FoxFire_Ga79

I've googled like you wouldn't believe trying to find a DF spangle budgie and I just can't find any! I've tried searching for private aviaries, I've gone to websites for birds for sale classifieds. It's pretty frustrating. And of course there are no bird fairs anywhere near me. They're all hours away! lol I'll end up having to take a road trip if I ever want a spangle.

Hey I like Neville's idea that Edward can possibly be both! Yesterday I was back at the pet store I got Edward at and there have always been plenty of recessive pieds, and I've seen plenty of clearflight pieds there as well. I do not recall seeing a spangle there. I've seen dom pieds, recessive pieds, lutino's and albino's (Buttercup is a creamino but I got her at a different PetSmart) greywings, yellow faces, violets and so on there. Plenty of opalines. I got Epic there and she's a mauve. Interestingly, when I was there yesterday I saw one that could have been Edward's clone. I did get pictures of him, but really since you've seen Edward you've seen this guy as well. I've asked an associate for breeder information but it's pointless. PetSmart gets their birds from a regional distributor, who gets their birds from smaller breeders. The birds are pooled together and shipped out as needed. Very few of these birds ever have leg bands. I'm never going to know who Edward's breeder is and what his parents are. Neville's right, I don't think I'm going to know for sure until I breed him. Which of my girls do you think would be his best match? Nyxie is a sky blue opaline greywing, Abra is a light green opaline, and then there's Epic the mauve and Buttercup the creamino. I've been wanting to put Buttercup with either Toothless or Atlas since they are both yellow faces, and Epic with Echo because I read somewhere that mauve put with a violet factor makes some nice colors. And if it turns out that Edward has no spangle in him, how would I go about finding a DF spangle? I really want one in my program, and I think a DF would give me 100% spangles in every clutch? Spangle has got to be the prettiest mutation of them all. My ultimate goal, if it's even possible, would be to get yellow faces that are cobalt or violet and opaline spangle. I'm not asking for much am I?? lol Thanks for all the input. I am LOVING learning all this stuff! Oh, I forgot to add. DEC was my first thought on Edward, but having black instead of plum colored eyes threw me off. UNLESS the plum coloring is ONLY in the pupil area and would not include the area over the iris? When I look at his eyes from a side angle in light there is a slight red/plum tint in the cornea over the pupil but still dark in the outer ring where the iris would be. I had always attributed this to actually being the blood vessels in the cornea, such as you would see in a photograph where someone has "red eye." Is that the plum color of a DEC, or is that in fact the blood vessels?

WOW!! LOVE that color!

Oooooooooohhhhhhhhhhh I really hope so!

So, since the last time I posted this question, Edward, formerly known as Lily, hasn't changed by much. I can't age him because he's pretty much all white and there are no bars on his mask to guess his age by. And his eyes aren't getting lighter colored iris rings. So here's a recap of his coloring: He appears almost completely white. I didn't notice any markings on him for at least a week, and then it was by accident. He has a very faint shadow of blue on the very tips of some of the feathers on his rump. His feet and legs are solid pink, no bluish tint like my other budgies. His cere color changes from day to day. Some days it's a deep purple almost blue, and some days it's pink. I've had him since January and his markings are a little more faint now than they were then. I really have to strain to see them. The one feather on his chest that had a slight blue tint at the tip is gone. His eyes have no hint of a plum or a red color. It's been mentioned he could be either a DF spangle or a recessive pied but personally I'm still stumped. I'm really hoping for DF spangle but I guess since his eyes aren't changing then he's probably recessive pied? What colors can I expect from him when he's bred? So here are some pics. I put arrows on one of them to show where the blue markings are in case they're too faint. And yes, I'm well aware I need to get my nails done soon lol It's on my to do list! So, whadda ya think?

I want Gilbert. Mail him to me, I'll pay $50 plus shipping fees. Haha Everybody else named off your colors but I had to add that I think they are gorgeous. And I love the name Whizzbang, that's just beyond hilarious. Wish I was that creative.

I'm so relieved that you guys agree. I still don't 100% trust myself, and the pet store people really are wishy washy. One of them once told me that a blue cere is a cock and a pink or purple cere is a hen. No mention of hens having brown tan or white ceres! And they'll tell you that any hint of blue on the cere means it's a cock. But I forgot to take pictures today!

Sweet!

That's so heartbreaking. I'm so sorry to hear about your loss. Hugs to you.

So today I completed my budgie family by getting 2 new ones I'm presuming are hens and bringing the body count up to 4 cocks and 4 hens. *I* think they're hens, the employees at the pet shop said they're hens, and now all I need is confirmation from the real experts. Better pictures of their bodies/colors tomorrow in sunlight. One is blue, I believe pretty much standard markings except I think she has 2 dark factors. Mauve? The other, I think, is some sort of ino. Red eyes with a noticeably lighter iris. Not solid white and not fully yellow. I would guess creamino which is officially a yellow face type 2 on a white albino? And when looking at her at certain angles, on her rump you can just faintly see a shimmer of light aqua/green infused in the ends of her feathers. SO beautiful! It was an adventure getting that ino lol I was out today and went to 4 pet stores on my budgie quest. She was at the first store I went to and I fell in love, but the guy working there went and asked someone else and came back saying that she was definitely a male. I was confused by this but didn't argue. Later after I got home I called them back to ask if someone could text me a picture so I could post it an ask you guys but they wouldn't. But someone went and actually LOOKED at her and assured me she's a hen. That's what I thought when I first saw her, and the employee that said she was a male must have been thinking of one of the other "yellow" ones. So this evening after my long afternoon I drove the 35 miles (one way!) back to this store to make sure nobody else could get her. I was going to be back in that town again tomorrow but I know my luck, someone else would have gotten her by then. I'm still working on names. I'll keep you posted on that one and I promise better pictures as soon as I get them! :wub: Have a great night! Or I guess, day for most of ya here.

Nevermind, I'm just going to buy a ginormous cage. Hubby doesn't want to build a flight cage to look like it's part of the house in case we decided not to keep birds anymore. Unlikely. lol I still have the first horse I ever bought, from 10 years ago. And now I'm so smitten with budgies I don't see the want to keep them going away any time soon. But, buying a nice big cage will suffice for now until I can nag at him some more.

$10 is a steal! Awesome! I'd give just about anything to have a gray like the ones you have, but I can't find one in any pet shop and all the avian breeders around here don't bother with budgies because they're not the big money-makers. Are you going to breed them too? I can't wait to see pics of the babies you come up with.

Hey everybody! I'm wanting to build a large flight cage/aviary and I want to know what the best materials are and a few finishing touch ideas. My general thought is that I want to build it in a corner. The very bottom will be a cabinet to keep all their stuff in. On top of that I want to use a stall shower pan. lol I know that sounds funny, but I figured it would be really easy to ShopVac the litter out and scrub the bottom real good that way. For all practical purposes, it will look like a shower stall, instead of glass in it I would want to have mesh/wire. So, what's the best kind of wire that's safe for budgies but looks really nice? Should the top be built solid with a full spectrum light built in or should I use the wire up there too and hope they get enough sunlight from the windows? If I build in a light, how far above the highest perch does it need to be? Lastly, what is safe to use as wall covering? I would like the 2 back walls to have a trees/woods design to it. Can I use printed vinyl? Should I paint the designs in? Anything else I'm not thinking of? Thanks!

Sorry these aren't the best pictures of Toothless. (And sorry for being AWOL. lol) But yea, he's a dom pied.

Can you roof the whole thing but put in sky lights so they get sunshine in some areas without the wild birds being able to drop their bombs right down into the flight? Looks impressive if you ask me. Welcome!

Yea, there's no white on their ceres. Echo and Atlas just have pale blue over darker blue. Toothless looks to be the youngest so I guess that's why he's still pink.

What does it look like to you in the pics? Does around the nostrils look like a pale blue or really white? Because when I look at Echo and Atlas I see pale blue around the nostrils and darker blue lower on the cere. But it almost looks white to me in the pictures. Maybe my colors aren't set right on my screen....Gonna go check that. Oh, and around Lily's nostrils there is a glare. He's pretty solid purple-y pink.

Better pics set right into the message so you don't have to click any links, up in the "what sex is my budgie" forum.

For the past few weeks I've thought they were all males. Their cere colors seem to change daily, sometimes more blue, or purple, lighter or darker. On Echo and Atlas, the lighter color around their nostrils is a pale blue and then lower is a darker blue. In the pictures it looks like it's white around the nostrils but that's not what I'm seeing in person. When they pair up for grooming, "kissing" and cuddleing it's Lily with Echo and Atlas with Toothless. But I thought that was natural because Lily and Echo were alone for a few weeks, and Atlas and Toothless came in together so it seemed like a ready-made match up. But here are the close ups of their ceres. Lily-- Echo-- Atlas-- Toothless--

Moggie, as in from Yahoo! Answers?? OMG I was wondering if I'd ever find you on a forum lol I didn't want to have to keep losing points on Answers for asking so many questions in there! Yay! Thanks everybody for the warm welcome. You all look like a very fun group.

Echo, Toothless, Lily, and Atlas are all under 4 months. I know Echo, Atlas and Toothless are because they still have bars all the way down to their ceres. I'm guessing Lily is the same because I got him in the same time range and all the other budgies there were that young. I know nothing of their parentage as these are all pet shop birds. I'll work on getting some better pictures of their ceres today. I'll have to move the cage so when I take the picture the light is to my back. Really though, they're all bluer and more purple when I look at them and I get frustrated at how light they appear on camera. Be back this afternoon with hopefully better pics.

Woohoo I got a couple of them right on my own! What would you need to see/know about Echo to figure out if he's cobalt or sky violet? There is purple around his neck and up between the black bars on the back of his head.

Thanks! The pics are in the colors/mutations forum.

Hey everybody. The pics are pretty big and I'm too excited to find out their colors right now to want to fool with resizing them so I'll post links. I hope that's okay, and I'll be resizing from now on when I need to post them in here. First up is Lily. At first glance he appears to be solid white but on closer inspection you can see a shadow of sky blue infused lightly through his rump feathers. I was told this means he is either recessive pied or double factor spangle, and I'm going to just have to wait and see if he develops iris rings or not to know for sure. I'm assuming he really is a he. Lily Lily's rump, haha Next up we have Echo. I'm guessing Echo is a boy, and a single factor violet opaline. I can't tell if that's on sky blue or cobalt. Echo Echo Then comes Atlas. My guess is male, yellow face type 2 greywing. Atlas On The Left Atlas And then there's Toothless. I'm guessing male, yellow face type 1 sky blue dominant pied. What you're not seeing in Toothless's pictures is that his wing and tail feathers are very pale yellow, and the feathers on his rump are an incredibly vibrant turquoise. Toothless On The Right Toothless On The Right Again Now the Girls. First up is Abra. I'm guessing she is a classic green. Abra And then there's Nyxie, whom I'm thinking might be a sky blue opaline clearwing. But she also has an interesting infusion of turquoise through all of her feathers. Nyxie Well anyway, I can't wait to see what you all have to say about their colors. Hopefully I'm not too far off base. I've been reading about their color genetics for almost 2 weeks now and it's still confusing. How long will it take me to learn this? Also I was wondering if there are any comprehensive budgie color and mutation genetics books that also help figure out which matings are likely to get which colors? Thanks!

Hi everybody. I'm Rebecca and from the US. I don't guess I actually have a "flock" of budgies, only 6. I have 2 new definite females still in quarantine, Abra and Nyxie. The other 4 I presume are males. They are Lily (cuz the pet store said he was a she haha) Echo, Atlas, and Toothless. They are all still young so I don't see me breeding until next year sometime. Maybe very late this year. Other than the budgies I am also owned by 4 human kids, 2 dogs, 3 horses, and a husband. Saying I'm busy a lot is an understatement. I'm going to head on over to the photos board and see if I can get some help identifying their colors. I look forward to getting to know you and soaking up every single piece of information I can get.