hath

break some glass up so it fits in the holes pour in then on top of this put some cement and sand mix on top the damp of the earth sets the cement of and the glass stops them clawing it

i personally would leave them alone there breeders over here who breed exhibition birds in the winter who have no heating in there birdrooms and it gets down to -6 or 7

both parents have to have it there is an excelent article in budgerigar world this month and after a lot of research these are his conclusions split feather duster x split feather duster = 25% normal 50% split 25% feather duster

mine are 6 inch square and 12 inchs deep with the bottom 3 inchs filled with wood shavings

toys can distract from the reason they were put into the breeding cage a member of our local club tryed toys a few years back and results dropped by 40%

i stop my hens at the end of their 3rd year males can go longer till probably the end of the 4th year

this is why you should only buy a bird that is closed rung so you are sure of the age

all my hens have this problem when put back in flights its just lack of use put them in the flights but make sure they can get of the floor i use a thick branch for them to climb up within a couple of weeks they should be fine

i prefer hopper stile ones http://www.aviaryaccessories.co.uk/other.htm

as i was blocked for a good whlie did they rear the chicks okay

i have only had one case of french moult and this was years ago i let the chicks frow as normal when they were ready to leave i put them with the parents into my retirement flight if i remember right there is still one chick left which will make him about eleven or twelve i think

some hens will start to incubate straight away so if you take from 18 days to 22 days to be sure for the first egg

not all birds grow normally after french moult as for culling thats a your choice my choice would be to remove the chicks and parents and out them in my retirment flight if you dont have the space find good homes for them ensuring people know that they cant breed from same birds

12 months to breed 6 months is to young but to answer your first question is the hen in breeding condition

Budgerigar Matings & Colour Expectations £8.50 from the bs and they will post worldwide http://www.budgerigarsociety.com/

this has been printed in budgeriger world as i know some people here feed their birds pellets and you can discuss bewtween yourselves this was in a presen tation given in las vegas to the wbo by david n.phalen,DVM,PHD,DIPL,ABVP (AVIAN)associate professor small animal clinical sciences and the schubot exotic bird health center,texas a&m university,collage station,texas A moderately common problem seen in budgerigars and some other species of birds is calcium deposition in the kidney resulting in kidney failure. The cause of this disease has been hypothesized to be either excess calcium or vitamin D3 in the diet. To determine the cause of this disease, groups of budgerigars were fed diets containing various concentrations of calcium and vitamin D3 and allowed to breed. Results of this study showed that budgerigars need less dietary calcium (0.3%) than most other species for growth and egg laying. When dietary calcium concentrations reached 0.7%, mild calcium deposition occurred in nestlings and adults. When calcium concentrations reached 1.5%, death occurred in chicks and adult birds. All seed diets containing less than 0.3% calcium resulted in weak bones in laying hens and their eggs did not hatch. Vitamin D3 concentrations ranging from 500 to 3,300 International Units of vitamin D3 per kilogram of diet did not cause calcium deposition in the kidney as long as diet did not contain more than 0.3% calcium. This research is important because it shows that budgerigars can only tolerate a narrow range of calcium in their diet. Calcium concentrations in seeds are insufficient, but calcium concentrations found in most pelleted diets will be too high and could be toxic. Therefore, it is necessary to supplement seed diets with some form of calcium, e.g., cuttlebone and if you are going to feed pellets, they should be no more than 25% of what a budgerigar eats. This research also shows that budgerigars can tolerate a wide range of vitamin D3 concentrations in the diet without problems. it was these two statements i found interesting

nope i wouldnt say this is a disadvantage you are only plucking for the birds to mate nothing else so it does not matter how quick they grow back were not talking bald here just a little bit round the vent to thin them out

plucking doesnt kill them in fact it doesnt appear to bother them but why do you think they need to be plucked is your bird a big buff bird ? as this is the only reason you should need to do this four year old is getting towards the end of a males optimum fertile period its all down hill from now so if you dont catch both of them at their peak you could have trouble

rainbow most birds in the uk are small the same size as the so called american budgie you mainly see the larger birds from people who show ie exhibtion not english i have never seen a exhibition size budgie in a pet shop im saying you dont get them but they are rare to find so we cant really call them english if it has to do with size its certainly not to do with size

dingo what would you call an english pet budgie then as these are the same as the so called american budgie but completely different from english show budgie that is why i call then show and pet not english and american

quoted from the bs web site this might help some people i havnt seen it so cant comment on the content

all birds are different and if this is her first time breeding i wouldnt risk anything that could disturb a maiden hen if she has had 2 or 3 clutches and turned out to be a good mother then yes i might risk it

she is to old to breed now in my opinion so would be better just to leave them

i personally wouldnt add any now since you didnt from the start the smell and feel could have negative action on the hen and she could reject

first you need to breed and see quality of chicks after that you might have to bring in an outcross to improve mask and spots i would use a opaline preferably a female but one of the best tips i got was do not try and change all at once patients it took me 6 to 7 years to improve my original birds to a good base and there was still room for improvement to go to the next level