Hi everyone, just joined the forum after lurking for several years so this is my first post.

 

Is there any way to breed the black eyed self variety from normal budgies?

 

I've got normals, inos, rec pied, clearflight pied, TCB and a spangle.

 

I have been trying to get black eyed selfs for more than seven years now. I once had a pair (Pet shop quality) but was renting at the time and sold them before moving into an apartment not realising how hard it would be to source some more now we have our own place.

 

I've got the Rutgers "Budgerigars in Colour: Their care and breeding" but the breeding tables suggest that I need to at least start with a black eyed clear to be able to breed more.

 

Any suggestions. I'll post an advert in the WANTED section as well - just to cover my bases

 

Wayne

Hi W brown, welcome to the forum. Your best bet to find out this information is to wait for someone which could take a while at this time of year, as I know I haven't been on for 2 weeks or more. So you might need to be patient. Good luck though.

Hello and Welcome to the forum

Hi and welcome to the forum.

 

Yes you can breed them but I think you need to do a few pairings first. I think it starts with crossing a Dutch pied with a recessive pied then crossing the Dutch pied chicks (because they will be split) back to a recessive pied. I am new to all this genetic stuff so a more experienced person may correct me if I'm wrong.

Thanks Nadene

 

But I think that is how you breed Dark eyed Clear pieds. I am wanting to breed black eyed selfs which are the plain black eyed yellow or white normal budgie - not a DEC pied or double factor spanged variety.

 

Wayne

Edited July 28, 201311 yr by W Brown

So you mean the varieties I call "Light yellows" and "Whites of light suffusion". I have never kept them, only dilutes (heavily suffused whites) in pet quality birds.

 

I think you already know that you need to start out with a pair of dark eyed selfs. It is very unlikely that any of your birds are split for the dark eyed self. Even if they were, historically, outcrossing to normals split for this variety produced suffusion on the body, which is not what you want.

 

You will have to put the legwork in, ringing up budgerigar clubs for contacts and be willing to travel to pick up stock. There is no easy answer, sourcing rare varieties often involves considerable effort and expense. Perhaps you will get lucky and find a breeder in your local club.

Yes Drogo, whites and yellow of suffusion is what I was always taught to call them as well

 

In the last 7 years I have tried several budgie clubs in SE Qld including SPBS, ABS, WRBS, mainly by contacting their secretary either by telephone or email to see if they know of anyone who may have them.

 

I have even tried a family who are members of the budgie club up in Rockhampton (9 hrs away) who have them listed as a variety that they breed, but their email address on the club website is no longer active.

 

I have also bought numerous pet shop birds that *could* possibly be BES but they have all ended up being DF spangles.

 

Thanks anyway for the advice,

 

Wayne

All I can say is good luck with your search.

 

I am a little surprised no-one has anything to say on the possibility of creating a cinnamon dilute strain. I don't show birds so I don't know if it is currently acceptable to have cinnamon in black eyed selfs. Ordinary dilutes are much easier to find than blackeyed selfs as clearwing breeders often have them.

 

A British author of the 1950s (Watmough) mentioned that cinnamon made the task of breeding whites of light suffusion much easier. Unfortunately he found that cinnamon took away from the depth of body colour in light yellows. Grey cinnamon whites had the least suffusion followed by cinnamon skyblue whites.

 

Obviously at least two breeding seasons would be needed when starting with grey cinnamon cocks and white dilute hens.