Posted September 22, 200717 yr Hi guys I have had budgies for about 6 months now, starting with two from a pet store which we keep as indoor pets, then expanding to aviary budgies, first 10 and then we bought another aviary which had 22 budgies attached. My partner has bred and owned budgies when he was younger and has been helping me with a lot of my questions, but I decided to look in here and have been lurking and reading for a little while. We are colony breeding our budgies, I have my favourite four in the smaller aviary and the rest in the large aviary. I have spent time watching my budgies to make sure they are all happy and have had to remove a couple of trouble makers and it all seems happy with lots of eggs and babies starting to happen. I am hand training as many babies as I can manage, at the moment, I am juggling my first nine from my fav two pair and it seems to be going well. I wont make this post too much longer and bore you all with newbie stuff but I thought I would post a couple of pics of my first parents (who are doing a great job!) Tommy and Gypsy http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r85/Sun...sandDaddies.jpg Smudges and Cloudy http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r85/Sun...esandCloudy.jpg Tommy and Gypsy have had four babies and Cloudy and Smudges have had five. All are doing really well and the oldest is now four weeks. Edited September 22, 200717 yr by Nerwen Pictures oversized, please check board rules
September 22, 200717 yr HI Sunny welcome to the site. Your birds look great. I can't tell in the first shot which one is the hen and which is the male, but is the normal blue bird of age? There seems to be a lot of dark markings on the top of the head, which to me look like bars, this would mean the bird is still a baby (under 3 months) Is this correct or is it just from the darkness of the picture? Budgies should be at least 12 months before breeding.
September 23, 200717 yr Author Yes she is a mature hen, it is just her markings. I was advised by the people I bought her from she is mature and also other people have told me she is old enough. I was concerned also by the "bar" markings that she might be young, but apparently not. And the blue bird is the hen.
September 23, 200717 yr Lovely birds you have, love the one that is half white, half blue (sorry don't know official mutations).
September 23, 200717 yr okay then Sunnie good to know Just checking. Then she must be a opaline with bad flecking to still have markings like that. (which I did wonder looking at the bit of wing I can see)
September 23, 200717 yr Author Yes, she is opaline cobalt apparently. That's okay Phoebe, I have no idea of what the mutations are either (other people let me know haha). The two pair have had some really lovely babies, though I dont know what their full colours are yet, but it looks like Gypsy, the opaline has two just like her and two like Tommy the blue and white one. Smudges and Cloudy's babies are white with blue and one at least has little brown "smudges" on its wings like its mama
September 23, 200717 yr If you post in the mutation area all your birds we can tell you what they are. Tommy is a dominant pied cobalt. Or maybe visual violet (Gypsy might be too) Smudges and Cloudy are both recessive pieds (good pairing with them two) Cloudy is a sky blue smudges is cobalt. If cloudy has brown markings then she is cinnamon as well.
September 23, 200717 yr Author Thanks Nerwen and thanks for pointing me in the direction of the mutation area, I missed that topic and will post further questions on my birds' colouring there as I have them. It was interesting to know the colouring of these four. Smudges and Cloudy were originally in with a few other pairs, and they chose each other for partners, which I thought was pretty cool, but Smudges was being harassed by a particular hen and in the interest of making life happy for her, I ended up with only her and the other pair in that aviary. Apart from being a bit of a messy mum, her and Gypsy have been great mummies and Cloudy and Tommy are very attentive daddies. I started handling their babies when the oldest was about 2 and a half weeks. I was quite worried at fist the mums might get upset and have worked my time up with them and Smudges seems very relaxed about it all. Gypsy is the "tidy" mum, and has been a fussier mum too, which I have admired, but she has become used to me handling her babies as well and for my first time, I think I am really lucky as it is all going really well. Gypsy and Tommy also chose each other as partners, and I plan on keeping these four as they are and not introducing any others in with them.
