Michael Miller mixing his softfood

http://budgerigarunivers.blogspot.com/

One day in Budgie Land By daniel lutolf budgerigars

http://budgerigarunivers.blogspot.com/

PS1 Exhibition Budgerigars

http://budgerigarunivers.blogspot.com/

Impressions European Champion Daniel Lütolf 2014

http://budgerigarunivers.blogspot.com/

daniel lutolf budgerigars

http://budgerigarunivers.blogspot.com/

Ghalib Al-Nasser by Rare Budgerigar Varieties - Dilutes

The first budgerigar variety to appear in the wild among the grass green budgerigars was the yellow. It was reported that yellows were seen in a large flock of green budgerigars as early as 1872. Further mutations of yellows appeared in Belgium at around the same time and a few years later in Germany. Since that time, the first colour budgerigar to mutate from the grass green, the yellow, was established and for many years was a very popular variety.

Soon after, towards the end of the 1870's, the first skyblue mutated from the grass green and thereafter many other varieties appeared either by mutation or combination. And because of the mutation being the first to be established, the yellow boom reached its height by the beginning of the last century. It has been reported that the first yellows were bred in Great Britain in 1884 by Mr. Joseph Abrahams of London. This was from a pair brought in from Belgium and two years later they were exhibited in London for the first time by a London fancier Mr. Swaysland. The yellows that were seen, bred and exhibited in those days were what we now call the light yellow. One of the original pioneers of this mutation in this country was R. J. Watts who was a founder member of The Budgerigar Club (now the Budgerigar Society) in 1925 and then president in 1938-40.

The whites did not come on the scene till the early 1920's and that was not by mutation but by a combination of colours. And as early as the appearance of the yellow, breeders were able to establish that the mutation is controlled by a recessive gene in its mode of production.

The term "dilute" was given to those yellows and whites for easy reference and because of the colour dilution of the feather. The yellow is a green coloured budgerigar with reduction in the amount of melanin granules (colour pigment) present in the feather. This reduction in colour intensity is more than that found in the greywing mutation which is about half of that of the depth of colour found in the normal varieties. The white is a blue coloured budgerigar with a reduction in the colour pigment and works in a similar way to the yellows.

The dilute variety is appealing to many fanciers throughout the World and good quality birds, whether yellow or white, have been sought by many. Good specimens have been bred over the years and won major awards on the show bench throughout the World. Of course, in the U.K. the memorable win with this variety was achieved at the 1985 Budgerigar Society club show when a baby grey white cock won the supreme award for R & W Nattrass.

The variety is also used extensively by breeders of other specialist varieties. Both ino and clearwing breeders use the dilute to advantage to improve their respective varieties by adding size, colour and feather texture. For the benefit of the reader there are three types of yellows and two types of whites. The mere fact of mentioning the different types of dilutes could confuse the fancier who would like to breed with this variety. However, it is of importance that one understands the differences.

• There is the light yellow, which was very popular but for one reason or another seems to have vanished from the U.K. The light yellow has a buttercup yellow body colour and was sometimes referred to as buttercup yellows rather than light yellows. The deviation from the light yellows are the dark yellow and olive yellow which are darker in the colour intensity. Apart from their body colour, the cheek patches are silvery white and the throat spots are absent.
• Another variety that developed over the years when greens were introduced to yellows are the suffused yellows. From their name it is understood that the yellow is suffused with the green (either light, dark or olive green) and the intensity of this suffusion can vary from minimum through to almost 50% of the normal body colour. They differ from the light yellow mainly by the colour of the cheek patches, which are pale blue to pale violet.
• The third type of yellow is the grey yellow which has a grey colour modifier present that changes the body colour to a dull mustard yellow. The cheek patches are of pale grey. Both the suffused and grey yellows have pale grey throat spots. Each of the above types of yellow are easily identifiable from the body and cheek patches colour.

The whites come in two different types only;

• the suffused and
• the grey white.

Both descriptions above can be applied to the white. The body colour of the suffused white may be masking skyblue, cobalt, mauve or violet in its make-up. Fanciers over the years have added, either intentionally or otherwise, both the opaline and cinnamon varieties to the dilutes and some wonderful specimens have evolved.
It is not always easy to explain why a variety vanishes and in the case of the light (buttercup) yellow the only possible explanation is that they were small when compared to the suffused or grey yellows. I saw many examples of the light yellows on my trip to Australia in 1994. The Australians refer to them as black-eyed yellows.
Earlier I mentioned that the dilutes are a recessive variety and the laws of producing recessive varieties is well documented. There are three pairs that can produce visual dilutes. These are:

• Dilute paired to dilute will produce all dilutes.
• Dilute paired to a non dilute that is split for dilute will produce 50% dilutes
• while the last type of pairing is the mating of two split dilutes together which results in only 25% of the chicks being dilutes.

It is easy to understand why, on occasions, a dilute appears in the nest from a pairing where neither of the parents is visually a dilute. This recessive inheritance can stay dormant for many generations and will only show itself when mated to another bird that is carrying this factor in a hidden form. Often the dilute produced from two splits is of good quality, assuming the parents are themselves of that desirable quality. I have always been told that breeders who bought many birds from the late Harry Bryan or Alf Ormerod have always produced the odd dilute in the nest. This statement was put in to practise in my own experience in 1986. I paired a grey green cock from Harry Bryan to a light green hen from Dennis Faulkner and to my surprise a good grey yellow popped out. There were no yellows in the Faulkner stud but he did have the late Les Joy blood in his stud, which was based on the Bryan bloodline.
This just shows how a recessive variety can appear without one's knowledge. The dilute also has a close relationship with two other recessive varieties namely the greywing and clearwing (yellow-wing and whitewing). Even though they are all recessive, the greywings and clearwings are dominant to the dilutes. When pairing a greywing (or clearwing) to a dilute all the chicks will be greywings (or clearwings) split for dilutes. Because of the superior quality of the dilute to the clearwing many clearwing breeders find the dilute of valuable asset in their breeding programme.
https://www.facebook.com/rizwan.akram.587

Ghalib Al-Nasser By Rare Budgerigar Varieties, The Lacewing

Fanciers have always had a fascination for livestock possessing redeyes and Budgerigar fanciers are no exception.

When the first Lutino, clear yellow bird with red eye, arrived in the 1870's it caused a stir but that strain did not last long. One fancier from Great Britain, who bred the initial Lutino mutation at the end of the last century and early part of this century, was C.P. Arthur. Again like most mutations, an accident or genetical deviation is responsible. Mr. Arthur recalls in his book "Budgerigars and Cockatiels" that he dropped two eggs, which were covered in excrement from the nest, in boiling water to clean them and, although not expecting them to hatch, replaced them back into the nest. Hatch they did and both were clear yellow with red eyes but the mutation was not established. More experimental eggs dipped into hot water did not achieve the desired results in producing any more Lutinos.Nowadays there is a tremendous following all over the World for the beautiful Lutino and to a lesser degree its counterpart the Albino.
The Lacewing Budgerigar is another mutation that has a similar appearance to the Lutino and Albino with the clear body colour of yellow (in the green series) or white (in the blue series) and having the red eye as well. Perhaps the interest in this variety is restricted in comparison to the two Ino varieties but still has its appeal to many including myself. All the above varieties come from one and the same factor. This has the effect of eliminating the melanin of the black pigment in the feathers and even the eyes of the bird and therefore turning the bird from a green or a blue to a clear yellow or white with that red eye effect. The Lacewing variety is similar in appearance to that of the Lutino and Albino as they have a clear body colour, yellow or white. But the marking on cheeks, back of head, neck, wings and tail is of cinnamon brown. The cheek patches are of pale violet instead of silvery white in the Ino variety and they have well defined cinnamon brown throat spots. They have fleshy pink feet and the cocks also have a fleshy pink cere. Eyes are the same as the Inos; red with a white iris ring.
The Lacewing variety has been bred since 1948. It was recorded that hens appeared in a Lutino stud from a Light Green cock of unknown history paired to a Lutino hen. It seems that these 'badly' marked Lutinos and their normal brothers were disposed of. The late Cyril Rogers was able to trace and obtain one of these normal offspring cocks and after mating to a number of normal hens the Lacewing variety was established. Some of those Lacewings were exported to various parts of the World including South Africa where it was further established. Cyril exhibited the first Lacewing at the 1951 National Exhibition and in late 1968 the Budgerigar Society standardised the variety. The interest in this variety was revived when, on a judging visit, the late Alf Ormerod and Brian Byles brought back examples of this variety from South Africa and bred them with a degree of success. The South African strain seemed to have much deeper and clearer markings and hence the appeal in them was greater.
I obtained my initial Lacewing in 1977 from the Byles strain and was reasonably successful with them prior to my giving up bird keeping in 1979 for 3 years. In 1983 I obtained a quality pair from the late Alf Ormerod which started me back with Lacewings. The variety is sex-linked, like the Ino, and therefore hens cannot be split for Lacewing while cocks can. Hens, because of the sex-linked recessive inheritance genetic theory, can only be either visual Lacewing or non-Lacewing.
The possible pairings with this variety when paired to non-Lacewings (let us use the word "normal" for simplicity) are:

1	Lacewing cock x Lacewing Hen	50% Lacewing cocks50% Lacewing hens
2	Lacewing cock x normal hen	50% normal/Lacewing cocks50% Lacewing hens
3	Normal cock x Lacewing hen	50% normal/Lacewing cocks50% normal hens
4	Normal/Lacewing cock x Lacewing hen	25% Lacewing cocks25% normal/Lacewing cocks 25% Lacewing hens 25% normal hens
5	Normal/Lacewing cock x normal hen	25% normal cocks25% normal/Lacewing cocks 25% Lacewing hens 25% normal hens

This way we can easily find out what is the best pairing to produce the Lacewing variety in numbers. It is also of importance to produce the variety to an exhibition standard regarding the size, shape and deportment of an exhibition Budgerigar combined with the deep body colour contrast and clarity and depth of the wing marking. A combination that is not easily achieved but neither it is impossible.
The Amos & Thumwood partnership achieved great heights with a Lacewing Yellow cock two years ago when they won best in show at a championship show. Like the Ino, the suffusion of the green or blue in the body colour is an undesirable fault. One way of ensuring that this suffusion does not occur is the use of the grey factor birds (Greys and Grey Greens). However, this has the undesirable effect of dulling the body colour if continuously used.
The aim is to produce Lacewings with deep buttercup yellow and the use of dark factor birds as breeding partners will go a long way towards achieving that. Another area to consider is the deep cinnamon brown marking on the wings, mantle etc. There are two schools of thoughts on how to achieve that.
One school of thought encourages the use of Cinnamon birds as partners while the other encourages the use of normals. It can be said that the Cinnamon will dilute the body colour including the wing marking. It is quite apparent that producing a quality Lacewing with the correct marking is not an easy task and here lies the challenge.
My preference is to outcross Lacewings to normals only and without introducing other varieties into the equation. Having said that, there has been scientific evidence, through the work of Dr. Trevor Daniel in the early 1980's, stating that the Lacewing is in fact a Cinnamon Ino. He went about proving his theory by mating an Ino to a Cinnamon and cross mating youngsters, which eventually resulted in him producing a Lacewing. This is due to the "crossover" of the genes because the cinnamon gene and the Ino gene are located very close to each other on the chromosome. However, many Lacewing enthusiasts have disagreed with this theory believing that the Lacewing is a mutation in its own right. Regardless of what theory one would like to accept the Lacewing is a beautiful variety that has its own place on the show bench.
http://budgerigarunivers.blogspot.com/

Ghalib Al-Nasser The Crested Budgerigar

Budgerigar fanciers have heard about, or seen, the Crested variety and a few have appreciated their merits by taking up the challenge of breeding them. My aim is to give some background about this variety.

Origin

The Crested Budgerigar is neither a recent mutation, an abnormal feather growth nor in any way related to "feather-dusters". However, it is a naturally occurring mutation which owes nothing to man for its appearance, except for its development. This mutation causes the feathers, in certain limited areas of the bird's body, to change the direction of their growth, causing feather disturbances.
The earliest recorded occurrence of a Crested mutation was in Sydney, Australia in about 1920. From this bird, presumably, the Australian-strain Crests was bred. As there was no control over their export at that time, it is a possibility that some Crested birds were brought to other countries. But we in the CBC, believe that the Crested variety has a multi-origin as with certain other Budgerigar varieties (e.g., Yellow-Face and Opaline). Records tell us that other Crested mutants appeared on the European continent just prior to the second World War. From these, the Crested variety probably spread throughout Europe in the short period prior to the war.
There are records of another Crested mutant occurring in Canada about 1948. The Crests in the United States are descended from this bird, although the route taken was not the obvious one. Crested birds were smuggled into the US from Mexico. These Crests, which came from this country, were descendants from Crests imported from Canada in the early fifties. This is a good example of a variety's ability to spread all over the world in a short space of time.
Examples of the Crest were first imported into this country in 1938 by Mrs R Brown of Morecambe, Lancs., from an Australian strain. They were breeding freely by 1938.
We, in the United Kingdom, generally identify the above mutations as the "Continental" strain and the "American" strain. The breeding pattern for both strains is exactly the same, they differ only in the position of centre (or locus) of the Crest. The Continental Strain has the centre of the crest just above the cere, resulting in a strong splay of feathers which bend over the head down to eye level. The American strain has the centre of the Crest slightly further back on the head, resulting in the feathers standing more or less upright with a splay only at the ends, if at all. But over the years, these two strains have become intermingled and now either strain can produce the other.

Type of Crest

There are three types of Crest: tufted, half-circular and full circular. The CBC has devised a standard and pictorial ideal for each, which has been approved and recognised by the Budgerigar Society. But in a feather mutation like this, the countless variations of the feather disturbance and the amount of uplift prevents the CBC from applying its standards too rigidly. The standards, however, do provide a guide to breeders and judges. The main judging criterion, as far as the Crest is concerned, is the neatness of the Crest rather than its shape. The tufted (or Cockatiel) type of Crest is the most common and it varies from a mild disturbance on the head to a strong tuft. However, there should always be an upright crest of feathers, up to three-eighths of an inch high, rising just above the cere. The next most common Crest is the half-circular type. This Crest type should be a half-circle of feathers falling or rising in a fringe above the cere. The feathers at the back of the head should be quite flat. The full circular type of Crest goes all around the head and should be a flat round crest with the feathers radiating from the centre of the head. This type is the most aesthetic and the most in demand with fanciers.
The variations in each type of Crest are endless. A shift of the locus of the crest slightly to one side of the head will give a crest a lopsided appearance. However, this will not alter their breeding pattern at all. There are even some birds with double crests, which have a very untidy appearance. These birds have one crest out in front with the other feather disturbance immediately behind. Another type of Crest that occurs now and then is the "Frilled" type. Birds of this type have a feather disturbance not only on the front of the head and along the back of the skull but also also between their wings. "Crest-bred" birds are the non-crested progeny from Crest matings and are indistinguishable from ordinary Budgerigars. However, Crest-bred birds are of considerable value for Crest production when mated with Crested partners. Thus, it is important to keep a record of their identity.

Crest Genetics

Crest genetics are not at all straight-forward, and it is not possible to classify the Crest gene as dominant, recessive or sex-linked. The Crest gene cannot be fully dominant (as are the Grey or Dominant Pied), because when a Crest is paired with a Crest-bred, the expectation of crested progeny will be more than that of when a Crest is paired to a pure normal (i.e., a bird with no Crest background). In fact, even a Crest-bred paired to a normal can produce crested progeny. On the other hand, the Crest gene cannot be fully recessive because crested progeny can be produced from a first cross between a Crest and a pure normal. This is why we in the CBC, do not refer to non-crested progeny as "splits" but always as 'Crest-breds'. There is no correspondence between the "Crest-bred" and the "split" birds of say, Recessive Pieds or sex-linked Opalines. Also we have found that the laws governing the sex-linkage theory do not help in explaining Crest genetics, as there is no difference between the genetic potential of cocks and that of hens.

The "Initiator" Theory

In fact, after having bred this variety since 1971, I have come to the conclusion (in agreement with the few true geneticists in the fancy) that the Crest gene behaves as semi-dominant to the wild type.
Many theories have been put forward over the years regarding Crest genetics, but the one that the CBC has adopted is the "Initiator Theory". This theory put forward in June 1970 by Dr J E Fox of Kansas University, USA, superseded his earlier theory the "Inhibitor Theory" which he published in Cage and Aviary Birds on May 28 1964. The "Initiator Theory" stated that the formation of a Crest depended upon the complimentary action of the two types of semi-dominant genes; a Crest initiating gene and the Crest determining gene. When these are both present as a single factor, the Crest is tufted; when there is one inhibitor and two determiners, the Crest is half-circular; when there are two inhibitors and either one or two determiners, the Crest is full circular. The theory further states that when there is only one semi-dominant gene present without the other, then there is no visual crest and the bird is a Crest-bred (which is different from the pure normals which have no Crested genes).

Breeding with Crests

Even if the "Initiator Theory" is accepted, there still remains a certain amount in the breeding pattern of Crests to be explained. One thing of which we are certain, is that Crests as a variety, are true breeding as far as the passing on of the visual Crest character is concerned, although the Crest type when bred with a Crest-bred can produce any other types of Crest. That is, a Tuft paired to a Crest-bred can produce all three types of Crests; a circular Crest paired to a Crest-bred can also produce all three types of Crests and so can a circular Crest paired to a Crest-bred. The main factor is the parentage of the Crest-bred.
For convenience, I shall use the term "Crest" as referring to any type of Crest, regardless of the sex, in explaining the breeding pattern of this variety.

• Crest × Crest matings will produce the highest proportion of Crested progeny plus some Crest-breds. However, I feel that there are no advantages to be gained in such pairings as almost invariably they will produce Crests of poor quality and little substance.
• Crest × Crest-bred matings will produce the next highest proportion Crested progeny plus Crest-breds and pure normals (with no Crest background). This is in fact, the type of pairing that is most recommended for the maintenance of size and type. It is important that when using this pairing, the Crest-bred should come from a pairing in which as least one parent was visually Crested.
• Crest × normal matings will produce a few Crests but mostly Crest-breds and normals. However, this is the sort of pairing one has to make now and then to improve the size and quality of the Crests and Crest-breds. The normal parent used, however, needs to be of outstanding size and type.
• Crest-bred × Crest-bred and Crest-bred × normal matings have been known to produce the occasional Crested bird. (This proves that the Crest gene is more than merely dominant in character). However, this is not a recommended mating for Crest production, unless one is breeding for the pet market, as a lot of "wastage" is produced.

A Crested chick in the nest can be distinguished from a non-Crested chick as early as 12 days from its birth by the twisted looking stubble on its head. However, it may not be until the chick is three weeks old that one can distinguish the type of Crest.
In conclusion, I do hope that I have succeeded in passing on some information about the Crested variety and whetted fanciers' appetites. Indeed the variety offers a challenge in breeding for colour as well as for crest.
http://budgerigarunivers.blogspot.com/