All Entries in the "Breeding" Category
Worming – Purchasing – Vitamin D – Showing Hens
Vitamin D that is lost in this way should be replaced artificially via multivitamin solutions and / or cod liver oil bought from your pharmacy.
Flecking in Chicks – Ionisers – White Ceres – Cod Liver Oil
Cod liver oil is seriously valuable for its vitamin contents as these give health and great energy to the stock, as well as the iodine content for the thyroid – without which budgerigars do not reproduce easily.
Getting The Best from Your Stud
The desire to breed super exhibition budgerigars is the ambition of every fancier in every country. I am well aware of the fact that the Australian show scene and its structure and administration is different to the UK. That aside, we all have the same aim as it is the finest birds on display that we wish to breed and own for the simple reason of pride in having achieved something that money cannot buy.
Every One Counts
There is no doubt that the start to any season is the most difficult. I can tell that the birds are ready to breed by looking at the behaviour of the hens as well as their condition. All my flights have the sexes mixed year round. This is because the current year stock learn their sexual habits very early. If you keep the big hens separate they just sit in the flights and get overweight with predictable poor results. Mix them and keep them active.
Breeding Advice
One has to remember that today we strive to breed bigger and better birds. General feeding apart, you must always provide grits which possess granite like particles (insoluble) and shell particles (soluble). Not only should it be given but it must be changed every week to every pair.
Importing & Exporting Budgerigars
It is inadvisable to return to the UK without having conformed with the rules. To do so risks the birds being impounded / destroyed at the exit port or port of arrival by the authorities and future imports by you will be affected.
Attack, Attack, Attack
There are a few breeders who have woken up that they have to attack quality now or give up. That is why I have attacked that myself and built up a great depth of quality so that breeders know they have a good chance of getting something to improve what they have at home. There are few aviaries around with the quality depth – perhaps only 10 in total in the UK.
Preparing to Breed
In the last 6 weeks I have been working to get the aviary “winterised”. A very cold one by UK standards is forecast. So, having a cedarwood exterior, it needs treating every three years without fail. That has resulted in it still being as good today as it was when I purchased it in 1971. It would be massively expensive to replace as it covers 1200 square feet (110 sq metres).
Chasing “Buffalos”
The Buffalo Effect (BE ) is created when a bird possesses great width above the cere before it sweeps upward but in no way downwards! Think of the buffalo horns. They are wide but then from the horn tips the horns dip downwards to well below eye level before suddenly going up again to join the head.
The Frustrations of Losing Birds
Any new purchase from an aviary that exhibits poor management with uncovered outside flights, can be supplying birds that are, even unknowingly, “carriers” of disease.
