SarahC

Just thought you might be interested - whether it is a coincidence or not - I have recently acquired a pied elegant parrot - it has pink feet too, whereas the normals have blue feet. I wonder what that means for my elegant parrot with one pink toe....

I have never seen a budgie in the wild. I suspect their mannerisms would be similar if not the same as those in captivity - maybe not tame birds, but similar to aviary birds. I couldn't be sure though.

Is he a really tame bird? He might be excited to see you. I know my cockatiel does something like this, especially when he wants to be let out of the cage.

Hey that is cool! I think I've noticed it before but not usually before an age where I put rings on them (though I haven't had rings for about 3 years). I'm hoping that 2 of my pairs will start laying soon - one of which has a spangle mother so I'll keep an eye out!! Adding to that - I have a yellow lacewing with pink feet and had clearbody greens with pink feet too.

Yeah - in Brisbane you are lucky to get $8 per bird at a pet store, tame or otherwise (one particular store sells them for $50, not even tame!!!!!) I can sell them, tame, on Gumtree for $25-$30 each easily. I even have back orders from people who want another as soon as I get my first clutch for 2012. I just find the >400% markup that the pet stores do completely insane. I have found one store in Brisbane that sells nice, young mature birds (have to sort through them though) for $15-20 out in western Brisbane but if anyone knows of any others in Bris please PM me Thanks

Thanks guys - yeah I only grab him if he needs to be moved while I clean etc. Sometimes I can get him on my finger and he just jumps into the cage but when he doesn't behave I grab him, so it has only ever happened a handful of times. The other bird has only ever done it once.

I am not sure I agree with this advice. One of my best breeding cocks acts like this. He freaks out when you hold him, and he is called Twitch, as it is like he has a heart problem. i found that when I hold him, catch him, or put him initially in a breeding cage, he has some anxiety issues. Stroking his stomach helps. As for breeding - he is very fertile, produces great offspring - none of whom act like him - and he is the best Dad I have at raising chicks. Yeah it is strange. Both of these birds are not even slightly related. Does yours kind of lie there and you can like stroke him and then he suddenly snaps out of it? My birds don't freak out there is a minor struggle (very minor kind of a misbehaving struggle rather than panic) then he just goes limp...

I have 2 birds that when I grab them and hold them (most of the time against my chest with my hands just around, barely even touching them) - they kind of twitch and go faint. When I put them down they lie on the floor for about 30 seconds before jumping up and acting normal. They are relatively tame, so it's not like I have chased them around and frightened them before hand. If this happened to all my birds I'd think I was holding them wrong, but it doesn't. I never squeeze them. I just find it bizarre that it is only these 2 birds that ever do this. It reminds me of a fainting goat's behaviour or something...

Thanks Kaz!

I thought there would have been a thread and I had a search last night but couldn't find anything. I have noticed that green birds have blue feet, but I have had sky blues with blue feet and some with pink. I have an elegant parrot with 7 blue toes and one pink... thought this was strange too.

What is the reason behind the pink versus blue feet in budgies? I have tried to link it to colour/variety but there seems to be no pattern. The only pattern I see is that budgies with pink feet have yellow beaks and blue feet budgies have greeny beaks. It might be a silly question, but what colour are bush budgie's feet?

Thanks for your input about Pearl. Do you agree that Kami is a boy? (the blue pied in my last lot of pics).

Definitely wasn't old age. Kali was about 3, Bandy was less than 2 and Mixie was only 5. Most likely old age.

If anyone lives in the Brisbane region - there is a seed outlet in Springwood that has budgie seed, small parrot, hulled oats for $20-23per 20kg bag. It is AGM brand (allora grain and milling) and from what I've seen it sprouts really well and seems to be a good mixture. Admins, am I allowed to post the actual website here?

Budgie seed here in Brisbane can be anywhere up to over $50 a bag. I have found Trill seed sold by the 10kg bag in Big W and last I checked it was less than $20 per bag. There is a place at Greenslopes that sells AGM (Allora Grain and Milling) for $27.95/20kg bag for small parrot seed and I believe budgie seed isn't much more if at all. I have been sprouting it recently for weaning my baby red rump and it seems to have an excellent sprout rate (easily more than 80%). I am not sure if I am allowed to name the store directly here but it is on Logan Road, almost opposite KFC at Greenslopes. Apparently you can also get it from AGM directly at Springwood. I am yet to find out the deal with this....

Snuggles likes to snuggle on her side

Unfortunately these are the only photos I have of Hedwig (these photos are from my old cubby house aviary) This photo is sad... not one of these birds are alive now. They mostly died of old age or I sold them at some point. The only photo of Hedwig that I have from the back. She did have the cinnamon coloured wing markings.... This is a photo of Pearl's baby, Kami. His cere really is bluer than this and he talks and acts like a male budgie.... The first one without flash... Kami - With Flash His sister's cere (sister from a the next clutch of eggs who was pictured originally in this post)...her cere has has already gone brown. Kami's has stayed a purply colour, that if he was younger I'd be suspicious that he is in fact a she. I am pretty darn sure though, as I said, by the way he mimics and mutters that it is a boy, also with his head bopping dancing.. Kami is 7-8 months old now.

Kaz - 10 - wow they must have been excellent parents. Did you add in the others in as babies or eggs? I think the pair I had could have done it, I wish they were around to try! - unlike some birds where they look really tired after raising only a few babies, these birds looked fresh and you wouldn't have even noticed that they'd just had a nest. PS - I love your birds! I have a soft spot for pieds, make them violet or Yf and wow! Thanks for sharing.

The corner on the right at the front? The photo really exaggerates the angle. It is more like 45 degrees, not ~30 like the picture looks. Birds land and go in there all the time and there is plenty of space and no way of getting stuck

I was wondering what the largest clutch size you have had raised by the parents only. Mine is 7. It was amazing to watch, it was the cleanest nest I have ever had and the mother bird was always moving the babies around so that the 2 week old didn't squish the newborn. Most of my other birds will only hatch 3-4 of their 4-6 eggs or have the smallest one die. I had the 7 babies in a lunch box while I cleaned the nest. Most of my breeders are tame and just watch me play with the babies. Clean, perfectly fluffy babies I kept the older of the clearbodies (it was a bright green clear body, and had purple cheek patches, and after his first moult, was the most amazing buttercup colour). Unfortunately he, and his terrific and wonderful mother were both victims of my rat story that I have posted in the Budgie Safety forum. I kept the yellow too and she is going strong with a sky blue mate On a side note: I have tried to foster babies before (once) and it failed miserably so I have never tried it again. I have fostered an egg to a mother who never successfully bred herself, who had clear eggs at the time. What I found interesting was that this was the 5th and final egg of the clutch. This baby grew up and left the nest at the same time as its second oldest sibling. Just shows what extra attention the fostered egg was offered to grow up effectively nearly a week faster than its siblings.

I will get the photos of Hedwig and Kami (the back flipping one) soon. Kami just looks like a normal dark blue pied. What you have said was my guess too, but I was wondering if there was clearbody in the mix somewhere too. Pearl and his mate are making lots of normal pieds and normals (sky, dark and purply-dark blue). I have to say I am a little disappointed that I haven't managed to recreate Pearl too. I have lost track now as I never put a ring on him... but I believe he was born in Kali - 2002 (bought her as a baby) Fidget - 2004 Bullet - 2005/6 Pearl - probably late 2006/ early 2007 because the aviary was built in October 2008 and he was a house bird at that stage... I am getting worried he is going to be over breeding age soon. He only started to breed this year. Let's hope for a good 2012 season!!

You may recall about 6 months ago I posted my budgie that does backflips...well here are pictures of his father. Some nice combination of genetics. He is the grey-light violet colour on his rump - nearly colourless on his stomach, has cinnamon wings (they look more greywing in the pics but they are cinnamon), he is a dominant pied and has red eyes (you can imagine the surprise I had when he was a baby, expecting an albino and ending up with this. I have also attached pictures of his parents (who are sadly now deceased). What else I find interesting is his cere is still pinky purple, and has never gone blue (even though he is 4 years old), and his son (the back flipping budgie) also has a dull cere for a male. Any ideas of what you would call his genetics are greatly appreciated. Here is a something resembling a family tree.... Hedwig (F) (white lacewing) + Bluey (M) (greywing purple, looks exactly like Beaky) = Beaky (M) Kali (F) + Harry (M) = Fidget (F) Fidget + Plucky = Bullet (F) Bullet (F) + Beaky (M) = PEARL (M) Kali (Pearl's great grandmother)- the one who started it all...my original budgie (Including Pearl's Baby I am into my 5th generation of "Kali Pieds" yet I have never been able to recreate her exactly ) Harry (Pearl's Great Grandfather) Fidget (Pearl's grandmother) Bullet - Pearl's mother Beaky - Pearl's Dad (He only had about 3mm of beak under his cere, as his mother ripped it off when he was very young... even with less than half a beak he had a good life, was a fat bird and was probably one of the best parents I have ever had) .......................................... NOW..... PEARL!!! It's hard to see his red eyes, but they're definitely red He is a good tame boy, like most of my budgies I keep I wonder...the blue through his wings if he is split opaline... lots of opalines came from his parents... Pearl next to his mate (a cinnamon purple). Their daughter is above them. So after all of that, what do you think? I think he has to be prettiest bird I have bred. His colouring is so iridescent in the sunlight.

Nah - we barely have any issues with feathers For some reason most of the moulting seems to occur downstairs. I need to make a new ferris wheel for them though. This one is 8 years old and made from pine and has been out in the weather its whole life, it is looking a bit sad. It is funny though, it's like each species takes its turn on the wheel.

In 2008 I convinced my father to build me a new aviary, as my bird-proofed old cubby house on stilts just wasn't big enough anymore. We ended up with a 2 part large aviary, with a downstairs and an open upstairs in the pool area, connected by 4 PVC 90mm pipe holes. It works really well and is a nice addition to the pool area I have budgies, bourkes, scarlets and elegants in here. I have had them for over a year, through a breeding season with no problems. The only 'problem' is my bourke parrot who is tame likes to chase the other birds away when I'm there so she has free reign of the perch to talk to me! Looks boring from here.... Inside The bourke is Squeak, one of 2 tame bourkes I have in the aviary Looking back - I cleaned this yesterday! So much pooping overnight! The 2 joined aviaries... with a third going in! (not connected though ) Side view - I'm thinking I should have made the shade cloth neater now... oh well The front... see the holes on the left? L Looking from the bottom aviary, through the holes into the top aviary and the pool area.

Thanks for an idea - Just wondering, what paint do you use - oil or water based? I have been using just clear estapol for about 7 years now and never had a problem on my MDF and pine boxes, but I was considering making them white this time. Very nice cages By The Way - they must have taken you a while to set up!