Good luck with your natural remedies Neat. I hope you get results :question:

Thanks Sunnie......

It is worth a try nothing to loose everything to gain!!!

Good luck and i hope you find remedies that work :question:

I bet you will be able to get them back into good condition, there is an FAQ article about conditioning your birds you might want to review.

Yep that is HOW IT WAS!!!!!

 

okay well another lesson learnt ... Inspect birds fully!!! even if they are $10 ones

 

Oh Elly yes Nutritional Deficiency?

 

Chrissy The breeder that I got them from was selling for a breeder down the coast ... I like the breeder ( not the one down the coast)

as he keeps all his birds even past their breeding date to live their lives out in the flights ... So he has heart and has taught me alot ...

 

 

I will be meeting up with a few members and breeders at the Auction next weekend and they are going to walk me through things ...

 

Neat, please listen to me and listen well: You will NOT build a stud of any quality with $10 birds.

 

You already have the experience of breeding budgies so you do not need $10 birds to "learn" with.

 

Do yourself a favour and visit the top breeders in your area and buy 2-4 birds from each. These will be your foundation birds. Spend 18 months to 2 years building your show budgies stud to the point that about 30 birds are top birds (you may have up to 80 in total).

 

It is worthwhile to invest in your foundation birds. When I say invest I mean do not purchase less than a $50 birds from a top (Open) breeder. Even if they are what he/she considers "novice" birds they will still be better than better birds from lesser breeders (if you get my drift).

 

It will save you time and money on the long run. You only have to ask Kazza about this and she will confirm.

Renee has a very valid point. You can go on forever with trying to make the jigsaw pieces fit with budget priced show bird culls. When you start out, everything looks better than what you have already, so any bigger bird looks the part. The cheaper cull birds will be better than you have and somewhere you think you can develop from, but will take you forever and may only breed you the odd surprise or two.

It was only when I bought one or two "better birds" with a higher price tag and from a good breeder with a reputation that the birds in my birdroom and in the nests began to make a difference.

There is a common saying amongst show breeders that you will get nowhere buying 10 or so $10 birds, but to buy one $100 bird with that same pocketful of money will take you a notch further. Then when you see changes and a difference, you sell off your own cull birds to pay for a $200 bird that does things for you, and so on. I am not at the stage where I can buy a $1,000 bird like some show breeders I know but I am getting to the point where I would pay $500 for a really good bird. ( Have to sell some things first to do that but I will ). The other day I saw a bird bought from a top breeder and this person paid $500 for a hen I would kill for. That makes you stop and think.

Thanks Renee and Kaz ...

 

Spot on .... You are right! I have read it and told my self that! Why don't i listen to myself ...

I will ...

Good advice Renee, I think that is anything in life you get what you pay for

Much, or should I say, all of my success with my show birds is because right from the beginning I bought from the top breeders in this state. At the same time I learnt from observing their set ups and have implemented many measures I witnessed first hand.

 

The past year I identified a couple of breeders who are in Intermediate grade and have had birds selected for the National team and who are on the verge of moving into the Open grade and stocked my aviary with 10 birds from one and 8 birds from another.

 

Of course Stewarding has been invaluable and the skills I've learnt has helped in purchasing good birds.

 

I'm having a very good breeding season and if most of birds look like their parents then I'll be very happy. Of course I'm hoping to "fluke" a few beauties too.

 

Next year I hope to take the next step and get my pairings better .... oh and my deplorable grasp of genetics should improve too.