Pale Crimson Finch "Impurities"

Black Bellied & White Bellied.
Includes Species Profile
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garymc
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Joined: 17 Feb 2010, 21:26
Location: Western Australia

Interesting reading thus far.

My experiences to date with the species has been that my white bellied birds have thrown white bellied birds.

However I did swap a couple of cock birds for same with a guy in SA a couple of years ago. When they came over one bird was perfect, the second had a faint ring of grey (perhaps 1mm wide at the most - certainly nowhere near as wide as the ones in Craigs pictures) where red met white.

The first of these cock birds was paired to one of my hens and have produced over a dozen young - all have coloured up as one would hope with red meeting white on the cocks.

The second cock bird has not produced a chick but this morning I had a couple from Brisbane visiting and they were taking pictures of the birds. Whilst this second cock bird is in a moult (and has moulted a few times since I have had him) I could not to the naked eye see any sign of the grey halo. Either my eyesight is failing me in my ageing years or the grey band has disappeared.

Just recently I picked up a white-bellied crimson hen as an outcross. I have been guaranteed its a WB hen. I guess time will tell.

One of the most noticeable differences between the two subspecies is the call. I noticed it the day my original pair of white bellied were taken out of the box. Hard to describe but certainly less harsh than the black-bellied.

I'm not sure how accurate a guide the hens colour can be in discerning whether it is a black or white bellied hen. In my time in keeping black bellieds I have seen a wide range of grey shades (wish I knew my pantone colour numbers) in birds from from various locations across their natural range.

Further to the "darkening" caused by diet or housing or ?????, I have found that the lesser red-brow certainly varies in the depth of the grey on the front, from off white when housed in bright, directly sunlit aviaries to having a grey tinge when deprived of natural sunlight (again knowledge of my Pantone would be handy). Some of those male crimsons in Craig's pictures certainly appear to have black feathering in the red-chest sugeesting at least some dietry/lighting issue.

My questions (at this stage) in regards this topic are:-

1/Do cyclones relocate birds and if so how far? Given that (I believe) the white bellied and black bellied have distinct and separate
populations.
2/Secondly and not fully sure of how to word it (but hopefully if its not clear someone wiser can assist), but at Finches '14 Stanley Tang displayed a chart of the variation in DNA between the wild birds of the study area and those held in captivity. This chart hightlighted that some people may actually have "choclate" parsons. Could this same approach be used to delineate between the pure and impure WB crimsons in our aviaries? If so does anyone have any ideas on the costs involved?
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TomDeGraaff
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Craig52 wrote:Lack of D3 seems to be the answer as there is also black in the crimson of those birds so looks like another aviary has to be built for them to access direct sunshine or sacrifice two breeding aviaries and have only six prs.
Question for Myzo,I use soluminavit from All Farm in Hastings Vic and it contains 200,000 IU of D3 as well as all essential vitamins and minerals and amino acids,it is sprinkled on their soaked/sprouted seed twice a week.
Craig,I have just started to use Vetafarm's Soluvite D which has 250,000 IU. Maybe your Vit D could be higher (just a thought) :)
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BOF33
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Location: Melbourne Australia

Vetafarm's Soluvite D which has 250,000 IU
Thats the one I've been using. Uraeginthus, at what frequency are you dosing your birds at?
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TomDeGraaff
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I mix about 5ml to 2L of water for my finches. But for the pair of bulbuls, I chop up grapes etc and mix about a third of the spoon provided each day. The varieds (4), I mix same amount in with their wet mix. This is daily at this stage until I can get them back into the sunny aviaries. I think mixing it with the food ensures they get more of the vitamin than just in the drinking water. Bulbuls and varieds eat all their food each day.
How about you?
:)
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BOF33
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Location: Melbourne Australia

I mix about 5ml to 2L of water for my finches. But for the pair of bulbuls, I chop up grapes etc and mix about a third of the spoon provided each day. The varieds (4), I mix same amount in with their wet mix. This is daily at this stage until I can get them back into the sunny aviaries. I think mixing it with the food ensures they get more of the vitamin than just in the drinking water. Bulbuls and varieds eat alltheir food each day.
Thank-you. I mix the same amount in their water, although I may start mixing a dose in to their wet mix 3x weekly.
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TomDeGraaff
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I must say that I am a novice with these vitamins. I have always had my birds accessible to sunshine but temporarily they are shaded fora while and I reckon these kinds of birds (bulbuls & lorikeets) may be a bit susceptible to vitamin deficiencies so.... That's what I'm trying. I'm open to suggestions, however...
Tom
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Craig52
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Location: victoria

Thanks for your comments GMac and Tom
Believe it or not there is a huge improvement to my birds since upping the dose and using it daily in the last week,the black/grey tends to be disappearing and i can't believe it could happen so fast,one would think that they would have to go through a moult first so in a month or so i will take more pics for comparison.
Cheers Craig
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wagga
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Location: PORT MACQUARIE NSW

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Life in Port Macquarie is the ultimate Aussie sea change lifestyle.
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garymc
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Joined: 17 Feb 2010, 21:26
Location: Western Australia

I'm using Vetafarms soluvite d breeder strength three time a week in the soaked seed mix
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TomDeGraaff
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I can't imagine you would have a sunshine problem over there, Gary !!
Tom
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