Checking For Fertile Eggs

A lot of people don't quite know what a fertile egg looks like, so I thought I'd take a picture while I remembered to. I like to use a mag light, torch light or pen light to candle the eggs. It's always been the easiest for me to use.

The egg that you can see veins in is a week old, which is about the time when you can actually start 'candling' eggs to see if they're fertile or not. Somewhere between days 6 and 8 is probably the best time to check.

  
  
The pen light I use to check the eggs with:

  
I use the pen light so that I don't have to handle the eggs at all. You can buy these at fishing tackle shops, d.i.y. stores, ebay, pound shops etc.

It is also possible to check the eggs with the naked eye after a lot of practice. It's not always easy to get the camera to show the different shades of the eggs. The whiter, more glossy looking eggs in this picture are the fertile ones:

  
Again, the whiter ones are the fertile ones, you can see the others have more of a pink tint to them?

  
When an egg goes bad, or 'addled' it turns a dirty grey colour like the middle one on the left:

  
4 of these 7 eggs are fertile, in this picture the other 3 haven't gotten to that stage yet. Can you guess which are the fertile ones?

  
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Anna-Marie Stewart keeps and breeds pet budgerigars.
Visit Adorable Budgies for more information, pictures
and forum http://adorablebudgies.co.uk
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Article: Lost And Found Bird Info

I found this article on one of the forums where I am a member. The author Emily Rackley was kind enough to let me reprint it. It's a great article with masses of info, so definitely well worth a read. If you would like to use the article on YOUR blog or site, please contact Emily for permission first. You can contact her via the link at the bottom of the article. Thanks!

If you have lost OR found a bird, there are things you can and should do:

Call a number of people and register your parrot as lost:

- Police:
Use http://www.police.uk/forces.htm to find the contact details for your local police force.
Dont be suprised to find they are not very helpful as they apparently only deal with dogs now!

- John Hayward at the National theft register: (also deals with lost birds)
01869 325699.
E-mail: jh@ntr.supanet.com

- Local rescue shelters
For the RSPCA call 0870 33 35 999 between 9am and 5pm

- Local vets:
locate your nearest veterinary surgeries here: http://www.any-uk-vet.co.uk/

Alert the local community:

- Put up posters asap. Be sure to keep replenishing them over time. Describe all distinguishing features, such as physical appearance (photos are good too), unique phrases the bird says / things they do and whether the bird is rung or not (do NOT state the ring number however).

- Examples of places to put up posters / alert include:
Local shops,
Lamposts (check restrictions so as not to land yourself in trouble).
Libraries
Supermarkets
Pet shops
Community halls
Council offices
Post office
Sports centres and gyms
Schools (particularly primary schools - the children will love having the mission of looking into the trees and trying to find a parrot)
Local taxi firms may put 'missing' cards in their cabs
Any business with a window visible to the public
Parks and park staff

- Try and get the local paper / radio stations / news shows to run a story about the missing bird. Ask them if they would do a follow up story if there were no results the first time round.

- Tell people like the postman / milkman / bin men about the lost bird as these people get about the local community and are a good way to spread the word

- Knock on doors in your immediate area, or any areas where there are sightings.

Post on websites that the bird is missing:

- This forum!

- Some further useful websites can be found here

Keep trying:

- The key is to keep reminding people by repeating all the above regularly.

- It is often said that within the first month of escape, a parrot remains relatively close to it's home. Call for your bird regularly, or try placing it's cage filled with tempting treats outside. If the bird has a cage mate, placing them outside in a closed cage can sometimes tempt them back.

- Remember that birds are very adaptable, and there are some really heartening stories of people being re-united with their birds weeks, months, even years after they were lost, so don't give up hope!

Microchipping
One further point to make is the importance of microchipping. This allows for a definative positive identification of a bird when it is found, and easily traces them back to you, the owner. Well worth it for a small fee and a very quick, simple and minor procedure for your bird.

If anyone has any other useful contacts or advice in the event of a lost bird, please contact one of the mods / admin with your suggestion - thanks!

Copyright Emily Rackley All Rights Reserved
Click here to view the original post

Exhibition Budgie Versus Pet Budgie

There's a massive difference between Exhibition (English) budgerigars and Pet (American) budgerigars. (I use the terms English and American loosely as that's mainly what they're known as.)

Not as massive at it may seem where the birds are concerned, but the people keeping them? Well that's 2 totally different worlds!

I could be totally wrong here, but competition between the 'Big Boys' in the exhibition world definitely seems to run over into their lives instead of just staying within their hobby.

On various forums there seems to be constant bickering between the Big Boys, and some of them are even downright snooty towards 'humble pet bird' owners. It's like there's constant competition to gain appreciation, attention and status, which I can only assume comes from the fact that they work so hard to breed the perfect show bird according to club standards.

Saying that, a lot of the exhibition bird owners are very nice to pet bird owners (even if they secretly like to think of them as lesser types) and will help in every way possible to make sure we can keep our birds as fit and healthy as possible.

My own birds are a mix of the 2 types, some bred from show stock that were later sold to the pet shop where we bought them, and others just the normal, average, everyday Joey. They all live together happily in their aviary.

I remember back when I was looking for birds to fill my aviary with. I'd posted in a forum saying what I wanted, and someone was really nice, said they'd probably have a few chicks in a few weeks time for me, show type, but I could have them for free.

I was really new to the forum, and there was an exhibition breeder who seemed to be the bees knees, cream of the crop, a highly knowledgeable man that everybody looked up to there. He sent me a private message and warned me against buying, or even taking birds, from the other breeder, saying that if I was ever anywhere near his place, I could drop in and get a few birds from him. He said that the other breeder had gotten their birds by basically stealing them from another breeder who was too ill to argue etc etc.

Me, being a trusting type, I took his advice and thanked the other breeder kindly for his offer but declined the chicks.

A year or 2 later, I was selling my own chicks and I was chatting with a friend of mine who was also selling budgies. In the course of the conversation it turned out the same man had also told my friend not to buy birds from that first breeder who'd offered some to me!

As it happens, we did eventually find out that the man had been filling us with total codswallop, probably in the hopes of selling HIS birds to us.

I'm all for a bit of healthy competition, but there are limits ;)

Mind you, all is not bleak and sneaky in the exhibition world. There are some fantastic birds being bred, some of them are truly massive. I still prefer the smaller ones for their colours and personalities, but the big show birds do have a rather regal stance to them.

I have to admit, I've never actually met a showbird person in REAL life, just from behind a keyboard, but most of them really are extremely helpful, so if you ever have a problem with your bird and it's something I can't help with, I'll make sure I ask one of the exhibition breeders for their advice.

The First Post

I finally decided that it was time to get a blog to compliment my Adorable Budgies Website and Forum, and you're looking at it right now.

I'll mainly be talking about my budgerigars here, but you may also find posts about my other pets, my family or my friends from time to time.

My budgies are my passion. I have about 40 of them in an aviary in my back garden, and I have one special guy, Buzzo, who lives with us in the house. He's a total nutter, so expect to hear about him on a regular basis. He's also our main website and forum mascot, that's how special he is to us.

Buzzo, of course, is the bird you see in the picture above. He's not really that blue colour, the flash just makes him look that way, but it does look good, eh?

Anyway, expect to hear from me on at least a semi-regular basis, but don't expect posts every single day cos life sometimes gets in the way of my free time. If you get bored waiting for me to update, you could always come and visit us over in our forum for a friendly chat ;)