Fertile Eggs

Our 3 pairs on eggs are doing very well.

Bossy violet and Dave have 6 fertile out of 7 eggs. BJ and Mr Jiggy have 3 fertile out of 5 eggs, and Jules and Bob have 3 fertile out of 4 eggs so far :D

Today is day 18 for Bossy Violets and Daves first egg, so all being well we should have a chick hatching within the next few days. In fact, any time from now is good ;)

Anna

More Articles By Mick Freakley

Adorable budgies is getting bigger and better. We now have 3 more articles by Mick Freakley added to our site. You can find them here:

Nasal Discharge in Budgerigars

What Should The Judges Do?

Another Budgerigar Breeding Season

An Ill Budgie (article)

What to do if your bird seems ill

Symptoms.

Difference in feather appearance eg: "fluffed up look". He/she may bob their tail more so than usual with a more distinct bob. Their stools/droppings may also be a different colour to normal and watery. A good tip for monitoring their droppings is to use newspaper or any other smooth surface so that you can visably see if there is any change. Even regular A4 sheets of paper is good for this. They may be off their food or you may have noticed they're not eating as much as normal. Change in weight because of the above You know your birds personality, if they're sitting low down in the cage or their chirpiness has gone you'll know they're not themselves. They may be off their feet, not be able to stand properly. Discharge from their mouth or nostrils Vomiting or bringing back seed (regurgitating)

Diagnosis.

This can only be done by a qualified vet/avian vet. Avian vets are specialised in dealing with birds so if at all possible seek help/advice from them. Regular vets sometimes don't have the knowledge or experience in dealing with the exact cause of illness and don't do as many tests as an avian vet. Sometimes this isn't possible though and so an appointment at the regular vets will have to be made.

Treatment until veterinary help is available.

You should never give your birds medication that you have been given by someone else or that is not prescribed for your bird as this can do more harm than good.

The most important things for your bird at this time are:

Heat Clean, fresh water, Food

If your bird is in draughts or is cold this will make him worse. If you have access to a heat lamp this is a good idea to keep him warm and a cover over the cage is also good to prevent any draughts.

It is very important to always have a fresh supply of clean drinking water for your bird. Water substituted for cold weak black tea is good for the bird if unwell and should be replaced frequently too.

Always have a supply of food available, anything you feel your bird may be tempted to eat. Does he have any special fruit or veg that he likes? Supply it. Millet is fantastic for ill birds as it has a high fat content so is good to replace energy that has been lost and is also good for getting food into your bird at a time when his eating isn't at its best.

Perches/Dishes.

Keep these as low as possible and use only one perch. This will let your bird rest and not try and clamber up and down when he isn't himself. It also means he will get the fod and water as it'll be with easy reach.

===========Resource Box===========
Kay Bell keeps and breeds pet budgerigars. Contact her
for help and advice via the Adorable Budgies Forum
http://adorablebudgies.co.uk/forum
====================================
This article is available for reprint in your opt-in ezine,
web site or ebook. You MUST agree not to make any changes
to the article and the RESOURCE BOX MUST be included.
(c) Kay Bell All Rights Reserved

Budgies in A Mixed Aviary Environment

Budgies in A Mixed Aviary Environment

Lots of people ask about housing their budgies with other birds such as finches or cockatiels. I have tried both and here are my experiences.

Food.

Some things to consider when thinking about having a mixed aviary is food and eating habits. Do they have different food? Do they eat each others food?

What I have always done is provide the aviary with a mixed seed diet suitable for all the birds. Birds will only eat what they want or like so if you provide finch seed, cockatiel mix and budgie seed they will only eat what they want. Yes, they do share each others food but I have never heard of anyones' birds being ill or having problems in a mixed aviary that has been linked to food sharing. I also know some people have more than 2 species sharing with budgies so that's more food being introduced too.

Nesting/breeding.

Ok, so you want to breed your birds. I can only give advice on colony breeding finches inside a mixed aviary as I have never had the experience of colony breeding cockatiels or budgies. I separate my budgies into breeding cages and have not bred the cockatiels as they are not old enough quite yet.

Finches are easily bred at the best of times. I supplied 2 wicker basket nests last year as I only had 2 pairs at the time. Overall it went well BUT what I did notice was that the budgies chewed the top off the basket and left a wide open area. I had to modify the nest until the finches had finished their clutch, but to prevent this from happening this year I am buying plastic finch boxes. This means the hole is small enough for the finches to get in but not the budgies and the budgies cannot chew it to the extent they did the wicker ones. As long as the hole is small enough the babies are protected from the other birds sharing the aviary as they cannot access the box.

How well do they get along if none are breeding/Bullying.

I have had my fair share of fighting and squabbling in the aviary but have learn a valuable lesson. I tend to find the problems are not with the different species picking on eachother but the same species!

A prime example I can give was when my finches were becoming battered and had bald patched on their necks. I wrongly assumed that it was the cockatiels as it had only happened since I introduced them to the aviary. I removed the cockatiels from the aviary and put them in a cage until I could see if it made a difference. I have a window in my aviary so one night when I was going out to do my last check I thought I'd have a look through very still and see what I could see.

The result shocked me. I saw a few finches hammering each other, really going at it and pulling bits from each others necks, that was my problem, not the cockatiels. I am by no means saying that the different species won't fight or pick on one another but sometimes the answer is not in the different species, but the same.

Aviary Size.

Sizing is crutial if you are considering a mixed aviary. If it is not big enough, they will fight, simple. There has to be room for each species to hide if the going gets tough. If not, bullying will take place and it won't be nice as there's no space for them all to have their own "bit". It would be very irresponsible to mix them when you know their isn't enough space.

Keeping mixed species in cages together.

I have never done this simply because of the space issue. There are exceptions to the rule and I'm sure some people have done without problems but I have not. If you were to do this I would say keep the soft billed together (canaries/finches) and the hard billed together (tiels and budgies) but contrary to popular believe budgies bully cockatiels and not the other way around! I would have no qualms in housing finches and canaries together at any age but would be very wary of budgies and tiels.

Soft billed versus hard billed.

As I said before there are exceptions to every rule. I housed 2 diamond doves in my aviary and they didn't even last a week before I had to remove them as the budgies were bullying them. If I had left them they would have certainly faced death.

How fast can they fly is also important. Finches are ok as they are super quick so most of the time, the budgies can't get near them. Canaries however are very slow so I wouldn't feel happy putting them into a mixed aviary unless it was absolutely massive and even then I would worry. Same with the diamond doves, they are not quick enough to move if they see a beak coming towards them!

===========Resource Box===========
Kay Bell keeps and breeds pet budgerigars. Contact her
for help and advice via the Adorable Budgies Forum
http://adorablebudgies.co.uk/forum
====================================
This article is available for reprint in your opt-in ezine,
web site or ebook. You MUST agree not to make any changes
to the article and the RESOURCE BOX MUST be included.
(c) Kay Bell All Rights Reserved

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Have fun!

Anna

New Budgie Articles Posted

As I mentioned on Friday, I got a bunch of new articles for Adorable Budgies from Mick Freakley.

So far there's 8 of them, I do hope you'll enjoy them :D

Freakley & Ainley Stud Profile

Photographing Budgerigars

Hospital Cages

The Deep Litter System

Looking After The Chicks

Normal V. Variety Budgerigars

Show Season Is Coming!

Are You Prepared?

Thanks
Anna

Budgies And Eggs

A week ago I put 5 pairs of birds in breeding cages after seeing them getting really friendly inside the flight. 3 of the pairs have larger poops in their cages, a sign that the hens could be getting ready to lay eggs. One of the pairs, Bossy Violet and Dave started laying eggs almost immediately after being given their nest box, they now have 4 eggs to date, and 2 of them are showing as fertile:

BJ and Mr Jiggy laid their first egg yesterday. Hoping to get lots of chicks from this pair especially :D

Wish me luck!

Anna

Budgie Articles Request

Ok people, I know you all know lots about your birds, so how about putting some stuff together and writing some articles for Adorable Budgies to use on the main website?

We need all kinds of articles about budgies, so if you think you could write one about them please do and let me use them?

We already have quite a few articles, but the more the merrier. As you can see we have one written by Kim here: http://adorablebudgies.co.uk/splayed_legs.php

And one by Kay here: http://adorablebudgies.co.uk/nailclipping.php

Whatever you have experienced with your bird/birds, I'm sure you could do at least a small article about it? Of course, all credit will go to you, with your name attached and everything.

So what are you waiting for?? Get writing! You can send it to me via this thread on the Adorable Budgies Forum or via hotmail at annasbudgies at hotmail dot com

Oh yeah, don't worry about punctuation and editing if you don't want to, I can sort that out if need be

Thanks!

Anna

Articles By Mick Freakely

I've just received a bunch of articles from Mick Freakley to add to the Adorable Budgies website. It's going to involve some work on my behalf, making pages for them all, but it's so definitely going to be worth it :)

If you're into budgies and have never heard of Mick, where on earth have you been? OK, if you've only ever been into pet birds I can understand, but if you've ever even considered showing birds then you should definitely know who he is.

For those who don't, Mick is a World renowned professional bird photographer, Official Budgerigar Society Photographer and is also World Champion Exhibition winner 2 years in succession.

He is also a regular contributor to many magazines, including Cage & Aviary birds.

I'm really looking forward to having his articles on my site.

Adorable Budgies on Facebook

Wasn't quite sure how to do it at first, but figured it out in the end with some help from one of the Adorable Budgies Forum members, so now we have an all new Adorable Bugdies Group on Facebook®

The group is almost an extention of the Adorable Budgies Application that people on Facebook® can use to send little messages and pictures of budgies to each other.

Anna