This is snowflake and aussie's babies.I have named the biggest one "sonrisa" meaning smile in spanish.

Here is a photo of its beak,I was wondering if the colouration on it is heredertary and the shape seems a bit rough.Any thoughts on sex of it aswell.It has the most beautiful blue and greenish/black wings.

He can also sit on your finger too.What a clever baby.

Here is the sibling who I have named "pie" for obvious reasons.It has white and a lighter blue coming through.

Any thoughts on sex of this one.

Pretty budgie but the beak looks a bit odd. Perhaps some of the other breeders will know more about whether or not it is okay.

I agree the first baby's beak looks a bit odd.

As for sexing at this age I have to wait

They are very sweet.

Both have great colours starting to show. The oldest Sonrisa's beak is misshapen, this could have been from food stuck to the beak or being squished in the nest at some point. Pie's beak looks normal (love that name by the way )

I don't know if anything can be done to help the beak at this stage or not. You will have to watch Sonrisa very closely to see if he (or she) is eating correctly when he is old enough to try.

The dark on the beak seem to be random but it will fade around the 6-10 week mark.

 

I would think they are both girls, only becuase of the Opaline being a sex-linked gene. But becuase snowflake is an all white bird there is a small chance she is 'hiding' the gene. (not split for it)

Thanks Nerwen.I will keep an eye on sonrisa.It seems to feed okay when parents feed it.I lost one baby from this clutch and maybe sonrisa got hurt too at the same time but I always thought it looked like it was smiling so maybe it was born this way.I read on the forum that opaline babies may have a dark colouration on their beak.Thanks again :-)

Hi FGM - If you take Sonrisa to an Avian vet to get her beak looked at, there may a good chance that the beak can be corrected while it is still soft and pliable... It also looks like it will be misaligned the way it's growing. This may cause troubles with eating as the bird grows. If anything I would aim to look into ways to fix the misalignment so that it can eat properly when it's older. I suspect the mishapen upper part will be hard to fix though - ie. the misalignment is the thing to correct if anything is possible.

 

As as an idea, in case the deformity is nutritionally-related, could you try to hand-feed it with a baby bird soft food mix (one that is nutritionally balanced - not just egg biscuit) to see if it can help. This may help things along. Always good to try anything.

 

Thanks Nerwen.I will keep an eye on sonrisa.It seems to feed okay when parents feed it.I lost one baby from this clutch and maybe sonrisa got hurt too at the same time but I always thought it looked like it was smiling so maybe it was born this way.I read on the forum that opaline babies may have a dark colouration on their beak.Thanks again :-)

thanks turbs,the photo is a bit misguiding as sonrisa was making a funny face at the time I took the photo.Her beak does align normally,it just has the bumps on it.