Q-1. I know that you are very experience and well known Budgerigars breeder, but for new comers please give us a brief introduction about yourself.

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1 An Interview with Dave Cottrell A Budgerigar Champion Breeder and WBO Citified Judge from UK By Mobassir Sattar Khan from Pakistan July, 2006 Introductions Q-1. I know that you are very experience and well known Budgerigars breeder, but for new comers please give us a brief introduction about yourself. Answer: My name is Dave Cottrell, I am the 2006 Budgerigar Society President and am only the 2nd fancier to have become president for a second time. I had my first budgerigars in the mid 70 s when I was in my early 20 s, and have been involved in the organisational side since my first day s in the hobby. I served on the B.S. General Council for 25 years until May Q-2. Are you involve in this fancy as just for a hobby or now it is your profession? Answer: My birds are totally a hobby although my wife has her own pet store, so I also help out here when I am not working, so meet many of the fanciers who obtain seed and equipment from the store. Basic Information Q-1. What is your basic profession and where do you live, also tell us where your aviary is located? Answer: I am employed in further education, in the photography department of my local college where I work with both conventional wet (film) photography as well as digital photography and image manipulation. Q-2. How did you get interested in the fancy and what attracted you to the Budgerigar? Answer: I lived in the country as a child, and was always facinated with wildlife and birds in particular. As the eldest of 6 children household pets were not something that we had outside of a family goldfish, but once I left home I had my first birds, and worked my way through different stages and birds ranging from colour mutation British, foreign parakeets and seedeaters plus canaries and mules until I obtained my first budgerigars in I think it was the variety of different colours that attracted me, along with the free breeding compared to canaries and some of the more difficult and hense more expensive foreign birds. Q-3. Answer: Do you have a Standard of bird that you desire to breed in Exhibition Budgerigars? Q-4. Are you member of any Budgerigar or Misc bird s club/society? Answer: I have been a member of the budgerigar society since 1976, joining the Lancashire & Cheshire & North Wales Area Society the same year. I am also a member of the specialist

2 Variegated Budgerigar Club and the Crested Budgerigar Club as well as being President and founder member of my local society; Clwyd Budgerigar Society. Q-5. How many birds do you keep in your stock every year? Answer: That varies greatly, in 2003 I used 42 adult birds and bred 30 young with a maximum of probably only 100 birds, while since October 2005 I have used 46 different pairs and bred 260 youngsters. At this very moment July 2006 I probably have as many birds as I have ever had in my current aviary at around 420. Q-6. Which color or variety is your most favorite? Answer: I have been very successful with Recessive Pieds and Crests, but over the last 5 years have also added Ino s and started keeping more of the mainstream colours including Spangles, but my personal favourite has to be Recessive Pied Violets and Recessive Yellowface / Goldenface Violets. Q-7. Please also brief use about start and end time of your breeding and non breeding season in your area, and at what period your birds start moulting? Answer: Until a couple of years ago I paired up my birds in mid November, this fell just after the Budgerigar Society Club Show and after the October Moult and carried on until late May / early June. I am now breeding from late September until the last chicks are weaned off, that means this year I will be breeding from a number of pairs evry month of the year. It seems that we no longer have an annual moult, and if you breed all year the birds will moult at different times. The adults that were breeding in October are now in a main moult, but those that were split up in April have now almost completed their moult and will be available for exhibiting or pairing to different partners as required. (Dominant Pied Grey Cock 3 times Best Pied at Lancashire Area Show. Registered Champion Bird) Q-8. Basic information about weather conditions in your area and the weather effects on your birds? Answer: I live in North Wales, and the climate is reasonably stable, we have long summer days with daylight from 4am until after 10pm (6 hours of night) with temperatures in the region of 25 deg C in summer dropping possibly 10 degree s at night with our winter in almost in reverse with sun up at 8am and sunset at 4pm (8 hours of daylight). I have always had problems if putting pairs together during December and January when the temperature is often below freezing point outside, but if the pairs are already breeding I have very few problems and they seem happy rearing a second round at this time of the year. I do find it difficult to keep birds in show condition during our summer months as our show halls are often quite hot if it is a sunny day, but while our show season runs from July to November we all have the same problems. Background Q-1. Please share something with our readers about your background in the Budgerigars hobby how and when you initially started and what period of time have you been involved with this hobby?

3 Answer: As stated above I started with different birds, but quickly changed over to budgerigars once I had my own house. I have had budgerigars since 1975, but have also kept other species at the same time. I have had colour mutation thrushes, lovebirds, parakeets and mynah birds during the last 20 years, and at the moment in addition to my budgerigars also have 2 flights containing Zebra Finches plus a pair of African Grey Parrots. My favourite variety are Recessive Pieds, perhaps because it is a hobby to me, the challenge of winning with a recessive mutation is appealing, and I don t need to travel the length and breadth of the country showing every weekend to keep my name in the highlights to ensure I have sales to pay my bills, having said that, I have possibly the best set of budgerigars that I have ever had, and a stud that will compete well on the show bench. Many Best in Show winners, and more importantly Beginner, Novice and Intermediatte section award winners have been bred from my birds especially over the last 5 years at shows up to and including the Budgerigar Society Club Show. Q-2. Where did your initial stock come from? And when you feel that you need to introduce good blood line from any well reputed champion breeder. Answer: My initial stock came from local fanciers in thenorth West Area, most if not all have now passed on or certainly left the hobby. My close friend since my early times has been Eric Peake. Eric is better known for the quality of his paintings, having produced the ideal pictures for many countries around the world including the last 3 Budgerigar Society Ideals and the American BS Ideal. Eric and I went into partnership for a time from around 1988 to some 10 years ago and often travel together judging. We were both founder members of our local society Clwyd B.S. and attend most meetings. If I need any outcrosses today I only try and obtain stock from one fancier; Frank Silva. Frank has what I consider to be one of the top three studs of exhibition budgerigars in the WORLD, and will take major awards at most events when he benches. Although in Budgerigars for less than 15 years, Frank has taken the U.K. exhibition scene by storm and in that time has taken all 6 major specials at our B.S. Club Show, only the 3rd fancier to achieve this in our 80 year history. Another reason for obtaining stock from Frank is that his Recessive Pied and Crest families go back to birds that he had from me, so they fit straight back into my breeding teams. The Silva Spangles are legendary, and I have been able to intigrate this blood throughout my stud, so that today all of my varieties are related to the Silva spangles. (Double Factor Spangle Yellow, Challenge Certificate Winner.) Q-3. What common problems you faced at the earlier stage of your hobby? and when you start feeling that you are now comfortable with this hobby and you can handle most common problem related with Budgerigars. Answer: Two very big problems I had when I first started with exhibition budgerigars was solved when the Budgerigar Society and my area society the Lancashire, Cheshire & North Wales B.S. Employed Dr John Baker to act as our veterinary adviser. I lost a lot of birds that seemed to pick up a crop infection and were frothing at the beak or vomiting and flicking their head throwing discharge around the cage. Dr Baker found that in the UK if you had more that one bird doing this, there was a fair chance that it was caused by an infection of Trichomonas gallinae. This little parasit also causes Canker in racing pigeons so the UK hobby in general

4 started dosing their stock twice a year as a preventative, I have very little problems with vomiting know, all down to Dr Baker. The second major problem was the very large number of eggs that were fertile, but failed to hatch. Again Dr Baker spent one if not two years studying this problem for the fancy. What came out of the research was that many of the eggs that were fertile and failed to hatch were killed by bacterial contamination, not from the nest box, but from the fancier himself. The egg shell is a very porus item, and when picking up eggs to mark them bacteria from our hands were contaminating the eggs, or worse still, we were using marker pens that contaminated the shell, or passed on a contamination from the previous box that had been checked or marked. I stopped touching eggs from that day and my hatchability increased by 50%. The third problem was solved by talking with fanciers from other species. One of the UK s leading Zebra and Bengalese Finch fanciers has been keeping detailed notes of the eggs laid, chicks hatched and then reared to indipendence and showed an increase of nearly 100% in the chicks reaching maturity from a similar number of eggs laid when he started adding one of the modern probiotics along with a Vitamin C powder to his drinking water. Having read up about this it seemed that this would work for birds that fed by direct feed such as finches or canaries, but would it also have the same effect on crop milk producing birds such as budgerigars, parakeets and pigeons and doves?, I decided to give it a try, if I got a couple of chicks to maturity the costs would be more that recovered. Well yes it did work, and for the first 2 seasons you could count the chicks that died after hatching on one hand. I am not quite as thorough in my system today, due to the time constraints, but if you use a probiotic in the drinking water 3 times per week you will notice the difference. Drinkers need to be cleaned daily if you are using this system but if you have the time it is well worth the trouble. Now 20 years later, the UK TV advertising scene is frequented by health drinks containg these same probiotics, designed to introduce friendly bacteria to the gut, so reducing problems of an inbalance and helping to reduce stress. Management Q-1. Basic introduction about your aviary management program? Answer: I have 36 cages, built in three rows of 60 inch double breeders with a divider slide. I also have a double tier weaning cage 8 feet long on casters with a glass back so that it can be moved to clean below, and does not significantly reduce light to my cages. I have 2 indoor flights and 2 covered outdoor flights all 16 feet long by 3 feet wide. Every morning I check each cage for seed, water and signs of sickness or other problems, this takes about 30 minutes, then each eveing I spend about 2 hours in my aviary. I have a strict routine to ensure that if I have any problems I can check their source so I start by brushing the floor of waste seed and husks, I then give every breeding cage and each weaning cage their softfood, starting at the far end of the shed and working down to the door, once this has been done I check / change the drinkers on the flights and weaning cages and replenish seed and offer a few millet sprays. This allows me to look at all of the birds in the flights and cages and check for any problems, signs of sickness or injury etc. Once I have done this I then move onto my breeding cages. I start at cage 1 on the top left and work along the top row in order. I check or change each drinker, check and top up seed and when this is done I remove the inner box of the breeding box, check the adult birds, chicks feet and beak etc and replace the inner box to allow the hen to return to her youngsters. I use a hand disinfectant between each cage to ensure I do not pass on any problems between nestboxes. If the shavings in the box are heavilly contaminated I change them, but this is only done after all eggs have hatched. Hens will accept a different smell in the box if they are feeding youngsters, but I never change shavings when fertile eggs are in the box.

5 Q-2. Would you please share some thing in brief with us about one year planning of your bird s management program? Answer: My basic system has been changed this year, now that I am no longer involved in the day to day administration side of the hobby, attending meetings and generally being away from home for as many as 40 days per year. I now have much more time to spend with my birds and therefor have adjusted to suit. Basically I will put down breeding pairs from late September each year, although 2006 will see me breeding all year. I put 20 pairs down in October 2005 and will have pairs breeding year round. I would expect to breed youngsters from 30 cages using this system. I have lights on in my aviary all day when breeding as I find activity, fertility and noice are all increased if you have good lighting. I clean out my cages, disinfect and repaint as required, do any running repairs to trays, cage fronts, nest boxes etc and do the same to the nest boxes. Although all of my boxes are the same size and design, and in theory are all interchagable, I have them all numbered and keep them in the same cage each year. Inner boxes tend to be replaced after a couple of years, and sometimes after just 1 round if the hen is a chewer. I change the inner box between rounds if it is dirty or wet but do leave the inner box if a good nest has been raised without problems and the box can be easilly scraped clean and new shaving inserted before the next round of eggs start to appear., but if I change either of the parents they always get a clean inner box. Once the youngsters are weaned off the parents they go in large groups into a stock cage. This is a two tier glass backed triple breeder that measures 8 feet long by 18 inches deep and high each tier. I like a lot of youngsters in these cages, 10 or so and they seem wild, but and they settle down well, find the food and grit, and sample the rearing mix every day. Once at the stage when they are getting through their first moult I will put them into my flights. If cold and or wet they are locked inside, but if warm and bright they are allowed access to the outdoor flights. I would know if a youngster was of no use, heavilly flecked, wrong sex for a split recessive or crest bred or an ino out of clearbodies and I pass these to my wife for sale in her pet shop, the rest are left until 6 months of age and then graded for the breeding team, show team or disposal. I am more chritical of the cocks, hens that are a bit small but well bred would still be used in the breeding cages and tend to be more prolific than the larger and buffer show team hens. Q-3. How do you maintain your record? For that are you are using any professional bird s management software or you prefer manual record keeping. Answer: I have used 2 computer record systems, but find the easiest and by far the best is the one I currently use The Budgerigar Program 6.0; if fanciers want information there is a contact thebudgerigarprogram@cfl.rr.com This programme allows me to do just about all that I need to do to check and print pedigree s, family groups, bloodlines, show records, breeding records and to check back on birds and new owners. Having said that I have a record card on every box that is then transfered into an A4 breeding register so that I can check records for breeding success or failure, monitor pedigree etc. I usually have the current year plus the previous year registers to hand in my aviary. Each register also contains a handy 18 day hatching chart laminated inside the front cover, this allows me to check easilly when eggs are due to hatch. Q-4. Do you mark eggs if yes then tell us what style of marking are you using? Answer: No I do not mark or indeed touch eggs once they are laid until well after they are due to hatch. Dr Baker the budgerigar society veterinary expert found many years ago that a high number of eggs that failed to hatch but were fertile were contaminated with bacteria not usually found on budgerigars, but common to budgerigar fanciers. Since I started using a lazer torch to check for fertility and not touching eggs I have far better success rate in eggs hatching.

6 Q-5. What type of marker or pen do you use for marking and do you ever have problems when hen the refuses marked eggs? Answer: I use to use felt tipped pens but after advice discussed in the previous question no longer touch eggs. If you were using a hand disinfectant between nests, I would still only mark with a water soluble felt tipped pen, not the permanent markers we seem to have nowadays. Q-6. Do you use fosters, if yes then please share your fostering experience with us, especially how do you select fostering couples? Answer: The answer is yes and no, I do not put foster pairs down to feed youngsers, but I always try and put groups down to breed at the same time. This means that if I have a pair that has all infertile eggs, they would be considered to act as fosters. If I think a pair is more suited to feed another pairs chicks than have their infertile eggs removed to allow them to relay, then I like to leave the fertile eggs until the first egg is about 48 hours away from hatching. I then move the whole clutch. The chick squeaking in the egg helps to stimulate the foster hen to produce crop milk. My other and more frequently used system is to move chicks once they have been rung. I often do this with pairs that produce outstanding quality youngsters in their first round, sort of spreading the load so to speak. I also do this if I want specific colours and have limited adult stock. My first Clearbodies had 6 chicks, but I was away at the time and came home to find the cock had attacked the mother and chicks, so I culled the cock and lost the mother and all of the youngsters, that put me back at least a year with my only Clearbodies. A hen that has proven to be an outstanding mother, but has failed to produce high enough quality chicks would make a good foster mother, but I find that if you use 90% maiden hens, most of them rear their chicks with little problems. Hens that have wing problems might also be suitable as fosters, with such an hereditory problem I would not be keen to move these hens to fellow fanciers or breed from too many of them, so they might just earn their seed, but I prefer to have breeding pairs in each cage, not fosters. Q-7. How do you handle the chicks in the nest and in early ages, especially in case of mother death or feeding refusal by parents then how do you mange a day old chick? Answer: I handle every chick daily from the day it hatches. Once they are out of the egg you need to check the toes and beak and later the ring to ensure it does not get covered in food or droppings. Softfood will set like concrete on the beak and in a few days cause deformity. Droppings on toes and rings can result in lost toe nails or the ring requiring to be removed, making the bird useless for exhibition. Checking each chick daily will soon show if you have a poor feeding hen, I then move chicks around to try and get chicks from the pair. Often maiden hens don t feed their first chicks, they seem to be unable to produce crop milk, in this case I would give them a fully fed chick or 3 or 4 days of age, the louder squeak will almost always start the hen producing crop milk, but if not the chick can easilly survive 12 hours, and a second check will show if the hen has still failed to feed. 9 out of 10 times giving the hen a bigger louder chick will help, and once the first chick is fed the hen will be fine with other chicks. Very poor feeding hens are a problem, and I tend not to breed from them again. Feeding like fertility is one of the hidden attributes of a budgerigar, and inbreeding the problem will result in poor success from these families, may be not this year or indeed the next year, but 10 generations down the line you will have problems. If a hen dies then it depands on the age of the chiocks, cocks usually don t brood the youngsters, so unless they can keep themselves warm you will loose them. If they were fully feathered then I would take a chance and leave with the cock, but under this age I move to other pairs. I always put a handfull of nestbox

7 litter over the chicks if I add youngsters from other pairs, this hides any different smells that the hen may pick up. Day old chicks are moved to pairs of a colour that helps identify the fostered chick, I would never try and hand feed a budgerigar, although I have topped up the feed of a big clutch using a crop tube and hand feeding formula designed for parrots, but they would need to be feathered. Q-8. At what age you ring your chicks? Answer: Depends on the chick, but I would expect to be ringing a chick at between 6 and 8 days of age. Some you can get a ring on at 14 days, but better to soon and it falls of to be replaced than have a top youngster without a ring. We come back to checking each and every chick daily, do that and you will soon learn at what age size the chick needs to be for the ring to stay on. Q-9. How do you plane for safety of your birds from different weather conditions Answer: My outside flights are all covered, and if the weather is cold, usually from October to March in the UK, I lock all of the birds into the indoor flights at night. Once the clocks alter and it is dark here at 5pm then the birdshave 5 hours of extra light inside to feed by, so very few need to be chaced inside. I then open up my bob holes each morning at 6.30am. During the warmer summer months I leave the birds outside all night. They are very active from first light around 4am but will go inside for shelter once the hot sun gets up. You find very few birds outside either side of noon, but they will come out again when it starts to cool down 3 or 4 hours before sunset, around 6pm here in the UK. I don t encounter monsoons or huricanes or other such drastic weather, but whatever the conditions it is wise to protect birds from escape if flights are exposed to strong winds and contamination from wild bird or animal fouling. (Cinnamon Mauve; 2006 cock breeding now.) Q-10. Any suggestions from you for all new comers that how they should plan their management program to reduce risk of common basic problems. Answer: 2 things that will help in a huge way. Don t handle eggs and offer breeding birds a powdered probiotic in the drinking water. Handling eggs increases the chance of contamination from the fanciers hands and the introduction of friendly bacteria via a probiotic will increase the chance of survival of both adults and youngsters alike when under stress at such times as breeding, moulting and exhibition. Breeding Q-1. At what time do you start breeding each year? Answer: See above, now breeding all year.

8 Q-2. Are you breeding all Misc color or you are specializing in any specific variety/varieties. If you are breeding any specific variety then please tell us how and why did you chose that colors and what about your success in that specified area? Answer: I now breed most colours but please see article on my web site regarding my recessive pieds. This variety my favourite, but a variety for the serious fancier not the commercial breeder as they do not often win Best in Shows although I have taken Champion Young Bird specials with a Recessive Pied. Q-3. What are the roles of "normal" budgerigars in your success, do you also use normal budgerigars for the improvement of size and quality of any other variety? Answer: I use normals to improve strength and overall quality for all of my recessive varieties. Recessive Pied, Crest, Suffusion (yellow / white), clearwing, greywing etc. I also pair all of the mainstream colours together, with possibly only the Spangle to Dominant Pied avoided if possible. A few years ago I did use Spangle to reintroduce fertility back into my Recessive Pieds, and this worked very well, but I disposed of all visual Spangles as pets to ensure I didn t get Recessive Pied Spangles, and worked with the none Spangle split hens. Q-4. How many pair do you prepare each year for breeding and what are the ratio of extra cocks and hens do keep ready incase of any urgent requirements? Answer: I use 30 breeding cages, and could have as many as 100 different pairings in these cages. I would keep in the region of 50 cocks to 120 hens, but breeding all year means that I now have 8 and 9 month old maiden hens available all year round. Q-5. How many birds do you breed each year and how many clutches do you take from one pair. Answer: I will breed 400 chicks in the 12 months to October. I am now starting to take many more rounds from my pairs in their first year. I always use to split the pairs up after 2 or 3 rounds, but I now let the hens breed until they stop if they are producing top quality chicks. I had a pair last year that produced 8 rounds with Special winners in all but 1 round. The hen didn t rear all of these herself, but I produced over 30 quality youngsters from one pair in a season. On the other hand, if I have a hen that produces a full nest of 6 chicks with none of any real quality, then I would split the pair and put a different hen to the cock. If you don t have anything useful in a full nest then why breed more of the same? This hen would be one to try later with a different cock, but I tend to change the hens more frequently that the cock. I try and use visually top quality cocks, but will use well bred hens of lesser visual quality. They breed better and the more chicks you breed from quality cocks, the more quality birds you have for the following breeding seasons. Q-6. Do you select your pair for breeding by their visual quality or genetically? And also mention if you have any other criteria of selections when pairing up? Answer: I tend to pair up on visual quality but also pairing bloodlines together. I have found that cousin s paired together with the common ancester a visually top quality bird will usually give the best results. I don t like to go too close, so back to a parent in not something that I do very often. On the other hand, outcrossing or pairing unrelated birds together does not produce consistently top quality youngsters, very often it is second and third generation when the quality comes out. Q-7. cages? And what important thing you consider when you put the birds into the breeding

9 Answer: Always have clean, disinfected cages and boxes for the new pair. Pluck or trim the feather from around the vent of both birds, and make sure the hen can t get into the box straight away, this can be by putting the pair together without a nest box, Q-8. Do you use inbreeding or line-breeding system? And what are your opinions on line breeding? Answer: Inbreeding and line breeding are basically the same, the pairing of related birds together. I don t do close inbreeding so my systems are more what you would understand as line-breeding. I don t like very close pairings, probably because when I have paired very close it proved a disaster, but many of the old fanciers swore this was the only way to build a feature into your birds. The problem has been putting in the features that are not visual such as fertility, agression, life expectancy etc. Q-9. What basic points of pairings do you recommend to consider new comers to produce the best exhibition? Answer: Always look for cocks as close to the written standard as possible, but be prepared to use the offspring and sisters of good cocks to pair to these visually good cocks. The small typier hens are nearlly always more fertile and produce more viable youngsters than the big buff show hens. Q-10. How do you go about obtaining suitable out-crosses from other fanciers? Answer: I will swop, loan, beg or borrow from my closet friends, but in reality I can obtain all of my outcrosses from my very good friend Frank Silva. Frank has every colour in the UK, and many of his birds are related to my stock. I supplied the Recessive Pieds and Crests when Frank first started breeding this variety, and he let me have Cinnamon, Spangle, Normal, Dominant Pied etc, so nearly any bird in my shed will work with Frank s stock. I am happy to let Frank have any bird in my shed, any bird, due to his generocity in the past, and likewise, I am able to obtain outcrosses from the Silva Stud Q-11. How do you differentiates between controlled and uncontrolled breeding systems, and would you please share you personal experience about both systems? Answer: I only use controlled breeding, the selection of the breeding pair in isolation (in a breeding cage) as opposed to self selection in a colony system. When I had spare birds and a shortage for my wifes pet shop I put half a dozen pairs into a 3metre x 3 metre flight with 15 nest boxes, I had trouble all round with cocks fighting, hens destroying the nests of other pairs and generally all round problems. I know many fanciers breed successfully this way, but only for the pet market. I do know a fancier who puts 2 hens with 1 cock in 2 metre x 1 metre flights with a small attached shelter and he seems to have great success, but who has sufficient room for such flights? Very few fanciers. Q12. Any other points you would like to mention which hasn't been covered above Answer... Enjoy the hobby, but don t take it too seriously, it is a hobby and once it becomes a profession you tend to loose the enjoyment, as well as a lot of your friends. The friendship between Frank and myself is a classic example, we live 220 miles apart but speak 2 to 3 times a week. I vist his home 2 to 4 times a year and meet up at shows while exhibiting or judging together. We are able to throw ideas around together, try different approaches, and obtain outcrosses to suit us both. That is something money can t buy. It is often fanciers who live close by that will become partners after a few years of friendship, but enjoy the hobby, and look more at the breeding side that the exhibition success. If you spend time with your stock you will gain more experience and pick up the benefits, time in the aviary with your birds is the best teacher you will ever have.

10 The other side is feed and water. Always feed the best quality seed that is available. Here in the UK we have many different grades of seed, the very best is cleaned several times, blended to a high quality and sourced from the highest quality suppliers. The other end comes straight out of the hessian sacks it is imported in, complete with chaff, dust and rodent droppings. Never take the cheap option if at all possible and make sure clean bacteria free water is available at all times. Empty water containers in high temperatures will result in dropped feathers, one of the causes of one of the many forms of French moult. Diseases / medication Q-1. Would you please point out names of most common diseases in Budgerigars, and as per your practical experience which disease are most dangerous in budgerigars? Answer: Trichomonas gallinae which can quickly prove fatal to budgerigars. This is when they flick their heads and get wet around the face. I treat twice a year as a routine preventative measure, but also at the first sign of a bird retching or flicking it s head or if seen with a wet or matted face. The other problem is a stress enteritis, this is often seen when the birds vent get s clogged with droppings. This often happens after periods of stress, after a show, when chicks are weaned from the parents or during the moult or times of excess heat. A probiotic is usually sufficient to help the bird get over the problem. Q-2. How do you monitor your aviary for any active sign of any illness or disease? Answer: I check all birds daily by spending 10 minutes each evening just looking at every bird. I have a quick 5 minute visual check each morning before I leave for work to ensure that drinkers aren t empty or missing, and signs of sickness or death can be sorted. Q-3. What immediate action you take at the time of first sign of any illness? Answer: I isolate any sick bird if I think it would be contagious or they need to be alone to aid recovery. I would then treat either the bird, cage or flight with a suitable medication. I treat the whole flight for Trichomonas by adding the medication Tricho Plus (manufactured by Oropharma in Belgium to treat canker in racing pigeons) containing Ronidazole 5% to the drinking water for 5 days. The UK Pigeon supplement firm Harkers have just fetched out a new treatment for Canker but I have not tested it on Budgerigars to date, but it should be suitable and available worldwide. Q-4. How much effort do you put into trying to cure a sick bird? Answer: If it is a common problem then I spend time, but if it is a one-off sickness then I tend not to bother. I have spend many hundred s of pounds with vet s but on nearly every occasion the bird has died. When I was a Beginner I had cages of sick birds, now I don t waste my time, get rid of the sick ones and spend time with the healthy and fertile ones, you need a healthy stud to breed lots of chicks to obtain a few winners Q-5. Do you use preventative medication during breeding and none breeding seasons? If yes then please tell us which medicines do you use, why do you selected these medicines and how do you schedule them. Answer: I do three things, I treat for Trichomonias twice a year, I use a probiotic twice or three times weekly and daily for birds undergoing stress, 2 days before exhibition and 3 days after their return and for 3 5 days when youngsters are weaned from their parents. The third medication is with a pigeon roundworm treatment once a year as I have outside flights that could be contaminated by wildbirds. Q-6. What action you take to minimize health risk, I mean how do you prevent your aviary from diseases?

11 Answer: I use a suitable disinfectant for feet, ensure visitors do not fetch cages into my aviary, and I use a hand scrub disinfectant after handling a bird, especially a sick one. I also quarantine birds coming into my aviary from any source. I have also got 2 negative air ionizers fitted to the roof of my aviary, these neutralize airborne bacteria and viruses as well as dust so stop any cage to cage or flight to cage airborne cross contamination. I also follow a routine when feeding my birds, so if I have a problem I can trace the source. I always feed in the same route, top row left to right, middle row right to left and bottom row left to right then the baby cages and flights Q-7. As per your personal experience what are the key factor to maintain good health in your flock. Answer: Clean drinking water and good quality seed with constant checks to pick up problems at an early stage. The addition of vitamin and minerals is also vital to give you strong healthy stock that will rear good numbers of healthy chicks, all this coupled with good ventilation and light, lots of fresh air is important. Q-8. What medicines or medical related instrument should be always present in aviary? Answer: Treatment for Trichomonis, probiotic and a crop tube plus a pair of ring removers and an antiseptic cream or powder. If you are the impatient sort then I would also add a laser torch for checking the fertility of eggs, don t handle eggs if you can help it. Q-9. Do you or any of your friends have experience of uses of homeopathic or herbal medicine for birds, if yes please share that experience with us. Answer: I have never used homeopathic treatment although I do add garlic granules to my soft feed daily which is a natural treatment. Q-10. At end of medical related question I would like you to tell us about side effect of medicines which we normally use for preventions or treatment around the year, as I heard that excessive use of medicines can increase infertility problems? Answer: The use of broad spectrum anti-biotic creates problems of immunity and will also kill all of the friendly bacteria in the birds gut, so after treatment you need to use a probiotic. Use of some of the older treatments would cause fertility problems, but this was often found to be the bird was infertile because of the illness not the treatment. You also need to watch the dosage closely, evaporation of drinking water in high temperatures increased the dosage %, and budgerigars have been known to overdose on worming treatment as well as anti-biotic due to this problem. Routine treatments for trichomonas is usually carried out at least 6 weeks prior to pairing up adults, so even if it does cause problems then the birds have got over it before going into the breeding box. The only other problem is overdosing of vitaimins. If you use a proprietary soft feed with added vitamins and minerals and add a further supplement don t put additional items to drinking water, double and triple the dose doesn t do twice the good. My Setup Q-1. Do you remember what was your first setup was look like? Answer: Yes it was a 10 foot by 8 foot wooden shed with galvanized metal sheets screwed to the outside and 3 inches of insulation to keep the temperature down in the summer. I had 6 cages each end of the shed but had to catch the birds to put them into an outside flight higher up the garden.

12 Q-2. Please explain your current aviary design. (I will appreciate if you brief it with picture), would you please also tell us that did you design your aviary with your own idea or you hired some to do it for you? Answer: I designed my own aviary, but had to alter it at the last minute after problems with building and planning regulations. The building is roughly 10 meter by 3 meter (32 feet by 10 feet). It is made of thermo-insulated blocks used in house construction. This is then rendered and painted. The roof is a slopping fixture that is again a modern product used here in the UK for industrial units. It is basically a sheet of box section metal with a 3 inch filling of molded insulation. I know I could fry an egg on the outer skin at the moment in 35 deg temperatures, but the inner sheet is cold to the touch. My windows are modern UPVC (Plastic) double glazed units obtained second hand from my local glazing fitter. Q-3 In how many cages are you breeding today? And would you please explain design and size of your breeding cage and what are the benefits of your current design? Answer: my cages are 5 foot double breeders 3 rows high giving me 36 cages. Of these I breed from 30 but do use 3 extra breeding cages at times. I also have a glass backed weaning cage that is 2 rows by8 feet long that can be divided into 6 separate cages. My nest-boxes slide into the cage giving me an area free from droppings where I put seed on the cage floor when youngsters are due to leave the nest Q-3. How many indoor and outdoor flights do you have and how many birds you keep in one flight, please also explain sizes and design of these flights. Answer: I have 2 indoor flights attached to 2 outdoor flights all measuring aprox 5 metre by 1 metre (16 feet by 3 feet) Both indoor flights are covered with white glazed tiles and the outside flights are covered with clear plastic sheets to reduce contamination from wild bird droppings, The floor is concrete. Outside flights are constructed of 3 inch by 2 inch timber with 16gauge wire fastened to the inside. Each flight is houses birds although I have had

13 up to 100 youngsters in one flight. My perches are softwood ladder type that allow the bird to chew and are easy to clip in for replacement. Q-4. Please also tell us how do you divide your stock in different flights, I mean by cocks and hens or by adult and young birds? Answer: I split the birds into adult and young birds. I find the birds are more active and fitter this way and have had very few problems with pairs selecting mates and then refusing to breed. If I think I do have a possible problem I put the odd bird out of sight in a breeding cage low down Q-5. Tell us something about your hospital and quarantine cages, how many do you have and what area of your aviary you specified for treatment and quarantine process? I will appreciate if you please tell new comers benefits of quarantine process. Answer: I have a block of 6 quarantine cages at my wife s pet shop. These are used for her business and if I was fetching in birds from any source other than Frank Silva they would go here for 30 day s. This would ensure that no transmittable disease got into my main stud which could prove fatal to my main establishment. We had a big problem with the dealers 3 years ago. A virus got into an import station who also bought and sold large numbers of exhibition birds. A few greedy fanciers who weal and deal were buying in birds for resale and before we new it we had possibly as many as 20 studs wiped out. This would not have happened if the new imports had been put into quarantine in a separate aviary. I don t have a hospital cage. Years ago I did, but nearly every bird that went into the cage died, so I don t bother now, sick birds waste a lot of time and effort. Q-6. Do you think that fresh air should also pass through your aviary and how do you control and manage air ventilation in your aviary Answer: You must have moving air. I did a bit of checking on my breeding cages and the 6 at the far end of the shed had a much higher number of addled eggs caused by bacteria contamination. I added an extra fan into the wall to take out more air and these cages them started giving the same average as the rest. I have a high power 12 inch extractor fan fitted into the door at the end of the shed. Both of these extraction units operate 24 hrs changing the air regularly.

14 Q-7. How important lighting play a role for healthy flock and fertility, and what type of lighting system do you use, sun light or any artificial lighting system. Answer: Lighting is very important. My aviary faces the wrong way for good natural daylight, but it was only when I had to go home sick one February day that I found out the extent of the problem. I thought my birds had been stolen, there was not a sound from the shed, but when I entered, all the cocks and birds in the flights had gone to roost. I would turn on the lights at a week-end when working in the aviary so had not noticed. I put 2 by 6 foot fluorescent fittings in each indoor flight to compliment my 4 by 6 foot fittings and these are now left on from 6.30am to 10pm during the breeding season. Natural daylight extends these hours during our summer as the sun comes up around 4am not going dark until after the lights have gone off. I noticed a drastic improvement in activity and noise with the extra lighting, and this in turn gave better fertility and more chicks. Q-8. How do you maintain temperature within your aviary? Answer: I have 3 roof fitted heat panels operated by central heating thermostats. They come on at about 3 deg C and cut off at 5 deg C to keep it just above freezing in our coldest months but they came on very rarely last winter. It is more for me than the birds, budgerigars don t need heating in most of the UK for the majority of the year. Q-9. Now after your huge experience of this hobby if you got a chance to build your aviary once again (Complete new setup), will you still go for your current aviary design or you have some latest idea s which fulfill your latest requirement? Answer: If I was building my ideal aviary it would be quite different from my current set-up. I think the ideal would be a big square / oblong brick building. I would enter into a kitchen cleaning are with sink, fridge, food processor and telephone complete with show cage and seed storage rooms and possibly even a small office. I would then have a glass wall to the main breeding room with 3 large flights against each side wall. I would then have a centre partition with cages facing each flight but most importantly I would have roof lights to allow natural daylight into the birds. I would not have any outside flights so reducing the problems of contamination from wildbirds and also reduce the risk of theft of stock. If possible it would be heated from the main house central heating system via thermostatically controlled radiators. If the bird side of the structure was 30 foot long by 30 foot wide this would give space for 3 by 9 foot (3 metre) square inside flights and 48 cages each side of the divider giving you 96 cages in total. That would be sufficient for just about anyone including a fulltime breeder wishing to produce in excess of 1,000 birds each season, but could also be used for a medium sized stud of birds. Q-10. Ok, with your huge experience at the end of Aviary setup section please guide if a new comer ask you to design a new setup for him for about 10 breeding pairs, So how you will design it with all current facilities and future expansions?. Answer: my most important thoughts would be to have at least 2 addition cages, although I could also see 2 block of double breeders each about 5 feet long with 30 inch by 15 inch cage fronts. If these were build 4 rows high they would be just over 6 feet tall giving 10 breeding cages, 2 weaning cages plus 4 extra cages for adults after breeding or birds in isolation. I would also have at least 1 flight so if it was designed with cages on 1 wall and flights on the other you could fit it into a 10 foot by 8 foot shed, but better into a 16 feet by 10 food building. If possible have a roof light, but if not have a window in the flights that was either covered or have an outside flight matching the inside flight. Basically it would be a half length version of my current set-up. Seed storage bins would be placed in front of the flight and this would allow 100+ birds to be bred and housed each season. Nutrition

15 Q-1. We all know that good nutrition is key of success, so tell us about importance of good and controlled nutrition in your point if view? Answer: Nutrition is the most important part, feed the very best birds on poor food and you don t get the best out of them. The best athletes in the world won t win an Olympic medal if not fed correctly. Seed is not enough although budgerigars will rear on a seed and water diet, but chicks tend to be a little smaller to start and hens take more from their body resources so rear fewer clutches. Q-2. What about you re feeding program, and what are the differences in your feeding compared to other studs? Answer: I don t think the basic system is much different in any of the UK studs, a basic selection of canary seed and millet (White, Red, Japanese and Plate). I feed a basic budgie mix in a seed hopper with additional canary seed. When youngsters are due to leave the nest I put tonic seed with lots of Japanese millet in a dish under the nestbox. Some fanciers feed 4 separate seeds in individual dishes, but that it too much hard work for me. I also offer millet sprays both yellow and red, French and Chinese and dry or soaked. I like to offer soaked millet to youngsters, they then get moisture when at shows by taking the soaked millet. Q-3. What mix do you use? And where do you source your seed from? Answer: I am a distributor for the Budgerigar Society bespoke seed range produced by Buckton s ltd., part of Cranswick PLC. I was chair of the sponsorship committee that arranged the original sponsorship deal and the different mixtures. My personal choice is Champion Blend. Having said that I regularly use different seeds for the birds in the flights, this allows the flock instinct to train birds to take different seeds and ratios of different millets and canary seed. I throw scoops of it on the flight floor and the birds pick over. I also like the tonic seed with added oil of aniseed, the birds seem to prefer this to other tonic seeds. Q-4. What is difference between your birds diet in breeding and non-breeding seasons? And how do you schedule it in both seasons. Answer: I don t change the seed between breeding and non breeding season the main difference is that all breeding cages get soft food daily, while the flights only get any left over after the breeding pairs have been fed. This year will see me breeding all year round, so my system will be constant all year. Q-5. Seed mix can only fulfill less then 50% needs of budgerigars body, do you agree with this comment? And how important do you think the constituents of the seed mix are? Answer: I don t agree with the 50% figure, but a diet of only one or two seeds would not be sufficient. That is one of the reasons I offer my birds different seeds, and a basic mixture with 5 different seeds from at least 3 different countries. A sound mixture with canary and at least 3 different millet is the minimum, and nyjer and hemp are good oil seeds added to the diet. I do this by tonic seed that contains this plus rape, millet and groats. Q-6. What are the importance of supplements in budgerigars in your opinion and tell us about any well known supplements you may use. Answer:As the adverts say a seed diet is not sufficient it is which additive you use. My personal choice is the Vydex range manufactured in Wales but available Worldwide. I first met the managing director Melvyn John some 15 years ago and he convinced me that human quality additives blended to the correct ratio for budgerigars was the answer. The children s multivitamin and Cod Liver Oil were out of date additions to a budgie diet. The main ones that I use weekly are Entravian the probiotic and Ascorbovit the Vitamin C that helps the bird take up the benefits of the probiotic more quickly and these are added to the drinking water 2 or 3 times a week. I have used Carbosol the carbohydrate energy loading supplement used by

16 athletes but I found my birds were too active so I cut back on this. I also add either MVS30 (Multi vitamin supplement with 30 vitamin and mineral ingredients) or Just Silva Supplement to my soft food daily. I use the different supplements to give a good range of vitamins and minerals. Q-7. How do you schedule multivitamins in breeding and none breeding season and share with us what brand name you use? Answer: Just Silva and Vydex range see answer to Q6 and I also offer Kilpatrick s Black Pigeon Mineral in finger drawers. You just have to accept the staining of the finger drawers and the faces of breeding birds. Q-8. Importance of grit in budgerigars in your pint of view, and how do you offer it to your birds? Answer: I believe a good quality mineral grit with the addition during breeding of a soluble oyster shell grit is very important. I have D cups in each breeding cage that contains grit. This is changed every 2 weeks as the birds will pick out selected pieces, my mineral grit also contains charcoal. Q-9. Calcium is also most important part of nutrition, how do you fulfill need of calcium of your birds? Answer: I have cuttle fish bone on every cage front along with a calcium iodine nibble (Liverine). I tried the water based calcium but it seemed to create extra work with drinkers having to be cleaned more frequently and I felt it separated very quickly in the water. The addition of Oyster-shell grit also helps and in the past I have added baked egg shell ground down to a course grit sized unit. Q-10. Do offer greens to your birds, please explain what selective greens you offer in breeding and none breeding seasons and how do you schedule it? Answer: By greens I would include carrot and I add both carrot and broccoli to my daily soft food. I add roughly 400 grams of these to every 500 grams of dry eggfood and put it all into a food processor and chop it up very fine. The juice from the carrot and broccoli give sufficient moisture to make it a nice crumble mix. I would add fennel as well but my wife hates the smell. I have used sweet corn (maize) nibbles as well. All of these are fresh organically grown and available year round her in the UK. If I had a good reliable source of fresh spinach or chickweed then I would also add this, but obtaining supplies in our winter is very difficult so I do not offer it to my birds now. You can include millet spray in the list of green food as detailed above. Q-11. Almost in all established countries a range of Multivitamins/minerals/supplements are available for birds in different brands, would you like share any good name with your successful experience? Answer: Just Silva and Vydex MVS 30 See above. Q-12. What soft food do you use, any readymade formula from market or you prepare your own soft food mixture? Please also share any home made soft food recipe with our readers for those who can not buy any formula. Answer: My 2 chosen prepared egg foods are Vydex Growrite (Almond flavour) and Donald Cooke EMP. Both are good bases for the addition of carrot or greens and vitamin / mineral additives. Growrite has a higher protein level but also has a deeper yellow colour that can stain white faced birds if fed with too much carrot. I have used whole meal bread in the past and we have a product available in the UK called toasted Soya Crumbs, basically a low level toasted crumb suitable for the addition of supplements and hard boiled egg and carrot etc. If I

17 has no access to a prepared base I would revert to breadcrumbs or flaked porridge oats and add what I could from carrot, broccoli, maize etc. Q-13. Are you satisfied about water quality in your country or do use nay water purifies system such as water cleaning medicines? Also tell us how you schedule fresh water (without any supplements) in your aviary in both breeding and none-breeding seasons because in our area most of the fancier remove water container from cages in winter, so do you?. Answer: I have used bottled water for many years but the quality of the water in the UK is some of the highest in the World. Last year I returned to tap water with no ill effects. I have large plastic water founts that hold sufficient water for at least a day for pair with 6 youngsters but I also change them at least 3 times a week for cleaning and disinfecting. Leaving budgerigars without water will cause problems when breeding, and is a contributor to stress induced French moult, (not the viral caused French moult) but mature budgerigars can go many days without water an important consideration if trying to medicate via the drinking water. Any other points you would like to mention which hasn't been covered in topic discussed above? Ensure cages, food and water containers are kept clean. Disease will spread quickly via damp or dirty equipment. A bacterial hand scrub as used by medical doctors / nurses is the easiest to obtain and will help stop cross contamination. Just test for skin problems as many are alcohol based and could give a rash to the fancier. A Crop Tube with a 25ml syringe A dose of medication can be administered direct to the crop Crop tube used to administer medication directly to the birds crop. Society & Shows Q-1. For how long have you been involved with a Budgerigar society or club, and what are your roles now in your society? Would you also please tell us what your ring code numbers are? Answer: I have been a member of the Budgerigar fancy since 1975 and my personalized ring number is C901. My wife has her own ring number which we use for all of our Ino s and her ring number is FS22. Our 13 year old daughter also has her own ring code S6841. I had

18 different codes 20 years ago, but paid for my current personalized ring to match my Area Society code so I am now C901 and LC901 Q-2. What are the benefits of becoming a member of any bird s society in your opinion? And which part of the hobby do you prefer, showing or breeding? Answer: The benefits of society membership is access to information and advice. If you are a senior member with 50 years experience then you won t learn a great deal about breeding birds but you will be able to pass on your knowledge, in return you get to meet younger and more enthusiastic fanciers who are up to date with modern medications, breeding records kept on computers and have younger and fitter bodies to erect staging and carry cages at exhibitions. If a club has members all of the same experience then you do not progress as a club, you need a constant income of new blood to stimulate ideas. The newer fanciers are also an outlet for surplus stock, and if the senior members are in a position to be generous with the supply of birds then you have a healthy expanding club, the problems come when someone tries to make their living out of their birds, then every bird seems to have a much higher cost. Personally I much prefer the breeding side of the hobby, but in second place is judging followed by exhibiting. I do enjoy getting away for a break with fellow judges who are friends to see different birds around the country. If this involves staying away from home for 1 or more nights then the social side spent talking about our feathered friends is a wonderful experience. Q-3. How many budgerigars societies/clubs are actively working in your country/area at the moment? Answer: Here in the UK we have the parent body the Budgerigar Society. In addition we have 10 regional Area Societies that are affiliated to the B.S. and we also have the Specialist Societies that cater for specific varieties such as the Clearwing Budgerigar Breeders Association who look after the interests of Clearwings (White wing and Yellow wing); Crested Budgerigar Club and the Spangle Budgerigar Breeders Association. All of these are affiliated or associate members of the BS. This allows them to interact with the parent body, the 10 regions each send a delegate to sit on the General Council, and it is the GC that is the management committee of the hobby here in the UK. We also have hundred s of local clubs, my own is the Clwyd Budgerigar Society. I am a founder member and have been President for the last 20 years. Q-4. What is the benefit of having the National show each year? Every fancier who show his birds always want to become a national and World Champion, so what are you plane for it? Answer: Not every one aims to become a national champion, some exhibit just for their pleasure, World Champions and major show winners have their hobby changed drastically. Demand for birds increases, visitors numbers get bigger and demand for birds rises, but then so does the cost of outcrosses. Personally; my birds are my hobby. I enjoy spending days talking as well as the many hours with my birds, but if I had other major interests my whole routine would be changed. I like to show a few birds to compare what other fanciers are producing, and I enjoy success, but I show when I want too not because I have too in an effort to raise sales. This also means that I am nearly always willing to let friends have birds, indeed some who have been very successful on the show bench visit me every year to obtain outcrosses for their breeding teams. These are fanciers who are hoping to take Major Awards and indeed have taken Challenge Certificates, Section Awards and Best in Show specials with birds bred from my stock. A national show allows the whole fancy to gather once a year for a social event, to obtain much needed supplies and have a good look at what your fellow fanciers have bred.

19 Q-5. In which shows do you participate normally? And how many birds would you typically show. And it is true that you have never shown a bought bird? Do you also consider age factor before selection of show team. Answer: I show where and when I want to, so as a judge I am required to bench birds at least twice per year. My first priority is my own club; Clwyd BS. Our championship show is very early in the show season, usually the 3 rd week in July. I will try and bench as many birds as I can, between us the family will look at a team of 30 birds. Our show has attracted an entry of 1650 birds, but in the last 5 years it has been more in the range. I have shown bought birds, but in reality I do not go out to buy high quality exhibition birds so do not often have birds from other fanciers to show. I do not like to leave birds overnight if they are less than 8 months of age, so 2 day shows are always a problem for me. I have about 10 shows that I support on and off, but usually select my shows once my judging has been agreed. Some years I may judge 15 shows, then I have problems benching birds twice to meet the terms of my judging. Then it is a job for the wife, I go off to judge 300 miles away and she and her friends look after benching our birds and getting them back home safely. Q-6. Tell us something about your first champion bird, that bird was really the best bird in your stud in your show team? Was it from a winning family or a blood line from another champion breeder? Answer: My first Champion Bird was a Recessive Pied Light Green Cock bred in 1981 that was made up to a Champion at his first show as an Adult in This was the start of my love affair with the Recessive Pied, and was actually one of the first Recessive Pieds that I had bred. The parents came from a pair that I bought from the sales classes at Lancashire & Cheshire Area Show and cost me the prize money that I had won for Best Novice Young Bird ( 10). This was far from being my best bird, but it was a very well marked Recessive Pied that seemed a much better bird in a show cage. Q-7. Has that bird won before? What is the background of that champion bird? Do you think that bird was a lucky winner? Answer: To become a Champion he had to win 3 Challenge Certificates, he beat all of the adults when winning as a young bird in 1981, but in those days you had to have at least 1 win as an adult to register a Champion. I think this bird was lucky in that it appealed to fanciers who did not breed the variety. I think my first Best in Show winner should have been my first Champion bird, it went on to win many Section awards, including the Challenge Certificate and Best Novice and Best Novice Young Bird at the 1980 Budgerigar Society World Show but was only shown twice as a baby and then spent the better part of her first year as an adult in a breeding cage. Now that the Yellow-face has it s own certificate, this bird would have been registered before the Recessive, but at the time it was up against many other Best in Show birds in the Any Other Colour Group. Q-8. How many birds would you typically show? What are the criteria about selections of your show team, and at what age you start consideration an individual bird for a member of next show team because I believe every fancier who participate in shows also a judge because he judge his own birds for best selections of show team. Answer: I look at my breeding team and my show team while the chick is still in the nest box. Varieties that are colour important such as Recessive Pieds can be excluded at 6 weeks of age if the wing markings are not to the standard. Those that make the first cut off are then put into weaning cages and then flown on in the flights, and I then consider my show team 8 10 weeks before my first show, usually Clwyd towards the end of July, or sometimes the Rare Variety Show the last week in June. I like to handle each bird, check for problems with toes etc, remove broken flight or tail feathers and then decide on possible show team members. As a family we would look at showing a team of birds, but 16 of those could

20 be Ino s with 2 entries in each adult and young bird class for both Lutino and Albino. In fact our latest Best in Show Award was with lutino Cock at our last show of the 2006 season. Q-9. What s your experience says about a good ratio of your winning birds always came through a champion family or a visually low quality pair can also produce a show winner. Answer: Having spent many thousands of pounds sterling ( uk) I can say that pedigree is by far the most important consideration. In fact when I look at sorting out my birds I do it in family groups. Some families that consistently produce quality stock are kept ahead of better quality birds from other groups. Say I have 8 hens from pair 1 and 8 hens from pair 2, pair 1 has produced good youngsters for 3 or more generations and 6 are good quality with 2 a little small. Pair 2 have 8 youngsters with the best taking Opposite sex awards but the remainder narrow and small. I would keep the 2 lesser quality hens from pair 1 above the birds from Pair 2 every time. Ideally you test mate them all, but this is not always possible. Q-10. Would you please like to describe briefly that what preparation would your team have and do you use any specific training methods? Note: (for all above question I requested for short answer but here I would like ask for detailed information from training and final preparation to showing your bird.) Answer: As explained earlier, I handle every chick daily in the nest box. This is the first stage of show preparation while allowing me to check beaks and toes for concrete like droppings etc. Once you have sorted out your birds, any that may be suitable for the show team need to be caught up at least 10 weeks before the first show and every tail and flight feather inspected for damage. I then remove 1 tail feather, usually the lower one, along with up to 2 flight feathers if they are damaged. Some fanciers take out all of the mask spots, but I don t do this. The birds are allowed to remain in the flights at this time as lots of flying helps develop strong wings and healthy feathers. You can also notice birds that may have feather problems as they spend a lot of time on the floor of the inside flights. 8 weeks before the show I catch up the birds again and decide which ones will be prepared for the show team with reserves. The removed tail feather should now be starting to re-grow, if this is the case and the new feather can be seen, then I remove the second tail feather, this ensures that I have 2 new tails for the first show. At this stage we put the birds into show groups, 4 birds to a cage, and these 4 birds will stay together for the entire show season. If you put birds back in different groups they need to sort out a pecking order, by keeping the same birds together this does not happen. Once the birds have been caged, they get sprayed with luke warm water on alternate days, with a good soaking daily 14 days to 7 days before the show, then a light spray up to 4 days prior to benching. I then de-spot those that are going to the show; usually 2-3 days before benching. Often with multi spotted birds, this has to be done in stages, allowing the mask to settle overnight before finally deciding the exact spots that are to be removed. If I have blood or dirt on feathers then I remove this with a tooth brush and cold water, and if I have bent or chewed tail or flight feathers these are straightened by dipping into hot (almost boiling) water for just a few seconds. You must ensure that none of the wing is put into the water, just the end of the feathers. Show cage training just seems to come naturally, putting youngsters into show cages for visitors to view makes them more confident. I did try attaching show cages to my stock cages many years ago, but the birds spent more time chewing the cages, and when they went to shows did just the same, so I stopped this and haven t noticed any problems.

21 Q-11. What do you do when you return from a show, I mean what you do for the quick recovery of show/traveling stress. And how do make it assure that birds you are taking back from the show are not carrying any disease with them. Answer: When I return from a show the birds go back into their stock cage, they get softfood and I add a probiotic to the drinking water. I don t think there is much difference between the leading U.K. brands, but my personal choice is Entravian manufactured by the Vydex Group from Cardiff; South Wales. Q-12. How many Challenge Certificates, Variety champion awards and show winner awards do you have till now? Answer: I don t know how many Challenge Certificates I have won over the 30 years I have been in the hobby, many hundreds. When I was showing every week; I would pick up as many as 4 at each show. I registered about 40 Champion Birds but recently haven t bothered. Showing mainly the specialist varieties means that the number of Best in Show winners is restricted, but we picked up our latest Best in Show in October 2006 with a Lutino Cock. Showing at Championship Shows in the UK, mostly with entries in excess of 600 birds means that you are up against some of the best birds in the world. Still, we have managed to collect major awards right from the 1970 s up to the last show season. Q-13. Dose your societies also allow sale/purchase during or after show? And do you also have any experience of buying some good blood line from show or plane for buying from a show participant in future? Answer: Nearly all of our shows have sales classes, but personally I would not purchase a bird from a sales class. I have spent the last 10 years building up a stud of birds where all of the mainstream varieties are based on Frank Silva blood-lines. I visit Frank 2 to 3 times a year and talk to him at least once a week, so am able to obtain any outcrosses that I need direct from the man himself. I did however obtain birds from sales classes when I was a Beginner and Novice, in fact that is how I started with my Recessive Pied s, and today they can all be traced back to those 4 original birds bought at a show. Often the Champions are happy to put birds in sales classes to pay some expenses, and it is a cheap way for the beginner and novice to obtain a bird from good blood-lines without the expense of long journey s. Just ensure you follow good biosecurity / quarantine measures to ensure that you do not fetch problems into your aviary with sick birds. Q-14. How important is wining for any fancier and how should he/she react when get beaten, and what is you personal experience on this topic Answer: I am always pleased when a friend or club member wins. Getting beaten is something you have to learn to live with. I don t worry too much about getting beaten at a show, I think more of was I beaten by a much better bird and need to improve, or was I beaten by a bird that under another judge would have finished in a different position. Always congratulate the winning owner; you will want a similar response when you are lucky enough to win a top award. Q-15.. Have you ever participates in shows as show manager, judge, or any other member of show management team, if yes please shares your experience with us. Answer: I have judged well in excess of one hundred specialist budgerigar shows since I joined the judges panel some 20 years ago. I have also judged many cage bird society shows, including the English National Exhibition of Cage & Aviary birds with an entry of over 6,000 birds of all types as well as the Budgerigar Society World Championship Show on 3 separate occasions, the last time being November 2006 during my presidential year. I have been actively involved in the organization side of shows since I first joined the hobby, and have acted as show manager for my local budgerigar society as well as the Lancashire, Cheshire & North Wales regional show for 8 years. The 2006 Budgerigar Society World Championship

22 Show was my proudest moment leading a team of 17 judges to select our latest National Champion was a wonderful experience. Q-16. What views do you hold on this subject that at the moment there are many different Budgerigars standards are in all over the word, don t you think it shouldn t be now centralized I mean isn t possible that every society should follow one standard. For example if every society starts follows WBO or any other international organization. Then will it not give us more advantages and success in this fancy? Answer: My own view is that you can only use the basics of a standard internationally; I think that birds well over the old British standard of 8.5 inches start to create problems. If the American B.S. for example want a bigger bird, then that is fine, but if their standard were to say 9.5 inches then that size of bird would be totally out of proportion if you leave the standard to say it should also still have 7 primary flights. The bigger U.K. birds are now well over 8.5 inches but they are also showing 8, 9 and even 10 primary flights and an extended tail. Q-17 At the end of Society & Shows section if you feel any other related topic still need to discuss, and then please feel free to mention it. Otherwise please tell us Now you if are a champion breeder so what is the next challenge that you are going to plane? Answer: Problems & issues Q-1. Infertility is one of the hottest issues for every fancier may at the early stage of his hobby. So what is your opinion on that, I also want you to please explain what common causes of infertility are, and what preventative action can reduce infertility? Answer: Pairing birds that are not in breeding condition because of a calendar is one of the biggest problems, or using very young cock birds. This is usually when putting birds together for the first round to meet a ring issue date. Another big problem is the buff feathered birds that have so much feather around the vent that the sperm can not penetrate. I always remove a large patch of feathers from around the vent when I pair up my birds, I have tried plucking the feathers as I put them into the breeding cage and I have also trimmed the feathers from around the vent, the disadvantage of plucking the feather is that you need to catch up the cock and remove the feathers just before the pair start to lay the second round, the advantage to this is that you handle and check all of your adult breeding stock more frequently. Here in the UK many of the top fanciers are breeding all year round, but to do that you need lots of room and a constant supply of young hens, for 2006 we put 30 pairs together in October of 2005, took a round off those that produced chicks with 2005 rings and then used 30 cages and 90 hens to produce just over 400 youngsters by the end of the year. We have had 30 breeding cages in use throughout 2007 and have bred over 250 youngsters by August. The addition of a Multivitamin powder will help, and if you use a suitable product such as Vydex MVS30, the 30 vitamin, mineral and trace elements help improve the success rate. In the UK it is accepted that a seed and water diet is not sufficient, it is just which supplement to use. Q-2. If you found multiple infertile clutches from a pair then how do you diagnose real issues and if one of the partners diagnose infertile then what best treatment you do for this problem. And as per you knowledge and experience the high ratio of infertility appear in hens or cocks? Answer: You can test the cock much easier than you can the hen. The only way to test a hen is after she has died. Cocks store sperm near the vent, and this can be collected and tested

23 for fertility under a microscope. From personal experience many more hens are infertile than cocks, which is one reason I would never purchase an over year hen. The seller knows what she has done or not done in the nest box, but on the other hand if you purchase young maiden hens then you have no cause for complaint if they fail to breed. Q-3. Egg binding and another big issue as earlier stage of fancy, what are the ratios of egg binding in your aviary, please also tell our members causes and preventative method of egg binding? Answer: Overweight hens and hens that are not fully mature are the main reasons for egg binding. I don t think that I have had an egg bound hen for the last 20 years. Using a diet with a high oil content containing seeds such as Hemp, Rape, Nyjer, Sunflower and Linseed will help to stop egg binding. Most of these are contained in a good quality Budgie Tonic Seed so that is the easiest way to give it to your birds. If you have problems obtaining seeds, then adding some of the seeds mentioned above will be of great help. Sunflower also help improve fertility. Q-4. Please tell us some thing about excessive or chronic egg lying (when a hen is not stopping laying egg without mating with cock). Why some hens behave like this? Answer: I don t have any experience of this condition. I fly my cocks and hens together but find very few eggs in the flights. The problem seems to be more in pet birds where a hen is kept confined in a cage but fed the finest seeds and vitamin rich treats that fetch the birds into breeding condition. They may very well go on to lay eggs. I did have a hen that attacked all of her chicks when they reached the 3 4 weeks of age stage. I removed her eggs as she laid them and fostered under recessive pieds so that I could identify them. As she never had more that 1 plastic egg and 1 real egg she carried on laying and eventually produced 28 chicks in one clutch from 32 eggs laid. But that was a one off, I have tried removing eggs from my top pairs but they just lay the expected 6 8 eggs. Q-5. Hernia problem (Swelling of vent Area), after a clutch/clutches some hens appears in this condition. Can you guide our reader why some hens faces this problem, please also share your personal experience how to tackle when a hen appear in this condition and how do you treat her? Answer: Hernias and prolapsed vent are just one of the problems of cage birds. Hens that swell up or have a prolapsed vent do not lay so are useless in the breeding cage. Q-6. Feather Plucking is also a known problem and some time one the parent bird found plucking feathers of their young s. What is your experience on this? Answer: Plucking the down in the nest is not a problem, but if either adult takes the growing feathers from the chick I would split up the pair. If a parent kills a chick I would be very reluctant to allow that bird to rear further chicks. I might remove eggs to a foster if I thought the problem was caused by environmental or feeding issues. I have found that excessive doses of vitamins can make cocks aggressive towards youngsters leaving the nest. Q-7. Some time we found an injured bird with broken leg, wings or in bleeding conditions, so what is your experience of treating injured birds? Answer: The bigger the flights the more chance of problems with injuries. Night fright is a big problem, so making sure that your birds are not disturbed during the night helps reduce the problem and a small night light will also reduce the risk. Rodents, wild birds and animals as well as lights and strange noises from neighbors or passing vehicles will all create problems. A bird with one good leg or a broken or damaged wing is still able to breed, so all is not lost should you have such a problem,. Blood stained feathers are just one of the pitfalls of budgerigars. Each feather has blood flowing through it until it is fully grown. A knock of peck from another bird and you get blood. I always try and remove blood as soon as I find it, cold

24 water and a toothbrush is the easiest and simplest way, and if the problem continues, removing the damaged feather is always an option. Q-8. What are your opinion on feather duster, is it a problem or a budgerigars variety. I also read some different comment on internet about feather duster for example if any of you pair produces a feather duster its mean very soon you can also get a show winner from this par or feather duster is problem and we should diagnose and cull that bird that is carrying this problem. Please also share you personal experience. Answer: I have bred many feather dusters, in fact I have bred at least 3 during the 2007 season. I believe that they are a recessive genetic problem, although they are almost always bred from a pair with at least one parent that is very heavily buff feathered, and often when inbreeding from families with a known problem or using an outcross. I have bred special s winners in the same nest as dusters, but that is more likely to be down to the pair being expected to breed a quality bird than being influenced by the dusters sibling as I have also bred pet quality youngsters in the same nest. I have kept dusters alive by putting perches one inch from the floor and trimming around the eyes, beak and vent, but I am not sure why I do this, it just wastes a cage and my efforts as they die eventually and you don t want them to breed. I think the best policy is split up any pair that breeds a duster, and don t line or inbreed from that or any closely related birds. Sales, Value and pricing Q-1. What criteria do you use for the selection of your surpluses birds, I mean how do you grade your young/adult birds about their quality for planning either you will keep this bird or will be added in sale stock? Answer: I work on do I want that bird in my breeding team? Now that I am breeding 12 months of the year, I have young hens becoming available all year round, I have started to reduce the number of varieties that I keep so that most of the birds can be paired together. I tend to have a first sort at the nest feather stage, if the bird is one that will never make the grade then it is released to become a pet bird. I next sort at about 6 months of age. I never sell a bird between 3 months and 6 months, they look terrible and that is when you make the mistakes and sell birds you should have kept. Put them in a flight and forget about them. Some varieties such as Recessive Pieds and Lutino tend to develop very late, often during their first breeding season. You have to be extra careful with these varieties. Others such as Crest can more or less be sorted at 5 weeks of age, if the Crest is poor they can go. Q-2. At what minimum or maximum price do you normally sell one pair? And do allow buyer to select his favorite color or quality from sell stock or you just ask for specification from buyer and then you select as per their choice. Answer: I don t have a maximum price, once you get above the 200 per bird, then usually the buyer sets the price with the offer of a silly price and I usually take the money. I have turned down good prices for top quality stock but usually regret it. At the lower end, if I let my wife take them to her pet shop then we are happy to get the 15 per bird currently being charged for a pet here in the UK. I don t like selecting birds for other fanciers, I much prefer it if the fancier or his agent see the birds, agree a price, pay for them and take them with them. On the other hand I have sent many birds abroad, especially to Thailand and they have always seemed pleased with what was sent, or at least they came back for further consignments. Q-3. Budgerigar s prices are different from country to country and a fancier to fancier, but if you got a chance to implementation of a price standard what price you will decide for a fancier should expect to pay for a quality budgerigar?

25 Answer: I was always taught that you should expect to pay the value of 4 to 5 of your own birds. That means that a junior or beginner would sell 4 or 5 at auction or through the pet trade and get say 30, so that would be a realistic price to pay from a fancier the next rung up the ladder. The novice would sell 4 or 5 and receive and that would be about the current going rate for birds that a Champion was willing to sell. A visually good bird would command a higher price, and If I was trying to obtain a quality outcross from a fellow Champion, then the going rate seems to be 300 to 1,000 per bird. I have 2 very good, close and trusted friends, Eric Peake the artist who drew the current and past Budgerigar Society ideal, and World Champion Frank Silva. I would GIVE either of them any bird in my aviary. Both have been good friends since I first met them, Eric was my partner for 6 years in the late 1980 s to early 1990 s and Frank has been very generous with allowing me access to his top families almost on request. Q-4. What views do you hold on current much uncontrolled situation of these very high prices of single Budgerigars which start from 300 Euro to 1000 Euro or above? Do you still think Budgerigars fancy is still pure hobby, don t you agree with me that very high commercial factor is now Involved. Answer: I always say it is the buyer who sets the price. If I am asked 1,000 for a cock them I say yes or no. In my case it is a hobby and if I break even financially over a year on sales against costs them I am happy, but equally I know a lot of fanciers here in Europe who make more money from their birds than they do from other income such as a salary or pension. We saw the difference in 2003 when all shows in the UK were cancelled, those who made a lot of money suddenly had no income for a year, it was interesting the number who sold up entire studs between 2003 and (Dave with Ghalib Al-Nasser) Q-5. Now days buying a budgerigar from champion breeder (especially Champion fanciers) is equal or more expansive then buying a diamond necklace for you wife, so how we can still say that keeping and breeding Budgerigars is a pure hobby. So in current situation don t you think WBO and other equal organizations should work for standardizations of price and they should send standard price circulates to every budgerigar s society/clubs for their members? I believe in this way a genuine hobbyist will agree but all commercial breeders will be against of this rule. But we can easily differentiate between a hobbyist and commercial fancier. Q-6. Answer: Trying to set a standard price would never work unless both buyer and seller agree and were honest with each other. I am happy to sell all of the birds that I would put through my pet shop for 50 instead of the 8-10 per bird trade price ( 15 retail) that I currently get, and I would be quite happy to pay Frank Silva 50 for my outcross to improve my Challenge Certificate winning Spangle family, but it won t happen. I can remember paying the late Eric Lane 225 in 1982 for an Opaline Cinnamon Greygreen Cock, that was more than a month s salary, and that equates to 2,000 in today s money here in the UK. That is the same as a fancier from Pakistan paying 50 per bird. As a hobby, the fancy in Pakistan needs to make contact with a number of UK established fanciers who will supply numbers of birds at a suitable price that can then be supplied to the hobby in Pakistan. It may be that a consignment of birds needs to enter Pakistan with the prices set by demand after arrival. If