All Entries Tagged With: "stud"
A Visit to the Emerald Budgerigar Stud
Exhibition budgerigars have been an important part in the lives of Eileen and John Hall for about 40 years.
Lutinos – Making a Start
Look on these birds as being like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle – your job is to put these pieces together to make the finished article.
Molkentin Stud – DVD Available
A DVD of the Molkentin Champion Breeder Stud in South Africa is now available.
GSB Q & A – Part 2 – Breeding
The great difficulty in budgerigar breeding is starting them. Think about March as a month. For all my years, breeders have said it is better to start in March. It is of course the increase in light that makes it easier.
Tails You Lose! – Part 3
As readers may already be aware, I am trying to establish if the loss of tail feathers can be attributed to nutrition, feather mite infestation, lice or another unknown cause.
Budgerigar Health Part 4 of 5 – Medicines
Budgerigars are particularly susceptible to environmental diseases that may cause catastrophic losses and illnesses that affect their wellness and ability to breed. Medicines are needed to cure and prevent these diseases such as coccidiosis, worms, lice and mites.
Concentrate on Quality Initially – Not Colour
As you gain experience, ask questions all the time. Many beginners feel they are being silly at a meeting of their chosen club, asking basic questions. Do not hold back – nobody minds especially any lecturers who feed off such questions and thrive on them.
Megabacterial Infection
Weight loss over a prolonged period is consistent with Megabacterial infection. Megabacteria as a secondary disease related to immune suppression. So we have to look for another primary infection which may be a genetic weakness, but more often inherent Polyomavirus infection and / or stress related psittacosis.
Ignore the Ring Issue Date if your Stud is Ready to Breed
Is the Ring Issue date more important than grabbing that moment to begin your personal season? Personally, I grab the moment these days and get a round in from perhaps a third of the stud and get results on the perch early with whatever rings I have to hand.
Budgerigar Health Part 3 of 5 – Self Diagnosis
For breeders, an ability to detect the first signs of an illness is essential as many budgerigar diseases are rapidly fatal with the best quality show birds often being the first to die. Changes in the behaviour or physical appearance of an individual bird may indicate the beginning of an illness or an inherent weakness. [...]
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.
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.
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.
Creating A Stud
Spots are very important. You can breed outstanding birds, but if the spots are small the impact is lost. A bird without large spots is like a man in a dress suit without a bow tie. Both are unfinished.
A Budgerigar “Safari” Visit to Brian Sweeting
Last November, just prior to The Budgerigar Society Show in Doncaster, I decided to visit Brian Sweeting at his home in Bridgwater, Somerset. Arguably it is the best studs of pieds in the UK. I clearly remember seeing two magnificent pieds of his at the South Hampshire Show a few seasons ago; both massive birds [...]
