What strange mutation is this???

[Shezbug]

Hey Shezbug, pics of your macaw, pls!
You said to ask so I did!

Lol I honestly didn’t say it or put it there… it just appeared one day to let me know I didn’t share enough pics of Burt

Burt with his stolen items of clothing and a compact emergency bag he found in a drawer and claimed.

 

[Greylady1966]

He looks innocent to me! I don't think he stold anything, you just misplaced them and Burt found them for you. what a little helper.

 

[HemlokHex]

Awww @Shezbug he is beautiful!
Lol the system did it (re pics). Good excuse! Macaws are super expensive here in Oz. Eventually I want to breed hybrids. Hahns/sun macawnures and harlequin and Catalina macaws. But the setup costs here are crazy. A pair of hyacinths was stolen here last year, they got them back. They were valued at 150k AUD. We have no importation of birds here at all. What's here is it. To set up breeding macawnures will be a few k per pair not including aviaries.
Minis are a good size for the house, too. I love training critters, so I'm looking forward to these 2 (if they pair) having bubbies.
Apollo stepped up today (second training session). He is eminently bribable
Still no-one has identified the feather mutation or seen it before and I've contacted a few breeders.

 

[Sparkles99]

I think a breeder's group could definitely help you. When you find out, please let us know too!

Glad they got their hyacinths back. People who steal the living are the worst.

 

[HemlokHex]

I think a breeder's group could definitely help you. When you find out, please let us know too!

Glad they got their hyacinths back. People who steal the living are the worst.

Yes, there's a local bird show coming up. I might tote him along and see wassup. I'll post some pics of feathers when I can nab one.
Someone on Instagram said oh yeah, it's a thing that's been seen before, but radio silence when I asked for more info lol

 

[Shezbug]

Awww @Shezbug he is beautiful!
Lol the system did it (re pics). Good excuse! Macaws are super expensive here in Oz. Eventually I want to breed hybrids. Hahns/sun macawnures and harlequin and Catalina macaws. But the setup costs here are crazy. A pair of hyacinths was stolen here last year, they got them back. They were valued at 150k AUD. We have no importation of birds here at all. What's here is it. To set up breeding macawnures will be a few k per pair not including aviaries.
Minis are a good size for the house, too. I love training critters, so I'm looking forward to these 2 (if they pair) having bubbies.
Apollo stepped up today (second training session). He is eminently bribable
Still no-one has identified the feather mutation or seen it before and I've contacted a few breeders.

Not necessarily totally true but very close and unless you’re a zoo or someone with lots of money time and patience it’s not really achievable.
Money money money….
If you look further into the import rules some birds can actually still be brought in but it is nearly impossible and certainly is impossible for main stream people or those wanting to bring their pets in - it is very very difficult to find the information needed, terribly difficult to meet all requirements and it’s extremely expensive- the last I heard it was over 60k to import one bird and that wasn’t including the quarantine time at a government run facility and all the necessary paperwork, vet checks and disease clearances- there’s also no guarantee you’ll get the bird at the end of the ordeal which kind of makes the whole thing such a big gamble that it would deter most normal people from attempting to import.

I spoke to a man a few years back who had imported Green wing macs a few years before I spoke to him, he was happy to pay the money as he wasn’t keen on any breeding stock we had available at the time and he supplied many top breeders with good healthy macaws that were bred properly by people who were all about keeping the breeding lines strong and untainted- he said he’d done it a few times in his life time.

 

[HemlokHex]

Not necessarily totally true but very close and unless you’re a zoo or someone with lots of money time and patience it’s not really achievable.
Money money money….
If you look further into the import rules some birds can actually still be brought in but it is nearly impossible and certainly is impossible for main stream people or those wanting to bring their pets in - it is very very difficult to find the information needed, terribly difficult to meet all requirements and it’s extremely expensive- the last I heard it was over 60k to import one bird and that wasn’t including the quarantine time at a government run facility and all the necessary paperwork, vet checks and disease clearances- there’s also no guarantee you’ll get the bird at the end of the ordeal which kind of makes the whole thing such a big gamble that it would deter most normal people from attempting to import.

I spoke to a man a few years back who had imported Green wing macs a few years before I spoke to him, he was happy to pay the money as he wasn’t keen on any breeding stock we had available at the time and he supplied many top breeders with good healthy macaws that were bred properly by people who were all about keeping the breeding lines strong and untainted- he said he’d done it a few times in his life time.

Oh nice. Lucky him!
Yes, close to a full ban at the end of the day, but glad you clarified it.
I expected zoos probably could, under strict quarantine conditions, but us regular people..... :/ no chance!
Thanks for the extra detail on it, though. Money.... money.... money changes everything!

 

[HemlokHex]

Apollo now dives onto my hand... clearly very millet-motivated

 

[HemlokHex]

A couple of new pics of Apollo preening. You can clearly see the long silky feathers. Next thing to work out is if every plumage feather has a longer tail, or if every third or fourth feather is a completely different long skinny shape than the rest.

 

[HemlokHex]

I separated the new pair from my older olive today, as they had a fight over food and the new boy nipped Archimedes a few times. He was very flighty and worried everytime Apollo moved, so he is now in a new apartment next door, and is much more relaxed and happy. I should have separated them from the get go :/
The new pair are now acting all lovey dovey, dancing, preening and kissy kissy. So their marriage might work out after all!
Some pics of poor Arki's bites ~ the one on his head is a bit swollen and his eye has opened back up after looking a bit sore yesterday. He had a bath and is singing and happy in his new cage.

 

[Fergus Mom]

All these posts really crack me up about the mutations, etc. I have always said it sounds SO Greek to me, when people begin talking about colors, and mutations.
Therefore, to me it sounds something like -
My Budgie is a marshmallow fillow fallow with double factor blingy spangly violet cinnamon single factor rainbow pied! I swear, it is like I am back in Algebra class without a clue!!!

In any case - your budgies are BEAUTIMOUS! I can know THAT much anyhow!

 

[HemlokHex]

All these posts really crack me up about the mutations, etc. I have always said it sounds SO Greek to me, when people begin talking about colors, and mutations.
Therefore, to me it sounds something like -
My Budgie is a marshmallow fillow fallow with double factor blingy spangly violet cinnamon single factor rainbow pied! I swear, it is like I am back in Algebra class without a clue!!!

In any case - your budgies are BEAUTIMOUS! I can know THAT much anyhow!

Lol! Conure colours crack me up, too. Cinnamon, pineapple.... they all sound like donut flavors to me

And thank you, I think they are adorable. But I am terribly biased

Breeder messaged me earlier when I told her the spangle hen has no white iris ring... just those big button baby eyes. Apparently her brother is the same. Maybe she has recessive pied in her background somewhere...?

 

[DannyT]

A couple of new pics of Apollo preening. You can clearly see the long silky feathers. Next thing to work out is if every plumage feather has a longer tail, or if every third or fourth feather is a completely different long skinny shape than the rest.

Beautiful colours! Hope you find out Apollo's mutation soon

 

[Scorpi0]

All these posts really crack me up about the mutations, etc. I have always said it sounds SO Greek to me, when people begin talking about colors, and mutations.
Therefore, to me it sounds something like -
My Budgie is a marshmallow fillow fallow with double factor blingy spangly violet cinnamon single factor rainbow pied! I swear, it is like I am back in Algebra class without a clue!!!

In any case - your budgies are BEAUTIMOUS! I can know THAT much anyhow!

I have 5 budgies and all I know is that they are blue, green, white, gray, and yellow

 

[HemlokHex]

Hi again folks, I finally found some moulted feathers!
So... the plot thickens. First 2 I found are both shapes I've not seen on a budgie. Not sure if the tip on one is damaged, or if the tip is modified (missing) and therefore has a vee tip. When I scrutinize pics of Apollo, this seems possible.
The other feather is very long and thin, which is what I was expecting.
Finally today, I found a small head feather with the thicker tail. Seems to be 5 or 6 segments stuck together that creates the thicker textured look on the ends of some feathers.
Will update when I find more!

 

[HemlokHex]

I'll try later to load the vee feather. Damn pics won't upload ugh

 

[HemlokHex]

More pics of shed Apollo feathers. It appears the tips of body feathers have 3-5 thicker quill segments that sit close together, giving him the odd texture. I can't wait to see rump feathers which is where his feathers are really iridescent with a thicker tip. They seem to be quite random.
Every feather has an odd tip, some are missing the terminal quills (idk what else to call them), some have 3 or 5 thicker ones.

 

[HemlokHex]

I crawled through much shed seed and dried grass and bits of brocolli for these before vacuuming and using the amazing bissel wet carpet scrubber on the parrotshizz lol
Oh nice autoshizz edit, AA!

 

[HemlokHex]

If you zoom in on the left side feather which is in focus, you can see branching in the feather towards the tip of terminal quills.

 

[SumitaSinh]

I don't know what mutation is this, but it's an amazing piece of nature's creation.