Question
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!
Answer: Editor's Note: This answer amended by Dr Pilkington on 9th September 1998
I have also heard the same advice, and I would agree with you that if
two excellent Grey factor birds are paired together then there is nothing
wrong with this mating. However, most of the offspring will be Greys and some
will be double factor Greys, which means that, if you use this mating
often, you will in time produce mainly Grey factor offspring, thus all
Blues will be Greys and all Greens will be Grey Greens, you will
unwittingly become a Grey factor specialist, and you will have one hell
of a problem producing birds in other colours in any quantity - I think
that is the curse.
Having said that, The Grey gene is a simple dominant gene and operates in exactly
the same way as do all simple dominant genes in budgerigars. If you mate two
Green birds, one of which must be homozygous Green, then all the offspring will
Green - if you are wishing to specialise in the production of Blue series budgerigars
then such a mating may be counter-productive. I think the lesson here is, that
if you wish to avoid filling your birdroom with Grey factor birds then either,
do not pair two Grey factor birds together, or keep a select Grey family within
your birdroom and vigorously cull all but the best Greys, even if some Grey
culls are slightly better overall quality than some of your other specimens
in other colours. If you do not carefully "contain" the Grey gene
then you will rapidly become another Grey Green specialist!!!!!
Your observation that the Grey gene restricts the over-supply of the yellow
colouration on to the body in Yellowface Mutant 1 budgerigar is most interesting,
and until you pointed this out I must admit that I have observed better Yellowface
Greys than Yellowface Blues, but I was unaware that the Grey gene appears to
limit the over-supply, although this is logical.
Another illogical piece of popular wisdom which has always amused me is that
budgerigar breeders claim that budgerigars of colours which are genetically
dominant, are bigger birds than those colours which are genetically recessive.
The grey gene is dominant, and large Grey birds are often seen; however, the
Violet gene is also genetically dominant yet many breeders claim that Violet
budgerigars cannot be bred as large birds - if genetic dominance of the colour
genes confers larger size, why cannot Violets be big birds, and why do we not
see more dominant pieds?
My advice to you Gary is do your own thing - if it works keep on doing it, no
matter what you are told by others. If you do the same as everyone else, your
results will be the same as everyone else's and you will remain in the crowd.
But, if you do your own thing, you may sink or you may swim, but if you want
to get ahead of the crowd you've got to do something different, and it sounds
to me that you are sufficiently independant-minded to ignore popular wisdom.
Just remember to keep your greys separate from other colours.
Editors' note: I regret that Dr Pilkington is unable to answer any further questions.
Original text Copyright © 1998, Dr John Pilkington
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