elf

Hehe Nerwen, I could drop him off to you if I were so inclined (which I'm not, I really like him!). I don't know how long it will take me to find a green I'm happy with, so I'm considering the cobalt spangled hen. She's a nice chunky hen who shouldn't be carrying any surprises, and I'll be able to see which babies are spangled so there won't be anything extra lurking in the genes for future generations.

I don't think he's a fallow. Eyes are black as far as I can see, in the photos and in person,and the markings on his wings are black shading to grey. This is the only red-eyed bird I have:

Thanks Splat. I don't show, only breed for my own pleasure, but I don't want to be messing up a mutation by adding other mutations that aren't complementary either. So would a nice normal green hen do the trick?

I have this lovely chap who I assume is a TCB. I have no idea what to pair him with. I'm not necessarily fixated on producing lots of TCBs - I like variety in my babies. I have no idea what he might be split for. The hens I have are: Skyblue opaline cinnamon dominant pied / recessive pied Green series lacewing Goldenface skyblue violet opaline cinnamon Cobalt spangled Goldenface skyblue opaline Any ideas? (Sorry about the sideways picture. Photobucket issues )

I currently have three sky violets. The father is goldenface with a lot of suffusion so his sky violet colour is really only obvious around his vent and on his tail. His two babies are goldenface cinnamon and they are a definite light lavender colour on the lower part of their bodies. It may be that the violet colouring is only obvious in them because of the lightening effect of the cinnamon. The mother of the babies is a cinnamon skyblue. This was taken in natural sunlight. It's hard to capture the exact colour with the camera.

Never mind. He's looking much more like himself today. No more orange vomit and he's chatting away and sitting more normally on the perch. Must have been a passing bellyache or a bit of stress.

Can someone tell me what might be wrong with Oswald? Over the last few days he's gradually lost interest in feeding his hen (she just hatched two chicks), and this morning I found him like this. There's orange vomit around his beak, and while I was watching him he flicked his head and sprayed me with it. His posture is all wrong - feathers tight to the body and wings sticking out a bit. I did give them a plate of veg yesterday with some pumpkin in it so that might explain the colour, but why is he sick? I've had him for about 6 months. He was the last bird to be introduced to the aviary and has been fine until now. The others all seem fine except for his mate. The hen is in terrible condition because he hasn't been feeding her and she won't leave the box very often to feed. I really don't want to lose her because she was our house pet and the kids are very attached to her. Do I need to pull the chicks to handraise? They're only 4 days and 1 day old, and the thought of hand feeding little jellybeans is terrifying. I don't have another pair with chicks to foster them on. Any help/advice much appreciated!

Kaz, that makes me feel so much better! If begging from the older chicks is normal, hopefully she's just being the annoying youngest sibling and there's nothing actually wrong with her. I'll just grin and bear the noise, which is easier said than done when the brooder is in our bedroom (the noise doesn't stop just because the lights are out ). Until I was forced to bring them in, I had decided to handle the babies rather than handraise them. This was not the plan! Three of them are earmarked as pets for my young children, so I'm really anxious to get it right - the kids would be devastated if one of their babies died.

I've had to bring my 5 chicks in for handraising after their parents decided that hanky-panky was more fun than feeding the babies they already had. (I tried giving them extra time, taking the hen out in the hope that the cock would feed them, putting them in a container on the floor of the breeding cage ... no go so now I'm Mum.) They've been in the brooder for 24 hours now, getting Roudybush formula. None of them are interested in taking the formula from a syringe so I'm crop feeding them. I've done it before, though never with something so small, and they seem to be doing well. The only issue I'm having is with the youngest baby. She's about 18 days old and she's always been a bit of a whiner - the first one to squawk when I looked into the nestbox, the last one to stop squawking after the hen went to check on them. Now that she's in the brooder she seems to be begging her siblings for food constantly, even with a full crop. I can't find a reason for any distress - the chicks are getting 10% bodyweight per feed, the food temp's right, their crops are clearing within 3-4 hours, the brooder's a nice comfy temperature, their droppings are reasonably formed ... all of them, including the youngest, seem active and alert. Is there some issue with the formula that I should be aware of? Is she just missing her parents because she can hear them outside? Does she think she's not full because she hasn't had a feeding response? I do offer the syringe at each feed but they don't seem to recognise the formula as food. Is there another one that's better for budgies? She's having a good nibble at my hand as though hoping it's edible, and hasn't shut up for at least the last 15 minutes

Thanks The white boy is probably a DEC but he's only just finishing his first moult. I can't see an iris ring from a distance but haven't taken him into the sun for a good look. His cere has darkened and turned purple, maybe en route to turning blue? Time will tell. He also has a faint violet sheen. I love the colour variations that budgies come in but sometimes I think it would be nice if it were all a bit simpler

That's why I'm confused! Is the white baby just a recessive pied that looks like a DF dom. pied? In that case Tundra has genes for two different varieties of pied? I've read a few explanations of the violet gene, including your post, but that doesn't solve my problem. The older violet baby is definitely a pale purple colour on her belly, so where did it come from? There's no possibility of another cock bird having been involved - our only other male up until a couple of weeks ago was a very young DEC or DF spangle (not sure which yet). Loki and Tundra were on their own for a couple of weeks before she started laying. I have no information about the history or parentage of either parent bird. I think correcting the colour with the photo editor has darkened the cinnamon somewhat. If you compare the chicks in the first photo with the 4th chick, you'll see a definite difference in the colour. This is the photo before I corrected the colour:

Hi, I'm new to the forum but have been lurking for a while reading posts I have a nest of babies with a couple of puzzles in it, and I'm hoping someone can clarify things for me. The parents are our house pets: Loki, a GF ?cobalt opaline cock, and Tundra, a skyblue cinnamon opaline dom. pied hen. At the moment their babies look like: 1. Skyblue cinnamon opaline 2. GF violet cinnamon opaline 3. Skyblue opaline DF dom. pied (From the top: 3, 1, 2) (This is a blurry shot of the 3rd baby's violet belly) 4. Skyblue opaline 5. GF violet opaline These are the parents: My question is ... why do I have a baby that looks like a DF dominant pied??? Tundra is definitely dominant pied (or am I wrong? She doesn't have a head spot) but Loki shows no sign of being any variety of pied. The baby is almost entirely white except for the forehead barring, a couple of small patches of opaline, and some skyblue rump feathers. Is it just a recessive pied? Also, to have violet babies Loki would have to have a violet gene, yes? He has violet-ish patched on the sides of his neck - is this the indicator for the presence of violet in him? The violet in the babies is very pale, almost a pastel colour.