honeybunny

hey guys, i dont normally but this year i let the budgies squeeze in one last (very late) round of babies, so at this moment in time i've got thirteen lovely healthy 5/6 week old chicks bursting forth from the nestboxes, happy days but...one appears to have french moult if it is then its my very first french moult chick in 14 years of breeding budgies, her flight and tail feathers have all dropped out upon fledging, she's one of four chicks and the other three seem normal *touch wood* as do all the other chicks in the shed. the chick is otherwise nice and healthy, a real fatso, always seems to have a full crop, mom and dad are still insisting on stuffin' her full even though im pretty sure shes eating by herself now, when she was still in the nest before her flights dropped out (both her primary and secondary wing feathers are gone...plus the whole tail) her wings looked odd to begin with, although they appeared to be sitting normaly the tips of her flights would come to rest really high up on her back...if you follow, when she fledged and started to drop them, i noticed how flimsy her flights were, they broke very easily and i'd often see the odd bit of dried blood here and there, the quill was very thin...hair thin, does this sound like your typical french moult to you guys ? i did buy in a couple of new budgies this year, would i be right in assuming it came from them? is it common for french moulters to recover and eventually fly? i believe many never do. thanks in advance

thanks for the lovely warm welcome guys hiya Hezz LOL good to see a familiar face

hiya everybody, i've kept budgies for about 14 year and still love them as much now as i did when i first started out, i colony bred for the first 7 year or so, rarely had any of the problems you hear about being "inevitable" with colony breeding but i opted to change to cage breeding about 6/7 year ago as i was keen to try my hand at selective breeding, glad i did as i just love combining the different mutations/varieties to see what little beauties are produced...this game never gets old for me i also keep and breed zebra, bengalese and hecks grassfinches, diamond doves and chinese painted quail...love them all but i dunno, budgies just have something extra special about them cant wait to get to know you all and hope to have many a natter about our feathered friends