As my main goal in breeding is always health (both mental and physical), I've been wondering about budgie mutations and what affect they might have on a bird if not combined correctly. All my breeding experiences so far are with cockatiels and they have a few mutations that are prone to certain problems and I'm interested to know if budgies have those too...

 

Ino and other red eyed mutations (such as fallow) in cockatiels have big problems, especially with their eyes, for example glaucoma and blindness. They often also tend to be smaller and may have bald spots on the top of their heads and under the wings. Some are reported to get ill more easily and many times they die a bit younger than others. This is why visual to visual pairings on these mutations aren't usually recommended unless the birds are better than average quality. Does this apply to budgies?

 

In many species the repeated breeding of visual to visual recessive genes also seems to affect the quality, size and often longevity of the offspring. In cockatiels this is most common with whitefaces (which is essentially the same as blue mutation in budgies) and visual to visual pairings for many generations soon start to show in crest size and overall size of the bird. I would guess that eventually there will be negative effects using visual to visual recessives for several generations in budgies too, as it is so common in the animal kingdom, but I'd be interested to know how this might show and what to look for?

 

Then there are some mutations that for some reason are harder to breed. This includes my favorite, the sex-linked yellowcheek, but I think that mutation isn't one cockatiels share with budgies - unlike most of the others. But are there budgie mutations that somehow seem to be harder to work with? DIS, baby deaths, incubation problems or odd behavior etc. that would be associated with a certain mutation more than the others?

 

Overall what are the things I can most easily get wrong with budgies? Are there any common diseases that could be passed on to the offspring? Somehow I have a feeling some cancers might be more common in certain family lines, is this true?

 

All I have found on this subject so far is that opaline to opaline can affect the quality of the color, but is it only for that reason?

 

When it comes to healthy body types, I find it always best to try to get is as close as possible to birds in the wild, but as I still enjoy different mutations and want to breed them responsibly, I'd like to know what are the do's and don'ts.

I think the problems with breeding red eye to red eye and continually breeding recessive mutations together are a problem in the species where those mutations have not been around long enough to establish a good solid gene pool of the "new" mutations. (An example would be the blue back Gouldian.)

 

That isn't really a problem with the budgerigar, because most of their mutations have been around so long, that they are well established. So I would say go ahead and breed for whatever mutations suits your fancy. Keep an eye toward using good healthy specimens, and the colors they carry should be immaterial.