Maddy

I only saw poo when i took that photo and when i checked her this morning there was no blood either...just more poo. So I think it might be tricksy light that makes it look like blood. But I'll double check today, really take a good look, and I'll grab some photos of the tail for you.

I really want to keep this updated as much as i can without it being excessive The oldest chick is growing more everyday. I caught dad feeding her this morning which gives me some confidence in his fathering skills. I find it funny and cute how the chicks lay down on their backs to be fed. Anyway, i got some more pictures of the oldest chick. It gets more inquisitive every day. I got a little worried about its legs as they seem to spread out a little when its on my hand. But I usually just tuck them back under its body and its fine

I'm watching this topic for sure. Being a new breeder I find this very interesting and helpful at the same time. How did you get such big beautiful birds so quickly GB? lol They're gorgeous Also, I did not know you were in an accident, but that answers alot of my questions. I envied you for you always seemed to be out with your birds and I was wondering how you did that. I have 3 jobs and can only spend about 10 mins at a time in my aviary on some days which sucks lol I take advantage of the days I don't have anything planned Can I ask, just out of curiosity, why is it called avalon house? Does it mean something?

I bought one of these when I was still a newb budgie owner. And I have to say, it was in a cage with two budgies for about 4-6 months with no problems and they loved running through it. However, what Kaz has said about them being bacteria greenhouses and the budgies ingesting the fibres I have to agree with. It was only after spending weeks trawling through topics on here (unlike your friend Kaz, I love to find and retain as much information as I possibly can lol) I started to think logically about it and removed it. These are synthetic fibres, so definitely not suitable for digestion in any way (Its like feeding your bird bits of plastic). They also hold a large amount of bird dust, so no matter how clean you keep the cage, there is always the hazard that they will breath in whatever is caught in fibres. They're just dangerous is general, and the more we educate people that fall victim to the hype of spoiling budgies unnecessarily (like I once did) the better off pet budgies will be.

Hmm, i have some minced garlic. If it doesn't stop at the pin feathers I will try that splat. I'm thinking maybe she did it during those really hot days we've been having recently, maybe to reduce heat for the baby? I'm not sure, but I'm keeping an eye on her and I've put a big stick of millet in there (which is probably gone by now lol)

Would love to help with what little I have to offer GB, but I'm in NSW

So I found some time today to get the drill out again and take a shot at making a shelf for inside the flight area. I have to say I'm loving being a handywoman So now instead of having to navigate a big heavy bird bath out of the door to clean it, I just need to grab the handle. I'm also not whacking my head on the hanging seed dish anymore. As well as the shelf, I rearranged the cabinets a little so that the occupied one gets more sunlight now and its not crammed in the corner. I got attacked by a fat black garden spider while doing this *shudders*

I went over to the stock feed store near my place and they've never heard of hens plucking chicks....so it is safe to say hat they don't hold anything to stop it lol. There are 3 pet shops in my area and no one seems to have heard of 'stop pick', so I've decided to have a little faith in my hen and hope that she will stop once the pin feathers come in. Speaking of which... The oldest chick is starting to get some colour, despite the lack of feathers. I'm not sure how old until you can tell the sex of the chick...but from its cere I'm guessing female (so I'm going to call it a she until someone or the chick corrects me) It is a very distinct shade of blue and I was wondering if you can tell variety from this? (if not I can wait ) Also...Another Pinky Hatched Today! Doormat is on a roll here. There is only one un-hatched egg left, but whether or not there is something in there I can't say (my candling torch broke again and I'm waiting for one I bought from ebay) So now there is 4 happy naked chicks in the nest. I got my mother to finally come out and have a look at them, and she commented on how doormat will just stand at the door of the nest box and wait for you to finish. She doesn't squawk or peck, she's a very well behaved and patient mother A top notch first time mum, especially now that she's not feeding air anymore.

aww shucks Thanks guys. I try and take advice wherever I can and learn from it. Already this flight/breeding room is working for me as I was having problems with the free birds taking the info card off of the nest box and chewing it. Now it can sit there all the time I might so some rearranging too as the in-use breeding cabinets are kind of in the dark in the corner at the moment, but this is easily fixed

Thanks Haha thats awesome Maesie I would much rather get something useful like that than perfume or clothes

I've decided to update this topic rather than start a new one on basically the same subject So I am doing up my aviary again. This time I needed to get a partition in the middle to separate my birds from my breeding boxes after there was some spilt blood over some of them trying to get into an occupied nest. Well, I got some great suggestions about how to go about this and I decided to ask my grandfather to help me. Well, I heard nothing about it until a week ago when I found out he was making a partition for me out of some metal he had lying around. The end result is fantastic. He even made the door for me which has a little latch on it and everything. I have also had a project in the blueprint stages for a week or so. This was to built a set of cabinets to hold some flight cages (rather than making actual cage cabinets). I feel that this will be easier to clean and also easier to move birds around. I got the wood cut for me at Home hardware and borrowed my dads drill. From inside the partition I am very proud of myself for this as its the first time I've ever built something this big. Its also the first time I've used a drill lol You can also see from the top picture the cage stand next to the aviary. This will be my quarantine cage once i get some more birds which will be soon. It will be moved further away with that tarp around it to make it weather proof The currently occupied breeding cabinets will be moved so that they are facing the same way as the other cabinet, once the babies have left the nest. And here is everybody wondering why they can't fly over the other side of the aviary any more I also have plans to build a shelf to put the water and food so that I'm no longer dodging around the bird bath and hanging seed dish. So once they are completed I will post some more pictures....because I can

Okay so I managed to get a picture of the nest yesterday, but my net was down so i couldn't post it But here they are You can see how small the new one is, even smaller than the eggs. Of course, this picture has now become out of date because... Another Pinky Hatched Today! Yep, so now there are 3 happy chicks in the nest. My hen, Doormat, seems to be getting better at feeding. I'm not finding any air in the crops now. I like to think that the first two chicks were like practice ones. And now that the older chick is in there with the younger ones, its giving her a bit of a break. The little pinkies huddle under the older chick. But its also confirmed what i thought about the chick that hatched 2 days ago. It is definitely smaller than the one that hatched today, and a darker shade of pink. I'm thinking maybe it hatched pre-mature (if that can happen) But they are all peeping and well fed so I'm not worried. I do think that the chick that died had a condition of some sort that led to its death. The older chick is now almost 2 weeks old, and it is only now reaching the same size as the other one. The dead chick was a different shape, colour and had pin feathers starting to come in, which this one does not. I'm thinking its body was just growing too fast for the chick to handle and it died. I'm not sure if this is possible, but I have no other explanation for how different it was upon its untimely death. The older chick has now started to open its eyes too. For the past several days I've found that it grabs onto my fingers when I pick it up, and wants to chew on my hand. It doesn't peep when I pick it up either, I think thats just because now it can see whats happening and its not freaking out. But I'm afraid to say that I'm falling in love with it

I GOT ANOTHER PINKY!!! Found the little guy around lunchtime as I had to work in the morning and wasn't able to do my usual morning check. Its so exciting!!! I'm a bit concerned for this one though. Compared to the two other chicks i got a picture of when they first hatched...this one seems a different shade of pink ( a bit darker) and a little smaller. But other than that he is wriggling around and peeping his little heart out, taking refuge under his sibling. Photos to come

I mixed up some of that homemade egg and biscuit and they absolutely love it. Well, the breeding pair does anyway. I put it in in the morning. When I came back in the afternoon Pie's face was completely orange, like he had dunked his whole head in there. There is little/no more air in the baby's crop either

Thanks GB I will try that So I'm assuming a hard boiled egg (yolk and all) mashed with dry weetbix and carrot. Cool! She's a first time mum, so I'm guessing its partly inexperience too. But at least now she has had some practice for the others (if they hatch)

Do you grow budgie plants? Just joking I did a check on the other baby this afternoon and there is an excessive amount of air in its crop. Its like a little balloon. Is there anything I can do to fix this before I lose the other one too?

Disaster struck. I came out to the aviary for my usual morning nest check to find chick #1 dead. Its quite disappointing as he was going so well. He just lived past a week. So I took him out and looked him over, and I can't see to find a reason. His crop is full, he isn't discoloured. The only thing I can think of is there might be some air in his crop. Is this enough to kill him? The part where I am assuming is just air is just next to the top wing. But its not an excessive amount, and the only way i found it was when I poked the crop and I saw that bubble bit move. I decided to weight the little guy just for my records. He came to a total of 7 grams, and the other chick is still significantly smaller That leaves 1 chick in the nest, with the other eggs due to hatch any day now. Now I'm going to ask a grim question, but its something that I know most of you have done plenty of times before. How do you dispose of a deceased chick? Is the bin the most popular option? Burial? (<--- I might do that because garbage pickup was today)

Update. The chicks are 6 days old today. They are still well fed and moving around. The oldest one's butt fuzz is starting to change colour and their eyes are getting close to opening. The oldest one is significantly bigger than the other one considering they hatched on the same day. I also put the ring on the oldest ones leg, as I'd much rather it fall off and have to do it again rather than miss my ringing window Chick #1 Chick #2 Chick #2's crop is a bit saggy, but I assume thats because he is almost due for a feed. Yesterday their crops were bigger than their own heads...so I am not putting into question Doormat's feeding skills I couldn't get a clear shot of Chick #1's head as it was flailing everywhere. It almost seems to weight down their tiny bodies lol But from the two top view pictures you can see the size difference. It is possible that they hatched hours apart as I checked the nest in the morning and afternoon and they appeared in the afternoon check. Is a difference like this normal or could it be that the bigger chick is a lot more aggressive when asking for food? Either way I'm not worried...just curious. Also, if my maths skills haven't failed me again, the first of the later laid eggs will be due to hatch in a few days (about 3 or 4) I am worried as these chicks will be bigger and needier and will make it harder for doormat to feed them. My other pair is yet to lay so fostering is out of the question. But I was thinking if its possible if I move the two oder chicks and dad into another cage with a nest and keep mum and new babies (if they hatch) where they are. Will dad take care of them properly, and will mum be able to cope? Of course if these chicks do hatch and I find they are being fed I will keep them there, I'm just preparing myself. I visited a breeder and she taught me how to crop feed so I could always do that if absolutely necessary, but I would rather keep that as an emergency backup.

It is very exciting, they are well fed and wriggling around Yep the broken one had yellow yolk, so there was no loss there I got my candling torch fixed at a meeting. It was the bulb, but I did not know that there was an extra bulb concealed in the battery cap I candled the eggs that are remaining, and 3/5 are fertile. But they are only red, so they must be the newer ones...so these two will be the only babies for a while. The two yellow ones, it seems have the air sac resting on the long side of the egg rather at the end, so I assume these are no good am I right?

Well I've gotten some advice from the budgie meeting tonight and it was basically the same as what you guys have said....nesting or stress. But I grabbed some nutrient powder and some finger draws tonight to help them out a bit. Basically, I was told that if she looks fine and is functioning fine then I shouldn't worry about it too much and just keep an eye on her. Thanks for the replies everyone

Dads parents weren't cinnamon, but i don't now about his grandparents ( I'm not sure how far down the line it travels) Also, I just realised my maths and I feel stupid. There were 7 eggs. 2 hatched and one broke...yet there are 5 eggs in the picture. So there was 8 I need to be more attentive

They both look black to me

Oh I know they're not actual twins. I was just calling them that because I did not expect two eggs to hatch on the same day. They are kind of like fraternal twins in my eyes lol But I know as soon as they feather up they will be different. I removed the open egg, and also that piece of shell you can see in the picture...I only noticed it when i took the photo. I also put half a millet spray in the nest box for mumma. She had devoured it by the time i came back so I gave her another half

I couldn't for the life of me find the topic on budgie poop, so I gave up and started a new topic. These were found in my breeding pair's cage, about 5 minutes after changing the newspaper I sat there and waited for the cock bird to defecate to see if it was him (as I didn't recall the hen leaving the nest) but his poos are normal. The one on the far left has white in it but the other is like a milky colour around the poop. And as you can see by how its soaked into the (clean) newspaper, its very watery. Upon saying this, the inside of the nest is fairly clean, with a few old egg bum poos (the really big solid ones) and is dry. So I hope its not serious and just stress poop.

I've decided to open a breeding journal for my birds, as its my first time breeding budgies. I feel if I do this, then if something goes wrong I can back track and determine if it could of been avoided and know for next time So this is the pair that is breeding YF Sky Opaline Dom Pied Cock Normal Sky Hen (Terrible photo I know, it really doesn't do my cock any justice) After some inconsistent laying, there was a total of 7 eggs (I didn't get a photo) For a long while, 3 were showing definite for fertility...but nearing the 6th egg, it looked like only 2. I didn't get to candle the newer eggs as my candling torch has either broken or blown a bulb Yesterday, two of the eggs hatched. While there was only 4 eggs, I came to the conclusion that egg #1 was infertile, so these must of been egg #2 and egg #3 Here are the 'twins' I'm seeing from this photo that the two eggs on the bottom right have a very distinct pink tinge to them so without a candling torch I'm going to say they are duds. The one at the top seems yellow? After finding the chicks I saw an egg which looked to have its top half cracked, so it looked like it was hatching. But this morning upon my nest check, I found it was the top half of one of the already hatched chicks egg, stuck on another egg. I removed it to find a hole Don't know what happened there, but that leaves 5 eggs. Will update.