I call him Angry Bird

This batch of chicks is something new and i do not know what to expect. Their father now 1st molt 9.2" mother also 1st molt 6.4" how long will they be in future is what me and my kakis keen to know.

To me so long they are living things there will be difference even if they come from same parent. We can only hope for the best and pray that they turn out to be what we imagined/guess the pairing could produce.

The other thing i want to bring up is;

Competition fairness to Long tail and Standard tail shama.

Although i am not into birds Competition but i do get lots of discussion about it as many of my kakis is into it.

I would like to suggest that maybe competition organiser could either put the two types of birds into two Category lets say Long vs Long, Standard vs Standard. Reason is both shama have similar body frame but different in tail lenght, for the same amount of body/rump muscle if put together with the same amount of duration to compete the one with almost double the tail lenght will never out last the standard tail lenght bird unless that Long tail shama is super bird or infact crazy. Haha...! And also some organiser now a days do give point to appearance, which in this way the Standard tail shama owner might feel the pinch even if the organiser says tail lenght does not affect their judgement.

What i am trying to say is that in general the Longer tail guy would need double the effort to flick its tail compared to his standard tail competitor. If disagree, one can always try it out themself at home by using his wrist power to flick a 5 feet broom stick vs flicking a cloths hanger bamboo you will know what i mean... Hee hee!

Or the other way to shorten the competing duration meeting half cause not every Competition we can have sufficient volume of birds to participate.

I hope that one day competition can be that way, which in general will also reduce many unnessary complain about the advantage or disadvantage be it Long genes or Standard genes.

Just my thoughts no offence...

How words can mean the other round.

"No matter how much literature you read or how well you can write, nothing beats hand-on experience."

Lately, someone comment about this sentence of words i put on everywhere in my life. He said this sentence of words is arrogant or self centered or something to this meaning.

Actually i don't have(not comfortable) to explain this to anyone as i equally thinks that others should not make judgement on anyone base on how they interpret the meaning of this. Mutual respect should be applied regardless of any situations.

In order to prevent further misinterpration. I will review the story of how this sentence come to my life and it shall stay with me as it means a lot to me.

I did not recieve high education due to poverty at that time. My highest education is secondary one and this is constantly disturbing me whenever i need to write something especially when i try to describe certain thing but i just couldn't get the right words to express myself. Therefore often i have to make do with other words that is close to that meaning but still short of what i actually try to express or even at times it leads to different meaning.

Ever since i started this Blog, my frustration become even more intense. I would love to write in proper form, more informative and to use the proper words proper terms to clearer express the meaning. I envy those who can write very well with nice flows but i can't even though i try very hard. Only i myself can tell how disapointing and helpless it is when you are blind with words.

Many times i have to call and ask my wife Clara how to spell and which is the better or proper words to use and it is indeed frustrating for me. I still remember very clearly there is once i got so up sad that i literaly give up on myself as in writing anymore blog. I complain to her that i felt lousy about myself not being able to express myself properly. That night i did not sleep well, i sigh quite a bit too. (i think her sleep is disturb by me too) The next day afternoon i recieve a message from Clara

"No matter how much literature you read or how well you can write, nothing beats hand-on experience."

I call her immediately and ask : whats that? She told me: not everyone has strenght in every field. You might be weak in words you might not have high educations but you are a fast learner and you are good with your hands, you belongs to the hands on type of person and that is your strenght so i created this sentence just for you !

I must say i am touch with what she says, Her words of encouragement has enlighten me and to focus on what i do best and thrive rather than to cry over spilled milk. From then on i felt more balance mentally and happier ofcourse! This is why since then i place this sentence on almost every things i can key it in. And that is how this sentence is important to me and how it come about.

I sincerely hope that everbody think about things in a more open minded and kind manner. Please do not prejudge anything without finding out the actual facts as some times things can actually be so simple and harmless you might not know.

I post this is because i am sad to hear that my wife's kind encouragement words to me has been regarded as bad meaning. Therefore i think although this is not shama related but still i will post this up in my blog for good.

Thanks for reading!
Alan

Blue first outing to Lim Chu Kang

His molt should have complete by now. Started to have a little bit of form but he is not use to being around human crowds and travelling around.

Although lazy but i have to bring him out for him to get use to it. While he is travelling in the van he sub song a bit which i am glad for first outing. When i reach the farm i actually expect to see a very stressful bird when i open cage cloth but he was actually doing pretty well unlike what i expected. He settle down within seconds and start singing as soon as he hear the nice melody from the wild, play cage and i can tell he is enjoying himself very much too!

Another thing i notice about him is that his stamina seems pretty good. He sings he play cage plus the first outing stress, all these did not make him open beak at all.

As i am very particular about character and display. Birds i choose if possible best would be birds that don't open beak easily. To me these birds don't perform very long and does not look good if they constantly open their beak and pant.

Putting some first moult shama for sale.

Selling them as "pet Quality" as they did not molt to their full potential and i can't possibly wait till second molt. So they will be sold as it is basis. Currently, their tail lenght is between about 9" to 10" therefore by third molt should be 11" or more. They are price at sgd $3000 onwards, kindly contact me at 93827850.

Blue Factor

I just name him today. He is now going through his second molt. The reason i call him blue is because he did not get much cod liver oil maybe just twice so far in two months but his head to tail has very nice blue shine. Many of us still confuse till today what is really needed or right to give to our birds during molt. I must say me too ! Haha..! I am just being honest :p

Blue is always in my kitchen toilet i can't really see his condition so far into molt but i can see and his soft curvey tail. Today i can't resist anymore i lure him out to have a short session of chai fun! Under a bit of sun shine i am like wow! Blue blue leh ! Haha..! So naming him is easy in this case !
I hope i get more of these quality in future wish me luck ya!

Thanks in advance!

About Birds Competition

Been sometime I enter my birds for Competition. When I just started I was quite keen in it but after some time I lost interest. Although many advise me that I should do so to test the quality of my birds. But i always tell them i have my own sets of measurement in my mind which is different from Competition standard.

Please don't get me wrong here... It is not that my birds are so great till I don't need to prove anything. I been to four or five competition before I take a break from it. From it I learn a lot I seen many great shamas I also see many problem and lots of healthy and unhealthy criticism too.

I will try to explain more in detail if my broken English allows me. So just read for fun ya! Don't think too much into it as i am just writing as thoughts flows.

After attending those few Competition what I learn most is what kind of birds has better chance to win which i feel it is quite different from what i prefer. From what what i see i realise that in Singapore our competition standard focus quite a fair bit on endurance. I am not saying it is wrong in anyways but having a different point of views.

If i am not wrong, the whole Competitions duration is about 2hours. I feel it is a bit too long in the sense that maybe the actual interesting performance from the birds is actually the first 45mins to an hour the rest of the timing is only meant to stand and sing.

Personally, i only enjoy active, swift n nice display and long melodies song type of shama. I prefer them to go around the cage flicking and flashing their tails plus some wings display at the same time. Not the stand singing type. What i meant by stand singer is flick tail once or twice sing two three notes and stay in one position all the time. This is no fun to watch for many of us but don't forget this are the the birds that is able to last for hours! Haha...! So for those birds that showed us wonderful display, swift cage play, stretching all muscle to give us the best posture and bursting at the top of their voice with beautiful songs would be drain out by then. Then how? How about the next one hour? Frankly, i do not think Shama is by nature create to show that kind of aggression in the wild for such prolonged hours. Did we extend the competition time for human satisfaction? Haha...

This could be one of the reason why I loss interest in competition because I do not think i have yet to own the Shama which I think is able to perform in their best for two hour throughout. Haha...!

So I can only choose to chai my birds at home just for my own weird standard and satisfaction for now. :p

My Shama for year 2013

First of all,

I must say Thank You to those who still checking out my blog !

I hope my limited knowledge does help in anyway... My PC is down for quite some time and i was too lazy to sent it to its Doctor. I have check the shama club forum today, i tried login to reply to some Shama kakis comment but i couldn't because the Solve Media "Letters" is a little too weird for me to key in the right words! At least 50 tries so i give up trying... haha!

I shall use my Blog to "so call" reply to Bro Cyberboyz1010 and Maverick, i hope you guys don't mind ya! Ok Bro cyberboyz1010, Quote for forum:

" Alan should be very busy now, pairing up the best combination shama pair to produce the best possible offspring".

I am always trying to pair up what i think it is the best but we will not know untill 8-10 months later . Well some time the so call best pair might not produce the best chick, so we try our luck ! hee hee...!
But now i know very well that one of my bird "Knight" is able to produce some impressive chicks. I attach a youtube link below: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_U83Z0J6So this guy(AP131) he is in Penang now own by my close friend Mr Ooi. He just completed his first molt about 6weeks ago, Ooi entered him for a small competition over the weekend. Directly from ladung to Competition ground without training and chai prior to the day.. haha, that is what he says :p Anyway, to our surprise he come in right behind Ooi's 8.5" second time Champion bird snapping up the Second place. :p My friend happy like crazy now! haha!

The other one, older brother of AP131which is own by Mr Andrew Tan has also taken twice 4th place in Singapore Competition. So all in all they are from Knight and both son has proven their courage to challenge much older birds to work their way to top 5 below a year old.

Mr Andrew's other bird which is bred by me also bring back 5th place twice, plus another bird which i do not know own by who now got 9th placing SCS Competition last year and I myself bring my poor Howitzer which is breeding halfway for 159 Competition, my soft legged son (too much mating) tried his best and bring a small little cup for me also ! hee hee...!

I tell myself as a newbie, i am considered very lucky to be more or less on the right tract so far. Again Thank You cyberboyz!

Hi Maverick,

Quote: "I saw some pics from Alan Pang's website (http://whiterumpshamacollections.blogspot.sg/?m=1nd) and got a very good idea what a good tai mong looks like. Will use that mental image everytime I look at tai mongs from now on."

Thank You for having faith in my Standard of Choosing Taimong.
But i choose by feel so not very accurate ya!

Seriously, i believe in getting shama from good source or well know breeders like DDs. By looking at his Taimong collection it enables me to tell the difference among qualities. In general, i choose taimong that is one kind attitude. Bright, active, move alot, stand proud, good head, neck lenght, long body, long and tall legs, flick tail min 3 times each time, tek tek loud better still if you see him chase away other taimong next to him if there is more than one in the ladung.

To me it is always the Character come first. Many of us know that it is almost impossible to get a bird that carries all the good characteristic that we want. So at times we have to make do with something near to it. You have to ask yourself what is the most important thing in a good bird? haha! well, for me a bird with a very strong character can satisfy me and cover up the other lacking things :p so, you decide what is important to you.

Lastly, this year i have bred about 80 chicks in total. But females take up 60% of the populations so it did not leave me with much males to satifies my greed of chance to get find super bird : ( I have stop most of my breeding pairs now except Knight as he just completed his molt 3months back. I paired him with one of my long genes fierce female so i  shall wait and see if he can breed well this year. So far i already some Taimong which completed their molt, althought i am facing a uphill task keeping my house peaceful enough for molting i still manage to get some that molted well. haha! With a lot of them molted badly too! I have a few of them that has super strong character, those are the ones with the most molting issue! chopstick tail, Jammed tail you name it i have it! Still i will keep them and wait for their second molt in six month time maybe i might send them to molt else where by then.

By the way sorry for my Blog MIA and I also did not have the time to take photo this year due to tight timing with so many Kids with wings and a chubby son of mine. I will upload videos to my youtube account under Qazpang3 if you guys interested to browse throught ya!

Advance notice for Shama Taimong coming up for sale.

For year 2013 I intend to let go a number of chicks only keeping the minimum for myself.

I breed Shama for two reasons, one is to pass down the line of my favorite birds just in case anything bad happen. Second is of course being greedy hoping to get something even better than what I already have!

So right now most of the chicks is still under seven weeks old therefore I can't really tell much about tail length, structure and character. My intention here is to put up early notice so that keen Shama friends can start planning if they intend to add another Shama to their collections. They should be ready in two-three weeks.

I believe most friends who know my birds won't be too concern about the structure, character and songs, can't be too bad lah !!! Haha...! Anyway I guess what matters most is the potential tail length before you guys consider the rest of the credentials right?!

Ok, first of all I would like to briefly share how do I judge or guess the potential tail length from an captive bred long genes Shama taimong. Here I am going to use a very conservative approach to gauge tail length. For example: if I were to look at a Captive bred taimong and his tail has stop at 5" I will say most probably his first molt tail will be between 9"-10" conservatively 9" I would say. Therefore by second molt possibly 9.7" and third molt will be around 10.5". (Calculation guide= taimong tail -0.5" x 2 = est first molt tail length) whereas if the taimong first molt exceed 10" the subsequent increment will be around 1" to 1.5" depending on individual bird.

Like I said conservative approach and calculation. Quite often I see birds that grow tail longer than what I estimated. But of course you do have some below but very little. Special case if the bird landed in the inexperience owner who don't really know how to take care, the shortage can be as much as 3" ! I ever see before 14" after molt left 11" only.

Long genes Shama is some how different compared to the normal tail Shama, they need much more goodies during molt unlike normal tail type which can molt nicely even purely on dry pellets. So if you want to keep the graceful long long tail Shama you got to deal with longer bills too!

Taimong price will be between Sgd 4000 - 6000.



I understand that some might be worried what if the 1st molt tail length is way too short? I have yet to come across my taimong any shorter than 9" and I will be providing replacement should the taimong tail molted nicely but way below expectations(2" or more).


Keen parties please kindly leave a message here or you may also call me at 93827850 no SMS please...

Thanks for reading!

Alan Pang

Incubating and Handfeeding

For those who is facing egg throwing or chick killing issue.

As Breeder we often have precious eggs or chicks wasted due to unstable pairs. The more precious it is the more it haapen right???

Now to cut my story short i will go straight to the point. Please bare in mind that different country might it some adjustment, i am sharing what i do in Singapore which is more humid.

Incubation.

Incubating period 10-12 days.
Tempreture best at 37.4 celcius.
Humidity 80-90% all the way.
Turn the egg 5 times per day for appox 8 days, do not turn 2-3 days before hatch.
(if you can't remember date, just stop turning when it is total darkness inside when candled)

Troubleshoot.

Due to Temp or Humidity or for some reason you have chick crack through but did not emerge and died in shell?

Normal case once they crack the shell they should be out within 4 hours in my case. Although some might take a longer time you really won't know if they are the special ones who will still emerge without help.

What i normally do is:

I will observe the progress up till six hours at max.
Should you see healthy progress ( crack line extend) leave it.
But if it is still that tiny hole without further extending the crack line since four hours ago, i will then asisst to crack along and slightly above the air sac membrane.
so that i still can keep the chick alive inside the membrane just incase misjudgement.

Speculation of Breeders breeding with my female.

Hi to Everyone,

Yesterday i was told that someone "bought" a Shama Taimong at value of  S$1.2k
The breeder claimed that his male is 13" and female is from me. He also claimed that he and me is very close... selling his female bird at S$5k for 5" bird if i am not wrong.

I want to make it clear that there is only three very close friend of mine have my Long genes bloodline female(those that capable of producing 13" bird) and two others with first generation long genes females. Before that i did clear some normal tail wild bloodline to a breeder. Those are the birds i first tried breeding in my first year.

I do not or have not sell any of my thorough bred long genes to anyone yet. Maybe i will not after this issue arise...

If anyone come across such claim please feel free to clarify with me (alanpang75@yahoo.com.sg)before commiting to any deals. I hope no more innocents buyer get themself into something like that from now on.

Regards!
Alan Pang

What i am looking for in Shama breeding program

This is Howitzer.
He is born in early 2012,  he has a brother "Gunner" and a Sister. They are the only three bird from one of my breeding pair...since about three months old i know i got myself something good as to how good i can't be sure at that time. Now i know they are indeed pretty good!

In to the main topic, both Howitzer and Gunner has or comes near to the first crucial requirement of what i am looking for in Shama. The Character.

Character is very important when it comes to birds like Shama, Magpie, China thrush etc...
Only with strong character, the rest of the requirements will then fall into place.

For example Singing,
Many of us will know the birds sing much lesser or don't sing when there is no form. Some birds with with softer character won't put in their best effort to sing even when their form is there.  Whereas birds with strong character gain their form faster after moult and they will sing the whole day even more aggressive singing if being challenged by another bird.

Display,
With that kind of character in them, ofcourse they will be swift, bright and active. the highly driven testosterone bird will want to win the battle by displaying more action.

Structure,
Although structure depends on genes but even if the bird's structure is not tip top with their activeness their muscle will all be tone up. It make the bird look slim and fit and coupled with the action of display, proud pose and behaviour it will cover most of his flaws..

So to me the Character should be the main important factor when it comes to choice of breeding stud. In years to come i hope i improve my bird quality a little bit each year starting from Howitzer and Gunner! hee hee....!