Turqs have fledged

Both turq chicks left the nest box yesterday evening. They are very flighty, so I haven't got a good look at them yet.  The green one is a cock as he is already showing red on the wings.  I'm assuming the yellow is a hen as it has no red on the wing.  Both have red bellies.  I sort of expected the cock to have a full red front (chest and belly), but maybe the red chest only comes at first moult?

Not long now...turqs

Not long now and the turq chicks will leave the nest box.  The green one can be identified as a cock as it's already showing a hint of the red wing bar.  No more having to check under the wing and getting it wrong....splendids!

Barney has died

Barney, the best splendid parakeet I've ever had as died.  The leg problem, which I think was cancer got very bad towards the end...rapid growth of tumors...and eventually killed him. Apart from the last two days he didn't appear to be in too much pain and still managed the odd song.  He was only 3 years old and was hatched in my own aviary.  His mother died after hatching and with his brother and two sisters was fostered to a pair of bourkes parakeets.  He has been one of the few splendids that I've kept that has bred consistently, apart from when he took ill and lost the lutino chicks. He will be sadly missed and I think his lost will be the final decider for me to give up my remaining splendids.

Some photo's.....

The one above shows Barney a few days fledged

And finally just type in Splendid Grass parakeet in google, the first thing that comes up is a Youtube video...it's Barney singing when he was in his prime.....over 31000 hits!!

Yellow turq chick

Look at these two little beauties!
Nice surprise to get a yellow.  Rudolph must be split for yellow, which I didn't know.

Yellow is a autosomal recessive mutation so both cocks and hens can be split for it.  Now as goldie is yellow the normal green chick will therefore be split for yellow.  Goldie is also opaline, which reduces the melanins (dark stuff) and increases the psittacins (yellow stuff).  In a green bird, opaline gives a patchy light green and greeny-yellow bird.  Opaline in a yellow bird gives the 'golden' yellow.  Opaline also increases the distribution of red pigments and by selective breeding has produced redder birds.

Rudolph                                                                         Goldie

Goldie and Rudolph are both red fronted , which again is the result of selective breeding rather than a true colour mutation. Normally hens only get a red belly, but when combined with opaline as in Goldy's case, the hens also get a full red front like the red-fronted males.

Opaline is a sex-linked mutation and it is possible that Rudolph is split for this also. It's going to be interesting to see how much red the chicks inherit.

Turq chicks

The two two turq chicks are just opening their eyes. They are being well fed by both parents and quite noisy.

Another loss

You will have noticed that the nest box cam has been down for the past few days, that's because Marge's chick has died. I'm partly to blame, as I wrongly assumed Marge was feeding the chick properly, it looked like she was on camera. However, I found the chick in a desperately bad way and in the end it was to weak to be hand fed. The chick died in my hand.
I should have removed this chick as soon as I realised that Barney was not helping with the feeding. It's normally for the male to do the majority of the feeding when the chick is a couple of weeks old. Barney's foot problem is getting worse and has obviously been a big factor in his lack of interest. Up till this year he has always been very diligent parent. It's typical of my luck with splendids, that the year I get him (a split lutino) to breed with a lutino hen, this happens.
This year was going to be decision time for the splendids; as to whether I was going to continue keeping them. The fact is, my breeding success with splendids has varied from average to disastrous, particularly after I got obsessed with trying to breed lutinos. That's why I got the bourkes and turquoisines to see if I would have better luck with them.....
The turqs have two chicks....the other four eggs were all infertile.
Both pairs of bourkes are now on eggs.