The Budgerigar Society - 2006 Club Show Seminars
Grant Findlay opened the seminar on Saturday 18th November , welcoming our Guest speaker Dr Bob Travnicek. Grant reminded us that we were very fortunate that Bob was able to find the time to present his talks because he is still extremely busy with his vital work as an epidemiologist with the consequences of the dreadful New Orleans floods which are still so fresh in all our minds.
Bob Travnicek is unique inasmuch as he was the first fancier from overseas to have undergone all the necessary assessments and examinations to qualify him for membership of our own Judges Panel.; a course which, naturally involved spending much time over here to gain those necessary qualifications. This he did in 1989.
At the outset Dr Travnicek questioned us to ascertain the make-up of his audience and found that we were a good mixture, so he levelled his talk at all status levels of the fancy, illustrating his talk throughout and on both days, with projected images.
He has been in birds for a very long time indeed and it was in 1948, at the early age of ten years, that he first picked up a copy of “The Cult of the Budgerigar” then known as the ‘budgerigar bible’ and became particularly interested in these birds. Over a period of time, he built up a collection, and in 1959 he came to this country and visited many fanciers and shows, taking photographs as he went. Among those slides, which he has transferred to more modern equipment were photographs of the birds of Harry Bryan, Ken Farmer and Frank Wait.
It was around this time, or a little earlier, that the last two named had become known for their work with long-flighted budgerigars, a feather mutation which they were able to use, through their skill as fanciers, to improve the exhibition budgerigar and sow the seeds of the exhibition bird tday. Bob commented that these birds still crop up from time to time, but it remains proper that they are not welcomed on the show bench: their usefulness is confined to the breeding room. He felt that this mutation could be directly compared to the other mutation that British fanciers are working on a t present – the “Feather Duster” , asserting that the difference between the two is that the longflight has always had a future and the Feather Duster has none – apart from anything else, it does not live long enough!
So, what did the longflight give us? The answer lay in larger feathering and an increase in the number and length of flights in those wing flights, with larger tail feathers. It was also accompanied by much stronger head qualities, and these were all features that Frank Wait particularly was able to develop and use to improve most of the varieties being shown at that time. Something which also stood out on most such birds was a far brighter, penetrating and almost aggressive eye. This ‘eye-sign’ remained with second and third generation birds bred from longflighted stock.
He has always been conscious of the importance of variety content in original mutations, and one such variety which came to mind is the Recessive Pied, which has sometimes, and in some respects, is still affected by injudicious pairing in the cause of improving exhibition qualities. One feature which is now often lacking is the ‘teardrop’ markings on the wings.
….. and then he showed us slides of wwell coloured Lutinos, augmented by some their owner, Miss Kirkby-Mason and her partner, P.L. Dabner . Her Lutinos, with which she was extremely successful over a number of years, were renowned for their depth of colour (which she described as ‘hot’) and for many years he wondered how she achieved this colour. He recalled that he had never managed to get inside her breeding room, and he believed that may others were similarly frustrated. This was confirmed by Jeff Attwood, who was assisting him that first morning. Bob believes that, having studied slides he took of Miss Kirkby-Mason’s stock, that the answer lies in the number of dark factor normals that she kept. Yellow faces were also an occasional feature, and he believes that she put the Yellow face factor on to her Dark Greens and this composite variety was used to enhance her Lutinos. Most of her Lutinos were thus Yellow faced Dark factor birds.
Present stock. Bob Travnicek told us that in the past, he has had stock numbering about 1,000 birds, kept ,by variety or bloodgroups, in separate aviaries so that they could be strictly controlled in selective breeding. At present, his stock is greatly depleted because in the floods that hit New Orleans, the water reached a height of five feet in his birdroom and many of his birds drowned. Basically, those which survived were those which were able to cling to the wires above water level. As a result of this occurrence – he did not describe it as a tragedy as most of us would, because he said that it was something he would overcome by replacing stock – he said that he had brought in birds from one fancier (not in Britain) and had been happy with them. Unfortunately, one of them subsequently developed a sinus problem which has spread and is reluctant to respond to treatment. Thed mortality rate of this new syndrom/illness is high – as high as 50% - and he currently has some of the countty’s best avian virologists and pathologists working on the problem. As with all his research, he will plot the results as received. Meanwhile, he is treating affected birds as for Trichomosis, but is hampered by the fact that what was hitherto the most effective treatment for this has been off the market for some time.
Bob stressed that he has contacted the person who he believes to have been the source of the outbreak; this fancier he knows to be an honourable friend who he knows has contacted other possible contacts about it.
At this stage, he asked us to consider what our problems are in attracting new fanciers. He advanced two possible drawbacks that we might all consider as obstacles to recruitment: the first is in the cost of birds, he feels, but chiefly are we hampered by the fact that so many birds do not breed. He then said that for the rest of us, he an empty breeding cage to be an opportunity missed – a cage wasted. In the same way, every bird may well provide a separate and unique possibility, and we should always look at them on that basis. This attitude appeared to be prompted by his great sense of curiosity and interest in the many varieties of birds that he breeds - he gave the impression that he is not averse to cross-breeding of varieties, as opposed to those of us who are largely purists and do not mix varieties. However, it must be understood that Bob Travnicek is first and foremost a scientist with a disciplined mind which leads him to keep stringent records on all pairings and their results. It appears, also, that he does not take any new action unless he has a clearly defined plan for so doing and thus any seemingly unexpected results can be analysed and the date stored for future study.
Referring back to the ailments with which some of his birds are beset at present, Bob pointed out that the spread of such ailments are largely through fomites, that is virus/bacteria carrying agents which will spread the disease from one site to another. Such fomites come in many forms: we stand in that role when we fail to wash of treat our hands between various actions, in the home as well as the birdroom.
Cysts. Feather cysts are a particular problem with Buff feathered buirds and are more or less confined to such. The fancy has been beset with such birds for a long time. Bod advised us that , by and large, most cysts can be dealt with. In the case of those which usually occur around the vent and which present themselves at growths at the end of a neck, they can be removed by tying a ligature around the neck of the syst and leaving it until it drops off, having been starved of nutrition.
The other type that he asked us to consider is the type wjich grow on birds’ wing tips and become a source of grat discomfort, as well as proving unsightly. These he has treated on numerous occasions, but require bold treatment. The cyst must be laid open, down the centre, with a sharp blade/ This will lead to heavy bleeding and is quite natural. The next part of the treatment is to cleanse the wound deeply with a stick of Silver Nitrate, which burns out the cyst so that it will not return. The finqal part of the active treatment is to swab the wound thoroughly to remove traces of the Silver Nitrate as it is highly poisonous if taken orally.He has not lost a bird as result of this treatment. Note that the bird must be completely isolated for three weeks, because any bird pecking at the wound would be in danger of being poisoned.
Finally, he referred to the problems of birds dropping their tails at the nestfeathr stage and not growing them back. He referred to a recommended treatment/preventative which he has tried and which seems to work, although it is not fully clear exactly why. This is by treating the birds, at the time of ringing, by placing one standard drop of Ivomectine (15% solution in propropolyne glycol on the chicks Preen gland. The solution will be readily absorbed. He has had no cases of dropped tails since he started this procedure.
On the second day, and I am sorry to say that I missed the start as I thought it was scheduled for 10am, Dr Travnicek continued his presentation by talking about firstly Clearbodies. He said that he feels that the object should be to achieve markings as clear and black as possible on a solid coloured background.
Moving on to Recessive Pieds, he showed us images of some of the Pieds that he had seen in the early days of the fancy. Among those images were shots of himself with E.G. Illingworth and his wife Vera.
He recalled that on his first trip to this country, as a student, Vera kept him fed during his stay. E. G. Illingworth was renowned for breeding and developing the first frosted Pieds, which are now becoming very much a source of interest very many years later, thanks largely to work in this country by Jeff Attwood. I found this statement extremely interesting, because it was only then that I made that connection between Frosted Pieds and the Penguin Pieds with which W. Watmough connected E.G. Illingworth in his book “The Cult of the Budgerigar”. A further connection is that it was to E.G. Illingworth, at his Sunderland Pet Shop, that my partner and I sold our first youngsters.
There were various other pictures and we were asked to identify what turned out to be a Dark-eyed clear, the result of a pairing between a Continental Clearflight and a Recessive pIed (or Harlequin as they are known in USA – they have akso been known as Finnish Pieds). This was a regular mating along breeders in the late 50’s and early 60’s in GB but the former rapidly lost popularity as a variety with the appearance of the Australian Pied ( as it was known at the time).
Frosted Pieds, he believes, have a great future, and he urged fanciers who seek to keep, maintain and develop this variety that the frosting which give the variety this name must be maintained by visiting the Recessive Pied from time to time. The markings on this variety are particularly interesting as the features noticeable in their youth are not constant; on flights and back they fade as time goes by over the next year or two.
This was a memorable seminar and these poor notes can not do them justice. The lasting theme throughout, to me, was that whatever we do we should always do it as part of a plan- well thought out. We must then closely observe all results and record the thoroughly. Finally, it is extremely helpful, if not vital, that we acquire a reasonable grounding in the principles of genetics in order to enable us to fully understand and anayse results from our various pairings, especially with the rarer and specialist varieties.
All in all, a thought provoking couple of sessions. Thanks, Bob.
Dave Herring
Punlicity Officer