Breeding Trouble shooting

Year 2012 is pretty great for me in some ways.

The good part is that i got a few outstanding new fellow added to my Shama platoon.
Great display, Character fierce, structure, some has nice curvey tail and mostly 10 -11" for 1st molt too!

The bad is..... some others has either stress marks or tail jammed thre quater way through molt or refused to molt! Not good to have too many singing adult at home ya!

My new breeding season just started, the 1st egg of this new season has been thrown out by the female. The pair i put them in a room without other birds and yet due to the disturbance from other room it still happens. Today i manage to stop her from throwing and remove the egg for incubation early in the morning. It is the second egg so i expect there will be two or three more to go...

Addition to that i would like to highlight how to prevent Psychology side effect to the breeding pair should there is a need to remove eggs DUE to throwing.

If possible one should not disturb the birds but Captive breeding some time it is not as easy. Not that Captive breeding cause the egg throwing, just that in the wild they throw eggs or abandon nest we don't see thats all...

For me, until i see that pair throw eggs or kill chicks then i will interfere with minimun Psychology side effect to the pair. What i do is i will set up Cam and observe in another room ( not squating next to their avairy). Once i see the female emerge from the nest, i will walk (do not rush in as our body language might send fear signal to them) into the room with insects which they like most and lure the pair into another cage therefore i am able to bring the pair into another empty room(without other birds) to prevent them watching while i retrieve the egg while they enjoy their goodies! Hopefully without seeing me "snatching" away their eggs they might stop this instinct"bad habit" on the next clutch.

If anyone remove nest or eggs right infront of the pair i am afraid the Psychology damage will be a permanent one.

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 :'((((

Shama for sale

Hi Hi,

"Knight" is up for sale, he is currently on his 2nd molt tail lenght 10" or 10" plus  interested kakis kindly contact me at 93827850 Thanks!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zQTaE7BUko

2012 DDS237 and Pretty Gal's chicks

I think i have got what i have hope for this year.
About 7weeks old now, tail might have another 1cm cm to go but even if they stop growing tail now it is long enough for me. The one nearer is actually a female chick, i must say her tail lenght as a taimong is a wow for me! I estimate it to be 4"plus now so if she really grow another cm it would make her near 5". Which means she has a high chance to get 7-8" on her 1st molt.( keep my finger crossed) Really hope my effort don't go to waste this year... hehe!

White Rumped Shama-knight

White Rumped Shama-Singapore

White Shama Shama-Singapore " Badboy"

Badboy drop his second Primary tail today which is two days after his first Primary tail drop. A little concern because for best equal lenght effect, the both tail should drop on the same day or just one day delay. Now i am keeping my finger crossed....

The whole project of Badboy "hand tame" is to see if a hand tame shama can be as good as semi wild type when it comes to Chai-ing with other shamas or even Competition. I know what have been said about "handtame" cant be as good. Reason because they are too used to human and loss their basic instinct to fight or challenge for position with other birds which it make lots of practical sense.

For having such a small little "project" of my own, i am not out to challenge the senoir out there but the aim is to have fun in keeping birds and at the same time to try out different methods of bird keeping. Should i succeed in doing so i think it would encourage more Shama keeper to try out and enjoy a even closer bond with their birds and still enjoy what have been there all a long... I hope it all turn out well : )

Weekend gathering with close friends ...

Sunday late afternoon, four of us will always try our best to make time for such get together. We all prefer to enjoy the afternoon coffee, the companies, song which produce from our birds and topics which come naturally.

Very close friends, 100% relax without the need to "make small talks" it all just flow... somehow there is endless things we all can talk about, exchange ideas, knowledge, direct comments about each others Shama, helpout each other whole heartedly... and many more. Personally, i look forward to every weekend get together with them.

Everytime we meet we will each bring 1-2 birds along, with lesser birds we are able to listen to their song better and it does not give that "noisy" feeling compared to far too many birds singing at the same time. And frankly we do get that "noisy" feeling back in our own hse anyway :p haha! So instead of going to places to get the many birds singing effect, we needed the other way round for the clear sound effect. Enjoy!!

White tail female taimong molted with White tail

Two months ago while she is having her taimong coat, she has white tails.
I am glad but at the same time i ask myself if i did something wrong that affect her tail colour.
was thinking about nutrition, Deworming, or sunlight factors... well, the only way to find out is to pay more attention to her diet and care and then..... wait for her to molt!

So! she finish her body molt. Now i can confirm it is in her that the tail will be white.
Haha! i can really be happy now!

Nice picture of Shama

DDS 2012 chicks from Pretty Boy, both of them tail exceed 6"



Camera quality does matters!

Because of our birds, most of us has been taking lots of picture. But for me somehow i am always not quite happy with the results.

No matter how i try, i am unable to produce the picture that speaks for the bird. Often the picture seems "dead" or dull which is so much different from the bird itself. Although photography skill does play a big part in the quality but a lot still depends on the Lens.

DDS showed me some Picture he take over the weekend with his new Cam that has fantastic "anti shock" ??? and something something?? haha! Too much Cam lingo which i do not know what he is telling me about ! ?

Anyway, one thing for sure is that picture tells me everything about its subject! The quality of the bird and even the character is clearly shown to me.... AND the Camera's quality ofcourse! That goes to show a good camera with good lens plus a "so so" Camera skill can also produce wonderful picture!

Must get one some day!

.

White Rumped Shama- Gutsy n chick

2012 Gutsy and Chicks

This year 1st Clutch of chicks which i don't have to hand feed!!!

Due to my house conditions, i often have to hand feed and hand feeding is indeed very very time consuming and stressful for me... I am glad this pair is still able to feed their chicks under such pressure : ) Yeah!

White Rumped Shama-bow

White Rumped Shama- Badboy

"Badboy" reaches 8 weeks old today

His Brother from the 1st clutch AP114 (01-01-2012,11weeks and 2 days old today) has complete his body molt and now the tail has started molting. The funny thing about him is he drop his white little tail starting from the shortest towards his Primary tail.... so now he only left with Secondary and primary still intact. hehe... he look like a "Black Tailed" Shama now ! :p I eagerly waiting for him to drop his Primary so that i can measure the lenght.

As for "Badboy" born on 24-01-2012, 8weeks by now. I measured his tail at 6inch as of today.

Wondering if he is still growing tail so i check his butt! haha..! it is actually checking so call folicles site : P  I was told by DDS should the tail is still growing, you will be able to see the "shield" thingy at the root of the tail feather.. So the "shield" is still there, which means it will still grow a little more : ) yeah!

26 March 2012

knight gearing up for Sunday Comp

"Badboy"

Badboy Pic 13.03.2012

He is one of the Gutsy's son from 2nd clutch AP117.
Just trying out some against the norm ways of keeping Shama to see being so close to them will it affect their "instinct" or "aggression" or even capability to compete in Shama Competitions.

By exploring i will definitely gain more knowledge on why some things can or cannot be done in keeping Shamas. At the same time i will also learn more things about their behaviour and maybe there will be something good that i can share with Shama hobbist later?

So far, he is about 5weeks old. I choose him because he is one chick that is still not afriad of me after they learn to eat by themself. Normally, most birds will start to stay away from our hand once they are independant and many will even be very afraid of your hand!

But for him he still mantain the closeness which trigger my thoughts of keeping him in a different way. So far since two weeks old till now he has been staying in my room having free flight only in the evening up till 11pm or so. I was half hearted to tame him initially as we all know birds like them will eventually distance themself from us because they are lone ranger...

While trying to hand tame him, i constantly remind myself to not let him think that he is "human" so i will make it a point to let him stay in my "Birds" room for up to three hours per day so that he don't lost touch ..

Observation so far is still pretty good, not much different compare to his siblings. He does respond and challenge just like a normal Shama ! : ) Except he is more comfident with human persence whereas the rest would stop singing when i approach. At times i also will play with him Tug of Wall, what i so is i roll up some tissue or paper and tie with a string. Its really fun!

Now a days he respond to my command more effectively too! Below is a link to his video, enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYBISJ1dJX8

Gutsy's 1st clutch chick AP 114

This is Gutsy's 1st Clutch chick, i think by now( one month and 28days old) he should have finish growing his taimong feathers. In fact last week his body has already started molting to adult coat while his taimong is still growing. I had a hard time taking photo of him as he is not close to me. Will put up a clearer pic later he when he is more stable.





Picture taken today. 29 feb 2012

07-07-2012

AP114 tail has stop growing.

Upcoming Shama Competition

Singapore Shama Club bird competition will be held at Marina Mandarin Hotel Level 5 On Sunday 18th March 2012 at 9am.

Taimong start molting at 6weeks old..

This is Gutsy's this year's son, DOB is 01.01.2012 which make him 6weeks old now. Took him out from the Ladong this morning and notice his head and wings have many new feathers coming out. Being still new to Shama i do not know if this ever happens before. I check the tail and the tail is still growing because on the calamus area there is still a section of shell like thing which means the growth is still in progress. And also i notice the primary and secondary tail is still the same lenght as the longest white tail. So i wonder how come they start the body molting so early?? hmm...

White Tail female Shama

Weird Things Happens!

Nutritions, food and care is all as per normal.. At first  i thought primary tail drop off but at closer look, there is a very thin black line in the middle stem of the tail. Plus if tail drop, how about the secondary tail?? they should still be there right?

Gutsy 2012 2nd clutch taimong

This is one of the chick from Gutsy, i am getting a bit bored as i am home bound due to hand feeding, so i decided to grab one of his male chick to play around with the idea of hand tame Long genes Shama ! hehe... ! Some hobbist might disagree with what i am doing, but please don't be angry with me ya ! : ) I have too many "normal behaviour" Comp Shama but i have zero hand tame Shama : ( so just have some fun with it for time being :p Lets see if hand tame type can perform during competition okie?? haha..!

25th Feb 2012 Updates

As he grows he show more attitude

My best pair of Shama so far .

Gutsy and Pretty gal paired up today!Enjoy the video ya !
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=aPvLMZmyaIg

Father and son

Gutsy and his son from his Thai Wild Babe wifey..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9S4mC7AzcA

Shama and Magpie chicks!

Wonder if they would be confuse when they grow up.... They must be thinking how come my brother sister different colour ???? haha!

Pretty Gal's Daugther

One and only offspring from Wild Boy and Pretty gal.. now is about 6-7 months.

Hand feeding for 2012

As expected, this year i am facing an uphill challenge.

DDS ever told me, he says it is always easier to breed in the first year but it gets harder and harder when one has more Shamas at one place. It is true, lucky for me to have a good friend like him to pre warn me on what is going to happen and what to expect. I am also glad that with the help of the most reliable Incubator and DDS "brand" Brooder, i have successfully incubate 8 eggs and bring up 8 chicks without casualty ! haha! shiok man ! Below is the picture of my 8 babies, my babies because my other good friend has just Named me " Mother Hen" !!! Well, i shall make him a Mother Hen too in ten days time!! cause he has 3 eggs in my house :p haha! he is a dead piece of meat already! wahahaha!!

2 male 1 female 1st clutch

3 magpie1st clutch, 2 shama 2nd clutch

Products of the pair below, my weapon to make someone become Mother Hen !

Long genes breeding pairs up for grabs soon..

I just paired this guys about two weeks ago, both building nest now. I will be putting up for sale soon. Interested parties can contact me at 93827850..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxgqKhjNnWk