I got a new bird today!

 

I know he is spangle, but i was wondering if he is anything else.

 

I'm sorry the pics are bad, he hated being annoyed by the camera, and I finally quit, even though I didn't get real good ones. (I can try again tomorrow.)

 

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(His shoulders have been plucked by the other birds his breeder had crammed into one cage with him. They were all like that. I'm hoping the new feathers will grow in okay.)

 

 

 

 

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He really didn't like to let the camera get behind him. There's no opaline there, right? But could there be recessive pied? I don't know how the spangle gene affects things, but I think he looks kind of blotchy in places, so I wondered about rec. pied.

 

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Well, thanks in advance for any input. I can try to get better pictures if needed.

He's just spangle. Frosting on the rump is quite common with spangles. Hope his new feathers grow in okay

Oh, thanks, Neville. I figured there were things about spangle I didn't know.

I agree with Neville.

Re the feathers....I think he was from a nest where the chicks were plucked and not damage from others in the cage. He and the siblings most likely have all been plucked in the nestbox as wingbutts are mostly where the damage occurs. and when feather follicles on wing butts are damaged they look like your boy does now.

If crowded in a cage the injuries are mostly pecks to head and top of cere and bloodied toes from biting at the bird next to them. At this stage the feathers may not grow in properly in the case of a nestbox plucked baby.

Edited October 7, 200915 yr by KAZ

Kaz, you have a good point there. When I first saw them, I asked the breeder if the parents had done it. She didn't know. (And I'm not surprised, as her house was wall to wall cages, with many species- no way she could keep up with them all.) Well, she had put the 4 budgie babies in a cage with 4 or 5 Rosey Bourkes parakeets, because she thought "parakeets" ought to get along with other parakeets. When I pointed out the pluckings, she thought maybe the Rosey Bourkes had done it to them. Then she noticed that the Rosey Bourkes also had pluckings. And while we were watching them, we saw budgies biting the feet of the Bourkes.

 

This is the first time I've gotten a budgie from a breeder. I've been searching and searching, and have finally found 2. (This one and a more knowledgeable one who I have been e-mailing with.) Both are about an hour's drive from me. These were the only spangles I have ever been able to find, so I bought one, in spite of the plucking. I hope it grows back, too, but if not, he's quite pretty on his other parts. :rofl:

 

Come to think about it, she said she pulled the budgies out of the nest at about the time she put the leg bands on, so she could hand rear them, so I don't think they were even with the parents very long. (They were advertised as hand reared and weaned.) If they were plucked at that early of a stage, that would really mess up their follicles, wouldn't it?

 

He is about 9 weeks old now (hatched Aug.1), so his moult should be coming up. We'll see how it goes.

Well Finnie, I would safely assume that breeder is NOT one you should be going back to as she seems to know very little and seems also to have a way of bending the truth to effect a sale

 

 

PS rosy bourkes are quiet natured birds and best not caged with or bothered by budgies....they wouldnt be attacking the budgies. Some people have an excuse for everything like that breeder :rofl:

Edited October 7, 200915 yr by KAZ

I agree! I really wanted a spangle, so I justified buying the one, but not more than that. On the way home I felt it was too bad that I had supported her by even buying one. Part of me wanted to buy all 4 budgie babies and get them out of that cage! But that would just help her squeeze in the next lot. She really couldn't keep up with all her birds. All the cages were filthy! And all the birds were paired up with nest boxes, so even though she claimed to be "downsizing", she really wasn't.

I agree! I really wanted a spangle, so I justified buying the one, but not more than that. On the way home I felt it was too bad that I had supported her by even buying one. Part of me wanted to buy all 4 budgie babies and get them out of that cage! But that would just help her squeeze in the next lot. She really couldn't keep up with all her birds. All the cages were filthy! And all the birds were paired up with nest boxes, so even though she claimed to be "downsizing", she really wasn't.

 

 

Just like those horrible "puppy factories" this sounds very much like a "bird factory".

 

Next time maybe find a specialized budgie breeder who can help you out with a healthy happy baby birdie.

So agree with Kaz and Nubbly here...the breeder is shonky!

 

I she had pulled the birds from the nest at the time of leg ringing they would be around 7-12 days old depending on size of bird. Feather begin to show through around 10 day of age give or take. Now if she had pulled these birds at the time she states they couldn't of been plucked badly, yet your bird has been severly plucked which usually accours around the time the feathers have really started to emerge.... usually day 14 or so and often for a quite a few days. So things just don't add up.

 

It is sometimes practiced by so called hand raisers they pull the bird from the nest in the last week in an effort to try and tame the bird for sale and convince the unsuspecting they have been hand reared from birth. I suggest that if your bird is so flightly re cameras and even your presence that the bird was not hand reared at all or just topped up for a fewd days prior to sale.

 

As the other say....steer clear of this person.

It is sometimes practiced by so called hand raisers they pull the bird from the nest in the last week in an effort to try and tame the bird for sale and convince the unsuspecting they have been hand reared from birth. I suggest that if your bird is so flightly re cameras and even your presence that the bird was not hand reared at all or just topped up for a fewd days prior to sale.

 

 

Thank you for this tidbit. I had been wondering how she had managed to hand rear all those babies without them all starving to death, because this lady really had her hands full. She has multiple sclerosis and walks with a walker (or pretends to, now I wonder ). She said her 75 year old mother helps her take care of them, because it is too much for her.

 

I guess I am the Unsuspecting Personified! She seemed like a gentle person, just unknowledgeable about some things. I never took her for a cold blooded liar.

 

I had also wondered how a bird that saw humans as a source of food could be so distrustful. At least I can believe the weaned part, because he has husks from his millet all over.

 

Now I'm rethinking the whole visit through new eyes, and am getting suspicious of another thing. She told me their diet was seed mix, Zupreem pellets and in the mornings, vegetable. Well, I had noticed they all had veggies, so I was impressed that even if she couldn't be bothered cleaning any cages, at least she bothered with the veggies. But maybe the veggies were just staged for my benefit. Hmmm....