Breeding your Budgerigars for Colour - With Tips on Colour Combinations, Hybrids, Mule Breeding and Keeping Records

By Schuyler Press

This antique book contains a detailed and interesting guide to breeding very specific colours into pet budgerigars, as well as containing detailed information on hybrids, mule breeding, and the importance of record keeping. The perfect book for both professional and private breeders, this text is both easy-to-digest and detailed, and constitutes a great addition to any collection of avicultural literature. Chapters contained in this book are: 'The Elements of Colour Production', 'The Colour Varieties and Recommended Pairings', 'Colour Production', 'In-Breeding', 'Hybrids and Mule Breeding', and 'Keeping Records'. This book has been chosen for modern republication because of its timeless educational value, and is proudly republished here complete with a new introduction to the subject of aviculture.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Schuyler Press
• Release date: Jul 14, 2020
• ISBN: 9781528764216

Book preview

THE ELEMENTS OF COLOUR PRODUCTION

Normal Inheritance, Sex-linkage

THE beginner will naturally desire to know how to produce certain colours and will also demand some explanation of why certain colours appear when a particular pair is mated, but to delve deeply into these questions would occupy another volume. Moreover, the subject has already been admirably dealt with by Professor F. A. E. Crew and Rowena Lamy in their publication The Genetics of the Budgerigar, in which is set out in detail the whys and the wherefores of this most interesting branch of Budgerigar culture.

Genetics are, to a great mass of Budgerigar Fanciers, difficult to follow and the object of this chapter is, therefore, to set out as simply as possible the main points to be remembered in colour production, without enquiring too deeply into the reason for them and without more than lightly touching the very fringe of genetics.

Budgerigars adhere very closely to the accepted principles of inheritance (Mendelism), and the expectations from nearly 2,000 different matings have been worked out and compiled by Messrs. F. S. Elliott and E. W. Brooks in their book Budgerigar Matings & Colour Expectations. Therefore, in practice, a copy of this useful publication will enable the breeder to know exactly what colour young he can expect from any pair, provided the make-up of the parents is known. However, most breeders like to work these out for themselves and it can quite easily be done providing the basic principles are grasped.

Normal inheritance. First, it must be understood that certain colours are dominant to others, the latter being termed recessive, and by this is meant that a pure dominant colour mated to a recessive colour results in youngsters exhibiting the dominant colour. These youngsters are, however, capable of producing birds of the recessive colour (and of the dominant colour) when they themselves are mated together.

Youngsters, the product of a dominant × recessive are referred to as dominant split recessive and the symbol used to denote the term split is an oblique stroke thus:— / between the dominant colour and the recessive. Broadly speaking, whatever colour appears after the split sign indicates that the bird had one parent of that colour.

To take an example: the Green series, Light, Dark and Olive Green are dominant to any other colour with the exception of Australian Grey, with which we need not deal at this stage. The mating of a pure Light Green to a Sky Blue (it does not matter which is the cock or which is the hen) produces all Light Green young, but these will be Light Green split Blue or as written Light Green/Blue and if these youngsters are mated together, they will produce Light Greens, Light Greens/Blue and Sky Blues, but the pure Light Greens will be indistinguishable from the Light Greens/Blue and can only be proved by mating; therefore it will easily be seen that it is inadvisable to mate such split birds together.

At this stage it is as well to point out that Mendelism has proved that all matings can be worked out showing the percentage of each colour which may be expected from any particular pair, but as this only applies over a number of nests and as every egg is not always a chick, this may, to a certain extent, be disregarded.

We next come to the point that there are three shades of Green in Budgerigars, light, medium and dark, or, as they are termed, Light Green, Dark Green and Olive Green and the expectations from pairing light, medium and dark shades together are as follows:—

Light × light equals light. Light × medium equals light and medium, but light × dark equals medium; therefore Light Green paired to Light Green produces all Light Green young. Light Green paired to Dark Green gives Light and Dark Greens and Light Green to Olive Green results in Dark Green youngsters. Do not confuse the light, medium and dark shades with the accepted description of birds of those shades, Light, Dark and Olive Green. To make this quite clear, a Dark Green Budgerigar is of the medium shade of green.

Continuing, we find that medium × medium equals light, medium and dark, whilst medium × dark equals medium and dark, so Dark Green paired to Dark Green produces Light Greens, Dark Greens and Olive Greens, Dark Green × Olive Green resulting in Dark Greens and Olives.

Finally, dark × dark equals dark, therefore, Olive Green paired to Olive Green produces all Olive Greens.

It is most important to remember these pairings of light, medium and dark shades as the principle applies also to the Blue and Yellow series.

Leaving the latter for a moment, we come to the three shades of Blue and these are Sky Blue, Cobalt, and Mauve, light, medium and dark Blues respectively. As an example of how the expectations from the various shades still apply, Cobalt × Cobalt (medium × medium) results in Sky Blues, Cobalts and Mauves (light, medium and dark).

When pairing any of the Green series to any of the Blue series, it must first be remembered that Green of any shade is dominant to Blue of any shade, then the expectations can be worked out in accordance with the light, medium and dark examples as set out above, e.g., Dark Green × Cobalt (medium × medium) produces Light Green/Blues, Dark Green/Blues and Olive/Blues (still light, medium and dark).

The beginner will naturally wish to know what colour youngsters will result when any of the splits are mated together, so pursuing the theory of light, medium and dark, we find it still applies. To take an example Light Green/Blue paired to Olive/Blue (light × dark) we have a factor in one bird for Light Green coupled with another for Blue, and in the other bird we have a factor for Olive Green and also one for Blue.

First, the Light Green factor in the one bird will link up with the Olive factor in the other to give us Dark Greens (medium). Then the same Light Green factor can link up with the Blue factor in the Olive/Blue bird (dark) to give us Dark Green/Blue (medium), as the Light Green factor is dominant to the Blue.

Next, the Blue factor in the Light Green/Blue (light) links up with the Olive factor in the Olive/Blue (dark) and gives us still more Dark Greens/Blue (medium) and finally the Blue factor in one bird joins up with the Blue in the other to produce Cobalts (medium), therefore we see that the result of Light Green/Blue × Olive/Blue (light × dark) is still medium, or actually, Dark Greens, Dark Greens/Blue and Cobalts.

Before leaving the Greens and Blues, it must be pointed out that there are two types of Dark Greens/Blue, both visually alike but whose breeding results differ. They are described as Type 1 and Type 2 and the difference is caused by the genetical variation in their make-up, the factor for dark coupled with the Blue factor producing, when a bird possessing these factors (a Mauve) is mated to a Light Green, progeny consisting of Dark Greens/Blue Type 2.

The difference in the two types of Dark Greens/Blue is demonstrated when these birds are paired to Sky Blues, a Dark Green/Blue Type 1 × Sky Blue producing Dark Greens and Sky Blues, whereas a Dark Green/Blue Type 2 mated to a Sky Blue yields Light Greens and Cobalts. Exceptions to these expectations are sometimes experienced, young of a colour to be expected from one type of Dark Green/Blue appearing when the other type of Dark Green/Blue forms one of the parents. These results are due to a cross-over of factors when the egg is fertilised and need not seriously concern the reader.

A Dark Green/Blue Type 1 can be produced by mating Olive to Sky Blue and a Type 2 by pairing Light Green to Mauve. Both types of Dark Green/Blue are yielded by a Dark Green × Cobalt mating. These young will be visually alike and can only be proved by mating with Sky Blues.

Dealing next with the White series, these are recessive to any other colour and are of two types, lightly suffused and deeply suffused, and are of the usual three shades, light, medium and dark, or as described, White Sky Blue, White Cobalt and White Mauve respectively. White Greys and White Violets can also be produced. The light, medium and dark theory applies equally well in the case of Whites, White Sky Blue (light) × White Mauve (dark) producing White Cobalts (medium) whilst when paired to pure Greens or Blues, being doubly recessive, the results are Green/White or Blue/White. Dark Green/Whites are also of two types as with Dark Green/Blues.

Finally coming to the Yellow series, we find that these again are of the usual three shades, described as Light Yellows, Dark Yellows and Olive Yellows as in the Green series and the light, medium and dark theory of expectation still stands.

Yellows are recessive to Green, Light Green (light) × Olive Yellow (dark) producing Dark Green/Yellows (medium) but they are dominant to White, Light Yellow (light) × White Cobalt (medium) resulting in Light Yellow/White (light) and Dark Yellow/White (medium). Dark Yellow/Whites are also of two types as with Dark Green/Blues and Dark Green/Whites.

Yellows are neither dominant nor recessive to Blues as the factors controlling these two colours are situated differently in the genetical make-up of the birds and Yellows mated to Blues produce Greens, not, by the way, a recommended method of breeding Greens.

These Greens are of course split Yellow and are also split Blue and mated together will produce these colours and also Whites, therefore, instead of being described as Green/Yellow/Blue/White, they are simply referred to as Green/Whites when bred from the pairing Yellow to Blue.

Once the breeder has mastered all these principles he or she will have gone a long way towards being able to work out expectations independently of any publication.

The types and the method of inheritance so far dealt with are described as normal and whatever modification may be met with in the newer varieties, the method of arriving at the colour expectations is the same. Remember that Green is dominant to Blue, Yellow, and White, that Blue and Yellow are dominant to White, but that Blue and Yellow together produce Green/White.

Greywings. Characterised by their name, these birds possess grey wing markings and spots instead of black and the modifying factor responsible for this also lightens the body colour.

Greywings may be of either the Green or the Blue series, e.g., Greywing Dark Green, Greywing Mauve, etc., but a Greywing Yellow is not possible, neither is a Greywing White.

The Greywing characteristic is recessive to normal Greens and Blues and it follows the normal mode of inheritance as can be seen by the following examples:—

Light Green × Greywing Dark Green equals Light Green/Greywing and Dark Green/Greywing.

Sky Blue × Greywing Sky Blue equals Sky Blue/Greywing.

Light Green × Greywing Mauve equals Dark Green/Blue Greywing.

Light Yellow × Greywing Light Green equals Greywing Light Green/Yellow.

Light Yellow × Greywing Sky Blue equals Greywing Light Green/ White.

White Sky Blue × Greywing Light Green equals Greywing Light Green/White,

and finally, Greywing × Greywing produces Greywings, but the dominant or recessive relationship of the actual colours to each other must be taken into consideration, viz. Greywing Light Green × Greywing Sky Blue equals Greywing Light Green/Blue.

It will be observed that Greywing paired to Yellow or White produces Greywings, and it would appear that Greywing is dominant to these colours, but that is not exactly the explanation. The Greywing characteristic cannot genetically be combined with these colours and it can be accepted for our purpose that Greywing is dominant