there is some research somewhere that indicates daily nutrient requirements for budgies in regards to Vit D but maybe this has just been extrapolated from other bird data. Also in other animals such as rats Vit D is obtained primarily through diet not sunlight. We manufacture Vit D in skin - I would have thought there isn't that much skin on budgies exposed to the sun (maybe same as rats perhaps) so do they ACTUALLY product vit D in their skin too or are we assuming because humans do that birds do too???????? Too many unknowns and unprovens for me to really be a convert but I'm willing to give it a bash.

Thanks Renee Yes I have 2 whirly birds both in the breeding room and yes the breeze through the door and out the shutters (or visa versa depending on the prevailing wind) blows SOME of the feather dust out. Yes I have concrete floors - they are cleaned generally every week - scraped with a floor scraper I bought at Bunnings, swept and then the corners and crannies vacuumed. Feather dust gets vacuumed off the tops of breeding cabinets irregularly, whenever I think about it really. Lighting is from skylights all down the length of the aviary (if you look at the top pick you can see them on the edge of the roof), when the shutters are open (whenever weather is not disgusting) the birds get direct sunlight. I also have plain fluro's in both breeding room and main aviary but only use these occasionally for my benefit not the birds - usually they stay off and no - never tried Archadia lighting. The breeding room gets sunlight in the morning through the entry door but not much.

1 gene of spangle (or the normal spangles we see) reduces marking pigment in wing by around half, leaving thin lines of marking that we recognise as spangle markings, whilst having no effect on body colour. In the double factor spangle (2 spangle genes) it removes pigment almost totally from the whole body of the bird - sometimes leaving backgroung pigment patches on the body but not always. Exhibition breeders try to select for those birds that do not carry body colour patches (or suffusion as we call it).

If you treat all birds with Ivermectin at the same time and then again in 3 weeks time you should be able to erradicate the mite. It will generally then come back in on a new budgie.

She is definitely an opaline spangle. The body colour on the wings and the fine head markings are 100% opaline. But she still does have nice spangle markings - one of those opaline spangles where the black markings are not completely replaced by body colour. Grey green I'd say Libby - cheek patches more steel blue than the violet of dark green or olive.

Thanks Guys. Fingers crossed for a reasonable season this year. The short ring year and breeding stacks of clearwings and blackeyes but not many normals left me feeling unfulfilled!!!! Splat the kitty litter I use is just a natural attapulgite - the brand is Fussy Cat but whatever attapulgite would work I assume. Some of the birds do chew on it initially but none have had problems ever (been using it for 4-5 years) and they stop eating it within a day or so (maybe the novelty wears off). Some people I have spoken too also use attapulgite under nest bedding but I don't like to dry the nest out when there are eggs present as they need a reasonable humidity to hatch properly. If the nest gets sweaty with chick in, then I use attapulgite under the pine shavings and this keeps things nice and dry.

Small dents can be repaired by nail polish (or as Kaz says liquid paper but I've not tried that). So long as it's only a small dent and not a crack right through the membrane inside the shell the egg should be fine - SO LONG AS it was not far along the growing phase and has been chilled to the point of killing the embryo. If a newish egg is thrown out it still has a good chance of hatching even if it has been chilled for quite a while but if an almost finished (don't know how else to say this) egg is thrown out and chills for too long the chick inside will die anyway.

A green or grey green bird breeding greys or blues MUST be split blue or am I reading this wrong?

Very nice Dave. The YF is lovely. Does one of the opaline grey babies have a weepy eye? Might need the feathers trimmed....... And not trying to be picky here but is the egg in the last photo slightly dented? If so often nail polish on the dent will ensure that air does not get in that site and cause the egg to addle.

Kaz asked me about the shutter system I have on my aviary. We have a 6m x 12m purpose built tin shed as a combined aviary and bird room. On entering the front door you walk straight into our 3m x 6m bird room and adjoining that (in the samd shed but seperated by tin wall with mesh top) are my 6 1.5m x 6m flights (they go across the shed). Each flight has half wall shutters on both sides of the shed so in 40 degree heat I can open both sides to allow breeze flow. 90% of the time the shutters on the Northern side of the aviary stay open except in foul weather. A little rain is fine and the birdies love it but when the wind blows and the rain comes down we shut up completely. Here are some pics. This is looking from the western end of the aviary down the northern side (the southern side is identical). You can see at the far end the area without shuttering - this is my bird room. Each shutter opens for each flight seperately. You can have all open or one open or as many as you choose. I often leave the baby flight closed as they have a tendency to sleep on the wire at night and become a target for owls whereas the adults don't seem to have this problem. The aviary was closed up over the last few days as those in Western Australia will know about the horrid weather we have been having. The black stripping is when the hinges are. We used rubber belting fastened by metal strap. This still allows the hinge to operate whilst keeping the water out. I opened a shutter for demonstration. The aviary is made from patio tubing and the shutter frame is no exception. Grant (hubby) welded the frame first then mounted and cut the tim so that the hinge would open and the non-hinge side would overlap the other tin forming a water tight closure. This is why the shutters also seem to open in a strange fashion (not all in the same direction if you look carefully at the photo above!) Looking directly into the flight. If the opposite shutter were open you would be able to see straight through the middle of the aviary. Close up of the rubber belting and fixings to keep the hinge side of the shutters water tight. The shutters are kept open by a simple steel strap with lugs welded either end which fit into holes drilled in bothe the patio tube of the shutter frame and the aviary itself. They are kept closed by a simple pin and r-clip system. I adore the shutter system we designed. It is simple and very effective allowing for a variety of climatic conditions.

OMG, that IS gorgeous! Birdie Haven for sure.

okay a close-ish up picture of my cleaned and semi-prepped cabinet. I use kitty litter on the floor to absorb moist poops and scoop them out. Otherwise litter stays in until the end of the round. Pine shavings in the nest box, within the nest box. You can see the ventilation holes at the top right of the nest box. There are also holes along the back of the nest box at the bottom and the inside box has little runners to lift it off the floor and allow some ventilation underneath the box itself. Pair 1 installed! You can see the runners on the bottom of the nest box and the doors close leaving a gap at the bottom to allow ventilation. Very bsic record card has pair ID top left, date in cabinet (under dog clip), cabinet number top right, then 3 columns - Eggs, Chicks, Ring No - I enter and egg/chick swaps onto the card itself then do a reccy as chick fledge and get put into the nappy cages.

Don't give him an ugly one silly... goodness me I laughed so much I almost weed myself. Try him with a better looking one Renee! On a more serious note. I had to banish a beautiful sky cock into the hens flight for over 12 months before he figured he was "into girls" enough to stop trying to chat up the boys in the adjoining flight. I now do that with the more timid fellas - they soon get over their fear of girl germs.

Both YF's.

Well all my pairs are down now. A couple more steps that I didn't mention. Clip sharp points off toenails. Trim feathers around vent. Put birds in cabinet. Will post pics soon.

Still think it's a hen. But there is always room for getting it wrong Great photo Kate - boy or girl - she/he is a gorgeous babie budgie!!!!