SarahR

it was ok not the best though but depends as varies each week haha

Just a quick update before i shoot off to tonight auction in wigan Sadly lost the Diamond dove hen we think she was an older bird as she was healthy, not skinny, not stressed or anything. male is going mad as he has "needs" haha Tonight i am taking 13! budgies!........yes.....13! it was meant to be 15 but 2 decided to pair up and so i am trying them in my room......its just one pair.....what harm can be done? *remembers one pair last time.........40+ later* they have been in my room for 2 days.....and already mating and sitting outside the nest box.....i have to have luck breeding something apart from fish this year This is leaving me with 11 budgies to work with.....but that number might go down again if these two don't breed haha. they are a lovely pair too, a blue goldenface pied male and a grey exhibition hen .....dirty monsters are "at" it again while im typing this haha! Additionally i am feeling a lot less stressed at the moment, me and my tutors have decided that leaving and resuming my study's in september is going to be the best option as i am getting too stressed and dealing with a lot at the moment but i'm fighting through it (sorry to get all personal haha)

I have tried dudley outside......with his parents but he didn't like it and they chased him, or maybe i'm just too soft haha the heating in my aviary is on and off as i can't risk leaving it on 24/7 as it's outside, i'm guessing it went cold just before heater turned on and with the elderly and youngsters not being as well "equipped" it just took them same with me cutting back, i'm having a serious think on weather to sell up my budgies, keep about 3 or 4 pairs or keep the current 20 i'm leaning more to keeping about 3 or 4 pairs as then i can cage breed them in my aviary or have a pair in my room if needs be as im hardly at home anymore (always at my partners) but i am hoping to focus more on my kakariki as i love them and their different characters and they are more....unique in a way than budgies (not to mention not as noisy) sounds like your breeding season is already "flying" while mine's still in the egg stage haha, i'm keeping an eye on my doves and their egg, all seems to be going well, the amazing thing is that they aren't meant to be breeding as i was only meant to have them in my room temporarily....until there was space somewhere else in the house, whoops! haha, i know there are 3 pairs in my room but only 2 cages, so 1 pair get to breed while the others decide who to pair up with. my dad still has his cockateil pearl and a new one called Rio who got given to us, we have given up trying to sex them as one is a lutino?...and the other is a pearl haha they drive him insane but refuses to put them in my aviary or another room haha!

just thought i'd leave a quick update while i have some time on my hands. currently got my budgie colony down to about 20 birds, due to current issues i'm struggling to look after everything. well over the cold snaps we have been having i lost a whopping 12!!! yes 12!! budgies in one night! with a heater! i wouldn't mind but it was mainly youngsters and older birds! this was a massive blow to me as i was planning on selling some and i lost a couple of my favourite ones with that being said..it was sort of a blessing in disguise as with me having roughly 20 budgies i am able to look after them a lot better (and not spend as much on food!!) my kakarikis now have a free flight of the whole aviary....still no chicks! however i have a female investigating the nest boxes. additionally i now have 6 diamond doves in my room..........with a pair on 1 egg (fertile) so i'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed! as this will be a blessing for my dad....who still is having a bad season as we lost about 20 Chinese painted quails to a rat! so we are left with 3 now. in addition to having 6 diamond doves, i also have 2 fish tanks in my room now, i used to breed guppys but moved onto kribensis chilid which...from 1 pair.....i now have over 70 fry from BUT the most sad news.......is my little man dudley........such a cute little chick.....such an adorable little character....... What a shame i am going to have to put up with his crazy attitude and antics for longer! haha Dudley now lives in my dogs old cage.....at the end of my bed....he comes out now and again and curls up with me, he follows me around the room, poops everywhere and makes a mess! he is honestly like a parrot......but nips instead of bites haha. from the picture below you can see he is now fully in his adult plumage and a very tame quail! and yes.....i love him.....hes my baby boy <3 he will also literally go on anybody who wants to hold him and loves curling up in hair

haha daft? its caring we sold all of our japs and i am mainly focusing on my californians Dudley i didnt think would make it as when he hatched he couldnt balance....so a day of walking therapy and he soon got the hand of it. going to try getting him used to a bird harness so i can walk him around with me in the house good luck with all your babies haha, i had to save one of my budgie chicks who had managed to get out of the nest and was near death (stone cold) on the floor....warmed it up in my hands then added it back to its nest and the mother has been sat on the it and has also fed it thank you dudley is such a little poser

thank you i will try and see if i have any hidden silverbills in the colony haha. i doubt it but you never know

Well.....since my last update......i have scrapped cage breeding this year now, none of the budgies would breed in cages so colony breeding it is! they are also mixed in with the kakarikis!......speaking of kakariki.....i now have about 8 of them....and still no babies !! However, my budgies...are getting there with breeding 1 nest with 3 chicks in (hen is now about 4+!).....then another nest with a first time mother in...with 3 chicks also! then i have about 3-5 more hens on eggs (need to double check the nests and eggs haha) AND amazingly my Kakariki hen Tinkerbell is sat on eggs too! (she has a large lovebird nest......which she loves) My dads breeding isnt going very well at all....he is full colony breeding also....he had a canary hatch 2 eggs....both chicks died, a zebra hatched 1 chick, was a few days off leaving the nest but yesterday we found it dead also (not fed) but he has another hest with 1 zeb chick and another nest with 3 bengie chicks doing well...we hope....he must be at breaking point now, we have plenty of nests up for them, plenty of nesting material, plenty of food and plenty of space......(he has over 20 bengies, about 20 zebs, about 10-15 canaries and 3 Diamond Doves....oh and a lot of Chinese painted Quail).....if anybody could give any advice it would be brilliant....we did try cage breeding but the birds did nothing (for 2 months! literally built a nest and nothing else) On a brighter note.....i am having small successes with my quail. I loaded my incubator up with a mix of 4 californian eggs, 4 bantam chicken eggs and 2 large fowl chicken eggs.......out of everything......one little chick survived......only a californian!......so now i have a pet californian quail and his/her name is Dudley. Additionally we found a nest of 8 chinese painted quail eggs with a week left by the looks of it......then the hen abandoned them...so into the inccy they went....with little chance of survival (they were cold, scattered and wet when i found the hen had abandoned them).......we thought only 1 or 2 would hatch.....we had to be proved wrong.....as i now have 8 stinking chinese quail chicks in my room!!! along with dudley who is in his own cage. and to add to my stupidity......i now have 13 californian quail eggs in the incubator.....and guess what....THEY ARE ALL FERTILE!! i am going to be crazy at the end of this year!!!! I have attached a few pictures of dudley and one to show how tame he really is however i do think he..is a she! also he does come out into the aviary with me.....but he hates it....literally wont leave my side!

Hi all, Long time since i posted however something has been on my mind.... What is the difference between Silverbill Finches and Bengalese Finches? I have tried googling it but i couldnt find anything......or it is just me being stupid and they are the same thing? haha With us having over 20 Bengies.....or what we think are bengies...i would juts like to know what to look out for just incase we do have one or two silverbills mixed in Thanks in advance

well.......all DIS for the kaks :'( she had a day left! bloody weather (even though they are inside) really, truly gutted for her she seems to have gone really upset herself, poor girl budgies will be paired up tomorrow hopefully. i will also be sorting out my "Stafford sellers"

haha budgies are smart animals however....i have a kakariki in my room (got attacked in aviary and cant fly now) who was getting bored, he has bird toys in his cage but he just didnt seem.....happy,......so i used my brain (scary).....he now has a budgies dumbell rattle, a cat rattle ball, a christmas bell (small roud one) and a dogs plastic ball (one with holes in).....Then i went to my local Care and Share. In a box marked "free" i found some baby pram toys....two sets of plastic keys on a rubber ring, a ball rattle toy and a teddy which has a weird rattle inside....which was also on a rubber ring/clip thing. gave them a good wash in hot water, dried them off.......every so often all i hear is a rattle he loves them! as i am in my room most of the time now, i can supervise him. who'd have thought that they love baby toys? i knew my parrots liked baby toys and dog toys but i would have never though to give one to a smaller parrot/parakeet haha

the female is apparently split blue.....so i could posibly (1% chance) get a blue chick

thank you sorry for late reply not long now.....i know 3 are still growing...the 4th i'm not so sure on. i really do hope they survive, the mum is so driven to be a mum. i'm keeping my fingers crossed for a nice pied which i can hopefully tame

today i had my aviary lot work together to knock the jug of water over while i was filling their seed up not daft at all. i also have to use clips on the cage doors as i have about 5 budgies which can lift the door up and then push their body to hold it while they somehow get out (luckily it has always been out into a secure place) i have also had a budgie get under the wire bottom on a small house cage! monsters the lot of em!.......but i love them haha

one of them is semi-tame Daisymay. however the rest are wild (wouldnt want that many tame budgies out there.....i'd never be able to get out! haha) and yes gary...two rabbits....both boys long story short....took in a female rabbit as she was going to used as bait. 2 weeks later she had 7 babies!...i managed to sell 2 of them however with money being tight, i couldn't afford a new hutch.....so they live in with the budgies however i am trying to sell them (all of the rabbits) as it's killing my back to keep leaning down to give them attention

ermmmm.....i think.......over 60?......i'm not sure haha. i'm taking about 15-20 to Stafford with me