Congratulations on your fantastic publication.

I am learning so much in relation to feather engineering alone it has been a real eye opener and makes compulsilory bedside reading!

Thank you for autographing my copy.

Kind regards,

Barry Mitchell
Sunshine Coast

My name is Patrick O’Rourke and I am a Budgerigar breeder and client of yours in Adelaide.

I just wanted to drop you a line and let you know about the breeding success I am having this March/April following the introduction of many of the dietry suggestions in your great book.

I have also been religously giving all my birds your food and water supplements in preparation to breeding and during.

I put down 20 pairs of which 16 have paired well and produced 105 eggs. As of today 40 chicks have been born from ten nest with more on the way. One nest has 7 chicks and doing well, with others on 4-5 chicks.

I have been very diligent with their care but wanted to say thank you for your research and development of products to aid in their development.

Regards,
Patrick

My apologies, I missed seeing your comment about the loss of your birds.

Can I refer you to Dr Robert Marshall’s excellent breakdowns of problems and analyses for us amateurs. These are marked Numbers One, Two and Three in the Health section of this website.

I’d suggest that all breeders having problems should refer to these as a first step when health problems occur.

The Marshall system is first class and only each breeder can assess the “diagnosis” of his / her problem by using the Marshall plans to narrow down what is happenning.

The breeder can then print off the relevant data from the site and take that, and a sick but live bird, with them to their local vet.

All fanciers should have a supply of Quik Gel to hand to help the bird(s) initially to survive with an added heat source and easy access to fluids.

In your case David, you have a serious problem and again my apology for not spotting your incoming query immediately. You may have followed the process above – I hope so, but certainly having done so, it is obvious a Veterinary Laboratory diagnosis is imperative.

I wish you well.

Gerald

The first sign is they are fluffed up. I remove them straightaway to a sick cage and in 24 hours they’re dead.

They don’t have any waste around the vent area, they have no food in chop and no sign of throwing up.

Any ideas please?

Thanks, Dave