Finnie

Welcome back, eve. I've edited your profile for you. It sounds like you've had some ups and downs with your budgie flock. They are pretty addicting, though, aren't they?

Don't forget to quarantine him before you put him in your aviary.

greywing or dilute yellow face mutant two sky blue male.

BJ, this sounds like the auntie broke the rules and got away with it, but the daughter was careful not to overcrowd and had problems. So I don't understand what rules you are saying she broke either.

Hi, I haven't been able to be on the forum a whole lot lately, so I totally missed this one, sorry. How is your baby bird coming along now? I can't believe they would still be giving it one feeding per day and think that it is fine to just quit at that point! (Although believe me, that's about the stage where I can't stand the thought of mixing up even one more batch of formula!) It's sounds to me like maybe they were force weaning it, and it might not have even been ready for just once a day. If they are allowed to wean at their own pace, they will naturally eat less and less at each meal, until they turn their nose up at that baby food completely. Judging by the date of your post, he's probably weaned all the way by now, huh?

I know I am seeing this rather late, but if he only has one wing clipped, I would even him up and clip the other wing. Maybe he is doing more crashing than he needs to because of being unbalanced.

You said you have had that recessive pied bird for a year. Has it never gone through a cycle where its cere gets dark brown, then thick and crusty, and then flakes off and starts all over again? Because if not, then it may have some type of hormonal problem, preventing it from cycling normally. Males have also been known to have hormone or iodine problems that make them look like females. I do think it looks female.

I think Sweety definitely looks like an opaline spangle, among all her other mutations. What a unique bird!

Did she eat the eggs in the first round, too, or was there some other reason they didn't hatch?

As far as breeding the parents again, are you colony breeding or cage breeding? Because it may be easier to keep an eye on the chicks if they are set up in an individual breeding cage. If the problem is plucking, and not some defect passed on by the parents, it might be worth a try to give the hen another chance and see if she does better the second time. I find that first time breeders sometimes make dumb mistakes, but after some experience, they do a better job. But there is also the chance that she may continue plucking as an established habit, in which case it would be good if you could have a second pair breeding at the same time. Then you could remove the chicks from the plucking parents and foster them with the other pair.

Birdlove, I think it would be extremely uncommon for him to pick up feather mites if he wasn't exposed to some other bird that had them. (Chickens, maybe?) But I agree with Hilly that it could likely be from overpreening. And Kaz is right, if he did have them, you would be able to see them. But if you are worried, you could pick up some Ivermectin from Tractor Supply, and just give him a drop of it between his shoulder blades. My Tractor Supply had a 250 mL bottle for about $15.00. It's actually called Iver-on Ivermectin Pour On for Cattle.

I don't know. That's a good point. Using an automatic drinker system would be a lot different.

Hi ShereeM, welcome to the forum! Just going by your description of pinkish blue, it sounds like it might be a boy. Unless there is also white on the cere. We love pictures around here anyway, so please do post them.

Oh, that's great! We'll be expecting photos then, you know.

Well then, if their ceres are all pinky purple, then you have all males.

BJ, I agree. Everything is marketed to us as "vitamin fortified!' "100% daily vitamin C!" All that extra stuff just passes though us and gets eliminated. My biology professor in college told us that Americans have the most nutritious pee in the world. Ima, perhaps the vet meant that birds being different than mammals don't process their urine the same way, thus not getting the problem with crystals. The green part of the romaine lettuce is nutritious, like any other green vegetable. It's the water white lettuces you want to stay away from, so that would be the stem ends of the romaine. Keep trying all sorts of veggies, presented in different ways, and sooner or later they will try it and like it. Then that should transfer over to them being willing to try more kinds.

Thank you, Nerwen and Ima.

Don't worry about the old thread. This one has better pictures anyway. But it's been over a month now, have they changed at all? I think the green one looks male, and the blue one (she's not grey) looks female.

Judging by the responses you've gotten to this, I'd say that's a big fat "no".

Mating once could be enough to fertilize eggs for up to two weeks. In general, I wouldn't worry about when they are going to stop laying. Like BJ said, when they stop coming, she's done. I have not yet had a hen lay an egg after the first chick hatched though. They can usually get 9 in before one hatches, and that's the largest size clutch I usually get. Kaz used to have a hen, Omelette, who would lay a lot more eggs than that though. So maybe she kept laying after the chicks started hatching.

But it would spoil, so I would only leave as much spinach as they could eat in a day so there will be nothing left to spoil.

How cool, he looks great!

How did the first night go, and his first few days? And welcome to the forum!

Hm, well, the "they" who are always doing studies are continually finding out new things and changing their minds about what we should be eating or not eating. "They" have spent years trying to get us to eat lots of fruits and vegetables, and now they are saying to eat only one kind per day? Well, me and my birds are going to keep on as we have been, and wait until "they" tell us to eat the things we like. (For instance, "they" told us that coffee has benefits, so yippee, I'm keeping my coffee, even if they change their minds about that.)

I also feel that birds living indoors need a source of vitamin D, but I supplement my birds with liquid vitamins that contain vitamin D in their water, and I have never used any oil, or soaked any seed. I think you could go either route. I chose my method after reading a lot of the breeders on here discussing all they go through with soaking their seed, storing it, serving it, making sure it didn't go rancid. I just didn't want to deal with all that.