Dr John Pilkington Answers Questions on Genetics

Can you please explain why I find it so difficult to produce dilutes although I know that they are present in my stock, I rarely find one?

Question 2

Since the Cinnamon Opaline variety is the result of the closeness of the Cinnamon gene and the Opaline gene on the X chromosome, and since Cinnamon Opaline cocks have two X chromosomes, they must be very rare, however, I have two Cinnamon Opaline hens.

Question 3

Are fallows, or are they not, sex-linked? I had a male that I bred for several years, and never produced another of either sex. Also, I bred his offspring to each other, and still got no more. I have since purchased a female fallow (she is an opaline with some-what splotchy markings, but she came, via a third person, from the aviary of a judge) and have two of her offspring, which I intend to breed back to the descendants of the original bird next year.

Question 4

I know of a person who bred some birds from which he bred a blue series budgerigar, but its mask is yellow and half of its body is yellow. Its head feathers are pure white and half of its underbelly from the mask down is yellow/blue, tail lacks yellow pigmentation. In its genetic background there is no known English yellow face that has been introduced for more than 4 generations, before that is anyone's guess! Is there any chance that this bird is a true yellow face as it has a mask that is yellow or is it a halfsider?

Question 5

I have read some speculation that the violet factor and/or the crested factor may have some lethal gene potentials. I have also read opinions to the contrary. Are there any confirmed "lethal" genes in the budgies?

Question 6

Hi my name is Kathy and I LOVE budgies too!! Right now I have a male and female! My male is an opaline cobalt, but I don't know what my female is!! She is a very light yellow and blue mix.....the black markings that my male has on his wings and such are actually a very light brown on her! Do you know what her colour is?? I think someone mentioned before that she was a Sea foam something....... also I was planning on breeding them! Any idea on what kinds of colours I can expect for the babies? I was planning on breeding them, what colours could I expect?

Question 7a

What effect does the Violet gene have on the appearance of a grey budgie?

Question 7b

How can one tell visually if a mauve budgie has a violet gene? Or is breeding the only way to tell? I have heard that a skyblue with a violet gene will look like a cobalt, but with a more turquoise tail. Are there any comparative pictures anywhere?

Question 7c

What is a Whitewing? As in "rainbows are cobalt yellowface whitewing Opalines"

Question 7d

I take it that the yellowface gene does not affect green-series birds? If one were trying to encourage the generation of a whiteface gene for the green-series birds, would one breed the yellowface gene in to green-series birds? Maybe we all should be doing this in order to hasten the emergence of a whiteface mutation.

Question 7e

By what mechanism does the spangle gene do its thing? For instance, does it narrow the width of black markings? Saying that it reverses black and white spaces doesn't seem right, especially when you look at the budgies face spots.

Question 7f

By what mechanism does the violet gene work? Changes in the cloudy layer?

Question 7g

I notice visual violets are very strikingly purple when the bird is opaline, as if the color was pushed further up the spectrum. Do any other variants show this wonderful "purplizing" effect on visual violet birds?

Question 8

I have an opaline cock who is quite nice and has no flecking. His offspring (hen chicks from a normal hen) however seem to be split with some having a nice clear cap and others having flecks. Is this a matter of two different opaline genes or more a problem of close linked genes?

Question 9

One of my pairs hatched two babies. Both Babies died at about 5 weeks. However, at the time of their death neither baby had any feathers and it took three weeks just to open their eyes. As far as their size they stopped growing at about the ten day point.

Question 10

Question: If I breed my yellow (not lutino) budgie to another (rare) yellow budgie, what percentage of babies would be Yellow?

Question 11

I started breeding budgies with the smaller wild type and now am moving to the exhibition birds. With my small birds, I had close to a 100% hatch rate (disregarding first time hens anyway) The exhibition birds seem a lot harder to breed. The hens are easier than the cocks, but even with a good hen I seldom get higher than an 80% hatch rate. I was told this was due mostly to buff feathering on the cocks, but even after trimming feathers the clutches are small and seldom do I get the 100% I was used to.

Question 12

I have heard that pairing two Grey birds together is not very advisable. Double factor Greys are a curse is what people are saying. Is this true ? I always thought if two birds no matter what colour were of ideal pairing go for it ! I have been trying for years to get a decent Grey from Grey Greens, Greys and Blues and as I breed Yellow Face Mutant 1 budgerigars, I know that the yellow suffusion through the bird's body is mostly cancelled out if the pairing is Y/F Grey to Grey or Grey to Y/F Blue, and if the youngsters are Y/F Grey then one reaps the rewards hopefully!

Question 13

The mutation Danish pied seems to be dominant to white or yellow. Is it known whether Danish pied are also dominating greywing or clearwing? I did not find convincing data that could explain this topic as many opinion leader in the fancy do not suggest this kind of combination. My point is Could we learn more about the dilute/greywing/clearwing model by analyzing the relationship to Danish pied?

Based on the literature it seems that the dilute/greywing/clearwing mutations may form a multiple allelic series of mutations. Dilute is dominated by greywing and clearwing. Greywing is co-dominant to clearwing. Do you know of any scientific data that may indicate the contrary? Do you know whether this multiple allelic series of mutations consists of three members only? In other words do you think that the three mutation model (dilute/greywing/clearwing) can explain the observed "color" variations (eg. light suffused versus deep suffused, English clearwing versus Australian clearwing)? What is happening when English clearwings are mated to Australian clearwings?

It would be interesting for me to read additional literature on this subject? Did you do some research in this direction or do you know people doing this kind of research?

Question 14

I paired a yellow lacewing together with a grey green hen and got an Albino. I have checked this bird out every week for the last two months but have not found a cinnamon spot or mark or tail quill anywhere. Is this answerable?

Question 15

I have two questions to do with the rich dark yellow we seek in "finishing off" yellow variety birds, i.e., Danish Pieds, Dominant Pieds, Lacewings and Lutinos which is called "buttercupping"of their body colour. a] Will dark factor birds i.e., Dark Greens, Olives Cobalts and Mauves help in this matter to produce the buttercupping? Will the violet factor contribute also to the above mentioned ?

Question 16

(a)My Greywing yellow (f) and Spangle Skyblue (m) budgies recently had 5 eggs, 2 of which were fertile. One of the young was a Grey-Green Greywing and the other was almost pure yellow, though it wasn't a Lutino. It had dark eyes and you could just see traces of very faint markings on its wings. Its 2 throat spots were white. What variety of budgie would this be?

(b)Hello! I have enjoyed following your column on Dolores' page regarding genetics. I noticed that one of your questions dealt with the affect of grey and violet together, which leads to my question: I bred two non visual Grey budgies and came out with 2 Grey offspring out of 14 chicks. Can you please explain the colours of the resulting offspring.

Question 17

The elimination of thecinnamon factor from a stud.

Question 18

An explanation of the Ino factor.

Question 19

My show budgie went light over a long period of time - could it have been a genetic disease?

Question 20

I recently paired an opaline laurel dominant pied cock to an opaline spangle dominant pied violet hen. With regards the last chick, it has obvious patches of violet on its chest and is quite dark for a grey but is not plum coloured. What would you expect is its true colour

Editors' note: I regret that Dr Pilkington is unable to accept any more questions.

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