Finnie

Aww, SO cute!

I'm sorry to hear about this. It would be nice if he could be found.

Yes, that's right! And all those leftovers I just stuffed up on tonight!

Oh, that is so funny! Don't I look ridiculous now! Well, then, change it to Welcome, Kiwigal!

I have no idea what your budgie's spots could mean. I wonder if that's what everyone else is thinking, so they just haven't responded. Did you ever take her to the vet to find out why she had that runny poop problem, a while back? Maybe the two are related. I sure hope she will be okay.

Hi Kia, welcome to the forum! Looking forward to getting to know you, and your birds.

Great job! It looks like some of their feathers are starting to fill back in.

Congratulations, Kaz! The yellow one makes me laugh.

In that case, I still wouldn't worry about getting two males for now. You are better off breeding with more than one pair, anyway. So if you're getting a second budgie now, get whatever you like, and if it turns out to be another male, than further down the road, get two hens.

They are looking really nice, Dave!

Netty, I think you should be willing to just stay confused for a little while longer. I've been going back and forth between your two posts, and I think these two photos are the best of the lot, so far, and I think you've got one of those ones that are hard to tell. I think it looks a little boyish, but I wouldn't want to say for sure. Eventually, if it is a hen, it will get a brown cere, and then you will no longer have any doubt.

Hey, Ishtarsands! The photo is pretty small, but it looks like the dad could be opaline. But even if he isn't, he could be split for it. The mom looks like normal, so any opaline chicks will be girls.

Hi Taylor! Welcome to the forum. I can't wait to see pictures of Peppa and Matilda!

Nice to see more pictures of Dusty! Weird about the yellow feather. I wonder if any more will grow.

I'm sorry to hear this, it's very sad.

I think they all look like hens, except maybe one and two. Those are too hard to tell.

Unfortunately, alpaca-boy, anything soft you could put around them would be quickly chewed off by the budgies. Filing them might work, but is it possible to insert the screws from the other direction, so that the sharp parts are on the outside? I guess that would depend on being able to reach the screwdriver into the space available. And then, you would have to be careful not to scratch YOURSELF on the sharp parts. (But then you could use Alpaca-Boy's idea of foam or something, as long as YOU aren't planning to chew it off! ) Perhaps replacing the screws with nuts and bolts would be an option?

You know, seeing as all of our mutations came about as a random change in the DNA, changing the normal to something different, I suppose there is always the tiniest possibility that that same "error" could pop up again, and this guy could get a new mutation of albino. Boy, wouldn't that firmly cement his incorrect theory!

Great pictorial, Nubbly! I found myself drawn in to looking at size of head, mask and cere, instead of just looking for pretty colors. You must be really happy with how that first cock has grown up, and what he is producing, huh?

I agree with GB, the mom must have grey factor, and if she' wasn't albino, we could tell whether she was cinnamon or opaline, which would rule out whether the chicks could be boys. When I took my stab at guessing their sexes above, I thought the photos looked a little washed out, which can make cocks look like hens. These new photos are also a little ambiguous, but now I think they could all be cocks. I have had a few chicks that make me change my mind every time I look at them. With those chicks, I have to wait a long time until they sort of settle one way or another. I think your chicks may be that way, too. I am retracting my hen guesses and saying I'm just not sure now. (There seems to be a whole lot of pink going on there, and the only white I see is if I try to imagine the white. Plus, when there is also black on the cere, it messes with my eyes like an optical illusion.)

Interesting, Jimmy. I always make sure to have a few toys and a swing in my breeding cages, mainly so they are in place for the babies when they fledge. But I would guess that breeders who run many cabinets at a time wouldn't bother with all of that. So, what do the rest of you do? By the way, Hans, I like your second set up a lot better than the old way. But if you close those blinds, they will get all poopy, and I think it would be very hard to get them clean again. I see that your partition folds. Maybe you could fold it so that two panels are between the cages and the window, and the third panel folds around the right side of the cages. That way they would have a sort of 3 sided niche they were in with only the front being open to the living room. I think they would feel pretty secure like that. I have read that light that is filtered by a window is not as good as direct sunlight, so to combat that, I give my budgies vitamin D and calcium in their water. I think your birds are very pretty! Do you have any close up pictures of them?

Well this is interesting! I planted cilantro, for us humans, and underneath the word "cilantro", the seed package had the word "coriander" on it. Either as its Latin name, or else because everything here is written in English and Spanish. Either way, I was surprised to see that cilantro and coriander were the same thing. But in any case, I have been giving it to my budgies all summer, so, I don't think it's toxic.

I don't think she's spangle. Greywing and opaline both tend to wash out wing markings, so when you have them combined, you can see a lot of wing feathers that look like spangle, so I think that is what you are seeing. Another thing about spangle to look for is that when spangle and opaline are combined, the bird will have body colored markings on its wings, instead of black (or grey in this case). A good example of this is the bird in Dave's signature, except you would need to find a better picture of Dumb (or is it Dumber?) in order to see the wings. Dave has lots of pictures of this bird around here. I will go see if I can find one for you. Here it is: Dumb

Welcome to the forum, Hayle!

Thank you Jimmy, BD and Kaz. Yeah, it just goes to show that we have to keep an eye on both parents, just in case. BD, she will have those scars for a long time. Until she grows new feathers, and even then, if there is follicle damage, she may always have bald spots. That's not seed, it's a dish of pellets. I always offer pellets in a separate dish, but few of my birds eat it. Some just play in it. But Teagan's not in a playing mood right now. Not really in much of an eating mood, either. She eats her seeds fine, but so far in the hospital cage, she hasn't gone near the veggie dish or near her carrot and greens, which are clipped to the bars. In fact, she mostly just sits there on that fat perch, or else on the edge of her seed cup, and doesn't move around much at all. I'm considering moving her whole hospital set-up down to the bird room, to give her the stimulation of hearing the whole flock acting normally. She has been heard to chirp away happily when the shower is running. And when the door is open, she will call out to the other birds. Maybe she will be more active if she is closer to them.