Aussie Finch Forum

Sorry Arthur can't see why you post rubbish when people are asking reasonable questions.
Use the other section which you frequently use
David Holmes

A horse, Craig

A blown sheep

werty wrote:

arthur wrote:Don't have to . .

Nobody uses 5 metre show cages anymore

Nothing better than a budgie thats huge and can't fly

Is that a budgie or a chicken?

This doesn't mean that larger Gouldians can't fly, just that budgies have been selected for inactivity as well as size so they stand well for the judges and their whole world is small cabinets & cages.
Selecting for any trait doesn't necessarily compromise other unrelated traits. My Gouldians are large but I'll back their activity levels and strength of colour against any others too as they are bred in large outdoor aviaries & are strongly selected for colour, health and parenting ability as well as size & shape. Birds only develop problems via selection when their selection becomes imbalanced or one-dimensional.

Craig & Spitfire . .

Both correct, but you mustn't encourage me

My answer is . . two pair of trousers

I think it was Shakespeare, but may have been Milligan who said: "A little nonsense now and then, is relished by the wisest men"

arthur wrote:Craig & Spitfire . .

Both correct, but you mustn't encourage me

My answer is . . two pair of trousers

I think it was Shakespeare, but may have been Milligan who said: "A little nonsense now and then, is relished by the wisest men"

^^..lol

"Selecting for any trait doesn't necessarily compromise other unrelated traits." True, which is why I said size is not what is relavant to me, but this does not mean I would reject a big or small bird if it had the desired traits. And there are a growing number of budgie breeders out there that breed in avairys and are working towards colour emphasis over size. It is more the proliferation of feather than the size that has reduced the flight of the budgie in my humble oppinion. And this is a leason we can take from their mistakes.
LML

finchbreeder wrote:"Selecting for any trait doesn't necessarily compromise other unrelated traits." True, which is why I said size is not what is relavant to me, but this does not mean I would reject a big or small bird if it had the desired traits. And there are a growing number of budgie breeders out there that breed in avairys and are working towards colour emphasis over size. It is more the proliferation of feather than the size that has reduced the flight of the budgie in my humble oppinion. And this is a leason we can take from their mistakes.
LML

Back when I was a kid I purchased some show budgies from a champion budgie breeder

These birds were huge and looked incredible

Took them home....none of them were fertile and they couldn't fly in my aviary

Sold the lot

The champion breeder sold all his birds a few years later and started to breed normal size budgies

He admitted to me later that those show budgies were bred using drugs

I hope and believe as the daughter of a long term show budgie breeder that he was in the minority. Though some of the bigger birds are not as fertile as some smaller birds with "hybrid vigor" no it does not mean they are bred to something other than budgies, it is a term for a complete outcrossing.
LML

Too much feather (especially around the vent area) physically predisposes them to lower fertility. Some heavy feather canary varieties need to have their vent feathers trimmed to achieve successful mating/fertility. The same would probably apply in heavy feathered Budgies.