Breeding Pied Budgerigars
I have been breeding pied budgerigars now for three years. Although I have not had great success on the show bench with them I hope that that will come in time. When I first bought a Pied budgerigar I was a little bit unsure as to whether to put it into my main line of birds or if I should keep it as a separate line. The bird itself was related to my birds. After a great deal of thought I eventually decided to pair up the pied with a nice distantly related hen and the chicks that were bred were quite good. I decided that in the following year I would put them into my main line of birds.
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Over the last two years the quality of my pieds have improved both in size and in markings. I think that they are now good enough to breed with the very best normals in my stud. If when I pair up my birds any pied cocks or hens that I put down to breed are viewed just as normal Budgerigars. If pieds appear in the nest then it is a bonus.
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When I look at Dominant Pieds on the show bench I like to see them carrying the band around the breast of the bird. Sometimes this is not so and you see a broken band or just a splash of colour on the breast of the bird. I view this as a fault, but depending on the overall quality of the birds when judged it can be placed in front of a bird that is showing the band. I also like to see a Pied budgerigar with a full set of |
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When breeding Pieds I always like to put Normal to Pied. I am not worried at all whether the Pied is the cock or the hen as long as it is as good as the normal I am pairing it with. If you put an inferior Pied into your stock then it can only lessen the quaility of your normal budgerigars. I would not put Pied to Pied as most of the colour is lost on the progeny. The wings lose the Pied markings and are almost clear, as is the breast. I also do not like opaline Pieds but this is a personal preference. I like to see a good Normal Pied. |
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| On the next page there are two
Breeding Chart breeding charts which shows the expectations when breeding
Pieds. Although the first part of the chart shows you what you can expect, you can just as easily end up with no Pieds at all. |
