nubbly5

Yes professionals should treat their clients/patients professionally as should the client treat their medico or vet professionally too. If the client is not being professional or respectful then I don't see how it is fair to complain. You must give respect in order to gain it. Totally agree 100% If you're going to behave like a goose, then you can't expect to be treated like a swan! True however, many a time I've been treated like an inconvenience rather than a valued customer. It seems all too common for professionals to treat their customers poorly - maybe the rest of us just aren't high enough up on the food chain for them to consider anything other than a cash cow (and an annoyingly demanding one at that). I've finally found a skilled vet for my dogs, sheep and horses who will actually answer my questions and properly explain their recommendations without making it blatantly obvious that I'm too dumb and too annoying to waste their time on!

It's interesting how much different the birds look on photo. The pick for me (and others I spoke to) was 1st place Cinnamonwing. Many commented that IF there had been a Grand Champion prize then this bird would have taken it out. Personally, I would have given a body part for that bird, he was MAGNIFICENT....... Another I liked in the flesh were the Hens winner but to be honest nothing else grabbed my attention as much as that Cinnamon.

This is a very personal thing actually. I use: Calcivet - Vetafarm - calcium supplement Breeding Aid - Vetafarm - amino acid and fatty acid supplement Psittavet (vet only) - Vetafarm - psittacosis treatment Moxi - T (vet only) - Rob Marshall - broad spectrum anitbiotic for emergency treatments Ronnivet (vet only) - Vetafarm - canker treatment Soluvet Plus - Vetafarm - Water soluble vit/min/iodine supplement - I will probably change to the new Soluvet with vit D once this batch finished Ivomec Pour-On for Cattle (or similar generic) - Merial (Norbrook and Bayer also make generics) - via rural merchandise store Budgie Starter - soft food mix Hand Rearing Mix - Emergency crop feeding of youngsters Calicium/iodine blocks - pet shop or club purchased Others as you can see from Pearce's post use different products for the same things and some leave out stuff like soft food mixes, soluble vitamins etc. Generally over time you will find a system and the products that work for you and your birds but as a minimum if you have a reasonable sized flock I would have - Psittacosis treatment 1x per year Canker treatment at least 1x per year Wormer of some description Lice and mite treatment Calcium supplement for breeding birds Broad spectrum anitbiotic for emergency treatments Cuttlebone or calcium blocks for flights Hey Pearce. Why do you use Ivomec Spot-On treatement AND Wormout Gel? Ivomec Spot-On treatment does mites,lice AND worms.

I don't pair up until September and it's always a bugger going to the Nat's coz I get all excited about selecting pairs etc and then have to wait.......... I end up writing down my pairs and having everything ready to go well before my pair up date.

Opaline normal wing as opposed to the Opaline AOSV I would guess.

I'm back and I'm SHAGGED!!!!!! Dave ganzer gave me a hello kiss and his swine flu so now I'm all sniffly and horrible. Tassie was fantastic and the whole show ran like a dream for them with a top venue (so jealous) and great feedback on the live streaming. I'm almost sad I was actually there and missed out on seeing that. I spent too much money on Rosalia Rafferty's beautiful budgie paintings and other sundry budgie stuff as well as just a little bit of alcohol . The Dom Pied of Jeff's that was DQ'ed was sitting in 1st for a long time before the judges decided to DQ it. When selected this bird was moved and at the time put it's toes back well enough, even on the day our carer's did the same to make sure but the judges didn't move the bird (within the cage with a judges stick) to see if it would put the toes back. This was what was done last year to give the birds every chance so I'm not sure why they did not do this - even Henry George made comment that they had not move the bird. The stand out bird of the weekend (IMO & others too) was Hanno's absolutely magnificent cinnamonwing. This would have to be the most lovely, most complete bird I have ever seen. I was very happy with my lovely LW boy's 3rd place and my fallows 6th place (even beating the king himself Hanno in this class) as I've struggled to breed this tricky variety for 5 years now and started with 1 fallow cock and a split from Hanno and built up from there. Other placings were a 10th in greens, 13th in gr greens, 13th in blues (at least I'm consistent), 11th in clearwings and a 12th with my other (not fallow) lacewing - god I'm tired........

Have had varying birds with these feathers and seen many others. It does seem to be from stress or sometimes feathers not returning to normal to position after handling. Most resolve normally. I have never had a bird with this where the feathers did not return to normal after a time. Bottom is a clearwing dark green. It could be split blue and/or slpit dilute. okay if it's straight clearwing dk green - paired to a normal blue you would get: 100% normal greens, split blue, split clearwing. If it's split blue you could get: 50% chance normal green, split for blue, split for clearwing; 50% blue split for clearwing. If it's split for blue AND dilute you could get: 50% chance normals split for clearwing. 50% chance normals split for dilute. which have 50% chance being green split for blue and 50% blue.

Safe travels to you and the birds.

Did you tell me that before ??? Oh Yes but this time I QUALIFIED my statement....... You'll all know me from the red hair.

You'll find me at the bar! There all weekend and Monday. edit: gee that sounds like I'm a pisshead...... I meant to say I'll be at the show on the weekend and will be around Monday too.

Yep getting birds selected here is not so hard it's the results at the Nats themselves that then tell the tale. I am always be extatic when WA gets birds in the top row (top 7) and to personally to get a 4th last year nearly made me wee

Cinnamon describes the wing and head markings. Normal budgies have black wing and zebra markings on head. In cinnamons these black markings are brown (or cinnamon coloured). Looking at that picture, she again appears not to be grey green. The violet cheek patches indicate that she is not grey - greys (or grey green) have a steele blue coloured cheek patch. And the virbant yellow on her face sort of indicates that she might be goldenface but maybe, just maybe she is cinnamon opaline olive....... How long have you had her? Did you have her as a baby?

How many are involved in selecting the team for the National nubbly. Not sure how many were benched - Kaz might know as she was show sec for the day

How does this differ from my vet giving me little viles of medication for my birds? I have seen them pull out the BIG container and then fill my little bottle, put a sticker on it and give it to me Vets are legally allowed to dispense products (same as chemists). The little labels on the bottles have specific requirements to make sure everything is kosher.

After commenting that my show team was not as strong as in previous years G&G Stud ended up with 9 selected. Probably lots as reserves (not sure as I didn't watch the actual judging and we just select 3 birds without giving them a first second or third). The best I've done previously was 3 last year and it was the first time I'd actually got birds on the bench.

Tell that to the billion and one farmers that do it regularly and often. And then try and get either the Health Dept or the APVMA to do something about it - HAH! They will not even deal with vets who prescribe from their office chair and then send drugs out on trucks to farmers without ever seeing the farm, the animals or anything...... it's a farce. Unless you are a soft target of course

He is cinnamon skyblue She is cinnamon opaline - either golden face mauve or cobalt OR grey green - can't tell properly but the violet coloured cheek patch in the photo would indicate not grey green. So all chicks will be cinnamon. IF cock is split opaline then half hens will be opaline cinnamon half normal cinnamon. Half the cocks opaline cinnamon and half normal cinnamon split for opaline. IF he is not split for opaline then all cocks will be split for opaline and all hens will be normal. IF the hen is YF then all chicks will be blue with 50% chance of YF but if she is grey green then she needs to be split blue for a 50% chance of blue chicks otherwise all chicks will be green/blue. IF the hen is dark factored either cobalt or mauve. Cobalt will give 50% chance of single dark factors, Mauve will give 100% chance of single dark factors. IF she is (single factor) grey green then 50% chance of grey/grey green. IF she is (double factor) grey green the 100% chance of grey/grey green. Can you give me a better picture of lady or tell me if she is YF or grey green......

Well I would assume clear would be a problem as that would indicate no swimmers at all I would guess. White or creamy coloured (no smart remarks). I've found colour ranges from a darker colour to a creme white.

Maesie reminded me of something I was going to say but forgot about. Vets have a legal requirement to "know" their customer before perscribing vet script only products to people. That would mean a consult for your bird BEFORE they will allow perscription drugs to be sold and TECHNICALLY (even though Ivomec Pour-On for Cattle can be purchased over the counter at rural merchandise stores) when products are registered for animals different to that being treated (cattle v's budgies) they become S4 vet script only drugs. As far as the vet is concerned it is illegal for him to sell you Ivomec for Cattle if he knows it's for a budgie without first seeing the patient. Also TECHNICALLY, it's against whatever state dept regulates ag chemicals in your state, for you to actually USE Ivomec Pour-On for Cattle on a budgie even though you can buy it legally over the counter. The main issue is that the regulators believe that vets have the knowledge and understanding of chems and animals to be able to make the call on using a product differently to how it is actually registered but to you and me, average Joe Blow - we are too thick obviously. Really the BIG problems occur whan farmers use drugs and chemicals contrary to label registrations on food or fibre producting animals so the risk of residue becomes a major concern. Renee, why should we have to be diplomatic when being treated poorly. Just coz they are a vet does mean that they should treat their customers badly, same with doctors, dentists and any other professional. Surely everyone has the right to be treated with respect (obviously bearing in mind that I wasn't there and maybe Paul might have been NASTY ). Edit: Sorry Chrysocome I didn't read far enough - exactly what you said.

I'm starting to worry about you WA girls!!! When you say sperm sample are you saying that if a cock produces a sample he is automatically fertile? or can the sample be readily analysed to determine fertility i.e. "are they firing blanks" I have a cock bird that is probably "dumb" but is a super bird in every other respects, 2005 bred and only 3 chicks. This particular bird seems too eager and doesnt know what to do. I really dont want to waste a breeding cage and hen if he is not going to produce chicks so i'm looking for an alternative. Heathrow, so far every cock bird I've obtained a sample from to use (not just to check fertility (to see if they have sperm in other words)) has been fertile. I'm sure that there can be fertility problems with cock birds that still produce a sample but I've not found one yet. It's way way way more common for a cock bird not to produce a sample at all. I have looked at birds sperm samples under the microscope and seen movement generally without actually being able to see the individual swimmers. Some samples are more motile than others but I have not found any that I've actually bothered to look at to be non moving. Mostly I don't bother checking anymore coz I've never been able to see anything that might help other than general movement. Sperm sample size of a budgie varies (and I can only go on the width of the capilliary tube of 1.5mm which is what I collect the samples into) with a good sample being around 2cm long and an average of around 1cm. In this form you can't keep it much longer that it takes to get from the cock to the hen as the sperm dies on contact with air. I have not heard of anyone experimenting with liquid nitrogen storage of budgie sperm. There's probably not enough commercial interest in budgie sperm to make it viable anyway...... Your 3 chick bird sounds like a good candidate for AI so long as he produces a reasonable sperm sample. Seeing as he has produced some chicks already you might assume he would be fertile.

Hey Dave How are those CW's going have any bred for you yet?

I'm with you Nerwen. I thought the second baby was opaline too. All will be blues, either sky or cobalt.

Yes you did...I have you on film :rofl: :doh:

Heeheehee, did I actually say "you can feel his nuts?"....... Anyway, you don't need much more than a male bird, a female bird and some capilliary tubes. I've been using AI on some of my birds for some time now (5 or 6 years or so I think) and have never needed all the extra lights, camera & action that's shown on Mario's DVD, although this is where I originally learnt how to AI birds. Heathrow, I use AI selectively and find that it's really useful for "dumb" cock birds that just don't mate well. Or if your birds has an injury that might prevent him from mating properly. As a specific example, I purchased a CW cock from auction that for the first 2 rounds didn't fill eggs (well I found out why he was sold!!!) but when I checked for sperm, I found he was fertile (produced a good sperm sample) so I used AI on him and have bred about 20 chicks from him over the last 2 years. So even after buying what would appear to be a dud, I've successfully bred from him. AND even more impotantly, a couple of his chicks that I used this year bred well and unassisted so he did not pass on his "dumb" genes. I also use AI techniques to see if cocks do or do not produce a sperm sample, if a bird is in great condition but consistantly does not produce a sperm sample I cull that bird. I would do this if the bird failed to fill eggs on the first round. You have to check more than a few times though as what Kaz said - cock birds can be intermittantly fertile. It's useful but not a silver bullet - just another technique that can be helpful.