Hi, I am new to breeding and my Lutino Hen (red eyes) and Spangle Violet Cock budgies have just had their first clutch three weeks ago. To my surprise, two babies are Albino with the Red Eyes and the other two look to be yellow and blue (too soon to tell, but they have black eyes). I was wondering if anyone could tell me how I ended up with two albinos as I truly expected they would be Lutino because of Mum. And would they be girls or boys or could they be either ? Thanks!

Hi,

 

I'm not to good on mutations but I believe you are able to get either albino or lutino from and ino parent. Because your female is a lutino your babies can be both male and female. If the female wasn't an ino you would only have female ino babies.

 

Thanks

Because the dad is a white base budgie which is recessive to yellow, the only way you will get white base budgies is if your hen is split to white base. This means she has one yellow gene (which is dominant, giving her the yellow colour) and one white gene (which is recessive, allowing her to have white base babies when paired with a boy who also is either split to white like her or completely white base as is the case)

 

The only way you would have got albino chicks from a lutino hen and a non-ino cock is if the cock is split to ino. The ion gene (which is what removies the pigment that gives markings) is a sex-linked recessive gene (can only be present on the X chromosome). Budgies are the opposite to humans in that the male budgie has two X chromosomes, XX (like human women) and the female budgie has one X chromosome and one Y chromosome, XY (like human men).

 

Bear in mind that the ino gene is separate to the base colour gene which is not sex linked.

 

There are only two options for hens when it comes to the ino gene:

An ino hen is (appears ino): X^inoY

A non-ino hen is (appears non-ino): XY

 

However, there are three options for cocks:

An ino cock is (appears ino): X^inoX^ino

A split-ino cock is (appears normal): X^inoX

A non-ino cock is (appears normal): XX

 

Each parent gives one gene to a chick, either an X or a Y, meaning the hen's gene donation is what determines the sex of the baby.

 

With the combinations of your birds: X^inoY (hen) and X^inoX (cock) your four options for the gene distribution of the chicks are as follows:

• X^inoX (25% chance), these males will appear normal like their father
  
• X^inoY (25% chance), these females will appear ino like their mother
  
• X^inoX^ino (25% chance), these males will appear ino
  
• XY (25% chance), these females will appear normal.
  

Basically, your inos could be male or female.

The base colour genes are similarly worked out, but are not passed on on the X or Y chromosome and so are not related to the sex of the baby. Assuming your hen is single factor yellow/split to blue (this does not affect the intensity of the colour for base colours) her base colour assignment would be: Bb (the B indicating the dominant yellow gene and the b indicating the recessive white gene). The male would be: bb (because the recessive gene is the only one present and is not covered by the dominant yellow gene as with the hen.)

 

Each parent again passes on one gene to a baby, either a B or a b from mum, but only a b is possible from dad.

The possibilities for your babies are:

• Bb, single factor yellow (50% chance), will appear yellow, like mum
  
• bb, double factor white (50% chance), will appear white, like dad.
  

I hope this answers your question!!

Edited October 25, 201311 yr by Finnie

Wow, it really amazes me how much you know about budgie color genetics... I find it overwhelming and somewhat confusing..

That is amazing. I wish I knew as much I would love to build designer budgies. Here is what they would look like.

Thank you so so much for all that information. Your knowledge is amazing! It really helps to understand the colours and is so fascinating. I am just thrilled at our new little chicks!

There is quite a good website that gives a very easy to understand explanation of most mutations (some it is a bit lacking on but those are the less common ones). http://www.budgieplace.com/colorsguide.html

 

This one is still under construction but has potential to be really very good (and explains the less common ones better) http://cutelittlebirdiesaviary.weebly.com/budgie-mutation-and-color-guide.html

 

Once you are able to understand punnet squares you can predict likely outcomes for pretty much any pair, it's very exciting!

That is amazing. I wish I knew as much I would love to build designer budgies. Here is what they would look like.

Pheobes I have a couple of very similar birds, could mail you 1 but don't think it would survive the post pac.

 

Wow thanks for the links! It is very exciting!

 

Phoebe, I hope my albinos are as gorgeous as your little one!

Simple answer is that if, cock is split ino X lutino hen you will get ino hen and cocks. if cock is not split ino X lutino hen, you will get split ino cocks (not visual ino) and ino hens.

If the mother is the only ino gene of the parents (so normal cock cross lutino hen) there wl only be split ino cocks, this is because the hen can only pass the gene to her sons and and female chicks could only get the I I gene from th cock. This is due to the X/Y chromosome contribution of each

Simple answer is that if, cock is split ino X lutino hen you will get ino hen and cocks.

 

if cock is not split ino X lutino hen, you will get split ino cocks (not visual ino) and ino hens.

 

Paulie, I think you meant to say normal hens here.

 

The ino gene does not pass from the mother to a daughter. There will never be visible ino without the cock carrying it. Ino mothers can only give /ino sons. (Just to clarify.)

 

Also, some people think that lutino and albino are separate genes. To clarify that, albino is the same lutino gene but on a blue based bird. (Which SunshinE explained very well up above.)

 

That's why it helps to say "ino" instead of lutino or albino, to emphasize that it is NOT connected to color.