Hi, I bought these two budgies today. They are both supposed to be from the same breeder.

 

Would you please help me in these three areas:

• Confirm gender
  
• Help with mutations
  
• Comment on possibility of them being related
  

Budgie Number 1: Cock? YF Violet Opaline ... ? When he spreads his wings, you can see a dark green colour evenly dispersed through wing feathers. Tail feathers have dark purple in them.

 

 

 

 

Budgie Number 2: Hen? Pied ... ?

 

 

 

 

I am very sorry for the blue tinge to the photos. The lens has partially blotted itself out and I had to crop like mad from 50 photos to get these. Still, I get to buy a new camera with clear a conscience. This one has done yeoman service and just gave up the ghost today. I am going to get one like Dezdemona's.

Edited August 29, 200915 yr by Catherine

You have done very well Catherine. You are right on the genders and the mutations

Your hen may be a recessive pied meaning she needs to go to a cock who is split recessive pied to get pied chicks. She looks recessive at the moment as there is not a lot of wing markings, but she could be a dominant pied still. wait until she is around 6 months old and you will start to see iris rings in her eyes if she is dominant pied

 

Also, being related... only the breeder would know. The main thing is they are not full brother and sister. Even half siblings are okay to breed with.

Edited August 29, 200915 yr by **Liv**

Budgie 1, you stated opaline, from what I see he doesn't look opaline to me at all. I would say he is a YF 1 Cobalt Violet he is very pretty reminds me of Merlin.

 

Budgie 2 is a Yellow Face 2 Recessive Pied Mauve what blue unsure since I can't see her belly. I agree with Liv if she gets iris rings she would then be a Dominant Pied or Double Factor Dominant Pied.

Thank you for that, Liv. So, is it apparent from the markings that they are not full brother and sister? Probably academic anyway. I would not breed those two if there were not going to be any pieds.

Budgie 1, you stated opaline, from what I see he doesn't look opaline to me at all. I would say he is a YF 1 Cobalt Violet he is very pretty reminds me of Merlin.

I agree....NOT opaline and looks cobalt.

I wouldn't say violet for the male as his cheek patches don't look that dark to me, but i'm not sure if it is camera or the lighting it appears darker than a cobalt, and in the two last shots almost grey, he could be mauve. And not opaline

 

the second is a recessive pied hen yellow face type 2. She appears to look a bit older than the male, so they might not be full siblings but since they are from a pet store you can never be sure. do they have leg rings?

Budgie no. 1 is a yellow face cobalt male (not opaline)

 

No 2 is a yellow face cobalt combiation of dominant pied and recessive pied female. If you look at the pied pattern you can see the dominant pied and the fact that there is very little marking and the body colour she does have is very low on the body, shows that she is also recessive pied (Double factor dominant pieds also have very few markings). As she has both pied types she probably won't develop iris rings. Combinations of pied types are a lot more common than most of us realize.

Thank you very much, everybody. That is sooo interesting.

 

The cock is a mauve colour. The top picture is the most accurate as to the main colour and the bottom one as to the YF colour.

 

Neville, I am very confused about pieds. All of the colours which the hen has can be seen in the photos. Even in this thread, I am getting differing opinions on dominant and recessive. I'll wait until she is older and if she gets the rings, I will have my answer.

 

The birds are not wearing rings.

 

I thought I could identify an oplaine. Here is my other hen, I thought she was opaline. Is she?

 

 

This hen is about 2 years old.

 

Thank you in advance.

Edited August 30, 200915 yr by Catherine

Yes she's Opaline. You can see the difference between her and the new budgie in those pictures if you look at the back of her head and between her wings, and at his.

Her markings are grey and very light (and reversed compared to his, they are white with grey markings as opposed to black with white markings), and his are normal and dark.

Hope that made sense..

I think so, thank you. You have focussed on the head markings and I can see that they are different. Do you mean that the hen has a white head with light grey marking and the cock has black and white markings? So, if I see light grey markings on the head, I am seeing opaline.

If you see grey markings (like Spangle) on the head and little to no markings between the wings,..plus normal dark wing markings with colour going through the what would have been white stripes on the wings (but are now blue, for instance), that means Opaline.

Thank you very much for clarifying that. I really do appreciate everone's help.