Pebble

Thanks Phoebes. It was definitely blood but I will keep my eyes open for foods with colour in them. Onion is doing well and there has been no more blood. I have put him on a course of antibiotics and he is healthy and well. Unfortunately I lost his daughter last night. She had no blood but seemingly blocked nostrils. I am starting to lean towards robyn's suggestion. Perhaps it is something genetic because all my other birds are fighting fit. Very sad to lose the ones I bred myself especially since I am new to breeding : (

Thanks ilovebirds. Was the cancer your bird had a tumor? Where on the birds body did it develop. I will keep a close eye out and take him to the vet if I suspect cancer. He is much happier today and really eating plenty. Hope he is okay. Thanks for the information.

Thanks Robyn. Yes I do regularly worm my birds with a wormer in their water. But I will try some Ivermectin for this fellow. He was in the aviary with the others. The bleeding is only very light and not constant. It is only from one nostril. I am worried because one of this cock birds sons died seemingly for no reason. When I looked at him he had a little blood trickle from his nostril. At the time I thought perhaps he had flown into something in the cage in a night fright. But now his father has the nose bleed also I am worried. I have him on antibiotics and will worm him just in case. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Hi all. Just wondering if anyone is able to identify a bleeding nostril and weight loss as symptoms of an illness. I have a cock bird in a hospital cage as a result of these issues. Thanks for any information.

They are lovely Paulie. Wish I could get a yellow faced violet so strong in colour : )

I am still new at this, but I will hazard a guess. Please don't take this as gospel, one of the more experienced people will confirm this for you. But I think I can see an iris ring so I'm thinking it's a light green dominant pied. Im not sure why the cheek patches are two different colours. Hope this helps.

So here are some pictures of my new aviary. I built the floor up rather than try and dig down to lay a floor, due to drainage. The floor is made of pavers. The outside is lined with treated pine, but the birds can't access this from the inside. I made sure I built a safety on the front, to make it easier to get cages and tools in and out when I am cleaning.

Hi gudgeon. I had my pet birds inside for their first 12 months. I kept buying and breeding more budgies and could no longer keep them all in the house and they have all now gone into my aviary, pet birds included. My pets are VERY happy. They love sitting in the sun on their swing. I am sure your birds will do fine on your patio just make sure they always have some shade to cool down in if they wish and that they can escape drafts or high winds. Good luck I hope your birds have the same positive experience mine did.

What a shame the weather has stopped you Robyn. Apart from your lovely chicks coming through I have a selfish agenda. I will not be able to breed my birds again till after Christmas. Your posts and lovely pictures have been tiding me over till I can breed some more : ) What colour is Smokey? He looks mauve but I can't tell. I love your ring-ins!

Just wondering what type of water containers people are currently using in their aviaries. I bought one and found it to be a bit of a failure. Thanks for any advice before I spend more money : )

They are really cute robyn. The little gray one is a lovely chunky little thing!

What a funny little tinker Ghost is. She would make it difficult to concentrate but who needs to work when there are such distractions. Thanks for sharing : )

We would need to see a picture Jimmy. The colour of the bird does not indicate gender (generally). Do you know what colours the parents were?

Well its been five months, its in a different spot than I had planned and its not totally finished yet, but today my birds moved in to their very own aviary! I am so excited. Photos to come soon.

Good luck Emily. I hope it works out for you and Charlie.

Oh dear. Great that theyhatched then. Could you keep me updated on their progress I would love to see some show quality yfaces develop.

Thanks Nadene. I love yellow faced blues and would like to breed show quality Australian Yellow faces. Yours looks lovely and I really like the yf grey. Your old boy seems to be the perfect patriarch for your aviary. He seems to be loving the sun : ) I am hooked on pinkies they are just so cute (although I describe them as feeling like dried pink HubbaBubba you could find under any school desk). Yours look perfect and full of possibilities. Thanks for sharing.

That is fantastic Nadene. What a fast way to double a flight area. Could I request a close up photo of you birds in their new home?

Sounds great. Good luck Vargur : )

Sorry robyn I didn't make it clear, but yes Dollar (I didn't name him!) is fine. This is him: This is a bad photo, but I only just took it now. He was not touched, just really upset. He seems to be over it now though, that mark is beetroot on his face! This is his flight cage in its old position. I have moved it now so my naughty dog is not able to jump on it. The whole side bottom wall of it came loose yesterday when she jumped on it, and instead of flying to the top like his mate Cent, Dollar decided to drop like a stone and sit on the bottom, waiting to get squashed! This is the culprit. Looks like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth doesn't she. We are mates again today though. She is lucky I love her. These are my other two reasons for getting on with the job. And I live with two others which are not mine. This is my yard. If it seems big that is because it is actually two yards. I live next door to my parents and we took down the dividing fence so I get one big yard for half the price! The photo is taken from their side, the edge of the garden is my boundary line. This is where I am going to build the aviary. Long term, I am going to turn the green grassy area into a fully enclosed shed which will be a bird room and also give me room to keep a few canaries. But for now, I am just focusing on building an avialry with three flights up on the hill where the dead grass is. I need to begin by digging in some mesh to prevent rats tunneling under the floor and causing it to cave in. I then need to level the hill out with a small retaining wall and lay a paved floor out of old pavers I have left over from renovating the yard. This is actually a really big job as when I bought the place this was a hole where a pool had been, so it was filled in with "fill" a euphamism for any building **** that wont break down. So it is hard to dig in because it is full of lumps of cement, rocks etc. The flight area will go at the left end of this garden. I am really luck with my neighbours. To the right of this garden is my mum and dad, and they don't care what I do as long as I don't make it difficult for dad to mow the lawn (yes I get free lawn mowing!). To the back is bushland owned by the Water Board, and they are never a problem. Great neighbours, beautiful wild birdlife, just a shame that rats live out there. To the left is my neighbour with some serious substance abuse issues. She has some massive fights and parties, but she is a poor soul who generally wants no trouble, particularly from me and is always happy for me to do whatever I want along the fence line. She also loves animals, so never complains about my animals. She does own a lot of 'free range' cats, but I am sure my dogs will keep them at bay. I am pretty handy on the tools myself, but I have my dad who is also really enthusiastic about birds and he will be my second pair of hands when I am too short, too weak or too useless to get something done : ) Today I actually made a list of things I will need to get going and pulled out all the old junk I had laying around that I could use for the job. There is a lot of it! Building in earnest begins next weekend.

Well I have been procrastinating about building an aviary for a while now. I currently have two large flight cages and two breeding cages in my house. My flock is currently at 15. I have my two show quality birds in a large flight cage of their own. This afternoon my oldest dog (and naughtiest) decided to knock down a wall of that flight cage and try to eat my beautiful grey cock bird. As he was flustered he was caught on the floor making the matter worse. After I caught the dogs and patched up the cage I decided I would start building my aviary and I thought I would start a thread sharing the journey with you all. The budget is very low, so it will be done in sections and I will be using plenty of recycled materials. I will take a photo of the site tomorrow. Well here goes . . .

I must echo the sentiment of others and congratulate you for being such a wonderful person and taking in a bird in such a frightful condition. I have read about bad cases of scaley face but have never seen one so bad! You are a lovely person for giving this little bird a new lease on life. It always amazes me when animals manage to find their way to owners who will go all out to give them a second chance. Thanks for sharing your story.

You know another helpful app would be one where you could download a picture of your bird and it could suggest the mutation. The app would have to provide an explanation for the answer of course. I would pay money for that!

Thanks everyone. I would like to produce some quality birds I could show Robyn. But I bought these two birds from the same breeder so if anything worthwhile comes of them really I am just benefiting from her good breeding practices. So long run I would like to put them or their offspring to my pet stock and enjoy the process of developing my own line. I also really enjoyed the surprises in colour and mutation that came from my pet birds. Eight chicks and only two the same! Every egg was like a Christmas present. A surprise you cant wait to see : ) So I may just breed pet birds sometimes also.

Thanks Hilly. I will have to continue my research on pieds as I dont totally get it yet! By the way Im Pebble not Noddy : )