When a feather duster turns up in a nest of budgerigar chicks and it is the first experience of them you have had then it can be quite a shock. If you exhibit your budgerigars then you instantly think you have bred a stormer, so to speak.
Some people describe the feather duster as a budgerigar with "Down's Syndrome". Others say that if you are breeding them then you are getting near to breeding the type of birds that will win for you on the show bench. My thoughts on them are that it is a gene that is not quite right and is past down the family line so to speak. If you pair a related pair of birds that are both carrying this gene, there is a chance they will both pass it on to an offspring. When this happens then that chick has a doubling up of that gene and at this stage there is a greater chance of a feather duster been born.
When they are first hatched in the nest they appear quite normal, But after a few days they can be heard above all their nest mates. They have a funny high pitched cheep that can be picked out from the rest of the youngsters.
At the age of three weeks they look to be an outstanding chick. They are far bigger that their nest mates and apart from the size at this stage they look quite normal. By four weeks their feathers seem to accelerate in growth. They grow at an alarmingly fast rate and by the time the chick is ready to leave the nest it is completely different from the rest. It's feathers have grown so much that they are not recognizable. They are curling in on themselves and there are twice the amount that a normal budgerigar has. Instead of two main tail feathers it has four, the same as with the flight feathers. The feathers above the cere grow so long and curl into the budgerigars face making it almost impossible for the budgerigar to see.
When they leave the nest they almost never find their way onto a perch in the cage but can be quite often found sitting in the seed pot continually eating. They seem to need to eat all day and this may be necessary for the replacement of their feathers. When they moult and lose their feathers others grow exactly the same in their place. If you breed one of these birds and you decided to keep it in your aviary then you can cut it's feathers around its face and beak, making it's short life a little easier.
Feather dusters only seem to live a few months, but I have known breeders who have had them for almost 12 months, although is not often they will live this long.
Although many people give their thoughts, myself included, as to why these budgerigars appear in the nest , there has been no evidence found which will give us the true reason why. They still remain a mystery.