White Rumped Shama pairing brief write up

Firstly, the video is shaky and i know that... haha! And that is due to hasty deployment for camera man! But it is still my effort to video and share with people who is keen to find out how it is while Shama pair up so please don't be fussy ya!~ : P

Next, all my close friends know that i am a very lazy and lousy writer. I seriously do not know how to write in proper manner as my lines will be jumping up to down left to right! So figure it out yourself ya! Well, at least i try to use full and proper letters than "SMS" lingo :p

My way of pairing: (I wouldn't say the right way but it work for me)

- choose the right pair. This is up to the owner which they think the best to pair up or at least choose birds that is already singing out loud everyday. ( that is a tell tale sign that they are ready especially the female)

- Male into House/avairy for two days or so.. remove him after that. Reason is for him to "know" the place. ( i find it helpful if my birds already Know their house so that they know exactly where to perch once they go in rather than being disorientated which will frigthen the female.

- followed by female till the day i introduce the male to her in about a week time. Meanwhile condition her up a little more just in case.

- once you notice female is use to the "house" you may place the Male beside the her and you read their body language. ( you will see the male pose the best he can which you seldom see normally, followed by very soft songs any some dashing around the cage with "snake head" pose immediately after that)

- Female tend to have milder reaction towards male ( in my case) Unless mature female otherwise most of them will be very weary of the male's intention. If i feel that the female might freak out if i were to introduce the male at that time. I will NOT let the male in to the house on that day. I will repeat the the facing thingy a few more time till i see the female respond confidently. (she will tek tek and stand up right as you see in my video)Then i let the male bird in.... but ofcourse do it on a day that you have time observe ya! There is one thing i must highlight, should you see the female squad down flap wings that means the female is either super ready or over ready ( she might build nest and lay egg within a time so short that the male has yet to mate her)

- next thing you might see is what happen in my video. That is courtship, i admit my young GUN a bit too on the ball as i can see he try to mate her on their "first date" ! Hmmmm.... i wonder where he learn that from....

- when you see that the pair doing the the fighter jet dog fight action don't panic yet. Observe their body language. As you can see the female in the video is flirting ( playing hard to get) rather than running for her life! she is also not panting heavily as compared to if she is trying to escape ( they tend to hyper ventilate if their are freak out) that can also serve as your secondary tale sign. Thirdly, she often loss grip/loss balance/disorientated if it is unfriendly chase because she has no chance to plan where she want to fly to and where she is landing or at times you see the female cling on to the side netting but body dangling downwards. I believe that is a very clear sign the female drain out!

- As for the male, if it is a courtship he normally will stop the chase within a short time and he will perch again with a nice pose but this time round with mouth wide open panting! haha..! Another thing to take note is that for courtship the male seldom pin the female down. He will normally "dance around the female unlike the "attack" type. The attack type you will see every move he try to pin her down on the floor PLUS you can actually hear his beak snap at her which ever chance he gets near her even in mid air. Once pinned down, you will hear the cry from the female and the male actually attack her on the head. You see that happen no need to think or hesitate, get either one out of there! I will always grab the male and leave the female in the house so that she won't be traumatise by the male and by my hand again.

This is what i can offer for now. I hope it is helpful but not confusing to any of you ya !

Happy Pairing!

White Rumped Shama "Gunner"

Gunner always seems very quiet from taimong... he has a older brother that is very naughty. He is only going to finish his molt soon maybe in a months time. But my curiousity make me go against whats right to do, which is to bring him out from Ladong to chai.... All of us know that it is best to leave the molting bird alone till they finish molt. Well, i am really just too bored and curious to know what kind of bird he will turn out to be.. walah! He surprise me quiet a bit...! haha! He is not frighten at all and started singing the minute i put him on the floor...

Actually i prefer Shama that has more display while singing. Some prefer birds to have slightly lesser display so that they can last longer for competitions. I am more for own enjoyment kind of bird keeper, i also seldom go for competition as i am too lazy to bring my birds out. So, a burst of display and great songs from my birds is good enough for me ! : p

Gunner, being such a young bird he is not afraid changes in surrounding. Strong Character is shown very clearly for his very first Chai session with matured birds. Display is good for such young age and bare in mind he has yet to finish his 1st molt. As for the vocal, i just love it! So soothing to my ears : )

I believe he still has another 1-2 inch of tail to grow, if that happens, to me i found the type of bird i am looking for for now. And i know there is much more from him as he grow up with more challenging skill!

Thanks for reading guys!

White Rumped Shama 2012

Paired him with a normal tail naughty female and has produce two very naughty sons and a few daughters... kinda fun to watch the one kind attitude offsprings!

I will be letting go all of them males/females... interested kakis just give me a call at 93827850

Gutsy's Son "Badboy"

He has finish his molt now... although this molt wasn't good to me but better then nothing i guess : )
Friend who is close to me know i am constantly facing molt issue at home as i have too many singing bird around which will trigger half way molt bird to start challenging each other that will cause bad molt or shorter tail... : ( Below is some Picture of badboy if see carefully one can tell the tip of his tail slanted.

Son of Gutsy n Pretty Gal "Shadow"

I have been waiting for him to molt but till date only the body is half complete and tail still refuse to drop... Really can't wait to see how he turn out to be !

White Rumped Shama-badboy

Badboy escape today! Luckily he is is afraid of height and U turn back into the house.. :p
Below is a video taken just after he is being lured into a bird cage.

White Rumped Shama- knight's chick 2

This is  the 1st male chick from Knight's 1st clutch for year 2012, this year my breeding result has not been very satifying for myself.

Firstly, i face many egg throwing issue mainly due to high tension bcos there more adult birds singing and challenging in my house now adays. Secondly, more infertile eggs also due to tension as the pair get too distracted or too engross in "challenge off" others in the house. And Third is, when you have so much birdie happening at home or your "breeding area" the next thing that will be greatly affected is the Molting Birds!

I am facing a weird problem which i did not encounter last year. That is most of my Taimong molted the body but it stop for a while before the tail drop and continue molting. Initially i thought it might be due to food/nutritions, lack of bath, deworming, or even genes etc... Let me explain one at a time so that some new Shama owner might benefit from this.
1, food n nutrition-
a, i rule out the possibility of lack of "food or nutrition" by judging the birds breast area, shine on coat, activity/behaviour and appitite. So if the bird is under fed, the breast are should be pointy instead of round, flat or you can say a "U"rather than a "V" shape.
b,The bird will look tired at all time, coat will be dull and dry also if lack of nutrition.


2, lack of bath-
I don't think it is lack of bath bcos my birds coat is moist and shiney.
a, For molting birds they need more bathing as the water helps to keep the feather moist and it also enable to feathers to emerge better as moisture help to soften the" shield".(looks like a straw tube) that is covering the feather before they emerge.
b, From my observation(i might be wrong) i feel that especially for their long tail. Insufficent moisture/ fish oil will cause the tail to be too dry to have a flat soft and shiny tail. For example if lacking, it will be dry and cause the tail to have a upward "u" curve or a wavey side  which result in a more stiff/uneven tail. Tail like this you can tell it is very dry from naked eye. You will need to combine both nutrition and bathing to try to achieve a good molt. PLUS! Room tempreture, moisture and ofcourse half cover the cage cloth as the cloth not only prevent your bird from seeing other and start challenge it also help to prevent constant strong wind blowing direct at them at will dry up the new moist feather to form a proper shape...

3, dewormng
Deworming a molting bird might sometime cause problem. But again i did not deworm the taimong from second clutch onwards and yet they are having the same problem.

4,genes??
No, not at all!
Why no, very simple i have many chicks from totally different parent but they are having the so call same "problem"..

Now, my answer to my problem which i think it is highest possibility is due to Tension in the house AGAIN! Yes i am proud that my Taimong can Chai at the age of four months old or so :p But it also means that they are not relax enough to go into full molt! From the video above, this four months old Taimong actually still on its taimong tail. Yes, the tail has yet to drop since the day it is out of the egg! Look at how agressive he is now, instead of being a happy go lucky young chap he is behaving like an adult chai-ing already. Good as in the character is very strong and it shows that their bloodline is very confident type. But bad in the way that in my house i will constantly be facing chick that form kicks in too fast till they are unable to go into a full molt peacefully. I hope my findings might be of help to anyone that is facing this similar problem and i guess the only way to solve it is to either create a quite room or for me bring my molting birds to somewhere else :'((((