Renewed_daybyday

Hello I was searching the net for info on mop budgies and found this forum so thought I'd join. I kept budgies as pets in my early teens, then was given a book about breeding them when I was 16, along with 2 females, so with my 2 current males, I began the fun of breeding them. I did that for the next 12 years in a mild dosage, till I eventually had an outdoor aviary with a couple of dozen birds. Due to circumstances, I gave away my birds and focused on raising a family of my own. Now in my 40s, I have returned to the hobby and am breeding in the interests of colour genetics and show. I have less than 20 birds at the moment, in an indoor flight, while we save up for an aviary, so have to keep the numbers down. I'm particularly interested in yellow-faced violets, recessive pieds, and hoping for a black mutation! Supposedly someone in Germany has one

Hello allI realize this is an old topic on the forum now, but thought you might be interested to see a picture of a mop budgie. After seeing many "normal" chicks emerge triumphantly from the nest from various parents, it was a surprise to have one of these instead. Initially he looked as though he was going to be a lovely little white pied bird, but the telltale signs were there - always hungry, unable to chirp normally but squeaks instead, rather large and clumsy, and unable to fly properly. He's now over 2 months old and his feathers have taken on the long, curly look all over, tail feathers were there initially but seem to have done a disappearing act since. I trimmed his tufty head feathers to help him see better. A local budgie expert told me they are the "Downs Syndrome" of budgies, but I have concluded this isn't quite an accurate analogy, because mentally, he seems as able as any other budgie and tries to do everything they do, including fly - he just can't. He can fly in little spurts but can't retain height. I wonder if this is because the long, curly feathers prevent the proper balance they need. Anyway, I was searching for information on how best to care for these birds and keep them comfortable and came across this site and the discussions about mop birds on it so thought it might be of interest to someone.You can see from the photos how much more his feathers are curling as he gets older. He's a cheerful little bird though. Emerging from the nest 19 Aug 2009 6 Sep 2009 Note the skyblue tail feather curling 4 Oct 2009 no more tail feather?