Sailorwolf

Sorry. They taught me all that stuff at uni Wikipedia is always a great place to learn about stuff and they'll probably explain it better than I do.

Yeah, every now and then budgies have their unco moments. Mine do.

Haha How cute

The bar spacing looks really huge

A mutation is just that, a Mutation of a gene. Sometimes when the cell is doing one of its many replicating things, or living or being damaged. It's DNA mutates. This can be caused by many things. As we all know DNA is made up of a string of bases (nucleotides) called Adenine, Guanine, Thymine and Cytosine (A,G,T & C). When DNA is used to transcribed and then translated to produce proteins. The bases are read of in a series of 3 bases. Three bases codes for a certain peptide (a component of a protein) and is known as a codon. For example codon AUG codes for the protein Met (I think it is short for Methionine). Thus a string of DNA bases will code for a string of peptides which results in a protein (this can be modified later on etc) Now mutations can be caused by many things. A mutation will occur when for some reason the wrong base is in place of another this can mean that the codon will code for a different peptide which can result in a whole different protein being produced. This can affect the protein's shape, the way it reflects light (how different colours come about), and its functionality. There are many different types of mutations. There is the frameshift mutation which means that one base is missed out and thus the whole DNA line is messed up resulting in a completely unfunctional protein or no protein at all. Mutations can occur in the mechanisms required for transcribing and translating DNA as well, so that wrong portions are read off, not read off etc etc. This can be caused from many thing. There is so much to it. Mutations can occur during meiosis as well. They will generally only get passed along to the next generation if the mutation occurs in a gamete (sperm or ova), in the meiosis process or in any of the reproductive cells. Mutations in somatic (body) cells do not get passed on as those cells stay within the body. Hence halfsiders (tetragametic chimaeras) do not get passed on as the mutation is not in the reproductive tract. The eggs or sperm produced will only correspond with the half of the budgie that it comes from. It can however pass on the increased genetic possibility of a halfsider being produced by its offspring to its offspring. Most mutations when they first appear are recessive, because the mutation generally only occurs in one area, hence the mutation is still covered by the other perfectly functioning chromosome in the pair. But it depends on what the mutated gene codes for. In the case of sickle cell anaemia, sickle shaped blood cells are produced by a single base replacement mutation. If the animal is homozygous for sickle cell anaemia (humans), both of thwe chromosomes in the pair will produce sickle shaped blood cells. If they are heterozygous (aka split for sickle cell anaemia, it's recessive phenotypically, but it works codominantly, which all genes do I will explain shortly) one chromosome produces normal red blood cells, but the other produces sickle cells. They appear normal, because the normal chromosome produces enough normal red blood cells to prevent any anaemia, thus they do not appear to have any anaemia, but the faulty chromosome is still producing faulty red blood cells. So a mutated gene may mean that a mutated protein is produced or no protein is produced. Lets take yellow based and white based birds for example (I don't know the exact mechanisms of this gene, I am just using it as an example.) Green is dominant to blue. Right so a homozygous green bird has two chromosomes that produce the yellow protein that produces the yellow base colouring. A green split blue carries one good chromosome that produces enough yellow to make up for the whitebase chromosome. The whitebase chromosome is mutated in that it may not be producing any protein or it is still producing a protein that is mutated and only produces white protein. That chromosome is still turned on and is still being transcribed and translated like its normal partner. So it is still going through the process of producing protein. Whether it produces a weird protein of no protein depends on the mutation. A homozygous recessive is a completely blue bird. It has two mutated chromosomes These chromosomes are only able to produce the white protein. This is why I think that birds carrying opaline show it a little in their feathers. Because even though opaline is recessive, a cock split for opaline has a normal fully functioning chromosome that produces the base colour on the wings. But the "hidden" opaline chromosome is also producing its mutated protein at the same time, it is just been covered more significantly by the other normal chromosome. Anyway. Mutations occur all the time and you can't create them unless you tried genetically engineering them. Albinism is one of the most common mutations in wild animals as it is a complete failure in producing pigment. I think it is a mutation in the production of the protein tyrosine which is required in the process of pigment formation (hence cats with low thiamine (required for tyrosine production) in their diets start to lose colour). White based budgies (blues) would be a form of albinism (lack of yellow pigment). Spangling would be something to do with lack of pigment as well, hence DFs having no pigment. SFs are able to produce enough pigment to overcome most of the pigment loss. Dilution is different this is an extension of the melanin in the cell. Dilute animals do not have their melanin as far extended as normal animals (I think). Red haired animals lack eumelanin (the brown/ black melanin) and only have the phaeomelanin. Cinnamons would probably be lack of the black eumelanin. That was a mission to write. lol Sorry for any spelling mistakes, I'm wearing gloves (because it is so cold here) and it makes it hard to type.

Did you get it?

Oh, I'm so sorry to hear about the Weebil. She held a special place in the budgie community

I looks awesome and well thought out

Well if Booga is doing a happy dance. He is more likely to be a boy. I can't tell with Snowy, because he looked like a girl in one picture but a boy in the next!

Then again different injuries produce different results

Here is a diagram of a chicken (?) skeleton. You feel the pubis part of the pelvis. Pie is right, may not work in immature birds. Give it a shot anyway. Skeleton

Took him in today. Unfortunately he has to stay over the weekend before they are going to do any xrays. So it is going to cost me another $100.

I don't know about amphibians and fish, so I can't really comment. I wonder what happens in reptiles, cause if they go white (which I think they do) then birds would go white upon damage. Because both mammals and birds originate from reptiles (birds are sometimes classified as reptiles (which I think is weird, because they are definitely different enough to have their own class) however I think they are classified separately most of the time).

Cool, got them now. Booga looks like a boy to me. Blue will happy dance any budgie, boy or girl. Babies don't know how to react to this so they just stand there and let it happen. Snowy may not have her tail feathers fully grown out, or she could have snapped both of them.

Thanks guys. I had a little cry about it yesterday. I miss his old silly playful self.

I'm still going with my original statement. Sexing also depends on the age. Because when boys start to turn blue they becaome more difficult to tell, they look like they have white rings around their nostrils, but they are still a relatively smooth transition. The second confirmed boy has a cere that is more opaque than the second picture bird that you posted, that I think is a girl. That one is still making it hard though, because of the black speckles it has on its cere. You could always try feeling the pelvises. Boys have the pubis closer together and sharper, girls have it further apart and rounder (so an egg can fit out!)

Usually (in mammals anyway) when damage occurs to hair (or feather) follicles the resulting hair (or feather) is white, because the melanin producing cells are damaged. Think freeze branding in horses. So I wouldn't think a black feather would be from damage. Hyperpigmentation can occur from various diseases, but i don't know if that affects feathers as well as skin, or if it is just one spot and I don't think Hyperpigmentation is particularly permanent, and it moves around (I think).

Pictures aren't showing up for me

Poor little fella. He's worse now. As soon as he finished the doxycycline he produced even more urine. I changed his cage paper yesterday morning and now 1 quarter of it is completely saturated. I rang the vets on Tuesday and they didn't get back to me, so today I rang them again and they rang back. He now has to go back in tomorrow. He is still relatively happy and sings every now and then. But he is sleeping a lot. I gave him a whole millet yesterday and he was very happy about that. I hope they will find out what it is soon, because I've already got a $200 bill and that is after my discounts and free consults . And my spare vet money is running out.

No I still say bottom one is a girl. It has the white around the nostrils. The slightly translucent lower part of the cere and an overall purple infusion. The one above is a boy, because the whole cere is the same colour Hmm, now I'm second guessing myself. In the bottom one, one half of the cere looks boy, the other half looks girl. How old are they?

Thank you Here is the picture of the one in that link (to save everyone from having to go there) That bird has markings on its wings however. I Gerald Bink's description states that the wings are pure yellow. It doesn't mention wing markings. (i just realised, in that picture that bird has no feet , how is it attached to the perch? )

Top one boy. Bottom one girl Top one is very cute!!!!! and hard to tell

Very good article Kaz. I would agree with that. So a true dilute should mean an almost complete absence of body and wing colour. So does anyone own one or have a picture of one? Has anyone bred one and can verify those results?

His leg probably played up in the cold the poor boy

Her opalineness just covers so much of her.