Hi!

 

I was hoping some of the breeders on here would be able to help me with a question about beaks I have. I have noticed that a variety of pictures of baby budgies on here range in beak colour. I was just looking at some of splat's nappy cage pictures Here and I noticed the variety. I think that as the budgies moults into adult, they get their adult cere colour, and I assume the black disseapears.

 

So my question is, is this some type of mineral or vitamin deficiancy (don't think I spelled that right ) or is it just like a birthmark or something?

 

( I hope you dont mind splat, but I am using a couple pictures as examples)

 

Here is a black- beaked and black -cered chick

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s230/sp...24thjune015.jpg

 

compared to a adult coloured beak and normal coloured cere

 

I have also noticed among my chicks mainly orange/yellow and sometimes a little black on beak.

Edited July 29, 201014 yr by Elly
480x640 pictures need to be, first pic oversize.

Black beaks indicates melanin. Its a good thing and not a bad thing, not a deficiency or anything like that. A lot of breeders see a black beak as a reason to keep that chick.

My understanding of melanin is like pigment of budgies base colour, eg white or yellow melanin. So does that mean the budgies have good strong colours of pigment if they have a black beak?

'Melanin in budgies generally refers to0markings.........like wing markings etc. Some seem to think the black beak indicates an abundance of melanin......dark markings which bode well for the birds development. There may be differing opinions on how this is perceived

Edited July 29, 201014 yr by KAZ

okay Kaz, so what do you (and anyone else reading this) belive about what a black beak indicates? Do you favour the birds when culling, or compare them etc?

Unless you write down on your records that that particular bird arrived with a black beak it would be hard at culling time to know it ever had one. Vanishes soon after fledging age.

However some of my black beaked babies turned out to be very good

Unless you write down on your records that that particular bird arrived with a black beak it would be hard at culling time to know it ever had one. Vanishes soon after fledging age.

However some of my black beaked babies turned out to be very good

 

I like the little guy in your avatar. It almost looks like he has a handlebar moustache!

Heard an old wives tail that black beaked chicks are better than non-black beaked chicks. Haven't been able to prove that to myself yet. But then I have not done a serious trial or recorded the proportion of chicks kept from black beak v's non-black beaks either.

Unless you write down on your records that that particular bird arrived with a black beak it would be hard at culling time to know it ever had one. Vanishes soon after fledging age.

However some of my black beaked babies turned out to be very good

 

I like the little guy in your avatar. It almost looks like he has a handlebar moustache!

 

I knew there was something i was seeing when I looked at him and now you have hit the nail on the head I even went as far as to ask a judge what was wrong with him and she said NOTHING !! and she wished he was in her nestbox.

I just felt something was weird and you just worked it out