Maddy

Renee, that is genius. I've never thought of using clumping cat litter for those awful poos the hen's produce I will be going on a hunt for that brand.

Pricey, but probably the best option splat. If you can pinpoint the problem then you can solve it I would also like to know what Atapulgite is Renee.

Little premature chick didn't make it. Found it in the nest, seems to have died of yellow belly. Disappointing but something in the back of my mind was telling me to not hold my breath for this chick. Now I just have to cross my fingers and hope the other 3 eggs hatch. Egg number 2 is 18 days old today, egg number one was laid 2 days prior so it hatched right on 18 days. Not even with my diligent hen that sat from day one had that result which is why I wasn't holding out for it. The other chicks are doing great. The chick in my DF spangle and cinnamon spangle nest is looking to be a DF like her dad. I say her as she has white down, and indication of opaline, which I think the dad is hiding (I don't have his background) But the previous chick I had from that nest is an opaline and a hen, so thats the conclusion I came to. Which is great, I need more hens The 2 chicks in my dom pied and normal grey nest are also doing great. 2 hens out of 2 eggs. This male so far has only given me 1 male, so I like him. He throws hens lol The oldest looks like a grey opaline dom pied hen. The youngest I looked at for a while and I couldn't determine whether the yellow on its head was food or yellow feathers. Either way, it will be a normal grey opaline, but I'm hoping its a YF as well. I will see when the feathers come through more. My cinnamon grey and normal grey nest I've been having problems. She seems to be laying (to my knowledge, which isn't much) soft shelled eggs. She hasn't let me check in a while as I open the nest and she just stares at me without moving, even if I nudge her. But last time I saw them there were 2 soft shelled ones and a normal looking one. The normal looking one I think is after I dosed all the cages with calcivet. Learning curve And silly me, I must of left my candling torch (aka book light) on over night as the batteries are dead. So now I have to go on either a battery hunt or another book light hunt (which is okay because it only cost me a couple of $)

oh really? Well maybe its just my eggs lol

Also squeak, when the air bubble takes up half the egg thats good. I've found that most of my eggs get that way later on when they are closer to hatching. But I agree with GB. Don't touch them till they are WELL over their due time.

It takes some time Pride, it also depends on the severity. A cock I saved from a pet shop that had really bad scaly face, still has bad looking feet even though its all cleared up. I bought him 4 months ago.

Congratulations on making it back to us Renee That cock looks amazing, you should get some nice chicks with him. Good luck with all your breeding, hopefully you get another high percentage of hens this year as well

The rules for quarantine is the put the bird in a separate cage, at least 5 metres away from other birds, for about 30 days. Moving house is stressful for birds, and this stress can bring out hidden ailments the bird might be carrying. Don't be fooled by 'they were in the same cage' business though, I did. I bought 3 birds from the pet shop at the exact same time. One of those mysteriously died while in quarantine but the others were fine. Now the birds I got with that bird may of had some sort of resistance to it being in the same cage with the bird, or could of even had the same problem but it didn't arise. However, if I had put them all in my aviary as soon as I got home, who knows what might of happened. When doing quarantine, always say to yourself 'Better safe than sorry'

Agree with Daz, both male Its hard to tell the first ones type from this angle, but from what I see I'm going to say YF sky blue spangle. But I could be wrong because the photo is very bright. And yes the second one is an Albino

Wow. Fine looking baby you got there splat. Also what type is he? That blue feather in the last picture jumps out at me.

chucking out the nesting material is a good sign as well as going in and out of the nest box. She's basically rearranging everything to her liking for when she lays

Well the egg was due to hatch in 2 days, and that was if the hen had sat on it straight after laying, which is not always the case. Usually its not until the 3rd egg is laid, then they start incubating...so about 4-6 days after it was laid. But as long as they live there is nothing wrong with them hatching pre-maturely I was going to take one of my babies to the clubs table show tonight, but hesitated as I had my usual 'I'm not good enough yet' thought. However, now I wish I did take him, he probably would of won lol

Well this afternoon I discovered a little pinky in pair #4's nest. Its about 3 days pre-mature, but its wriggling around with its big head and I just did a check and it has food in its crop so fingers crossed I actually candled them today as I have noticed that hen isn't very careful when she leaves the nest. I thought it was a dud as I saw a big black spot and some yellow, but I actually think that that was the baby inside preparing itself. Its fascinating to think that anyway. This is the nest where the cock has filled every egg, so lets see if the hen can do her part well too

They should. Just make sure you are giving them some calcium for when they lay more eggs

second hand yes I'm sure its cheaper. But its not easy to find for a price like that Its a really big book, not only that but really handy. If you have some friends interested in it you could always split the price

So do I Pride lol

You mean this one? Yep thats a little ear hole The challenge is about $150 from some online shops (not including shipping) My local club has their own library and I borrowed the book for the month for $1 It includes everything from diet to breeding to getting ready for a show and judging a show. It has helped me quite a bit already when I'm looking for good traits in my birds (lots of illustrations)

When there is a '/' it usually means they are hiding it Taylor So if you see someone say 'Opaline green/blue budgie' then their green budgie is split for blue

This is a hen I own, it looks very similar to yours Green budgies actually have blue pigment in their feathers that mixes with their yellow base to make green. A blue budgie has no yellow, which means its just blue. The aqua colour is the blue mixing with a pale yellow suffusion caused by the YF gene. At least that's my understanding of it anyway But like I said it could just be the lighting of your photo

I have had 'experts' tell me a rec pied male was female only to come on here and find out I'd been had. I've learnt to not trust people that say they are experts, I've even had vets say they are not experts. Have you candled the remaining 3 eggs? Hopefully you'll have some luck

protein is good for keeping weight on the hens during the process. They tend to lose a lot of it and the last thing you want is skinny hens feeding hungry mouths. It also plumps the chicks up as well which is never a bad thing Hand rearing is something to have on hand in case something goes wrong, like if a hen decides she doesn't want to do her duties. I might not have everything on that list, but I definitely have those two.

Could just be the lighting, or my in-experience, but this hen looks like a YF to me

Update for today Pair #4 (Rec pied hen and dark green cock) have all 4 eggs fertile. Now I just have to cross my fingers that all 4 hatch. Its the first time I've had the entire clutch be fertile. Its like a milestone. Its also never a bad thing to find out you have a nice fertile male The chicks I have are still growing. At the moment I stick by what variety I called them A yellow DF spangle, Dom pied (I think grey) and a normal (Colours on the last two are still questionable) Pair #2 has 3 eggs, too early to show fertility yet and pair #7 has 1 egg, laid today I also did a bit of sprucing up and re-did some of my budgie records. I made up my own sheet based on the one I saw in the book 'The Challenge' (Great book, I recommend it) If anyone wants to use it as well, I've uploaded it to my photobucket. I like this one because it lets me put how many rounds (max of 3) they had and the success of each. http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z474/Pink-Budgie/Screenshot2011-08-07at75532PM.png

hmmm sorry I still have to say male

I think the number on its side is actually the year, but I could be wrong. So if its a purple ring then the bird was hatched between 1st September 2010 till the end of 2010 The DM would most likely be the breeder, but thats not always the case. My rings say NSW then a number, while I have birds which rings start with CBC (Cessnock Budgie Club) The number means nothing to you. It would be for the breeder to look back on the birds lineage in their documents.