nubbly5

Just as Kaz says!

One of them looks to be opaline but need a picture of the wing markings for full confirmation.

Bummer Nerwen! I was thinking you could pair it with a pink face and get purple faces! Now I'm disappointed.

Yep grey and not a spangle. Think she is wuite young. Looks like she's just been through her first moult judging by her cere, still patchy head striations (some young feathers still in there and they are slightly lighter than adult feathers) and iris rings but what that means in actual age..... maybe 4-6 months old but I'm guessing.

Thanks Jeff! The competition wasn't that tough this year though and the proof will be in the pudding at the Nats as it always is for little old WA! Sorry but not being in the IN crowd anymore and not having ANY results read out at the selections I'm not sure how many of yours are going..... Good luck with yours too. I enjoyed the judging as well - definitely found myself on your side re: that nice danish pied grey - would have liked to have seen it on the bench just to SEE what the outcome would have been. Kaz for me: 1 green 1 blue 1 grey 3 BES 3 lacewing 1 clearwing 1 hen in the name of G&G House

WHAT???? Dr Zhivargo or the Nats..................? Hmmmm not sure what I'd choose Good luck everyone. It's getting close now! For me it's even more exciting having birds in and NOT being there. Just imagining all the prep work going on and everyone flying in to the event and how the birds will go..... oooooooh all exciting!

Nice albino there moglet and Percy is a fantastic name!

Good job you convinced him that the baby needed a vet! Well Done. And good on him for taking the poor little thing to the vet too! All the best of luck that the little guy pulls through.

Probably too late! Even a day without food for budgies is pretty critical.

Sky Dom pied YF Sky Dom pied Light Green Dilute Light Green Greywing YF Sky Opaline Dom Pied Normal Cobalt

We conducted our selection show yesterday and none of us noticed ANY issues with the perches either way really. The bigger perches didn't seem to promote toes forward anymore than the smaller ones (we made an effort to look closely at this as we went around). Just an interesting aside.

Might be the frosting throwing you there Ratzy. She's not a TBC but maybe a dutch pied???? Although I'm definitely not the expert there. In preference and because I'm not really sure I stuck with rec pied in my initial reply. The markings on upper wings are much darker on TCB's with frosting appearing closer to the flights. Also body colour would be reduced or would be suffused closer to the rump.

Yep I have a lot of larger perches in the aviary and it does seem that these promote even more lazy use of that little toe, causing it to slip even more forward. My preference now (if I had it over again) would be to have all natural branches including all the little sticks as the birds seem to get much better exercise of that toe by gripping onto tiny branches. The only issue I have with these are the little sticks sometimes hang birds up the the leg ring but hanging them pointing down has fixed that problem.

Well all depends on what the birds might be split for. If cosmo is split for blue then you have a 50% chance of blue babies, if not - all green/blue. If comso is split for opaline then you'll get some opaline cocks and hens, if not then all cocks will be split for opaline (from sparkles). If comso is split for recessive pied then you have 50% chance of recessive pied and as he is a dominant pied you have 50% chance of dominant pied. So IF he is split for rec pied then you have the chance for some combo pieds. All the babies will be light green or skyblue (if cosmo split for blue) - no dark factors. Other splits are possible too with cinnamon being a strong possibility - you'll get cinnamon hens if cosmo is split for cinnamon. If your birds were not split for anything at all the results would be: All light green split for blue. 50% chance of dominant pied 50% chance of normals. All split for recessive pied.

Graceful??????? really?????? if you call that graceful That's a freaking joke! You could of just said I was wrong did not have to put it as I know nothing I do NOT see suffusion a lot here, Maybe you guys in other countries do BUT here in my area NO it is NOT COMMON! its hardly ever seen Maybe we are better at breeding i don't know but I'm gone so it doesn't really matter and I've never been 100% wrong I work extremely hard to know the mutations, and the genetics and how they work If i'm not 100% sure I say so I use the words such as "think" "looks like" Etc etc etc so you all have fun and do what ever it is you do i'm sick of the degrading and rudeness Plus it takes forever to get a reply I'd hate to see when some one posts about a hurt bird and it takes them 2 weeks to get a response Gee THAT was graceful K&M So now you are having a crack at the whole forum and all it's members too? Sometimes we all disagree and some people can express that better than others - nice to live and let live sometimes, don't you think?!

The authorities are involved RMM but they are hamstrung by limited animal cruelty laws. Prosecutions and shut downs have occurred for one big puppy farm and an application for it to be re-opened was denied by local council. And after MANY years of working in agriculture I know about PETA and have experienced the stupidly destructive and ill-informed side of extremist animal liberation groups on a personal level. As I said before I don't support them but I support animal welfare as a general principal - okay?!!! You might find one or two of my posts about PETA here from myself if you looked and my feelings are the same as yours but it's not much point just bagging them if you end up sticking your head in the sand over obvious cruelty issues just because they are involved. I do see your point with the designer dogs. In NSW there is a glut of maltese. They are not terriers so I will not call them that. I do not blame the the guy for promoting a product. Personally I think the dogs are great. I blame the puppy farmers and the people who buy them from there. In the western world we take people off the visual medium way too seriously. I mean, if someone tweets famous tweets that they like something, sales soar. I heard that some of the young Hollywood A Listers get $10,000 for tweeting a product name. Good work if you can get it. I always laugh when an actor/actress wins golden globe or oscar for their brilliant performance, they get up on stage to receive their award, then they stumble and um and ah through the whole thing like a novice. The author of the articles in question is a person who had a fantastic knowledge of plants and has bred budgies for many years. As for his designer dogs on the show, vets appear on those shows and talk about breeds, so it is not like the shows host himself "road tested" a dog, but the vet who works on the show did. Sometimes I might disagree with Dr Harry but I respect his opinion as a vet. Here is a similar cicumstance. If the carpenter builds something and recommends something on Better Homes and Gardens and there is a negative social aspect that occurs due to his recommendation, I do not blame Jo Griggs as she hosts the show. I kind of think you are blaming the wrong person here and not remembering a show from many years ago with as well as it might be remembered. I agree that people buying the dogs from pet shops are driving demand and the puppy farmers have the wealth of the blame for actual conditions the poor critters are kept in but the fad started somewhere and he was a very strong promoter - I was a crazy watcher of the program as I loved it but okay sure a few years have passed since! None the less here he is defending designer dogs and the way they are produced (as you would if you were a major proponent of them in the first place I suppose) http://www.burkesbackyard.com.au/factsheets/Dogs/Designer-dogs/1391 And here is a today tonight article about them stating that our mate WAS one of the first to promote the first of the designer dogs the labradoodle in Aus http://au.todaytonight.yahoo.com/article/41259/lifestyle/designer-dogs%5D Anyway thanks for the discussion and for getting my point about media and people in the media and what the general public perceives about what they have to say.

Yep my right to rant and your right to disagree. He WAS the first to promote the "designer dog" and I bet if he promoted special designer budgies and the general public took to it like they have the the designer dog craze, there would be some shonk out there taking advantage of that too - as with puppy farming. Anyway Dave it's not the churning out of birds, dogs or whatever it's the CONDITIONS that these animals are subjected to whilst they are churning out salable items and I don't think it would have happened to the same extent as it has had he not promoted designer dogs in the manner that he did. Obviously he is not directly responsible for the conditions the dogs are kept in but he IS responsible for a substantial amount of the public demand for these dogs. We all make momentus stuff ups at times and I'd say this was one of his! Sure he probably didn't foresee the end result but it just brings about another point - the responsibility that people hold if they are in the public eye. Makes not a jot of difference if he is a NICE man or not really. I still find it interesting that his information is somehow "more credible" than some other sources? For what reason? Because he is TV personality? Now maybe if he had a degree in genetics and had published many research article that were peer reviewed there would be some reason for it.

Yes it's a liberation site but having known a number of supposedly "registered" breeders who treat their dogs in this manner, I don't doubt the footage one bit. It's a bit hard to fabricate some of the chronic conditions that these dogs were suffering. The eye infections, matted coats, filthy conditions and mental disturbances are not something that is so easily faked. When the almighty dollar calls, some people will do anything. It's not PETA by the way it's a group called Animal Liberation Victoria - don't know if they are affiliated to PETA and don't really care one way or the other. I definitely do not support PETA or any other EXTREMIST animal liberation group and I don't agree with their tactics or their motives. HOWEVER I also DO NOT support the EXPLOITATION of animals in such a way that causes obvious pain and suffering to those animals and you'd be pretty brutal to say that the conditions that these dogs live in is not cruel. I'm also not taken by emotion rubbish but these puppy farms are a fact, just do a bit of research. AND they are a direct result of stupid promotion by TV personalities who for some reason seem to be attributed with more credibility that the rest of us- which was my point in the first place.

I wouldn't put too much stock on seeing them mate. They can be shifty little fella's! Seems that at least she is attracted to the more vibrant males - a good sign. A more lively male is always a good thing no matter what hen you are using.

Sorry Rmm I couldn't remember but Splat's onto it. Also to be eligible for the Nationals you must be a member of a club that is affiliated with the ANBC (via their state body) and each bird must be owner bred and carry the current years specially coded leg ring. The Nats are a unique competition in the world. It is basically a competition to find THE BEST bird in the country for that year in each recognised variety. As Splat said, there is no distinction between Nov,Int etc etc. Just the birds. Makes it sweeter as a Novice when you get birds selected.

What do you call a man with no arms and no legs swimming across the English Channel? Clever D*ck

Just working back through this thread to see the fireworks and came across this. Sorry RATEMYMATE aren't we talking about your YF (or golden face) baby here. A number of people pointed out that it might be a YF, right? That gives you a yellow bird from 2 blue series birds (one of them must be a yf though (or a df yellow face). Or are you talking about a different bird now. I'm all confused!

HAHAHA have a look at my off-topic "rant" about TV personalities!

Hey GB even I had to say it twice!!! I wouldn't be much of a judge if I couldn't pick a DF spangle - heavily suffused or not - in fact the suffusion makes it easier to tell in certain circumstances (especially the distribution of the suffusion in DF's). Mutation discussions are very interesting in my opinion but people do have a tendency to want to pigeon hole birds based on what they think they see, not remembering that there can be so much variation in the single variety. As we have seen DF spangles can be really heavily suffused and can even carry what appears to be light wing markings. Albinos too. This doesn't mean that they are not DF's or Albinos, just that they are an extreme example of a bird of that variety. Also just because they don't exactly meet a MAN-MADE standard doesn't mean they are not that variety, just maybe a poor example according to what we humans aim to breed for in the variety. A bit of perspective on this is helpful for everyone.