robyn

Hi Bertieboy, Tried to hear your little one but either my speakers or the audio did not pick it up enough to hear him. Great for him to sit and chatter so well without flying off.

Welcome, Is there anywhere in the world our little birds haven't emigrated to? Glad you love them in Iceland as well.

Welcome Wendal, your post translated fairly well. We can see what you meant to say. Do you have an aviary or just large cages for your birds. We love pictures of fellow breeders bird, if you learn how to post pictures on here, to show your birds/aviary and so on that would be great.

Thanks for the comments all. Good to see others are interested to see what other budgie people are doing.

Sounds like all the signs are there Budgie_Mad, good luck with it and keep us posted. Great that you separated the pairs. I think you'll have a lot less problems that way.

Thank you both, Nadene, son & Hubby welded my frame using tube steel in aviary and old bed irons in flight. The rest was a recycled car port. Swing again Hubby's work,Birdlove, I made the beaded one from an old tapestry frame, with a four chain pot plant holder. They love that one, it's like a "square table" conference on that. Aviary is about 9x8 ft I think. My birds are looking very nice at the moment but I have full quota, so can't breed until I can reduce my numbers, (pet shop is also full ). I try to breed a pet type to the few show culls I have and have bred some nice sized birds from that.

Sounds a bit tricky, what time frame is it from when you noticed it until now? If it's been a while I don't know about gout. Have you tried the anti inflammatory treatment? He could have some sort of nerve or circulation damage to his leg, but if your vet friend could not find any reason for it, I'd try anti inflam. stuff first and see if it improves. Does he perch on both feet and grip with both feet? It's really hard to offer any advise on it see if anyone else has any idea's.

Hi all, thought I'd try to share a few pics of my birds in their flight while I cleaned aviary. As photobucket has changed since I last added pics hope they work. http://i730.photobuc...ynethel/028.jpg (Edit~changed the first picture to link because it is over the size limit of 640x480 )

Just re-read Daz's journey J.B., had a couple of hours to spare l.o.l. still a great read. Hope he's still keeping up his good work. Time flies and keeping up is hard at times.

Just caught up again Daz. (Thanks to J.B's. post) did you achieve what you wanted with Melinistic Spangles? If so could you post any pics you have. Somebody had one on their avatar I think, violet with pure white wings. I only have pets but would love some like that. Just wondered how you went.

Hi Alpaca- boy, long time since I spotted you on here. Well I had the same problem a long time back and was advised to give 7 drops of Aqueous iodine to 1 litre (hope spelling is near enough) of drinking water. It's available from chemist, might be a bit expensive to treat 2 birds but it did the trick with my Cock bird. He went on to breed some beautiful babies, unfortunatelly he died last year but nothing to do with Iodine. I still give my birds the Iodine every third water change, I use sipper bottles in aviary that I change about once a week or when they get low. If you can't get Iodine try the pink iodine bells from pet shops that may be enough, if it is hormonal.

Well we sort of highjacked Wessari's post. Sorry Wessari. Thanks for the kind words Nadene, it was a case of seeing people ask questions and getting no answers. I have to admit everything I know about budgies, I have learnt on here. Plus a bit of hands on learning as you go. I have to admit defeat with genetics. I cannot get my head around it as I'm only breeding pet types for my own pleasure I don't stress over it but that is where Hilly, Finnie, Jenny, Nerwan & others are filling the void on here. So for any "newbies" whatever you need to know can be found on here, on pinned topics or f.a.q. plus posting. So don't desert bbc in favour of other forums. I haven't found any with the wealth of info found on here.

Beautiful chicks Harry 1. I have one similar, not as coloured, I thought it was pure white until he started to show the suffusion a slight mauve flush on his chest. The more expert members said he was still a double factor spangle even though he had the colour, after 2 moults he's only slightly darker than first moult and very nice. The same pair produced an albino in next clutch. Love your pied yellow & violet? bird in previous pictures.

Hi phoenix, the french moult thing seems to be a real puzzle. I ended up euthanasing a lovely pied violet because of this disease ...? There doesn't seem to be any definite info on it. They say it starts in the nest box and chicks don't feather up. Mine was through 2 moults before he showed the signs. Rather than keep him and maybe have it spread, I didn't want to chance it. Touch wood I haven't seen any others like him so hope I have dodged it. Who knows though when It's such a puzzle as to disease or gene's gone awry?

Great news, your second hen's eggs could be about ready to hatch so keep us posted. It's also good to have 2 pair with eggs at the same time as well, in case one Mum doesn't know the ropes, you may be able to foster eggs or chicks to the other one.

Hi, your new cage looks great, even the old one would be okay I think, when they are breeding they don't do a lot of flying Mum sits and Dad usually stands guard etc. my breeding cages are very similar to your new one but hubby built me a bank of 2. one over the other. I think yours are great. only thing is, mine are inside one end of my aviary, so I can't lose any birds but I think you could have trouble if they aren't enclosed so you can re-catch and escapee's. P.s I'm not sure about your hen, she may be going out of breeding cond. see what others think or the birds behaviour will tell you if they are ready. Good luck with it and keep posting.

Hi,welcome, ( just catching up with bbc) Glad you found a new mate. The more you talk/handle him the tamer he'll become, they are great little friends to have.

Hi Rachelrose, Good info from the girls. I would add that even though eggs are laid 2 days apart they may not be fertile, in that order e.g. no 1 may hatch miss 2& 3 the 4 may hatch. I'd leave all eggs until after all eggs were due, then check out any unhatched eggs. You can candle eggs after 5 days or so of laying, if fertile you will see little veins beginnng to form and egg will whiten non fertile eggs stay a pinky 7 opaque as Nadene said. Congrats on first chick and hope you get some more pinky's from your eggs.

Looks male, very pretty birds are they from same clutch?,

Sounds like your off and running Kathryn. Good luck with it and don't forget the pics as you go. As to first chick not being fed it seems if chick is too weak to call for food it can be ignored, I have given one a few drops of sugar dissolved in warm water to "kick start" the little one, then Mum took over. I have read a little plain yoghurt is okay for first feed as well.

If you decide to let her breed, I'd say it would be okay, with only cock birds. It's usually the hens fighting over nests etc that cause the problems. Does she seem to be mating or bonded with any particular bird? She may decide to lay even if she hasn't mated, surely one of them would step up and take over the Daddy role l.o.l. I'd add the breeding box and take it from there, see if she bonds with one cock IF you are happy to breed her. If not don't add the nest box, just remove any eggs she lays.

Hi Tania, I'm a dead loss when it comes to genetics. I have never seen one with such dark markings. I did have 2 fairly dark marked opalines but nothing like this. Somone into genetics may be able to advise on breeding her, in case it is a rare mutation and how to bring it out in chicks. Keep us informed on the results if any. You never know what will pop up.

No, sadly I really think it was a partial french moult thing, as I can't find out if it's a gene thing or disease thing, he's gone to god I'm afraid to protect the rest. I'm really glad your birds are doing well.

Very nice Nadene, I love your hen also. How's your chicks now?

Another bird is not a brother. There is no information about parents. How many birds do you have with these markings? If more than one are they any way connected to each other. e.g. Same parent /clutch etc.