Maddy

No pictures today but an update and an enquiry. Gloria is fully feather and she takes every opportunity to get out of the nest. Even when I open the lid she hops on the side and preens while I check her siblings. But even though I found her on the floor of the cage nearly every time I checked, I'd put her back in the nest and she knew it, and would often not even wait for me to put her in, jumping in herself. Today I did the same. Picked her up and opened the nest and expected her to jump. Instead she turned her back to it. I thought this as strange but put her in the nest anyway (she was reluctant to go) Thats when I noticed Doormat screaming and Gloria doing the same. Well, it seems doormat has gotten a head start and laid another egg. Silly hen. Potato is no where near fledged, but she's ready to go another round. But I figured that Gloria has already been kicked out which was why she was reluctant to go back in. Now I have to ask, what do I do? If potato was older and ready to fledge I may of checked on Doormat again to see if she was ready for another round, but being the ages they are I am deciding against it. Do I take doormat out and leave pie in there with them? Or do I transfer Pie and the babies elsewhere? Its not an urgent matter as I haven't seen any aggressive behaviour coming from mum, but its something I need to take action on so that I don't get a nest full of eggs. Though its an exciting concept of having more chicks...I have a lot more hens to do that with I will most likely take photos on Monday...as I'm working all day tomorrow.

Sad news. The youngest one, who I had named Dizzy and had gotten very fond of, passed on this morning. It came as a bit of a surprise because he was a picture of health. But I just keep thinking to myself, 'What if he had gotten sold? What if some little girl somewhere had just lost her friend?' So I will let the breeder I got him off know at the next meeting, but I doubt he or anybody would of been able to predict this.

Thats so sad to hear What a wonderful name he had too. Ultimately I think its up to you whether you got another budgie. But don't try to remember what made you sad about having a budgie, try and remember all the good times

Look forward to some pictures. Your birdroom has basically the same dimensions as mine, and I know I would like mine bigger It must be exciting

Lovely birds scooter. I love the hen's colours The pics didn't work, but when you copy the code over from photobucket there should be 4 different ones. Copy the one that says 'IMG code' and they should work

I forgot to post this picture which I meant to do yesterday. Its just a picture of the gang

Actually I had two pictures of her. The other one was with her wings out...but it was blurry I try and get pictures of her sitting normally like this, but its a rare occurrence. Maybe she's starting to grow out of it

Yet again, I acquired 8 new budgies. And you all thought $10 was a good deal? I got all of these guys for free I was a steward at the Central Coast annual show yesterday. At the end of the day, I found myself taking home budgies that didn't get sold (and were obviously not wanted) I'm well taken care of in my club and I love it. I got 5 babies (2011 rung) and 3 older birds. There is 4 girls and 4 boys. Grey Green cock This little guy is only just out of the nest so will have to stay in the cage for a while longer. But he is so friendly, I just love him. I opened the door to the cage and expected him to try to escape. But he just looked at me, and when I put my hand in front of him he climbed aboard He was more interested in my camera than me Grey cock He's a bit of a scruff this one Grey green cock This one and the grey cock are brothers. Cinammon green hen Grey green cinnamon hen I'm not sure whats wrong with her eye, but I was assured its just the feather and it will come in eventually. She has a habit of sitting in the seed dish. Now to the older ones YF sky cinnamon hen I think. I'm just going by her throat spots. I just love her pastel colours. She's about 9 months. Cobalt cock This guy has horror movie eyes...like if I turn my back he's going to kill lol He has a bit of a wing droop going on, but although this picture doesn't show it, he has a magnificently wide head. Green opaline hen I'm not sure of this one's variety. Her wing markings look faded, but they don't look brown. So help with her would be appreciated. So I'm quite happy with what I got. I kind of said to myself when I started that I would stay away from greens. I have nothing against them, in fact I think some of these birds are beautiful. Its just that green birds are harder to get rid of, and as I'm still starting out, my birds aren't of show quality yet. But, I'm not going to turn down free birds

Update. This is the longest I've gone without making one...mostly because they are getting to the stage where I find the changes are more subtle everyday. Gloria No more naked spots. I just thought this was an excellent photo. I find her quite beautiful Leela She's at the stage that Gloria was at a week ago...where she is on constant reverse trying to escape. Ace Potato He has really vibrant tail feathers coming in. They look almost violet.

Looks like a female cobalt recessive pied to me (but it could also be a dominant pied I'm not 100%) I would say that she's doing well if he is just standing there looking at you. It's when they start freaking out and huddle in the corner of the cage that you should be worried. Does she sing or chirp? If not don't worry, she might still be stressed...but if she is than its a good sign. Its look like you got the second picture without much hassle and if you were able to pick it up in the open without it running away then I would say it is a runaway pet. So its good that you are putting up signs. Try not to feed lettuce as it has a high water content and can cause their poos to go runny (which can be mistaken for illness) Corn is good but also try spinach, carrot and broccoli...they love it. Try getting some pictures of the cage setup and a close up of her cere, the part above her beak (to be absolutely sure of gender). Its hard to be certain of a lot of things from small pictures.

They look like hens to me too. Don't listen to pet shops. When I went on my budgie quest, I fell in love with a normal violet. I knew straight away it was a she, but when the 'expert' came to take her out she said "He's a cute little boy." Because I was 99% sure....I kind of just laughed inside my mind lol But I let her think what she wanted.

Well, if its normal than I find it absolutely adorable lol

Checked the cage and gloria had fallen out again. But she still has a few naked spots so I put her back in the nest. I proceeded to pick up and check the other chicks when i heard the chicks being fed. Well doormat and pie both wait outside the nest until I'm finished. So I opened it up and Ace was being fed by Gloria. I thought it was a tad strange, but cute. Is it abnormal that she is doing this? She'll be five weeks old on Tuesday. I figured it could just be that she's mimicking mum and dad.

But you know more than me and I value your input Depending on what my other pair do (as they have been paired for over a month with nothing happening), I may add them to this equation. For the moment though I'm just assuming they are stupid teenagers who have no idea what they are doing, and I will keep them together for a bit longer.

More pictures Gloria She doesn't want to sit anymore. She also likes to blow her head when calling for food Leela Messy beak much... Ace I had to include that wing lol I love her quirk. I'm actually contemplating changing her name to Angel, as Ace was picked as a unisex name. Potato

Well, it took me over an hour to get these pictures but I did it It took quite a bit of patience to put each bird in the box and then get it to perch to get proper photos. Now I know how judges feel, especially since most of these birds have never been in a show box (at least not for a while) As with the settings, they worked for a few photos but then they seemed to look over exposed again. So halfway through they get better as i changed the settings. Gandalf (Normal grey) He surprised me (being a pet shop bird and all). He got straight up on the perch and posed. He's my little king. Nimbus (Cinnamon grey spangle) Thats right. After getting a close look I realised she is actually cinnamon. She also has bird boobies lol Lemon (DF spangle) His yellow looks really bright, it happened when I brought it into photoshop. But he is a rather bright bird. Violet spangle cock I couldn't for the life of me get him to put his tail down. Cobalt opaline cock Dark green opaline cock This was the point that I realised was blowing out the whites again. Normal grey hen Cobalt opaline hen I couldn't get her to calm down and sit up straight Cinnamon grey hen Posed straight away, but she's a biter. Normal cobalt hen I'm tempted to call her Quasimodo. This was the straightest picture i could get of her. She just wanted to sit hunched over the whole time. I had to break the laws of quarantine to get these photos. Only because I thought it better to risk putting the birds within range of the others...than lose them all. And its lucky I did because there was quite a few escape attempts.

Thats awesome Yea mines a digital SLR. I didn't do much photography in my course, but my mum is a photographer so I inherited her old EOS 20D. Unfortunately, either she doesn't know why its doing it or she just doesn't care lol But I'll fiddle around and see what happens

I don't use a flash Splat. Thats why its got me absolutely stumped. I always photoshop my pictures after i take them. I've never had to use auto contrast before this started happening...and it still doesn't help much. Not even playing with levels helps (I just finished my bachelors in graphic design so I am a photoshop queen lol) But I will put Gandalf in the show cage and play around with the settings He will be my tester bird, because he's friendly and doesn't freak out as much.

I think once I get show cage photos, the size of the birds will be more noticeable. I've been trying to figure out the bright problem for a while. I think it might just be any time there is something white in the photo, as all of these photos (except the spangle hen one) were taken at the same time.

haha I will have to watch him extra close then I cannot for the life of me remember (I blame my new-ness to the hobby), but his parents were from a very reputable breeder. It was just unfortunate that they paired two DF together and ruined it

I have a show cage i got from a breeder. Its a bit banged up and is calling for a new coat of paint inside and out, but it will do the trick. I will try and get them in there tomorrow and take some snaps

This is a great idea. There has been several mice caught and brought into the house by my 'alarms' in the past months. So if they are around I would like to catch them if they go near my birds. How do your drown them Dave? I know they can swim. Do you just put them in a bin full of water and wait until they exhaust themselves?

Thats okay, I often overlook things like that. But that makes me happier because it means I made a good decision As with the spangles, I just think they are both really nice birds and neither really have any strong features (in my eyes...remember I don't know features much) And looking at the DF male I was just thinking how nice it would be to have some white ones. So really it was just a 'pair them for their variety' choice and nothing else. I really want to learn so anyone can ask me questions...even if its a silly one like 'what colour socks were you wearing when you decided the pairs' The point of this topic is so I can learn The pied is a blue ringer, born 18/4/10 So he is old enough to breed. I actually asked the breeders when i saw him if he was a young bird. He just has that big eyed baby look about him. I would love to hear others opinions on the pairs. I probably won't change the grey cock and cin grey hen pairing, but the others are no where near set in stone and I will most likely shift them around depending on opinions. I do like yours GB, thank you

Thats funny because the DF cock and spangle hen were bought together with the intention of breeding them. What you say about the rec pied I do see now, and thinking about it I didn't include my other birds because they are 'pet' birds. So I'm kind of asking myself why he was the exception. Really, the only pair I had thought a lot about was Gandalf and the cinnamon hen. The others I kind of paired off because....well, I felt like it lol Thats why I was asking for opinions.

I have been thinking about the pairs I can get once the quarantine period for my new birds is over. I have a couple in mind, but I would really like to start thinking about features and such when picking my pairs. So I am going to post pictures of my birds with their basic genetics (if I have them) and if anyone would wants to chime in with an opinion on what they would pair and why it would be greatly appreciated. The first 8 are my new birds. None have names. Cobalt opaline cock (left), Cobalt opaline hen (right) Cock = Normal violet cock x Opaline cobalt hen Hen = Opaline cobalt cock x Opaline cinnamon sky hen Cobalt hen Full sister to Cobalt opaline cock Cinnamon grey hen Cinnamon grey/blue cock x Opaline cinnamon grey hen Normal grey hen Normal grey cock x Normal cinnamon grey/green hen Spangle violet cock Spangle mauve cock x Opaline sky spangle hen Sky recessive pied cock Violet recessive pied cock x Dark eye clear white hen Opaline Dark green cock Opaline clearbody yellow cock x Opaline Cinnamon grey hen DF spangle cock (aka Lemon) I do not have his genetics, but when I purchased him I was told he is small, but his parents were huge. It was only because his parents were both DF spangles that he turned out so small. Normal grey cock (aka Gandalf) He was a find in a pet shop. So he has no ring and I have no info on his genes. Grey Spangle hen (aka Nimbus) I don't have her genetics, but neither did the breeder as she was acquired from another breeder Olive Recessive pied hen (aka Rasputia) The olive was a guess on my behalf. I do not have her genetics either, but she is a big stocky hen. And though she has always had the baffling condition of not having any feathers under her wings or around her neck, none of her siblings or parents had that problem as I asked. I feel like i post too much on this forum and people are getting sick of me lol But I like to ask questions and learn from them. So, off the top of my head, these are the pairs I have worked out so far. Normal grey cock (Gandalf) x Cinnamon grey hen I think the grey cock has lovely blow but is lacking on body size which the hen has. She has also bred before so I think its a good idea to put a first time cock with an experienced hen Sky recessive cock x Cobalt hen I know that the hen is not masking opaline as it's sex linked and the rec cock isn't either, so I would like a non opaline line My opinion is that the cock has length but the hen does not (I'm not sure if that matters) Spangle violet cock x Spangle grey hen (Nimbus) No other reason than i think they compliment each other and would make some lovely DF babies DF spangle cock (Lemon) x Normal grey hen With the problem of the cocks' size i have it in my head that if I pair him with a decent hen it will come back in his babies. Is this right? Opaline cobalt cock x Olive recessive hen (Rasputia) I really don't think pairing her with any cock will work as she seems to like her solitude. But apart from that I feel that she has good size while he doesn't. Opaline cobalt hen x Opaline dark green cock I really have no reason for this pair other than experimentation So if you have an opinion like 'I think this cock should go with this hen because...' then I would love to hear it. Or if I've said something that makes you think 'What is she on about?' then go ahead and tell me I'm speaking nonsense lol I would just like to learn about what I should look for when pairing birds. I've tried to follow the 'Pair opposites' rule I've heard about, but I really know nothing about show birds and what a winner should look like