Back! the new babies, Skye and Dakota, and some news

[keetgirl]

Hey guys, for some reason Skye (baby #1) looks EXACTLY like the Sky of old (little runaway -_-). i mean it, he looks like baby version of Sky. And now i don't know who is dad, both males were in the same cage as Apple when one or both mated with her. i doubt its Vanilla, i never saw them preen or feed each other. do you think it could be a bit of Homer's ancestry making an appearance?

Dakota looks like his brother in all aspects except he is a bit yellowish in face and tail and has a creamy look on his wings. both siblings wings are grey. i will get a pic soon, they have not seen me in 23 days so they are kinda scared.

they both have crooked beaks, but not so badly as Hope. theirs curves a bit short and a little crinkled, but they eat and drink ok. they make a show trying to fly, and landing in odd places. the set up has changed a bit too, bit it seems much nicer the new way.

[keetgirl]

Hey guys, thought i'd tel you a bit about the new babies and the older ones and everyone else,

   Skye and Dakota are very shy, while all of their other sibs are lively and on occasions will take the joy to jump on and playfully bite my hands (You can count on Uno and Cinco to start it!). Sunshine cannot fly yet, and is shy too. she does chirp and play with the others every now and then. Homer is being himself, always flitting around. Vanilla spends LOADS of time with Uno (when she's not biting my hands or hanging out with the others, chirping and playing, that is). Apple id always looking like a wild thing waiting to attack, but she has recovered from diarrhea. the older chicks and sunshine have molted, they no longer have bars up to their ceres and Hope and Cinco's ceres are VERY blue now. Homer has molted too, he has pin feathers on his head.

also, for some reason, their tails are shorter than when i last saw them. Dakota's tail gets REALLY short when it gets wet.

[Vicki]

Welcome back Sophia! I missed you and the stories about your budgie clan!  I'm glad to hear everyone is doing well.  

[keetgirl]

do u think vanilla will take more than 1 mate? he shows interest in uno and quatro. thanks by the way.

ps. Zodiac is a big, puffy grump

[Vicki]

In a setup like yours, it's not uncommon for the hens to mate with more than one male.  I know that when I inherited my flock of community bred budgies, when the eggs hatched, the chicks clearly had three different daddies.  Eve was a popular gal!

[keetgirl]

oh lol. i've been trying to figure out a way to split the big cage between boys and girls. i could use the grate, but then they'd poo on each other. if only i had the same cage as my friend! her pigeon cage (just right for budgies) has a divider! i will try to save up for another ok size cage and have to convince my parents.....(sigh). my plan once the cage(s) are split, to let one male (unrelated like vanilla) who has been in very good behavior, into the girl cage. he'd be allowed to bond with the girls, and maybe mate. with related males, an unrelated female, like sunshine, would go to the boy cage. and if i wanted a certain mister and miss to bond, they'd get the larger one of the other cages.

[Sarah]

Hey keetgirl:

Unfortunately there is a risk of fights in this scenario. If I were you, I would choose a mate for Sunshine and Vanilla yourself, and cage them alone with their mates into small separate cages. This cuts down dramatically on the potential for fighting, and if for some reason the mates you choose don't work out, you could always try a new one every month or so until they make a choice.

[keetgirl]

i don't have enough cages. do you think i should house Homer and sunshine in a different cage?

[Sarah]

If you intend to mate Homer and Sunshine, then yes. There is no rule saying you have to mate both pairs at the same time. If you have a single cage that is an acceptable breeding cage, you can breed one pair at a time. You should not do this, however, until you have had Sunshine for a year. Females should be given a little time over a year in general to breed, and you can never accurately guess how old she was when you bought her. Better to have her be a year and six months when you breed her than have her be too young on accident. Remember that neither of these pairs will be ready any time soon, so you could begin saving up money to buy them the ideal breeding set up if you don't feel your current cages are adequate.

[keetgirl]

i will make sure that they don't mate yet. i think sunshine and the last clutch are about the same age. i think i won't breed homer again though. will be only one to two more times. if so, it i'd like Cinco or one of the other males (not vanilla) to mate with her though. i just want homer to be my buddy now. once Uno comes of age, i'll move apple to the smallest cage and have Uno and vanilla in the one she's in now.

[Sarah]

Sounds like a plan

[keetgirl]

  hope it works.

[keetgirl]

i got some okay pictures of skye and dakota with my camera. their not the best, i will try to get better ones on a sunny day when we open the garage. i has been very rainy. soon we will hopefully move them outside, once we figure out how to protect them from cats and opossums. we got them a cover for water already.
 
ok here are the pictures. if you can tell, please let me know what mutation they are. they were too scared of the camera for me to open the door of the cage. i will try to get better ones, once it stops raining!

Skye





Skye has a white face, light grey wings, and greyish but mostly white tail.

Dakota






Dakota has a slightly yellow face with very light yellow on his wings and tail.

[ChuckieTheParakeet]

Those are some very pretty birds you have there.  It's neat how you got two babies that are almost identical except for that bit of yellow.  Skye looks exactly like one of the babies my first pair of parakeets had a long time ago (typical blue mother and turquoise father).  It was a really sweet bird and I hated giving it away. 

[keetgirl]

akward thing here is,that mom's green and dad's a much darker blue (not a voilet factor though