DISABILITY IS NO DISABILITY WITH LIZARDS
ROBERT BUNNTING ------DISABLED LIZARD FANCIER ROBERT BUNNTIING EXPLAINS IS MANAGEMENT OF LIZARD CANARIES. HE ALSO EXPLAINS THAT DISABILITY IS NO DISADVANTAGE WHEN BREEDING LIZARDS CANARIES.
Robert has Spinal Muscular Astrophy, a muscle wasting disorder and has been dependant upon his wheelchair since he was about 16. Robert says that being disabled has giving him many oportunities to do things that many people would not have had the chance to do. He and his wife Tina have been involved in running the Discovery Centre, in Kings Lynn close to where they live, this is the new venue for the East Anglia Lizards All Lizard show to be held this year on Sunday the 9th of October 2005.
Most recently he has attended a reception held by the Queen at Buckingham Place.
in recognition of his service to the community.
Robert first started keeping birds in 1976 as a school boy, but had always been interested in birds from a young age. In the summer holidays Robert used to stay with his aunt & uncle. His Uncle Den kept budgie and Foreign finches.
In 1976 after years of persistently keeping on at his Mother she agreed to let Robert have his first pair of Canaries. Robert bred with these birds and soon got a indoor flight to keep his canaries in. Robert gradually acquired different varieties of birds from local fanciers.
After a while Robert's uncle built him a proper birdroom, this housed three pairs of Fife Fancy Canaries that were given to him by Nick Barrett and Tony Bell.
Robert says little did he know at the time but these were probable the best birds he has ever owned. But like most teenage boys I discovered girls and the birds went.
But his interest always remained, and in 1992 he moved into a Bungalow with his family and with the help of a friend Lou a garden shed was converted into a birdroom and Robert was back into Birdkeeping.
On returning to the Fancy he started back up with Fifes once again, but sadly found the show judging rather erratic. And felt he need a change to a variety that adered to the show standard he choose was Lizard canaries.
This was born about after hearing a talk by Dick Cocksedge from March, Cambridge
his enthusiasm for the bred was infectious and Robert was hooked. So Dick Cocksedge was the person Robert obtained his first Lizards from.
Robert's birdroom has expanded from a 8ft x 6ft shed to it's present size of 15ft x 15ft.
This is divided into two sections, the first is 8ft x 6ft and has 10 breeding cages and also stores all his seed and other equipment. this section leads into the second section which is 15ft x 7ft. This second section contains 32 breeding cages, there is a roof sky light in this section which adds extra daylight into the birdroom.
Robert is disabled and is in a wheelchair, he say's he has had to make very few adaptations to his birdroom/
But all the breeding cages are on two rows only so there are at a nice hieght for Robert to reach to change the seed and water feeders.
[this can bee seen in the photo's. which I have sent]
Robert said he used to have flights above the breeding cages but said these became to difficult to manage properly.
He say's his disability does mean that his daily chaos do take a little longer like feeding and watering.
Tina, Robert's wife helps with cleaning out and birdroom maintenance.
Robert & Tina got married last year and last season was the first year they showed as a partnership. I would like wish them both all the very best in the future.
As you can see in the photo's Robert numbers his seed hoopers with a marker pen so he gets the right feeders back on the right cages. You can also see that the breeding cages are painted blue inside, blue is also the colour of the Lizard Show cage. my own cages are blue inside and I feel that this helps when you introduce the show cage to your young birds as the colour is similar to that of the breeding cage and they are not so nerves about
entering in the show cage.
Robert uses Buckton mixed canary seed, and uses Orlux gold egg food, he also gives conditioning seed,pinehead oatmeal and broccoli. Grit and Charcoal is always available to the birds.
He likes to bring his Lizards into breeding condition for the start of April. He used to pair up when he saw his hens crouching, but has changed his opinion over the last few seasons. He now pairs up when the cock is fit. he feels that the cocks pass breeding fitness way before the hens. He puts his bird together in pairs, he has tried trios but without very little success.
He is presently line breeding to try and bred a pure line of non caps, but generally pairs up on visual bases. Then checking the breed out to make sure that they are not too closely related. Always pairing GOLD to SILVER which is the golden rule when pairing Lizards, The gold being equal to the yellow and the silver equal to buff.
This year he will be using 10 pairs of Lizards in his breeding program.
Pairing up is not done at any particular date but when they show full breeding condition.
First he puts a small amount of nest material in the breeding cage followed two days later by the nest pans. once the hens start laying the eggs are removed daily, replacing them with dummy eggs. On the morning of the fourth egg being laid the rest are replaced. the cock is left with the hen as Robert says his cock birds generally feeds the chick as well as the hen. The hen is left to sit the nest out, Robert doesn't check the eggs to see if they are fertile . He believes that the hen needs to incubate for her natural cycle and it would disrupt her to take clear eggs away.
When the chicks hatch eggfood is given three times a day, greenfood is also given when the chicks are four days old.
Robert uses Lizard Canary Association closed rings this done when the chick are about 7 days old. The youngsters are weaned at 21/22 days. Robert only allows his hen to have two rounds, after they have had two rounds the pairs are split.
Robert records all his records in a breeding register which goes back to when he first started with lizards. recording cock and hen date pair,eggs laid and dates, how many hatched and dates also any comments regarding the egg or chick. Later the ring number is added the last thing is the cap type, i.e. clear, broken or non cap.
all these thing are essential for later refferance.
Robert has changed the way he colour feeds his Lizard in the last few season and much happier with the results he has been getting with this method. which is mixing the Carophyl Red with Glucose and then mixing this with the eggfood as a dry mix. He finds this much easier and simple than his old colour feeding system.
This method was explained to Robert by fellow Lizard fancier Adrian Hill, this typical of Lizard fanciers they are always willing to other members help and advice.
Robert says he has revived a great deal of help from many members of the L.C.A. Norman Reeves has been one who has been a great help to Robert giving him advice and opinions on his birds. For that Robert says he will always be grateful.
The way he use to colour feed was to the traditional way of mixing Carophyl Red with hot water, letting it cool down and then mixing this with the eggfood. He found this very time consuming and messy also it seemed to go stale quick. Colour feeding is started when the chocks are 6 weeks old and is carried on until the end of the moult which is usually mid October.
Robert biggest win so far was winning Best Lizard at the East Anglian National and Wisbech CBS, this was the first time he had won best Lizard. Both these show also have large number of good quality Lizards benched. He has also records Class wins at the LCA All Lizard show and the Southern Lizard shows. His ambition is to win the LCA All Lizard Show, he would also like to show in Europe., But above all he says he wishes to continue to enjoy keeping this very special breed of Canary.
I asked Robert If there was any birdkeepers he admires, Robert says theres a quite a few, firstly Norman Reeves for all his help & support, Stan Bolton who Robert calls Mr Lizard in my opinion for very good reason. Stan has always bred quality Lizards year after year and I think that is the reason Robert has called him Mr Lizard. He also Admires Anne & Jeremy Goacher for all the hard work they put in for the LCA. Finally but not less the man who introduced Robert to Lizard canaries Dick Cocksedge a true gentleman who epitomises what the fancy should be about.
I would like to thank Robert & Tina for allowing me to do this interview.
