Catherine

My cockatiels love the carrot tops. The budgies don't get any because the tiels demolish it. The tops are safe for the tiels so would also be fine for the budgies. When you buy carrots, the green part is usually cut off. However, if you cut the top of the carrot off and stand it in shallow water, the green part will sprout. My tiels rip off the first sign of a green shoot. The sprouting does not work in summer because the carrot tends to rot before the green top has a chance to shoot.

There are good nutrients in silver beet and the Chinese vegies such as bok choy. My birds love those. I agree with RIP. There is no nutritional value in lettuce for the birds.

Equinox = daylight and hours of darkness equal. We have just had the shortest day so the hours of darkness were longer than the hours of daylight.

Some of the bugs in the poo samples will be dead by the time the sample arrives at the vet, Kristy123 and you won't be able to do a crop wash and send it. Megabacteria will stay alive but some of the others stuff won't.

Thank you for that, Kaz. So I am about right now. I cannot believe someone would put 37 birds in a cage that size. Blind Freddy could see that it was wrong. You couldn't get enough perches in!

GenericBlue is right, Kristy 123. Your nearest avian vet is in Chermside.

I have 12 budgies at the moment. I have two cages. They are 82 cm wide, 54 cm deep and 87 cm high. Can you tell me what is the optimum number of birds I should have in each cage?

You can buy chick raising formula at pet shops. Make sure you get one suitable for budgies. You could make something suitable for your adult birds by preparing a puree finer than you would give a baby. In it, you could include cooked polenta, cooked cous cous, cooked egg, cooked carrot and cooked zucchini. You need to cook the vegetables for the moisture they will provide for the puree. I am very sorry to hear of the loss of another of your birds. You really need to see a vet urgently before you lose them all.

Just a quick note. Commercial egg and biscuit mix has next to no nutritional value. I suggest you would be better to make a nutritious mix yourself or to use chick raising formula. I would be very inclined to take the next sick bird to the vet and find out if there is an infection which is being passed among your birds.

The only way to be sure, Libby is to get a test at the vet's. A fecal smear will reveal megabacteria and a crop wash will show if it is canker.

I am not sure, Libby but it could be canker. Have a look at this post and see if the symptoms match. Canker

Recipe for Polenta Omelette Loaf Utensils Microwave-proof mug or small dish Very fine strainer e.g. tea strainer Teaspoon Knife and fork Ingredients Water 1 egg 3 or 4 teaspoons polenta Method 1. Place polenta in mug and pour on boiling water until mug is nearly full. 2. Leave to soak for 4 to 5 minutes. 3. Pour off excess water. 4. Pour on more boiling water and leave to soak another few minutes. 5. Strain polenta. 6. Lightly beat egg with fork and mix in polenta. 7. Rinse clean mug with water (do not dry mug). 8. Pour mixture into mug. 9. Cook in 1000 watt microwave oven for 1 minute. 10. Cut into slices. The budgies had eaten nearly all their share before I got a picture.

I have an egg recipe which all my birds took to at once. My budgies really go a bundle on it. Polenta Omelette Loaf

I don't boil the egg. I beat it lightly then microwave it and get a flat omelette. I slice it up, give the birds some and put the rest in the fridge. I guess you could smack the shell with a rolling pin, mix it in with the beaten egg and see if they eat it.

What glorious little bundles of energy! Maybe hubby gets to keep Morse? :nest:

What an amazing kid, Kaz! All power to him. He is the sort of boy who deserves a pet.

Rearranging toys or swapping toys is a good idea. Budgies enjoy a variety of things to do, expecially if they are in a confined space. A fresh bok choy leaf and/or some bottlebrush will keep them amused, too. I also use newspaper in the bottom of my cages and I change it daily. I put the food dishes on the floor of the cage (clear of the perches) so I don't want them walking yesterday's poop through their food. I use the classified pages of the newspaper - the ones with mainly black ink on them. Sometimes my budgies rip up the paper and I would prefer they weren't chewing coloured ink. If I were using paper towels, I would use the recycled ones made without the coloured patterns. My cages are very large and the paper towels are just not big enough.

Grahame. lol, I always check who is on before I do anything else.

AWESOME! GenericBlue, thank you! :rofl: So, I need a harlequin recessive pied cock and I am away. I have got the others in your pictures. Those chicks are fantastic! It would be so hard to part with any of them!

I see. Genericblue. Thank you. I actually do have a harlequin recessive pied hen.

so its a df spangle ???? which makes it blue serried so you would get same out come as you would with a albino except instead of ayf sf / albino cocks you would get ayf sf df spangles and spangles hens and cocks and dompied spangles hens and cocks and df spangle dompieds hens and cocks and depending if the df spangle cock is opaline or not you would get if he was ,... opaline spangle dom pieds and opaline spangles and opaline df spangles and opaline df dompied spangles if hes not opaline your cocks would be split opaline (from mum ) but no opaline chicks in nest and if shes cinnamon you would get all cocks split cinnamon as well as opaline and if the cocks / opaline you will get opaline hens in nest with all the othr goodys and oh theirs just one more if hes split cin you will get cinnamon hens and if split cin and opaline the hens will be opaline cin or opaline or normal ive probbly missed something like i cant remember if a split cock can get you a cock of a sex linked with a sex linked hen i forget to tell truth i dont think so but dont take my word on that but as you can see lots of opatunity for beautiful chicks also depending if hes masking sky or cobalt depends on colour out come your best to put a cobalt or a violet ever a mauve to a sky blue for the most colour out comes cause light blue n light blue equals yep light blue also you wont get albino hens :redalbino: Oh, GenericBlue, I am sorry, I have no idea what that all means. Thank you for such a lovely detailed reply. All I want to do is breed pretty rainbow pieds. I do not know the background of my white budgie, Beau. He is about 8 or 9 months old now. Here is a picture of him. (The hen on the right of the picture came from Liv.) He does not have red eyes. They are a dark plum colour.

Thank you, GenericBlue. I do not have an albino cock, but I do have one which is all white. Would a pairing of those two be good?

I agree with the bird being dom pied and I also think maybe cinnamon spangle is involved too. Thank you, Kaz. I feel that I have an interesting little bird. :angel: Thank you, GenericBlue. Wow! Australian golden face single factor sky blue dominant pied opaline spangle (and maybe some cinnamon spangle)! I have had to write that down. I will be booking her into the avian vet for tests. I am going to memorise that for when I book her in and am going to enjoy telling them that. :)Thank you very much to everyone for your input. I do appreciate it.

Thank you very much, GB and Neville. :angel: I did not mind the golden face being a hen but I was very disappointed that she was recessive because I do not have a recessive cock. I did want her because she is so like what I want to breed. She is only young. I shall definitely keep her now. I don't need another recessive hen so I will only keep the grey one for the quarantine period to keep the yellow face company. If someone would like the grey, pm me. She is very sweet and will sit on your hand.

Thank you for your help, Dean. I am satisfied that the grey bird is a hen because there is white on the cere. There is no white on the yellow face's cere, though I could not get a photo which made that clear. The first picture shows the colour which is uniform over the whole cere. It is young, so I thought it could be a cock.