yet another egg off the perch today. I keep adding them into the box if they are not cracked but she doesnt seem to get it. She incubates her 2 that werent laid off the perch but every other egg that has been laid has been laid off the perch. Shes barley out of the nest for 20 minutes a day but when she does come out she lays off the perch

Lots of bedding on the floor of that breeder cabinet, is there Pearce ?

no just newspaper.

no just newspaper.

Time to soften up the floor Pearce

But wont that encourage her to nest on the ground? Once the egg hits the ground would it be instantly addled?

But wont that encourage her to nest on the ground? Once the egg hits the ground would it be instantly addled?

You said she is incubating the eggs in the nestbox so she wouldnt start on the floor. Addled ? Yes...if it hit hard floor or newspaper. Salvagable maybe if it lands softly.

3 eggs to grey green pair now. 3 cockatoos left to be sold. Anyone want any?

3 cockatoos left to be sold. Anyone want any?

cockatoos ? or cockatiels ?

cockatiels sorry once again this spellchecker does not work correctly. all the words I use most are not in the spellcheckers database thing and they are changed to words I've never heard of.

Going to a bird show on saturday. Only ever been to one before and I dont really know how they work so I'm pretty nervous. A few people their I have met before so it should be fun.

made a small travel cage today to use when I buy birds. Its a little bigger than a show cage and it looks alright. The ply cost me $20 on its own.

Instead of bird wire on the front I used screen messiah wrapped over 4 times. I figure this will be better on the birds if they accidentally fly up against it.

Taking a mate with me tomorow to the show so it should be good fun. Hoping to come home with a few budgies.I have a baby with a slightly offshape beak.Does anyone know what I can do?

My best mate bought me 2 budgies for my birthday today. They are really big exhibition size birds too. One grey normal and one grey spangle. Both hens. Pictures will follow. Also an update will follow.

Wonderful present Pearce. Hope your birthday is just terrific

thanks very much Kaz it was.

I have a 39 day old chick that sits in the nest box 24/7 and I've never seen it fly. Not sure if their is somthing wrong with it, it is either very lazy or has somthing wrong with it.

 

I have a pair of adult birds with their last clutch of babies of the year. The babies ages are:

43 days.

41 days.

40 days.

39 days

37 days

 

the 39 days and 37 days babies are not even fully feathered... not even close. Im beginning to think their is somthing wrong their.

The 43, 41 and 40 day old birds eat on their own so Im wondering if Im able to put them in a baby cage now?

So the parents have less birds to deal with.

is it possible to get a skyblue yellowface greywing chick?

I believe that is what the youngest chick is.

had a few problems this breeding season. chicks with deformed beaks. chicks with stunted growth. Dead chicks. Infertile hens. An escapee. 2 babies never grew flights. 40 day old chicks at the stage of a 20 day old chick.

Hopefully it will pick up.

Edited April 24, 200916 yr by Pearce

had a few problems this breeding season. chicks with deformed beaks. chicks with stunted growth. Dead chicks. Infertile hens. An escapee. 2 babies never grew flights. 40 day old chicks at the stage of a 20 day old chick.

Hopefully it will pick up.

 

Im sorry to hear of your problems, but at the same time im intrigued. I always hope to be able to learn from my own mistakes and the experiences of others so i would be very interested to see if you are able to come up with some reasons behind these problems at some point. I would love it even more if you were able to find a solution and have a great finish to your breeding season :bow:

 

My own 'assumptions' at this point would be the deformed beaks are either a result of caked on food inside the beak, or parents that arent good feeders. Dead chicks and infertile hens are a dime a dozen some seasons unfortunately, but nutrition and breeding condition definately factor in. Two babies didnt grow flights and 40 day old slow growers (the unfeathered ones?) to me indicates either lack of food from parents, lack of nutrients from food or perhaps feather mites?

thankyou dean.

 

Exceedingly short flights I beleived to be a stress moult, these birds are confident flyers now so all is good.

 

The stunted growth chicks I have no idea about. They are 39 days old, yet look like 20 day old chicks. They get all the proper nutrients from my end, so Im not sure. Its been suggested that the parents arent giving correct nutrients to them, im not sure. I ended up removing the fledged chicks out of that nest into their own cage so the parents can concentrate on these stunted growth chicks. Do you have any suggestions on the matter? Their are no feather mights.,

 

The deformed beak was because of food caked to the beak overnight. The beak actually is improving at the moment and its looking a little better, hopefully it will be a full recovery. Here is the picture of the bird previously.

 

The dead chick was a runt, it hatched a day early and was not fed.

 

 

Do you have any suggestions for me dean? Any would be greatly appreciated. Thankyou .

Edited April 25, 200916 yr by KAZ

thinking of stopping bird breeding all together. Its very costly and I'm running out of money. Im also busy with work and tafe it does not leave much time for anything else.

Edited April 25, 200916 yr by Pearce

I might turn my breeding room into an aviary for 2 princess parrots. Maybe.

No way! Thats sad to hear. I would recommend downsizing. I only have around 20 birds at the moment including bred chicks that i am waiting to see develop before deciding who to sell. As this was my first attempt at breeding, i only managed to get 2 pairs down successfully. I have 5 breeding cages and i think for me, that is sufficient for now. Perhaps you should look at going down to around 10 breeding pairs, with 5 spair breeding pairs. Between 30-40 of your best birds, then selling culls of old and new with the odd cross-out coming in.

 

I cant imagine giving up breeding these guys. At least not for long, and only if i move overseas or something major lol. Once im settled i know what i'll be building then re-starting! Breeding trouble aside, you seem to have done a superb job and have a great passion. I hope you stick with it!

I only have 10 breeding cages and only use about 4-5 at a time. Its so hard to sell the birds. I dont know which ones to sell and which ones to keep. I'm going to keep the birds, just thinking about stopping breeding. I only have like 9 breeding pairs, the rest are young babies.

 

Do you breed for show dean?

What are your goals?

 

I had an ambition to breed a stud full of yellowface blues. But then after researching I found that breeding 2 yellowface blues together results in df yf blues which have white faces. So thats gone out the window.

 

I am thinking of downsizing the birds. I may make a thread and post all the birds and you guys can tell me whether they are keepers or sellers.

 

thankyou very much Dean.

Do you breed for show dean?

What are your goals?

 

I am quite involved with the show 'scene' and have tried to befriend the biggest and best breeders around. I spent a few months picking their brains and annoying them, especially during their breeding seasons. Learned a lot about the politics that go on and all the in-fighting lol. Its small wonder what few newbies they get dont stick around over here! The time, effort and cost of competing at their level is daunting. They seem so far ahead, and i have heard so many stories of the lengths breeders will go to to prevent their bloodline or best birds from being 'too helpful' to anyone else competing. Understandable, but to me it is sad and not in the true spirit of competition or friendship.

 

My passion and love regarding budgies has always been about the genetics and the breeding. I would love to see if its possible to restore or improve certain mutations and keep them pure, and while i am certainly a big fan of well proportioned and i guess 'bigger' birds, colour is my thing

 

I hated the look of show birds at first, but it has grown on me. My first goal was to breed rainbow budgies, but i have had no luck obtaining clearwings of any sort, let alone clearwings with a breeding history! I had hoped to breed rainbows after two or three generations, but i dont think that will work in the time i have remaining before moving overseas.

 

Basically what i am doing now is developing my 'eye'. I have purchased what one could quite fairly call 'moderate' quality show birds at best, some better than others. I am hoping to see if what i put together in my mind, fixes and improves the offspring in the way i think it will. Basically im trying to put what i have learned to test, and go from reading and thinking, to 'seeing and feeling/knowing'. I agree it is very hard to know which birds to keep or sell. But i have had a great example from my first ever clutch this season, twin boys who are mutationally identical to their dad and eachother (YF2 sky blue opalines). Mutations is one thing to breed for, but these two have shown me about the show side of breeding. From the same parents, these two boys are very different - one is taller, wider, longer in feather, has larger throat spots and longer bib and basically excells in every way over his brother. Im a week or two away from releasing dad back into the main flight with them, and i suspect that same son has or will surpass his dad in every way.

 

Its a great learning curve for me, and will be worth so much when i settle in a long term place and begin a long term breeding program.

 

Oh, and my other love is violets I have two VERY VERY purple pet type spangle budgies a cock and a hen, i hope they will breed next season when they are old enough because while i was at first dissapointed that i could only find spangle violets of such colour, now i am pleased and hope to produce a DF spangle DF violet skyblue with a suffused violet bib (i fell in love with splats winning DF spangle green cock lol). I think that would be awesome Of course more violets of any type from this pair would be gorgeous. I'll post pics of my flock once my breeding season is complete.