Finnie

I don't think his actual beak looks deformed. I'm sure you haven't "stuffed up". You seem to be very diligent and conscientious. I must admit, I don't remember seeing those little pink skin areas where the lower mandible attaches, on any of mine. But I probably never thought to look. When I check my nest box this morning, I will pay close attention to what my baby chicks look like in that area, and let you know if any of mine have that too.

I wouldn't jump straight to the conclusion of egg binding, if she doesn't look stressed. There is information on what to look for in the FAQ section here: http://forums.budgie...o&action=search Just laying an egg or two does not mean that egg binding is imminent. So don't panic straight away on that account. And just because they practice mating for fun doesn't mean she will even lay any eggs. You may have nothing to worry about. But if she does start to lay eggs, and you would like to try to get her to stop, I have had some success with simply moving her to a different cage for a little while, which can throw her off and make her stop. (She may have to get rid of an egg or two first if they are already developing.) I have also had hens that kept laying, no matter what I did, so no guarantees that moving her around will work. But if you can make her feel that her circumstances are not conducive to raising a family, she may go out of egg laying mode. (IF she even is.) But if it's just budgies mating for the fun of it, you have nothing to worry about. It's normal.

I agree with Kaz, and also, when I look closely at the "markings" in the photos, they actually look like they might be shadows made by the tip edges of the individual feathers. Yes, your bird is a baby, she has no iris rings yet.

We get radio commercials here advertising to visit Banff. But that's not too surprising, because of our close proximity to Canada. Maybe I just remember that commercial because my brother has been to Banff, and he loved it.

:lol: Ha ha, oh BJ, I don't think "usually" even comes close!! Based on the length of that list, I'd say "rarely" comes a lot closer! (You should have been around back when we had all of our old emoticons working. They were a lot of fun... Sigh.) Jenn, I tried googling the toxicity of that plant, and I got nothing. Usually ( lol) if it were toxic, at least SOMETHING would come up connecting it. I found a lot of references to the plant, but none that said it had any toxicity. So I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that it might be safe. Of course, if you test it on your birds and find out that it is in fact toxic, you should let the whole internet know, because apparently, there's no one out there who has written it yet.

If you read this: http://www.anbg.gov.au/gnp/interns-2002/elaeocarpus-reticulatus.html It sounds like wild birds eat the berries.

A big hollow branch perch will invite nesting.

Well, we all have to make due with what space we've got. I think you're lucky to have such a nice set up. I would love dearly to be able to have an outdoor aviary and breeding room. Yours looks very nice. I can't wait to see what your new birds produce for you.

Hi, Jono, welcome to the forum! You have a very handsome boy there.

Congratulations on your spacious set up, Maddy! It's very nice. This one thing concerns me, though: Are you saying that you quarantine your new birds right in your breeding room with your parents on eggs and with babies? That means that if you bring in any new birds with an airborn illness, it will go straight to the most vulnerable members of your flock. Is there nowhere else at all that you could do quarantine? If there is no other option, I would consider (for the future) having a strong rule to not buy new birds during your breeding season. In other words, not overlapping breeding and quarantine periods. I would hate to see you having a repeat of the devestating losses you had last time around.

I'm very sorry to hear about your special boy.

Your breeding room looks really nice. I'm glad you didn't let those setbacks keep you down.

Thanks for taking the time to write this up, BJ. It will be very helpful for people who want help with taming their birds. And it illustrates why it is so important to have lots of patience.

Not at all, Off Topic Chatter is exactly where to put it. Off topic is where I put it :lol: I knew it! The posted times were off, so I thought perhaps.

It's possible for a clearflight pied to have only one or two clear flight feathers. And judging by the clear area she has just below her mask, on her neck area, I was thinking she might be one. I thought it was a little hard to tell the chick's gender from those photos. It looks male in one of them, and it looks like it has glare in the other. It should get more obvious as it gets older. Females can be quite friendly. It's not fair that they have a bad rap. And especially since you are hand raising this one, it should make a great companion, no matter what it is.

Your're welcome. And I just stumbled across this, which has several people's opinions on number of clutches, so I thought I'd bump it up here for you: http://forums.budgiebreeders.asn.au/index.php?showtopic=30063&pid=359014&st=0entry359014 Some good advice in there for new breeders

Not at all, Off Topic Chatter is exactly where to put it. It's a very nice looking bird. I think they are saying it's a "Koel", and that the Wattlebird is just parenting it.

So Gmail is banned? The forum is set up so that no "Free" email accounts can be used for membership. Only accounts that you pay for, usually associated with your internet provider. I think this is one of the ways the forums is protected against spam.

I have read people saying that their males help incubate. So maybe he is. For resting your hen, I generally go by the guideline of two clutches per calendar year. So if she did two clutches in a row, then I'd rest her for a year. Or if she just did one clutch, then I rest mine until they look fit and in condition, and then let them do a second clutch, but then wait out the rest of that year before doing a third. I'm sure there are other breeders who let their hens breed a little more than that, which is probably okay if you are sure your hen is in great condition. When I get really large clutches, I count them as two. So you might want to wait until next December, if she gets a lot of these to hatch. That's just me. Other people might say different.

At least you have glasses she can jump onto. When my birds want to get close to my face, all they have to grab on to is my nose. (Ouch!) But maybe you can teach her to give that behavior up by not letting her get away with it. Remove her every time she does it, so that she will eventually get the idea that it's not worth going on the glasses. This will backfire, however, if the method you use to remove her becomes a fun game.

It's possible your cursor may have been slightly above the Multiquote button, so that you actually clicked on the voting buttons, and I don't think those do anything. Doing those demos with your birds must have been very rewarding. Your story brings back memories of when I used to take my Sheltie in to my kids' elementary classes and teach the children about pet ownership and obedience competition. Kids that age are fun to work with. They are interested and they absorb a lot. I've not yet gotten to teaching any budgie a trick. But I'm impressed with other people who do. I'm mostly content with just getting some of mine to like me! But I'm looking forward to reading more about your budgie training.

This is really interesting BJ. Do you take your birds to somewhere for them to perform for kids? Do you have other tricks you've taught them?

Spangle is not necessarily rare, it just depends on what people in your area are breeding. It took me a year to find my first spangle budgie for sale, but then after that, I began seeing them at the Bird Fair quite frequently. (Our bird fair here is 4 times a year.) In the pet stores around me (Indianapolis) the birds only come from commerical bird brokers, not from any private breeders. I never saw a single spangle budgie in any pet store for my first three years of looking. Then last summer I found one at PetSmart, and about a month after that, there were 6 of them in 4 different PetSmarts. So I think the commercial breeders have finally gotten a hold of some spangles. In the South, where you are, there are more Exhibition breeders, and probably more of them have spangles. As for hatching out 9 eggs, it is possible. I have found that with the larger clutches, a few of the last eggs are dead in shell. I think that comes from the oldest chicks kicking them around. By the time the 9th egg hatches, you would have eight other chicks in there ranging from 2 to 16 days old. That's a lot of crawling around on their younger sibs still in eggs. So don't be too upset if they don't all hatch. Plus then, even if they do all hatch, that is probably more chicks than the mother can handle, especially seeing as this is her second round. A lot of times the last few chicks to hatch just won't be as well fed as the older ones, and those will grow a lot slower, and sometimes even die. I have heard people advocate removing some of the eggs, to make it easier on the mother. Another route is to help the mother with the feeding. I guess it depends on how much you want to intervene, and how much you want to let nature take its course. My record so far is 7 for the mother to raise all on her own. I have had nests of 8 and 9 where they all hatched, but chicks were removed for fostering or hand raising, so the mother only got to raise half on her own. I have a hen raising 7 right now. All eight of her eggs hatched, but she never even fed the last chick, so it died. And the 7th chick, at 8 days old, only looks the size of a 4 day old. There was a thread about large clutch sizes recently. I think Kaz had a mom who raised 10. How ever many your hen raises, I would say she needs a rest after this round.

Hi. The photos are a little blurry, and they have too much glare on the budgie's cere, so it's hard to say. I'd like to be more helpful, but I'm only about 50% confident in what I think it is. (And that's no help, is it?)

Wow, even my adults don't weight that much! But I have no ideas for you on what is normal for the exhibiton types.