The picture on the right shows the Salter scales which weigh to 1 gram that was used to assess the weight of the Budgerigars, this model number is 1066 BKDR08 and was obtained from Tescos for a reasonable £9.00. I had a bit of a hunt around in my bird room and found a 2 litre ice cream tub that fitted nicely on the scales. There is a zeroing facility so once the tub is weighed you can zero the readout, place the Budgerigar inside and obtain an accurate reading, I think they are really designed for cooking but as that is not one of my skills (other than home made egg food) I think we will quickly move on! When buying Budgerigars always


purchase young current year bred closed rung Budgerigars, you then know that no one has tried to breed from these birds and discovered that they have a breeding fault and they are passing them off on to you. In addition if they prove good breeders they will give you a number of years of successful and pleasurable breeding results. The ‘pet type’ Budgerigars breed for more years than the large Champion exhibition stock. Until you learn about colour genetics keep either green or blue normal coloured birds. If you obtain sex-linked mutations (Cinnamon or Opaline) it can be difficult to eradicate these mutations. Even when you purchase normal coloured birds there is a possibility that some of the cocks will be split for a sex linked mutation and


16 BIRD SCENE


will produce young hens showing the mutation. Normal hens are never split for a sex-linked mutation. The colour expectations of my pairs of Cobalt x Cobalt are 25% Sky Blue, 50% Cobalt and 25% Mauve. With such a wide range of Budgerigars


on offer there are birds for all pockets. Budgerigars are one of the easiest birds to maintain and this factor alone is a great reason to keep them as they provide hours of interest as they fly around their aviary. It is really absorbing to watch the young birds developing their flying skills after leaving the nest box and very quickly they are playing their version of ‘tag’ with the adult cocks, going up to them tapping their beak and flying off before the adult bird knows what has happened! As Budgerigars are generally very social birds this bonding into the flock is well tolerated by the adults and is obviously


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