Dr John Pilkington answers questions on Genetics

Budgerigars Galore

Question to Dr John Pilkington from Kathy

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?

Answer: Thanks for your question Kathy. From your description of your hen it appears that she is a Yellowface (Type 1) Cinnamon Skyblue, and for my prediction of the colours of the offspring that this pairing may produce, I will assume she is this colour. You must remember that all expectations are theoretical and the numbers of each colour is calculated upon an infinite number of offspring being produced and therefore that actual numbers of each colour being seen in the nest may well be different to the theory

Firstly, I can state with all certainty that all the offspring will be blues of one type or another! Since the cock bird is a Cobalt, then 50% of the offspring should also be cobalt and 50% will be Skyblue. Also, since the hen is a Yellowface, then 50% of the offspring should also be Yellowface - some Cobalt and some Skyblue.

Since the cock is an Opaline but the hen is a Normal all the female offspring will be Opalines and the cocks will appear visually as Normals but will be genetically split for Opaline.

Since the hen is a Cinnamon, if the cock is split as a Cinnamon, then 50% of the cocks should appear Cinnamon and 50% of the hens should also appear Cinnamon. But if the cock is not split, then none of the offspring will appear Cinnamon.

If you want to know more about the genetics of your pair then study all the pages on, Dark factors, Yellowface, Opaline and Cinnamon genetics on this website. Good Luck.

IEditors' note: I regret that Dr Pilkington is unable to answer any further questions.

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