nubbly5

Yep mice can be a real issue AND attract snakes unfortunately. Can be very seasonal. We get them come into the aviary at the end of summer when there is little native seed around and good food and shelter around in the aviary. We bait in the breeding room only (never had them die in the aviary proper either thankfully) and always have a "live" trap down. In the mouse season (as I call it) it's not uncommon for us to catch 4-5 mice a night in the live trap. Little buggers!

I would imagine the snake would be pretty scared of you too splat and has more reason for it than we do when you compare the death rates of human/dogs to snakes v's the other way around. We live on 5 rural acres, have had dugites (a poisonous WA snake) in the house, in the aviary, on our hay stack and on the road outside our house. We also have 7 dogs six of them whippets who will chase anything that moves. I've been lucky with one small dugite that one of our dogs tried to hunt. Mind you we have very well trained dogs and I was able to call her away immediately (pretty difficult if you know hunting whippets) and relocated the snake. I've only ever killed one snake on the property which was a large dugite inside the aviary which I could not get to remove itself. That was done with terrible regret and guilt at killing such a magnificent creature but couldn't be avoided. I've faced down a very angry Tiger snake when I moved it's home (a rubbish bin in a tyre) from over it's head to put my dog crate outside an on-site van I'd rented for the weekend in Albany. Sure he was pissed off and stood his ground as is more common with Tigers but eventually (with me staying out of range and pelting it with small gravel stones, he moved off to find a more secure place. Most snakes don't want anything to do with us or our dogs. Our dogs have never had their runs invaded by snakes (snakes are too wary for that) and the snakes will do everything in their power to find somewhere safe for themselves. If we keep them and our dogs out of the way then all is good and fine with the world (ours and the snakes). I do agree that dogs make crappy decisions about what is good to play with/hunt and that can be a real problem. Mostly though and as we have found out (7 dogs and all) that we can get along well enough.

How about leaving the snakes alone. Then they generally leave us alone too - unless they think that they have to fight for their lives - which, sadly is often the case around us humans.

ACV and oranges and lemons are all natural sources of acid. Megabacteria does not proliferate as much in an acid environment as it does if the gizzard environment is more neutral. Similar story with some other organisms. That's why it's promoted as a healthy option for budgies HOWEVER a too acid water/food source limits a birds ability to properly digest protein (I think it's protein.....or maybe it was vitamin E........ too long ago toproperly remember) as we found out when using KD Powder (a water acidifier) with our already fairly acid bore water which saw all of our budgies lose weight and not be able to gain weight properly. I still do feed oranges and lemons but don't worry about the ACV as our water (as I mentioned) is already quite acid.

Still really enjoying reading these posts GB! Don't you dare stop now. AND you were going to post up about your show results I believe...... hint hint

Pretty hard to tell particularly from pictures. Many blues and cobalts have a violet suffusion around the neck and rump without actually being violets. In the flesh they are easier to tell - cobalts blue is often patchy on the chest whereas violet skys are a more even colour on the chest. If you knew he parentage we could make a better guess or if you know some of his breeding results (if he has any). Otherwise it's possible he's either.

Mmmmmmm pies! Shepherds pieds!!! Harharharhar.....

Mega, cocci, respiratory issues, anything really. We'd just be guessing.....

Hey thanks for the offer GB and maybe next time round I'll take you up on that one!

okay my go is... White DF Spangle (yes a he). Opaline cobalt or Opaline Sky violet. Boy YF2 Skyblue greywing. Boy YF1 Skyblue Dom Pied. Boy Opaline Light Green. Girl Skyblue Opaline Greywing (possibly spangle too). Girl

Loving reading about your experiences GB! So many of us (me included) started from exactly the same place - buying pretty birds from the pet shop - so it's nice to hear the details of someone else's experiences. Keep going!

We call it one thing, others call it other things - gosh we do have a lot to worry about if this is what we are debating!!!!

It would be a brave breeder here in WA that says that anything is not split for cinnamon!!!!!

I so want to go and hubby said he will mind the shop BUT I really can't afford it this year! And I don't want to go to Victoria's one... toooooooo cold. Gonna wait until a warmer one is on offer again.

English budgie is what some people call the exhibition budgie coz mad poms spent all their time making them big and fluffy! Anything else is an American/Aussie/NZ/whatever else budgie!

Can I suggest that if you are interested in "quality" (meaning size, feathering etc I assume), then you get yourself to a budgie club and have a good look at what quality in a show budgerigar means. Ask some dumb questions of anyone who will give you some time. Realistically the best pairing for quality is always the best to the best - being careful not to double up on faults. Colour is always secondary - to a point. You have to understand the show matrix a bit to understand why breeders don't like to pair grey with lutino. The standard for lutino show budgies is a deep buttercup yellow and grey tends to affect the depth of the yellow so that is why they try not to do it BUT if the best bird you have is a lutino and the best complimentary hen you have is grey then it's silly breeding lesser quality birds together if there is a chance that the buttercup yellow might be somewhat affected. Personally, and I'm not trying to be rude or anything, in your situation I would breed for pretty birds as there is little to no reason why you should be trying to pair for show quality unless you are starting to get into showing budgies. Another reason to head down to your local club is to see if it's really something you want to do in the first place. So to answer your question - for quality I would pair the lutino to the grey spangle if he is the best bird you have available. You may end up with grey split for ino anyway if the hen is split for blue and then grey into albino lines helps to remove suffusion...... For pretty birds I'd go either the cobalt pied or the violet you should get some pieds in green or maybe even dark green - again the chance that the hen is split for blue might give you some blues, cobalts or violets and the cocks will be split for ino.

Well at first look at the thread I was thinking "Super Glue" - that's quite cheap........ But seriously - a good thread PJI and quite correct too. I also like GB's comments but would suggest that you don't need to be careful of birds that pull back their blow. If they actually blow at all that's a bonus. If they never blow their head feathers then I wouldn't touch them. Head feather blow is a trait I found very easy to breed into my stud and seems (from what I've experienced) to be quite heritable where as directional feather (or at least LONG directional feather) is nowhere near as heritable and much more easily lost when you work on other features.

If you wiped off the excess you probably wiped off some of the feathers too! It will take some weeks for them to regrow. So long as your bird is looking fit and healthy apart from his little bald patch all should be fine!

Clearbodies have black eyes as GB says and heavier wing markings than this girl. If the 2 are sisters I'd pitch at lacewings but considering the colony breeding AND the old switcheroo possibly not a good plan to base it on who you THINK might be her sister. The non-yellow face is also spangle AND opaline (which makes it really hard to tell by tail feather if you have a lacewing or a lutino in baby feather) and could be either a heavily suffused lacewing OR a poorly marked or even greywing or cinnamon fallow which look just like lacewings but with subtle differences. To be honest it's always going to be a bit of a guess without the help of knowing what the parents of the bird are!

Very much a hen! A mauve hen at that too! okay read a bit better and maybe she is a he with hormonal problems. Are the insides of it's nostrils blue at all? At what point did bluey's cere turn brown - recently & suddenly? A better picture of his/her cere showing good detail on the inside of the nostrils would be good. Also do you have any photos of bluey with a blue cere?

What are you aiming for? Show or colours?

A belated update from the G&G stud. Firstly we have managed to breed 6 chicks from 2 rounds from my gorgeous green boy to the lovely cobalt opaline spangle that Daryl found for me at one of the BRASEA auctions. She has aquitted herself very well and passed on some lovely features to her chicks (a bit of flecking too though unfortunately). These are their chicks. Cobalt Hen Dark Green Opaline Spangle Cock Dark Green Opaline Spangle Cock Opaline Skyblue Cock Skyblue Opaline Spangle Hen Dark Green Opaline Cock Our lovely lacewing boy hit it off with a very nice cinnamon sky hen I snapped up at the last SWBC auction and who I thought was the best bird there. They have 5 chicks, all very promising too. 2 white lacewing hens, one normal one opaline. 1 yellow lacewing hen. And 2 Grey Cinnamon Splits. Happily we also managed 10 visual fallows from 2 rounds with my boy and a Pisano hen but nothing from any of my other fallows or splits. Not one of the other hens I acquired from auction or gift were even interested in going to nest so another season wasted there. "One more shot next year girls and then it's OUT!" A few other random nice babies. A very nice Light Green Opaline Spangle Hen A fairly serious Cinnamon Don Pied Hen and with an amazing band marking. A nice but very young Cinnamon Spangle Hen A solid grey hen.

Don't quote me but he looks like he could be a DF spangle with suffusion.

Excellent if slightly mentally disturbed people you mean?! But seriously an interesting interview! Love ya work Rob & Kaz!

RIP described it really well somewhere (sorry can't remember where) it's to do the with physical structure of the budgie feather and the components that make up the colour - psitticine and mellanin and the fact that these can in no way combine to make reds and pinks in the budgie....... All I know sorry...... RIP WHERE ARE YOU????!!!!!