Finnie

HI, I'm not a show breeder, but I just wanted to throw in some food for thought. Did you buy them from the same person, and specifically as a breeding pair? If so, did they give you any informaion on their background/ancestors? There is the possibility that they could be related, and you would probably want to know how closely or distantly. If there is the chance that the hen's foot issue is genetic, and they are related, then line-breeding them to each other could double up on that fault, and make it hard to get rid of from their descendants. If they are not related, then it could be easier to get rid of the faulty foot gene by keeping any offspring with good feet and culling (selling) any that turn up with bad feet. Maybe that's what the previous breeder has done. Sold off the bad foot offspring to someone else (you). Of course, if it is only from an injury or laziness, as the others have mentioned, then you may not have to worry about it at all. But it still never hurts to find out as much as possible about their backgrounds if you can.

They are really gorgeous!! I'm no expert, and I'm sure I will be told I'm wrong, (I don't mind), but I feel like I'm seeing recessive pied on this one: On the right wing. Other wing looks like DF dom pied, so could it be a combo?

Nice to have you here, Brendan. If you decide to get your budgie a friend, don't forget to quarantine the new one for at least a month. In your case, I would say quarantine is especially important, because of your recent loss. (So sorry you lost your bird. ) But there is the possibility that if he had an illness, your hen could also be carrying that illness. Or if she seems unhappy right now, it could be that she is coming down with something. Usually birds hide their illnesses until they are quite progressed, so if she is acting questionable, you might want to check into that.

I think you are right about the bottom budgie being a male. But the color in the top photo looks way off, and with the glare, it's hard to tell. But that cere looks male to me, not female. It may just be the photo. In real life, is it a pale whitish blue color? Or is it a solid pinky-lavender color? Are they both recessive pieds, by any chance? Maybe a photo with more true to life color would help.

Sad. Sounds really bad! I hope you get better soon, Splat.

Ratzy, that's how I clip my birds' wings, too. There always seems to be that slight triangle of feather showing, but I purposely make sure I don't clip them too short. Mine can still fly, albeit a little slower, and closer to the floor, so I can catch them easily, without chasing them all over.

I'm so sorry to hear that, GB.

Thanks, Nubbly. I see what you are saying, except for the "just one gene of dilute needed with 1 gene of greywing" part. I thought dilute was at the bottom of the order of dominance, and you wouldn't get a visual dilute unless you had two dilute genes.

I don't know anything about megabacteria, although I'm sure there is some info on it around here on the forum somewhere. I just wanted to say how impressed I am by such a good little boy at the vet! You must be so proud. Here, I was able to find the one I was thinking of for you: Pinned Article on Megabacteria

Nubbly, do you think she is pale enough to be a dilute? (I ask, because lately I've been trying to figure out how to identify dilutes.)

I know what you are saying, GB. A few bad apples can ruin the whole bunch. I joined a dog obedience club several years ago, and it was a very similar experience. There were always a few who complained a lot, and who back bit each other. And there would be divisions between factions, whether you were "in" with one person, or "in" with the other. Was very difficult to be friends with people from both groups. But that was just a part of the experience. The rest, the good part, really outweighed the bad, and made it all worthwhile. There were enough kind hearted people who didn't join in the bickering, and who were good mentors. And I met one of my best friends ever there. Plus, my daughters and I got involved in a sport/hobby where we could learn together and spend many hours bonding with each other. But it takes learning and practice to be able to get past the down-heartening aspects, and to grow a thick skin, in order to ignore the bad, and still enjoy the good. I hope there will be someone encouraging to come along side you and lift your spirits.

I agree with both of them. They get very itchy when they moult. And sometimes when a lot of new pin feathers come in on the same area, they will look like they have a wound, because we're not usually used to seeing so much of the pink skin/tiny blood feathers. The first time I saw a pink patch on one of my budgies, I was very worried, but the next day I could see the pin feathers more obviously.

Hi! I just wanted to ask, are you sure they are both females? Because the way you described them up at the top of the thread sounds like boys (Not that it matters, although two boys will generally get a long nicely.) Do they have any white on their ceres? Or better yet, can you post photos? We love photos here!

Hi, welcome to the forum! I was busy over the weekend too, and just now am catching up on some of what I've missed. I think they are very nice looking birds, even if I don't have any expertise in show budgies. You never know if your hen might be split to blue. Just because both of her parents were green, doesn't mean they couldn't be split for blue themselves. It could be handy to get to know the breeder, because they might be a good source to learn from. And they might be willing to tell you info about the grand parents, too. Here is a tip to help your birds get some excercise: I see that they just have one perch going side to side in the cage, so they have no where to fly to. If you cut that shorter so it can go front to back, and put it on one side of the cage, and then make a second perch opposite to it, then they can fly back and forth. Nice to have you on here.

Odd how photos can be, huh? It is the chick from this thread: Ino chick thread

Here is what you told me back on October 4, 2010. It's just the seed part, though, not a whole list of whatever else they were getting. Mine get The following this was even my pets Small parrot mix Hulled otes Palanium seed (red) Canary And finch With extra rape and niger If i could give my birds hemp id be wrapped its not in outcanary mix They get French white millet sprays also So you see the more veriarty the better If you feed these seeds sepearatly you don't get wastageas birds eat the certain seeds they want And you will see they eat more of one or the other at certaintimes of the breeding cycle and feed chicks certain ones as they grow theones they eat will vary

Those are great. Just try not to overheat them if you thaw them in the microwave, cuz the more cooked they are, the more vitamins they lose.

Today wasn't a good day for getting photos, too dark and rainy. But I studied his tail (chick 5), so I could give you a description. It has a black quill, the two main tail feathers are part black and part body color (I'm guesssing that's due to the opaline.) And the smaller tail feathers, two on each side, are really dark navy. I agree, I'm sure Mystery must have something going on besides just dark green. That's why I asked if maybe violet factor could cause him to look olive. we've ruled out grey factor due to violet cheek patches. And KM brought up slate as an idea, but we figured that would be too rare to just show up here in a pet type.

Cool, that is awesome! Happy Easter! (A little late)

:lol: Maybe they are not as rare as we think...... they are lurking in our nest boxes! Here is another picture for Magic Lady

Well, GB, I really appreciate you asking your friend about these! I have to say, I think that there must be clearwing in them. And KM, what you said does make sense. I think we do have clearwings here, but since no one is breeding them to show standards, they don't have nice clear wings, like the exhibition budgies.So yes, they probably go unrecognized. I always thought my first ever hen Finnie was a clearwing, but people said no, just grewywing, maybe full body. Well, she has offspring that look clearwing to me, so now I think she must be greywing/clearwing. I've read so many times that interbreeding between greywings and clearwings has caused regular greywings to have stronger body color, and makes clearwings get heavier wing markings. But so many of my other greywing budgies have such dark body color, that I strongly suspect that I have clearwing splits in my flock. One of my future goals, which I may never get to, is to find some dilutes, and try to separate out what my various greywing genes might be. But when I look at a few of these chicks, especially from across the room, they have such DARK bodies, and such BRIGHT YELLOW wings, that I think they must be something different than just regular greywings. GB, you said you and your friend think the clearwing ones are 1,2,3 and 6. Well, that confirms what I have been thinking about chicks 1 and 3. I will have to take another look at 2 and 6. #6 has darker grey markings on the wings, which is what got me to thinking about how much lighter 1 and 3 were in comparison. #2 is the light green opaline, so maybe when I look at him, I think it's the opaline lightening up his wings. I will have to go scrutinize him some more. As far as cinnamon goes, none of them had plum eyes. And only the girls can be cinnamon, because the mother doesn't have it. There are only two that might, might be starting to look like girls. Those are #5 and #1. The rest are totally boys, so they can't have cinnamon. But they could be split for it, if that makes a difference. (If you think #2 looks like a hen, then it must just be a bad photo, cuz he's such a boy, lol!) Recently I looked up Nubbly's thread on clearwings (It's pinned), and she says they should have neutral tail quills, with some body color in the tail feathers. So I've been looking at the tails on these, and they are all grey, except for the one that looks black. Now, Nubbly's examples (I'm pretty sure it was Nubbly's post, I'm too lazy to go now and check ) her examples she said one was a clearwing, but it was poorly marked, so it had grey for it's tail quill. If I have any clearwing at all, I'm sure it would be very poorly marked, so maybe it's okay if their tail quills are grey. And I still think that #5 might be a normal. He is just so DARK! and his tail has real black on it. But then, the wing markings are "softer" than most normal black budgies. So if GB and her friend still think #5 is greywing, well then I guess he must be. I've really liked this clutch, too, KM, thanks. It's sad that all but two of them are going to homes soon, and I won't get to see what they look like after they moult, although I'm going to ask their owners to send photos. But because of the lack of girls, and because I want to see if I can get more "clearwings", I am going to repeat this breeding after Nelly has had a rest. So for any of them to be actual visual clearwings, that must mean that Nelly has either a clearwing gene, or a dilute gene. Well, I've been looking at her. It's hard for me to tell on a sky blue, but I don't think her body color looks very washed out. Not 50% anyway. So maybe she is a Full Body Greywing, too. KM, maybe they are lurking everywhere, and we just don't realize it. Oh, and it's okay if you cant' come all the way over here just to hold birds in the window while I photograph them. I can try to get one of my many children to help me. In the meantime, I forgot I had a group shot of some of them I was going to post. Here it is: I think it goes L-R, 3,1,5,6 And here, L-R, Nelly, 6,3,5,1 (I think)

I just liked this photo, so I wanted to share it. Of the creamino chick I named Popcorn

Well i have other thing to do that are more important and i am only asking this now as i feed my budgies fruit and veg and grass but would like to extend to what i feed them!??. What could be more important than taking the time to research and make sure you are feeding your birds properly?! We are all of us busy. Did you want us to re-write all of the budgie faqs because you are too busy to look them up? How would we know you even have time to read our answers? Sorry, but you saying that what you have to do is more important really burns me up.

The new photos you posted look a little more henlike to me, but your description still sounds male. You know, girl budgies make good pets, too. And the one you started this thread with seems pretty friendly, so it might not matter whether it is a girl or a boy. If it is not hand shy, and you like its personality, I would go for it. And keep in mind, even if it starts out friendly, it is up to you to keep up with his/her taming, and ensure that it develops into the companion you are wanting. Just being a boy doesn't automatically guarantee its outcome, that is up to you.

Thank you for your help, GB. Here's the last two: Chick 5: And Chick 6: Photos of the tail of Chick 2 will have to wait. But I went and looked at it, and it is pretty much all green, like the body color, with a little bit of grey. Oh, and thank you for the suggestion about what hen to put him with. It makes sense to get the greywing out of the equation. I was planning to let this pair go another round, but the timing is bad for me, so I will see what else I have to pair him with later. So far all my cinnamon hens are turning out to be split for greywing.