I was mailing with Peter van Amelsvoort recently and
the question feather problems came up again. To my
opinion its one of the hardest things to eliminate
from the hobby. The reason is that complete birds
can give you birds with feather problems and birds
that show it might not give it , this makes it very
hard to eliminate through selection. A way to avoid
part of the feather problems (FP) is to house the
birds in small flight or cages all year so they don
t have to do much effort to fly and get to their food.
In my opinion this would make the birds very weak
eventualy. The other way of selection is by having
the birds in a big flight with the food up high ,
this would be a selection of the strongest birds that
can fly and they will eventually develop strong and
flexible wing feathers and a good muscular chest,
that will build up the body, this selection will only
work in the first 8 to 12 months of the birds life
after that they will spend 6 months or more in a convined
breedin cage. On top of that our best birds or the
birds with the best features cannot fly and it will
be very hard to step away from using them.
There could be another way by selecting different
feather growth on different parts of the body ie.
long and wide feathers on the head and neck area and
shorter feathers on the body so also wings and tails.
This would make the feathers on the body stronger.
My question: Do you think its possible to grow different
feathers on different parts of the one bird? I did
not visit any shows this year but I thought I saw
some evidence on pictures of some birds!
I
do agree, that feather problems became maybe the biggest
problem in the budgie hobby. i don't know, whether
canary or pigeons breeders are strungelling with the
same problem or not, but as far as i know, i don't
think so.
if you're seriously breeding with dogs, cats, cows
or many other animals too, all the adult "fathers
and mothers" have to be checked before starting
them to use. if the have any kind of problem - visually
or even maybe geneticly in the pedigree - they are
not allowed for reproduction!!! and those rules are
quit strict! i think that might be the only way to
get ride of that problem. i also know, that most breeders
do not want to hear this and think that's silly. but
that might be the hard way we have to take in the
future... well, we'll see. selection is anyway the
only possibility how you can influence your stud.
i think many breeders do not know, which birds they
absolutly have to keep and which ones to better would
sell. or try to bring in outcross blood, carrying
the feathers you're looking for, what's also not to
easy, because where can you find those birds and who
can afford to let them go...?i think most studs are
bred much to close and then we are suprised if fp
are coming! we also do not have kids with our sisters
or parents, do we???
it's not a secret that i personally try to bring in
every year about 10 bird with some new blood. mainly
i try to get birds that comes already from my own
blood and are just a little bit different. like this,
i get good results usually and also do not know any
problems with fertility at all.anyway i personally
also work with birds that are not complete, like missing
tails or wind feathers. but for many years, i do not
work with birds showing a zyst!!! when i have 12 chicks
from a couple without any problem at all and only
the 2 very best ones are not complete,i often go on
and breed with them too. so normally none of their
offspring shows any kind of f p.but if i have a super
cock -i my stud, they are maily cocks showing that
problem- that is not complet and his youngsters are
also having f p, i usually stop breeding with that
bird and also with his youngsters or even with the
whole line. that's how you can handle it, but of course
you still breed some birds with f p.something else
is to breed with birds that were (or still are) french
moulter. the very best ones, i even put together and
bred some outstandig super birds in the past. so was
the grandfather of my super spangles i used to have
in the late 90ies, a darkgreen cock without any wings
or tail feathers at all, but showing super head quality.
he only bred 3 chicks before dying, but none of them
showed any signs of f p and produced my many super
birds later.if a beginners is asking me how to start
in the hobby, i always tell them not to buy the top
birds showing f p , because the risk is too big that
it comes back. then they are complaining, that most
of the better birds that they can get with good head
quality, are having f p ...! but i still think it's
better to take a complete bird from a top couple and
to go on with him, even if it's certainly to longer
way.i'm happy to say that none of my best birds (except
one...) is showing any kind of f p so far, but that
might arrive in the second or third year.i don't think,
that feeding them upstairs or downstairs makes a difference.
of corse food is very important and the fundament
of a winner stud.i absolutly dont like studs with
just small flights like 2m x 1m x 1m !!! their owners
are always saying, that their birds do not want to
fly, what's 100%ly not true! all birds want to fly,
but probably they simply can't anymore!!! never forget
how beautiful it's to see them in nature and how perfect
they are flying their. i just saw hundreds of wild
ones flying around last autom in barcelona. something
went wrong if most of the budgies are just sitting
on the floor. we are breeding budgies, not chicken...!somehow
we have to find to balance between long feathers in
the head and shorter and stronger feathers on the
body and on the wings too. that will be, in my opinion,
the bird that will win in the future. and to get there,
is the big challence for everybody.
jos, i hope i could explain my opinion a little bit
and that might help you, even if my english is not
good enough.
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