Budgie Mutations 101

[Zoohtasim]

Don't be scared, if you somehow even understand a little bit of the disastrous calamity called chicken genetics, this will be really easy! This is a broad topic and I will be updating this thread everyday with a new mutation! Thanks for keeping up with me!

 

[Zoohtasim]

First, let's learn about how budgie colors work.

Budgies come in a variety of colors! Namely blue and green. The green is also known as the 'Wild Type' as it can be seen in it's natural habitat Australia, while the blue is the result of years of captive selective breeding.

Budgies have two things giving them their color, Psittacine and Melanin. Psittacine gives them a yellow coat, and melanin gives them a blue coat on top of it. That blue and yellow mix together and create a green budgie (yes the color green actually doesn't exist in budgies). But somehow if the Psittacine doesn't work properly, it gives the budgie a plain white coat. Melanin falls on top and white and blue result in a blue budgie! So if you see a budgie, it's base color is the color psittacine gave it (like white for a blue bird and yellow for a green bird) But melanin doesn't fall in their head so they retain their base color in there.

Now the gene that turns the psittacine off for a blue bird is recessive, meaning that the green gene is dominant. Two copies of the blue gene will result in a blue bird (blue birds are always homozygous meaning their alleles or copies are the same), two copies of the green gene will result in a homozygous green bird, and 1 copy of the blue gene and 1 copy of the green gene will make a heterozygous green bird (as green is dominant)

Now each bird gets one copy of these genes from one of the parents, other from the other parent. So, if we put them in punnet square, we can predict what color children they will have.

So the green gene will be capital G and the blue gene will be lowercase b -

1) Two Homozygous green birds produce

100% Homozygous Green Birds
2) Two heterozygous green birds produce

25% homozygous green birds, 50% heterozygous green birds, 25% blue birds
3) Two blue birds produce

100% blue birds
[this process can be done with a lot more combinations like a heterozygous green bird and blue bird]

Now another thing that comes to consideration is, melanin always doesn't give only blue, sometimes it carries with it some factors like -
i) The purple factor ; makes a blue bird more purplish
ii) The grey factor
iii) Dark factor ; makes existing color darker

For this dark factor, green birds can be sorted into 3 types -
a) Light green (lightest shade)
b) Dark green
c) Olive green (darkest shade)

Same with the blue birds -
a) Sky blue (lightest shade)
b) Cobalt
c) Mauve (darkest shade)

These factors that come with the melanin are often hereditary and are passed on.

And that will be all about basic budgie colors!

 

[Zoohtasim]

Let's learn about the Opaline Mutation now!

Firstly, in budgies, the chromosomes of the sexes are opposite to the chromosomes in humans. Thus -
Males = XX
and Females = XY
Secondly,
What is a sex linked mutation?
- A sex linked mutation is a mutation that is only carried in the 'x' chromosome.

Now let's start on the actual learning -

PHENOTYPE :
The Opaline Mutation is a mutation present in budgies that make the following changes occur in their phenotype which is their physical appearance -
a) It makes the barrings on their head and shoulders lessen or disappear entirely.
For example, here are two of my budgies -

As you can see in the above picture, the budgie has a lot of black stripes on it's head and on it's shoulders.

But in this picture, you can easily see how much reduced the black stripings are in the head and shoulders! (sunsilk is better just saying)
b) It changes their wing colors.
A regular budgie will have black and their base color colored wings (like black/yellow for a green birb and black/white for a blue birb)
But the opaline gene changes that. Instead it changes the wings from 'Black and base color' to 'Black and body color' (like black/blue for a blue birb and black/green for a green birb)
For example, here are two of my budgies again -

You can see in the above picture that the bird has black striped with white wings (white being the base color of the budgie)

But this bird has black and blue (blue being his body color) wings!
That's the physical changes the opaline gene makes, everything else of this budgie is normal.

GENETICS :
The opaline gene is a sex linked recessive mutation meaning it can only be carried in the 'x' chromosome.

That results in a budgie male to be -
1. Opaline : Having two 'x' chromosomes carrying the opaline gene as it is recessive to the wild type
2. Not opaline : Having none of the 'x' chromosomes carry the gene
3. Carrier : Have one of the 'x' chromosomes to carry the gene, but the appearance of that budgie will be of the wild type as Opaline is a recessive mutation

That also results in females being -
1. Opaline : Have her single 'x' chromosome carry the opaline gene
2. Not opaline : As she doesn't carry two 'x' chromosomes, her appearance tells it all. Either an opaline or not an opaline.

Let's have some fun with the punnet square now! (pretend the red color 'x' carries the opaline gene and the black 'x' doesn't)
a) Two opaline birds produce

= 100% opaline babies
b) Opaline male and Normal female produce

= 100% male babies will be carriers and 100% female babies will be opaline
c) Normal male and Opaline female produce

= 100% male babies will be carriers and 100% females will be normal
d) Carrier for opaline gene male and normal female produce

= 50% of male babies will be carriers, 50% of male babies will be normal, 50% of the female babies will be opaline and 50% of the female babies will be normal
e) Carrier for opaline gene male and opaline female produce

= 50% of the male babies will be opaline, 50% of the male babies will be carriers, 50% of the female babies will be opaline and 50% of the female babies will be normal

And THAT sums up the opaline mutation!

 

[Zoohtasim]

Let's talk about another mutation today!

~The Ino Mutation~
The Ino mutation is another sex linked recessive mutation in budgies. It's job is to cut off the production of melanin in a budgie.

PHENOTYPE :

1) They are either all white or all yellow as it can be seen above. As the Ino gene cuts off the production of melanin (check post 1 for clarification of what this is), the budgie only gets the color of the psittacine aka yellow or white.
A yellow Ino budgie is called a Lutino.
A white Ino budgie is called an Albino.
2) They HAVE to have Red Eyes. Many other mutations can produce an all white or yellow budgie, so definitely look out for this.
3) They have pink legs (as melanin is cut off)
4) They have silvery white cheek patches (as melanin is cut off)
5) They have a bright orange beak (again as melanin is cut off)
6) Males dont change the color of their cere, it always remains pink as yet again melanin is cut off. Females still have white ceres and brown crusty ones once broody
7) The Ino gene masks off all the dark factors. It still has them in it, and will pass it on and express in offspring which aren't Ino

GENOTYPE :
The gene passes on exactly like the opaline gene so it's quite easy to understand.

@muddy75 here you go!

 

[muddy75]

Let's talk about another mutation today!

~The Ino Mutation~
The Ino mutation is another sex linked recessive mutation in budgies. It's job is to cut off the production of melanin in a budgie.

PHENOTYPE :
View attachment 2876652
1) They are either all white or all yellow as it can be seen above. As the Ino gene cuts off the production of melanin (check post 1 for clarification of what this is), the budgie only gets the color of the psittacine aka yellow or white.
A yellow Ino budgie is called a Lutino.
A white Ino budgie is called an Albino.
2) They HAVE to have Red Eyes. Many other mutations can produce an all white or yellow budgie, so definitely look out for this.
3) They have pink legs (as melanin is cut off)
4) They have silvery white cheek patches (as melanin is cut off)
5) They have a bright orange beak (again as melanin is cut off)
6) Males dont change the color of their cere, it always remains pink as yet again melanin is cut off. Females still have white ceres and brown crusty ones once broody
7) The Ino gene masks off all the dark factors. It still has them in it, and will pass in on and express in offspring which aren't Ino

GENOTYPE :
The gene passes on exactly like the opaline gene so it's quite easy to understand.

@muddy75 here you go!

Thanks It makes much more sense now!!!

 

[Zoohtasim]

Thanks It makes much more sense now!!!

Glad I could help! If you didnt get the genotype part, scroll upto the opaline gene explanation and swap the word 'opaline' for Ino and it'll be easier!!

 

[Zoohtasim]

Let's start on the third mutation of this thread now!
~The Cinnamon Mutation~
Just like the Ino and Opaline mutations, the Cinnamon Mutation is a sex linked recessive mutation.

PHENOTYPE :
As we know, the wing colors of the budgie can be black/yellow or black/white if it is a normal budgie and black/green or black/blue if it is an opaline budgie. Still, all of these wing colors have something in common, which is that they all have the color black! They have black wing markings and black barrings on their head. And the job of the cinnamon mutation is to basically change that.

A normal budgie with black wing markings and barrings can be seen above.

But here, it can be clearly seen that this budgie doesn't have the color black. Rather, it has a warm brown color. This is the main change that the cinnamon mutation makes. [the cinnamon budgie shown above is also opaline which is an entire different gene of it's own giving her wings the color blue, the cinnamon mutation only changed the color black to brown in her wings, it didn't do anything else]
So, all in all the changes this mutation carries with it are -
1) They change the black color of the wing markings and barrings of a budgie to brown.
2) They dilute about 50% of their original body color.
3) They have pink feet.
4) In babyhood, some cinnamons are born with red eyes which darkens over time [nothing to do with the Ino mutation]

Other than that, the cinnamon budgie brings no more phenotypical changes to a bird.

GENOTYPE :
This mutation is passed on exactly like the Ino and Opaline budgies. But for a recap -
The cinnamon gene is a sex linked recessive mutation meaning it is only carried in the 'x' chromosome.
Resulting in males being -
Cinnamon
Not Cinnamon
Or carrier
And females being -
Cinnamon
Not Cinnamon

In the punnet square -
1) A carrier male and cinnamon female produce

= 50% of the male babies will be cinnamon, 50% of the male babies will be carriers, 50% of the females will be cinnamon and 50% of the females will be normal.

And THAT sums up the cinnamon gene!

 

[AntiqueB]

This is fascinating, @Zoohtasim . You explain it very well, and the squares make it easy. This should be an article!

 

[TheCluckyClucker2]

This is fascinating, @Zoohtasim . You explain it very well, and the squares make it easy. This should be an article!

I agree. I have been reading up on budgies. They seem fun!

 

[Zoohtasim]

This is fascinating, @Zoohtasim . You explain it very well, and the squares make it easy. This should be an article!

Thanks a lot!! I completely forgot about this thread for exams! New post by today!!