I am thinking about pairing the two birds shown below. The hen has some reasonable bullseyes but I'd like to increase the quality of the spots and also get the spangles all black as they are partially body colour on her.

The blue normal cock is a HUGE bird and he did show very nicely in the sale cage but cracked it when I put him in the quarantine cage at home and wouldn't take a nice photo, but he's a lovely bird. He's missing some feathers that didn't grow back after he was plucked in the nest.

 

I am aiming for spangles from the clutch so it is all about increasing the quality of spangles, any normal chicks will be 'excess' but if they turn out to be nice birds that will be a bonus.

 

Comments, advice...? You can be blunt but don't make me cry

 

 

 

Your hen is an opaline spangle and thats why she has that colour wing markings. Both birds look a little under the weather so I would wait until they look in much better shape before you breed with them.

I don't think she is opaline Kaz, just badly marked. He had opaline spangles as well and their wing markings were clearly different. She has the same markings as my badly spangled pet types. He is actually in pretty good condition just permanently missing quite a few feathers.

She is opaline spangle and going by the body colour in your cock birds wings he would be split opaline too.

okay well does that change how I should be pairing her? I was going on some 'research' I had done which basically said to improve the spot and wing markings I should be pairing to a normal but I obviously haven't got my 'eye' yet. The other option is a grey cock.

 

If you want too fix markings then the opaline is going too give you trouble , the grey would be better and he has more spot and larger spot then your blue, But is the grey a normal ? do you know for sure , nearly all normals are split nowdays.

I am pretty sure the normal isn't split. He is from a breeder who puts coloured split rings extra on all his chicks so that he can keep track of which ones are split and what for. He and his brother(the injured one behind him) have no split ring so shouldn't be carrying anything too unusual.

I agree, she looks opaline spangle.

Neither are looking well at all. A long rest period before breeding i'd say and they'll need a plucking/trimming for the best hope of getting fertile eggs from them.

What year are they, the cock looks old, or VERY sick, he has the "light" appearance to him and as though you can almost see his breastbone.

What happened to the budgie in the back ground of the grey cock?

I don't understand what is wrong with the hen? She looks great, enough meat on her, bright and alert - maybe it is the photo...

 

I checked the cock and he does have plenty of meat on him too. He lost LOTS of feathers due to the hen plucking him in the nest and many didn't grow back at all. He is missing a line of feathers on one side of his chest so maybe that's what makes him look skinny. As I said in my other post he looked great in the sale cage but I got him out of the box and he raced around like a nutter and wouldn't stay still for a nice photo.

 

They are both 07 birds

Edited June 29, 200816 yr by melbournebudgies

If he is a 07 bird he has the wrong ring on,

Why do you say that? How do you put a closed ring onto an adult bird?

It a purple ring & off the top of my head is eather 04 or 05.

okay I understand what your saying now. The reference to them being 07 birds was the top two birds, not the grey

 

Can I also add that these birds are all on quarantine at the moment and only came home today, so I have no expectation of putting them in a breeding cage tomorrow or anything like that. The question was actually a genetic question not whether they were in breeding condition.

 

 

Libby to answer your other question the injured cock was put in a holding cage with some other birds when I went to look at them and they laid into him. He was actually the pick of the bunch though and the bloke offered him to me for free on account of his injuries so I figured it was worth taking him anyway.

Edited June 29, 200816 yr by melbournebudgies

You have just bought these birds are you are pairing up ? I would not breed with this boy for at least 3 to 6 months or until he looks much better than he does here

 

 

Sorry MB...the boy looks tired and stressed and his condition looks shocking. Ready to fall off the perch kind of condition. Not ready to breed right now at all. Put him in a warm cage with good food for quite awhile and then see how he feels and looks.

Here is a slightly better photo, ignore the missing feathers.

 

Looks a bit long in the flights MB.

Not that I'm picking on your birds like everyone else!

But you may a longflight yourself !

I'd use this grey cock over the blue.

 

I actually thought that too TB. The brother is identical but a bit shorter in the wings and also has a better head so would be a better bird in general

 

 

Here he is, he's missing half the feathers on his head after the attack and his tails pretty batterred as well but you get the idea.

 

Edited June 29, 200816 yr by melbournebudgies

You can sit around for weeks or months like me, thinking out combinations.

But at the end of the day it's up to the budgies.

If they all bred to picked out partners, I'd be in budgie heaven.

 

I have a hen that has refused to go to nest with three cock birds.

She didn't want the big normal green

She didn't want the big grey green

She didn't want the big grey normal.

No! She wanted the little Etty bitty sky blue dominate pied.

Now she is going berserk!

 

So don't get your heart set on a certain combination, you may have to try all of them.

Nice chunky budgies MB The blue boy looks better in the second photo but his cere isnt real bright, so maybe give him settling in time before the breeder cage. Should get some nice chicks out of him anyway........

Despite his ugly lost feathers he stood out in the sale cage because is massive. He is almost as big as my smaller tiels!! If nothing else was going for him I probably still would have taken him just for the size. Hopefully he breeds well.

 

That first photo I had them on the table outside to try and get a photo in natural light but it's windy today and he fluffed himself up because he didn't like it

 

In light of the new info on him I will probably put him with an opaline hen I think.

Edited June 29, 200816 yr by melbournebudgies

Despite his ugly lost feathers he stood out in the sale cage because is massive. He is almost as big as my smaller tiels!! If nothing else was going for him I probably still would have taken him just for the size. Hopefully he breeds well.

 

That first photo I had them on the table outside to try and get a photo in natural light but it's windy today and he fluffed himself up because he didn't like it

 

In light of the new info on him I will probably put him with an opaline hen I think.

How were the prices

$10 for the blue boy, the spangle hen cost $15 and the two grey brothers cost me $35 for both.

Edited June 29, 200816 yr by melbournebudgies

You have done very well

tell me that when I have some show babies to show for it

Hey in MB's defence none fo her birds looked that bad yesterday! I was a little "Huh what did the kids do to the poor fellows on the way home?"

 

Maybe they are just not super models.