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  I
came home with a recessive pied dark green budgie cock 20th
of September 1997. I fell in love with that bird during a
budgie exhibition where I was helping around. After one week
I contacted a budgie breeder and after another week I went
to him and bought a hen to the male. She was a normal light
green budgie girl born 10th of June -97. She was
a little bit more tough and curious than the male, but extremely
calm and kind. She didn't bite at all when I handled her,
while the male gave me some nips. I got very sad when she
suddenly passed away in January 2004.
When I came home with her I could see that he was very happy.
He courted her but as a budgie girl she pretended that she
wasn't seeing nor hearing him. Although she noticed everything
he did. The male was chirping a little bit different than
my previous budgies did, his chirps are a little softer and
sometimes he makes some sounds that I've never heard before.
Perhaps he has learned that while he was in a big aviary at
his previous owner's place.
The recessive variety is appealing to me since no bird looks
exactly the same as the other, besides it is harder to breed
good recessive pieds and that is a challenge for me. It's
not easy to keep the size on these budgies.
I didn't know that much about things like this before, but
with the help from other more experienced breeders of the
recessive variety I have hopefully learned some useful tips.
It will be interesting to see if I'll manage to breed some
good recessive pieds in the future.
I gave a nesting box to this pair about the time when the
female was around one year old and in breeding condition.
She was interested in the box but he didn't quite know what
to do and the hen eventually lost the interest. I bought a
couple of more English type of budgerigars, two grey green
cocks, so that the pair would hear some more chirping sounds
from other budgies, no luck. Eventually one of those grey
green males passed away for unknown reasons. Anyway I switched
pairs and tried setting the light green hen up with the remaining
grey green cock, and oh yes, they were much more compatible
and I put up a nesting box for them during the winter of 2000-01,
when they both were in prime breeding condition. They mated
and she layed some eggs, incubated them, but argh! not ONE
was fertile. She layed another clutch, but not ONE was fertile
from that clutch either! So out of 20+ eggs layed, from two
clutches, they got no chicks! I also got a young sky blue
split recessive pied hen and paired her up with the recessive
cock that I have. They also seem to be much compatible, however
they also seem to need a bit more practice on how to mate.
;-)
Anyway the future will tell if I'll get some youngsters at
all from my current budgies or if I'll get some new ones.
The other breeders I've talked to have gotten plenty of offspring
from their pairs during the breeding season of 2000-01, so
can you tell I was a bit frustrated about my results! Until
this year (2004) I haven't gotten any chicks from my current
small flock of budgies.
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