As stated above I'd like to know what the strengths and weaknesses are of my birds. When I look at a budgie I think I can tell if it's okay looking or not but I'm not great at actually listing the faults etc...

 

I think this is one of my better hens all round, interested to see how she stands up to show standards. I didn't breed her so won't be showing her or anything just using her as a stock bird as with all the birds I own at the moment.

 

Grey Green Opaline Hen. Early 08 bird.

 

 

 

 

 

Also I'm not sure if you can tell at all just by looking at a green series bird but her mask is very yellow and I thought that this might be an indicator of Yellow/golden face???

okay Linda

 

Looks like no-one else is willing to give this a shot so I'll give it a bash.

 

I find her a little on the small side and to be quite short in the mask.

She has reasonable feather over the cere and eyes for a hen but less blow that I'd like to see. I think this is because she looks quite fine feathered.

In shot 2 I would say she looks a little heavy (boaty) in the body but shot 3 gives her a nice outline with good deportment and nice follow through past the perch.

Having said all of that I would consider her to be a handy stock bird to breed with as she is nicely balanced (apart from the short mask) and a nice type to go on with.

 

To correct her faults I would choose a buff feathered cock with lots of blow and good directional feather AND if you can get it in the one bird, more length.

Edited May 29, 200916 yr by nubbly5

Thanks Nubbly, I'd pretty much given up thinking that anyone would ever answer this post

 

How would either of these guys go as potential partners? Okay or should I keep looking?

 

1st Cinnamon Grey Green

 

2nd Grey Spangle

 

 

I personally would put her with the cinnamon grey green... but i am still learning to pair too.

this is my fist year but i will not put her with tham

 

1st male has small mask good head okay spots good length but has not got the mask that the hen neet

 

2 male small head bad spots good length not what the hen neet

 

if i was you i will keep looking

Out of the 2 the cinnamon is definitely the better bird for her (better bird all around actually).

 

Look at the grey and above the cere you can see that his feathering is not great. He doesn't go out sideways from the cere really, he goes more or less straight up and over the top of his head. The cinnamon has much more width over the cere and looks to have better back skull (but it's bit hard to tell on the grey from the photo) - he is more rounded from the top of his skull down to his shoulders. His stance is not quite as good as the hen but then she will compensate for that and he is not terrible he just doesn't follow through strongly behind the perch and tends to drop his tail straight down.

 

The mask of both birds is okay and better than the hen so in that department it's an improvement. His spot is a bit smaller than I'd like but the hen is quite good so still an okay match. He is flecked and so is she so that MIGHT get you unstuck with flecking but probably still worth the punt.

 

Also it's hard to gauge relative size coz I'm only really going by the show box BUT cinnamon looks to be bigger than the hen so that's good too. You really need to strive for bird length these days along with the pretty "*****" face with strong directional feather.

 

I don't think it's a bad match and to be honest I think you would be hard pressed to buy a cock bird that is much better than the cinnamon without spending good dollars. If you are going to wait then look for a bird with buff feather (heavier, longer and often rougher feathering), as both the hen and the cinnamon have quite fine feather (this is common with cinnamon birds) who is longer than she with a deeper mask.

 

 

OMG I can't even say "*****" without it being auto consored - coloquial name for a cute pet cat that is..........

Edited May 31, 200916 yr by nubbly5

OMG I can't even say "*****" without it being auto consored :rofl: - coloquial name for a cute pet cat that is..

 

........

thats so funny :rofl:

Decided to put her with this guy instead of the cinnamon to avoid the flecking risk. I'll probably use this pair to trial my 1st breeding cage setup before I put anymore together within the next few weeks. Fingers crossed they'll go well it'll be her 1st nest.

 

 

Breeding cage still under construction

 

Edited June 26, 200916 yr by Linda_S

What is that in the bottom of the cage???

There's a slide out wire mesh section on the bottom. There's also going to be a slide out metal tray for cleaning.

 

i know nothing when comes to pairing but i really do think this is better pairing than other options

it may not be perfict but the chicks are bound to improve on peronts

i think this will get some lovley bubs

ps i love your cage

heya! I would be weary pairing these two birds together because they are both opaline. You are weary of the flecking, and yes, he does have a clean cap, but the opalines do tend to have a lot more melanin which is what causes the black feather in the spots, and the flecking.

 

As far as your pairings are concerned, from my point of view I think the biggest fault in the hen is the depth of her mask. She needs more depth there and I would be looking to improve her chicks in that aspect more than worrying about the tiny bit of ticking that she has.

 

The cinnamon cock bird has nice blow and definitely has better width than the spangle. The opaline light green dominant pied cock bird has a nice blow, and it looks as though some of his spot might be pied out, which would explain his lack of mask on his left side. If this is so and he does infact have a deeper mask than the hen, then by all means pair them up... He has nice blow, she has a lovely backline, she has good spots, he lacks spots but they both have good length, they are a good pairing except for the opalesence that will come through in all the chicks ---- not necessarily in the form of flecking though mind you, because neither bird is badly marked at all. This opaline will improve the spots hopefully.

 

If I were you I'd go to the grey green cinnamon. But your opaline pair will produce some nice opalines. A word of caution, when starting out with show birds, be wary of having too many opalines in your stud. Many of the birds will produce opaline chicks as normals because they will be split for opaline etc, so you will end up breeding a lot anyway. Before long you will end up breeding only opalines, and this might get a bit tedious and will possibly result in poorly marked birds.

 

Just my thoughts, but something to think about anyway

Thanks for the advice but I think I'll risk it, they seem to have bonded in the aviary so I'll see how they go.

A word of caution, when starting out with show birds, be wary of having too many opalines in your stud. Many of the birds will produce opaline chicks as normals because they will be split for opaline etc, so you will end up breeding a lot anyway. Before long you will end up breeding only opalines, and this might get a bit tedious and will possibly result in poorly marked birds.

 

Having an aviary overrun with cinnamon I would also say the same about that variety too - also sex linked like opaline so the same applies when you get normals split for cinnamon - EVERYWHERE in my case :|

I need to get a few more normals, I only have 4 and with 2 of those are split ino and ones a yellow face, not sure if that's is still classed as normal. I don't even know for certain that the other one isn't split for something???????????? (3 of my normals are in my signature, two in the middle split ino, sky blue hen on the left hopefully not split for anything).

 

I'm hoping to get a few more birds but I'm trying not to just buy whatever I can find and wait for some really good birds to come along. Which is difficult because there's not many people selling birds down here.

I don't mind traveling for them but I don't really know where to travel to. Guess I'll just wait for the next auction within driving distance and hope I can nab some nice birds there.

Edited July 1, 200915 yr by Linda_S

How would you like another budgie pal in St Georges Basin? I'm new to show budgies too, about to join the shoalhaven budgie club, are you a member? never thought I would find another local on here hehehe. Ive sourced a few decent budgies to start with, not show winners but not bad. Maybe we can help each other?

 

:rofl: Sarah.

Hey Crystal sounds good to me. I'm not a member of the club yet but I'm going to soon so I can get some rings for when I start breeding.

I have the membership forms but need some more ink to print them out, let me know if you need one.