Finnie

Well, I guess I didn't have to wait long at all to see your budgie! If only I had read this thread before the other one. He looks real nice! Is he a grey? I can't quite tell if his cheek patch is violet or slatey-blue.

Woo hoo Jimmy! I can't wait to see you with budgies again!

Rainbow is actually a very specific combination, but there are so many people who call other combinations rainbow, that Jimmy is right- there is no way to know what your budgie is without a photo. (Which we would love to see! ) This is a great place to learn about breeding budgies. That's how I did it, too, while I was waiting for my first breeder pairs to grow up. Welcome to the forum. (And the internet!)

If the father is a double factor yf2, then all the chicks will be yf2. If he is single factor, then about half of the chicks will be. If one parent is spangle, then about half the chicks will be spangles. A purple looking budgie usually means one dark factor combined with one or two violet factors. So cobalt, not mauve. Mauve looks more like grey. Since the mother has two sex-linked genes, all the male chicks will be split to those. You will not get any visual opaline or cinnamon unless the father is split to it. (You don't mention him being visual to them.)

I agree with Jimmy, just keep offering the vegetables, and sooner or later her will try them. He is young enough, that he should be adaptable and try them sooner than an old bird might. I don't give my budgies anything special when they molt. As long as he always has cuttlefish bone and a source of minerals such as a mineral block or mineral grit, then just trying to get him to round out his diet with fresh foods should be good. I also give my birds some egg-biscuit a couple of times a week. That is a good source of protein, and helpful for growing new feathers. (Breeding birds get it every day.) Have you tried giving natural plant greens from outdoors? Seeding grasses and gum branches with leaves are big favorites. (Sorry, I'm American, I can't remember the name of the branches most people put in their aviaries. It's not wattle, is it?) Certain weeds are great, too, since you are in spring over there right now. Look for Chickweed and creeping charlie (pretty sure you have those.) Natural plants in these forms might be more enticing to a bird just learning about greens. Just make sure you get them from an area that isn't contaminated by pesticides or car exhaust fumes. Carrot tops and celery tops also seem to be tempting. Once you find something he tries and he gets used to it, then he will start trying more items. Mine seem to like raw sweet potato cut into small perch size sticks and stuck between the bars. I've heard good and bad about Trill, but we don't have it here, so I can't say. I judge seed mixes according to whether they have a good variety of seeds in them, and not just one or two varieties. I also don't like bags of seeds with pellets, since those always seem to get kicked aside and wasted. I prefer to feed pellets separately, so as to monitor how much actually gets used. So I don't like to see a lot of non-seed items listed in the ingredients label. (A long list of vitamins at the end doesn't bother me, but I feel is pointless. Those are usually part of the pellet make-up amyway.) Good luck with it all. Have fun being a new budgie owner!

Oh dear, that sounds serious! I hope you are not allergic to your birds.

I wouldn't be surprised if the male is a spangle Oh, yeah, that too. Or even pied. I see a few areas where some yellow shows a little on his front. It sure would be nice to see the back of the mystery bird.

I didn't read through all the posts, as this is a seven year old topic. But Trefto, you are right, and I don't see why they ever thought this was a TCB. You can see in the photos that it is obviously a recessive pied with a very lightly marked abdomen. There are spots of body color all over it.

I wonder if the second pair of hens learned the behavior from watching the first pair raise chicks last year. Maybe they don't realize it's abnormal. There are a lot of horror stories about colony breeding, but that is what mostly gets talked about. Obviously, there are bound to be a lot of success stories as well, that we don't hear as much. And not all budgies are going to fit in the pattern of what's normal. It sounds pretty cool that you seem to have a flock of cooperative hens.

I agree with Budgielov3r.

They are nice. Can you get photos of their backs? We love budgie photos here, and back views also tell a lot more about a birds mutations, if there are any.Just going by the top of the male's head, he looks like he might be an opaline.

Budgielov3r is right. You don't have to allow them to breed. If you aren't really keen on the idea, then they are better off if you do what you can to discourage breeding, and throw away any eggs you find. (It will take less toll on their bodies, and it will minimize the number of birds you either own or have to sell.) Welcome to the forum. If you decide you do want to know more about breeding and what it entails, you have come to the right place. Our FAQs page has several articles on breeding and also general budgie care and information. There are also several pinned topics in each area of the forum that contain useful information. You can do a wealth of reading here, and decide just how big or little you want your involvement with budgie to become. Have fun!

Interesting. Here is a link to his website, which is very informative. http://www.budgerigar.co.uk/about-gerald-binks/

Ha Ha! Jimmy, you crack me up! (Insert emoticon here, if only they still worked! You know, the yellow smiley rolling on the floor laughing.)

I serve oyster shell grit in its own dish, not mixed with the seeds. It might help you keep track of how much they go through better. I don't believe budgies need grit for their gizzards., but oyster shell or mineral grit is an important source of calcium and other minerals. If your birds have access to an outdoor flight with direct sunshine, then they can make their own vitamin D3, but if the sun doesn't reach them inside the shed (direct sun, not filtered through glass), then the Vitamin D3 is essential in order for them to assimilate calcium. You can give them all the calcium you can find, but if they are deficient in Vit D3, then they will be deficient in calcium as well. Ditto Budgie Lov3r on the veggies and fruits, especially greens, and in season, green seeding grasses. Dried seeds as in mixes are not really that much of a wild budgie's diet, so the more you can offer fresh green foods, the healthier they will be. You are lucky in Australia that you have access to so many native plants. But there are a lot of suitable weeds and grasses growing outside in the rest of the world too. Just make sure that you only harvest them where you know they have not been sprayed with any chemicals, and not from along roadsides where automobile exhaust can coat them. One other supplement that I think is worth noting is ACV (Apple Cider VInegar). It is said to contain an abundance of vitamins, minerals and other micronutrients. If you google it, you will hear people raving about it as a miracle cure for just about everything under the sun. But if you take all that with a grain of salt and just consider it as a nutrient packed natural health food, it is one thing that can be very easily added to your feeding regimen. I use about a teaspoon to a half liter of water, and give it to the birds about once a month. I think there are also many other methods of how much to use and how often. The one thing you have to make sure of, though, is to get the unfiltered kind, which has the "mother" in it. That is the sludge you will see on the bottom of the jar.

Hi, Welcome to the forum!

Hi, Welcome to the forum!

To post an actual photo instead of a link, you can copy the url code from Photobucket, click on the little "image" icon, and paste the url into the box provided. (Which is what I have done for you below) I use the "direct link" option from those that Photobucket offers. I have tried their other codes, but the direct link works best. The image icon is that teeny tiny little picture that if you have better eyes than me, is actually a tree. By the way, great example of an undeniable male.

They can go through a seasonal hormonal phase in the spring, when they would go into breeding condition. That would be due to the longer days. One thing you can do is to cover the cage for at least 12-14 hours per night to settle the hormones down and the extra rest helps, too. If he is fixated on one toy, I might just well remove that toy permanently. He'll get over it. If a toy (or especially a mirror) causes bad behavior, it could be due to him bonding with it, and then becoming jealous and trying to guard his "mate" from any competitors. I guess it's up to you how bad you think the behavior is or isn't.

You spoke with the vet on the phone, or did you take the bird in? There are different types of mites, so I suppose the treatment depends on which kind you have. I think Robyn is talking about the red mite. There are also feather mites, quill mites and scaly face mites. I think bird lice is something else altogether. Ivermectin is a spot topical treatment for scaly face mites. It is also effective for intestinal parasites. I don't know if it works on anything else.

Well now, in some of those photos she looks dark yellow and in some pale yellow. I have taken photos of dark yellow lutino budgies before that came out much paler than they looked in real life. So I don't know which of your photos to go by. But aside from whether she is green or yellowface, she is an opaline dilute dominant pied with no dark factor. Very lovely combination! I'm sorry for your loss of the other bird.

You're welcome. Glad I could help.

Top: normal blue, but hard to see what exact shade. Second: Beautiful photo, but again, hard to see exact shade of blue, due to the bright light on one side of her and the shadows on the other. (Maybe cobalt?) She appears to be opaline dilute, but I've had cinnamon-greywing combos look exactly like that. Third: recessive pied grey, or possibly mauve. Bottom: opaline spangle grey They are very nice. Love, love LOVE that second one!

Best if you start your own thread for this question, with the photos added, of course!

Congrats! Good luck with them.