SunshineE

Do you live in an area with abundant spiders/snakes? I had a friend when we lived in QLD who had budgies and he kept finding one more dead every morning for about a week. He was at a total loss as to what it was until he noticed the baby brown snake curled up in the corner. It had obviously been biting them but not eating them because it was too small. It was a bit of a shock to him! The cover is a good idea as well because sometime stray/feral cats/dogs/foxes will jump at the aviary to try to eat the birds who sleep on or near the front of the wire. We have lost one to shock like that before from the neighbourhood cat before I hope all the others are okay, such a sad thing when you loose one!

How old is she? Our babies do the same thing. She could just be a destructive bird! I generally leave the stuff they throw out on the floor of the cage as long as it doesn't get to mucky so that they know that if they want food they have to eat the stuff they have thrown out. They often like foraging around on the ground as well, it's what they do in the wild. If you are going to leave the stuff on the floor, don't refill the container because they will just keep doing it and not learn. You also need to keep a close eye on the floor to make sure it isn't getting mucky.

Is she throwing her head back and sort of arching her back when she does it? That is what they tend to do when they are looking to attract a partner. It's part of the mating ritual/dance. Looks a bit weird when they do it! I hope she is fine!

does he have a runny bum? and when you pick him up does he feel thin? As paulie says it could be canker I had my original boy who was my best buddy die last year from canker. He got very thin very fast, was very fluffed up constantly, had a runny nose and mouth and got a runny bum towards the end. Sadly he didn't make it through the night at the vets'. I agree totally with paulie, that you should take him to an avain vet asap and they should be able to tell you what is going on and hopefully make him feel much better! Make sure they are an avian vet though because sadly many 'normal' vets don't have the knowledge for birds. also, for budgies, you can't see the lesions from canker because it affects them in their throat/oesophagus and they get lesions there which means they can't swallow food because it is too painful and blocked up and they starve very fast because they have very fast metabolisms.

Are you sure its eyes are black? I may be imagining things but i might see the tiniest red tinge in the photo. It isn't very good for the eyes though so I may be wrong. Can you pick it up and see? If it does have red eyes it will be a girl but if not it would be interesting to think what it means about the parents' genetics!

I think that is correct Paulie If the male is a visual cinnamon (not just split to cinnamon), all the female chicks will be cinnamon and all the male chicks will be split to cinnamon. This means that any visual cinnamons from a cinnamon male and non-cinnamon female will be female chicks.

I'd say male too. mutation: dark green pied (does he have a yellow spot on the back of his head?) Probably a clearflight pied because he doesn't have any pied chest/body markings. It looks to only be his wings which are affected indicating clearflight pied. I could be wrong though!

So I have some more exciting news! We have a new chick! I was walking past the aviary just then and heard a tell-tale cheeping sound and upon checking the nesting boxes, discovered this little one I don't know who its parents are, one of the results of colony breeding: there are two hens in one nesting box and no obvious significant male so I am neither sure who the mother or the father is! I took two of the eggs from that nest and put them with another hen who has had no luck with her own eggs, so hopefully there will be two boxes with chickies in them soon! Nutty and Banana are the two hens together in the nesting box (they are sisters) and Speedo is the hen in the other nesting box. Since putting two of Nutty and Banana's eggs with Speedo, she has laid a fertile egg of her own, so she may be looking after three chicks soon! I will be interested to see what this chicky and it's coming siblings turn out to be! In other news, all of Bubble and Barty's chicks have been in and out of the nesting box regularly for the last few days with Silas, Lucky and Stumpy spending most of their time out of the box now. Stumpy has been managing VERY well on his little splinted leg and can get around on it perfectly well now and is even able to perch (albeit a bit unsteadily) and climb the wire.

How exciting, it will be great to see them as they grow up! Do any of the chicks have red eyes? Is this the nest where the dad is a lutino? If it is, all your girl babies will be inos and have red eyes. Looks like chick 1 is a boy from his lack of red-eyes!

If the mother is the only ino gene of the parents (so normal cock cross lutino hen) there wl only be split ino cocks, this is because the hen can only pass the gene to her sons and and female chicks could only get the I I gene from th cock. This is due to the X/Y chromosome contribution of each

Yeah it is really only the boys who are affected by mutation when it comes to ceres. Thos mutations are definitely recessive pied and inos and there might be a few more but i can't remember them off the top of my head! Girls really only switch between light brown/blue to dark brown. It's harder when they are young as well and also recessive like the one in the last picture and then it really comes down to the white rings around the nostrils. I have only had one before who I haven't been eventually able to pick. Originally thought she was a girl, then never went brown or showed interest in nesting boxes in three years so thought he was a boy then cere went brown and started nesting so she was a girl! SOOOOO confusing

What bad luck I was very excited when you said it was hatching! It does happen sometimes unfortunately Its stomach does look unusual so I suspect it may just have been born weaker or maybe it wasn't quite developed correctly inside. I have had a few look exactly like this in the past and I suspect it is just that they haven't develpoed properly, especially when the rest of their siblings are healthy I hope the next one is okay! Glad to hear the older one is doing well still.

KiwiBudgie which chicks are you talking about? Rihannan, yes it will get crusty and brown like this: Also male ceres, as follows: A 'normal' male cere: A recessive male cere (left) and a normal male cere (right). Notice how the recessive male cere is pink all over: A recessive male cere (left) and a female just out of breeding condition cere (right). Notice the male cere is distinctly pink all over while the female cere is light brown/tan: A female out of breeding season cere. Notice the white around her nostril in particular and the overall lighter white/blue appearance of the rest of her cere as a whole: A young female cere (left) and a young male cere (right). Notice the white rings around the female cere, even though it looks slightly bluish and how the male cere is completely pink and has no white on it at all.: I hope this helps!!

The first one is a male because he is a recessive pied type. Boys who are recessive pied (and some other mutations) don't show the usual blue male cere. This is most likely a male because, as Phoebes says, there is no white around his nostrils. His cere will stay pinky/purple his whole life and never be blue. If you have one like this you really have to look hard for any white around the nostrils which indicates a female, I will try to find some of my old pictures to demonstrate the difference

We try and wait to name them until they show a personality trait that prompts an idea. It can give some fun ones! For instance: Barty is short for Bartlett which was the name of the lead escape planner in The Great Escape because he was so small as a baby he kept escaping by slipping through the bars of the cage we were using! Pippin was named after a character in The Lord of the Rings because he never stopped eating like that character Wonka was a twin who was deformed in the egg from lack of space and his hips and tail literally faced 90 degrees to the rest of his body Sharpie was scalped as a baby and rejected by her mum so she is named after the bald rugby player Nathan Sharpe Have some fun with them, it is the best part bout getting a new bird, getting to know them and choosing a name that reflects them

There is quite a good website that gives a very easy to understand explanation of most mutations (some it is a bit lacking on but those are the less common ones). http://www.budgieplace.com/colorsguide.html This one is still under construction but has potential to be really very good (and explains the less common ones better) http://cutelittlebirdiesaviary.weebly.com/budgie-mutation-and-color-guide.html Once you are able to understand punnet squares you can predict likely outcomes for pretty much any pair, it's very exciting!

They can be such characters, each of mine has a different personality, they are all gorgeous I got two birds for my 11th birthday in 2004, Sunshine and Blanc. They have both since died, Sunshine in 2008, and Blanc last year (he was permanently depressed and got very overweight after Sunshine died!) and I miss them both so much, they will always be my favourites! I am thinking Stumpy (one of my chicks, who has a broken leg) may be my new 'special' budgie now though Lovely to hear the parents are super protective! Always nice to see first time parents doing a good job as well.

I agree I agree with that agreement!

I currently have 11 adult budgies (one unnamed as yet) and 5 babies (two unnamed still) and three weeros (cockatiels). None of mine talk, but they are called: Girls: Speedo, Gilbert (not my idea!), Nutty, Banana, Bubble Boys: Barty, Olly, Tufty, Gimp (he has a broken/deformed leg) and Obelix Weeros (all boys): Carrot, Peaches, Rosie (thought he was a girl :/ ) In the past I have had budgies with these names (these are the ones I can remember off the top of my head): Sunshine, Blanc, Spots, Whiteny, Goldie, Mountain, Pippin, Wonka, Sharpie, Blueboy, Fred, Patches, Smudge, Houdini, Skye, Tex, Grey, Alfalfa, Bluebell, Snowbell, Princess, Sunset, Boof, Bobo, Hansel, Gretel, Merry, Scruff, Columbus, Violet, Hedwig, Squeak, Lily, Lionel, Star, Perry, Mango Just a few!

How exciting! I love it when you catch them in the process of hatching It is so beautiful to hear them chirping and pecking away at the egg. I'm sure she will be feeling much much better! Hopefully with some tlc and calcium blocks/cuttlefish she will be normal looking and beautiful in no time! The calcium from a block or a cuttlefish may also help in the new beak development as it grows out, fingers crossed! Yes, Sunshine was gorgeous. She was a little bit crazy though, and the worst mother ever! She was truly terrible at raising chicks sadly.

Because the dad is a white base budgie which is recessive to yellow, the only way you will get white base budgies is if your hen is split to white base. This means she has one yellow gene (which is dominant, giving her the yellow colour) and one white gene (which is recessive, allowing her to have white base babies when paired with a boy who also is either split to white like her or completely white base as is the case) The only way you would have got albino chicks from a lutino hen and a non-ino cock is if the cock is split to ino. The ion gene (which is what removies the pigment that gives markings) is a sex-linked recessive gene (can only be present on the X chromosome). Budgies are the opposite to humans in that the male budgie has two X chromosomes, XX (like human women) and the female budgie has one X chromosome and one Y chromosome, XY (like human men). Bear in mind that the ino gene is separate to the base colour gene which is not sex linked. There are only two options for hens when it comes to the ino gene: An ino hen is (appears ino): XinoY A non-ino hen is (appears non-ino): XY However, there are three options for cocks: An ino cock is (appears ino): XinoXino A split-ino cock is (appears normal): XinoX A non-ino cock is (appears normal): XX Each parent gives one gene to a chick, either an X or a Y, meaning the hen's gene donation is what determines the sex of the baby. With the combinations of your birds: XinoY (hen) and XinoX (cock) your four options for the gene distribution of the chicks are as follows: XinoX (25% chance), these males will appear normal like their father XinoY (25% chance), these females will appear ino like their mother XinoXino (25% chance), these males will appear ino XY (25% chance), these females will appear normal. Basically, your inos could be male or female. The base colour genes are similarly worked out, but are not passed on on the X or Y chromosome and so are not related to the sex of the baby. Assuming your hen is single factor yellow/split to blue (this does not affect the intensity of the colour for base colours) her base colour assignment would be: Bb (the B indicating the dominant yellow gene and the b indicating the recessive white gene). The male would be: bb (because the recessive gene is the only one present and is not covered by the dominant yellow gene as with the hen.) Each parent again passes on one gene to a baby, either a B or a b from mum, but only a b is possible from dad. The possibilities for your babies are: Bb, single factor yellow (50% chance), will appear yellow, like mum bb, double factor white (50% chance), will appear white, like dad. I hope this answers your question!!

she certainly looks a lot happier now! I have commented in your other thread as well, but keep an eye out to see if you need to keep clipping it!

You mentioned your albino came as part of a pair... does her partner feed her? This might help her stay healthy while her beak is still being treated... just a thought The bird in my picture, Sunshine, was one of my first birds and she got into a fight one day and had her bottom beak shattered so it never grew very well after that. It was almost back to normal after a while but without the balance of the bottom beak with the top beak the top can often get out of hand, Sunshine's did! I was able to clip her beak (a tiny bit, ~0.5mm, at a time) to keep it in check with nail clippers. This was much easier because she was tame and didn't move when I did it, but you will have to gauge what might work for you The best of luck for her beak anyway! it would certainly be exciting if it got under control and you were able to breed her!

So I have been having trouble resizing the photos, fingers crossed it finally worked! :/ This is Silas, on one of her? ventures out of the box. Seems to spend the days out of the box exploring and sleeps in the box at night. This is chicky with the broken leg. I have decided to call it Stumpy. Seems to be a coping fine with its splint, certainly a lot more comfortable and happy now! I have also decided to keep Stumpy and give the friend I was originally giving it to the youngest one instead. I don't think it would be fair to give my friend a budgies which may have recurring joint and leg problems. Anyway, Stumpy is so gorgeous and getting around very well on its little splinted leg This is my favourite picture of Stumpy, soooooo unbelievably cute! This is of the younger four babies in the nesting box while Silas is out exploring and being grown up Lucky has ventured out several times as well, but didn't want a picture taken of him being out! This is from about a week ago when I was cleaning out the nesting box Silas when I was playing inside Feather feet on youngest chicky Feather feet on Silas Very proud of my lovely babies so far and Bubble and Barty are still taking care of them amazingly well

From your photos of her it doesn't look to be a genetic issue, more of something that could be fixed with gradual trimming and availability of cuttlefish and calcium blocks. It may need constant monitoring in the future to make sure it doesn't get out of hand again! I wouldn't breed her until her beak is under control but assuming it is just overgrown there should be no problem breeding her when it is fixed