Budgie Mutations 101

[AntiqueB]

How about a quiz? It might be fun to see pictures of your birds and try to tell their types.

 

[Zoohtasim]

How about a quiz? It might be fun to see pictures of your birds and try to tell their types.

WOW!!! That's BRILLIANT Be sure, I'll be doing that!!

 

[Zoohtasim]

After a long break, here's the fourth mutation of this thread.
~The Spangle Mutation~

Firstly, to understand this mutation clearly, we need to learn a new term.
> Incomplete Dominant Gene
- An incomplete dominant gene is a dominant gene which does not completely overpower a recessive gene. As we know, anything alive in this world needs two copies of genes to exist (not counting asexual reproduction) and of course budgies do too. One copy from the father and one from the mother. Now in normal dominant genes, only one copy of the dominant gene can completely mask of the other recessive copy. For example - A recessive gene makes a bird yellow. Another dominant gene makes a bird red. If a bird has one copy of each of these genes, the bird will be red. Two copies of the recessive gene will make it yellow and two copies of the dominant gene will of course result in a red bird. But if the gene turning the bird red is incomplete dominant, and the bird has one copy of it, the bird may be half red and half yellow. But if the bird has two copies of that gene, the bird will be completely red, but sometimes it can turn out to be a bit orange-ish (as Red and Yellow suffuse to make orange) All in all, an incomplete dominant gene cannot mask off a recessive gene completely with one copy of it, only with two copies of it. And even then, sometimes the recessive trait can show up.

Now let's start on the actual Spangle Mutation.

GENOTYPE :
The Spangle Mutation is an Incomplete Dominant Mutation in budgies which changes their appearance in certain ways.

Due to being Incomplete Dominant, this mutation causes budgies to be -
i) Not Spangle aka not carrying any copies of this mutation
ii) Single Factor Spangle aka carrying one copy of this mutation
iii) Double Factor Spangle aka carrying two copies of this mutation [note that as the spangle mutation is incomplete 'dominant', a bird's appearance tells it all, spangle or not spangle]

Some fun with the punnet square now! Let's make uppercase 'S' carry the spangle gene and lowercase 's' not carry the spangle gene, meaning -
SS = Double Factor Spangle Budgie
Ss = Single Factor Spangle Budgie
ss = Normal Budgie

a) Normal x Single Factor Spangle

= 50% Single Factor Spangle babies, 50% Normal babies
b) Normal x Double Factor Spangle

= 100% Single Factor Spangle babies
c) Single Factor Spangle x Single Factor Spangle

= 25% Double Factor Spangle babies, 50% Single Factor Spangle babies, 25% normal babies
d) Single Factor Spangle x Double Factor Spangle

= 50% Double Factor Spangle babies, 50% Single Factor Spangle babies
e) Double Factor Spangle x Double Factor Spangle

= 100% Double Factor Spangle babies

Though, keep in mind that sometimes the breeding outcomes for spangle budgies may not always be accurate for complications surrounding the gene itself. But still, the punnet square is a quite reliable source to predict what the babies might be.

PHENOTYPE :

i) Single Factor Spangle Budgie -
This bird is quite easy to recognize. The wings of this bird look completely different from any other mutation of budgies.

Above, two normal budgies can be seen. Their wings black with their base color. Nothing special

But here is a SINGLE FACTOR SPANGLE BUDGIE. This bird's wings are completely different in anyone's eyes! But let's get a bit deeper into why it is.

Firstly, the structure of the color pattern of the wing of a normal GREEN budgie is like this -

A black inner edge, a black centre and a base colored (white/yellow) outer edge [note that the black centre is not a part of the black inner edge and thus has been colored differently]. Many many patterns like this make up the wing of a normal budgie.
In an opaline budgie, it's also the same structure except the outer edge is of the bird's body color (green/blue) instead of the base color. A diagram for the structure of the wing colors of a GREEN Opaline bird -

Now, what the Spangle gene does here is it removes the pigmentation from the centre of the wing. Aka the black is removed to reveal the base color of the bird. The wing structure of a GREEN SF Spangle Bird -

(If the SF spangle budgie is blue, the centre and the outer edge would be white because that is the base color of a blue budgie)
The wing structure of a BLUE Opaline SF Spangle bird -

(here the centre is white)
A BLUE Opaline SF Spangle Bird for reference -

For some fun, can you guess what the wing structure of a Green Opaline Cinnamon SF Spangle Budgie would be?

As we know, the cinnamon mutation removes the black pigmentation from a budgie's wings a replaces them with a brownish color. That is why the black inner edge got swapped for a brown inner edge!

This is the only big visual feature of the SF Spangle Bird. Some other features include -
1) Cheek patches are purple or sometimes silvery. They are also a lot smaller and in some cases, completely gone.
2) The barrings in their head are a bit reduced and lighter.

ii) Double Factor Spangle Budgie -
This bird is even easier to recognize. It is all white or all yellow. Although sometimes a bit of suffusion can happen which can make the bird a pale off white color. Careful not to confuse this budgie with the Ino budgies as Ino budgies always have red eyes, and Spangle budgies have the normal black eyes. A yellow DF Spangle for reference -

And after a LONG reading session, that's all you need to know about the Spangle Mutation!

 

[Poultrybonkers]

Ive been breeding for years never used those charts as never got the point lol and these days im just out for the %of chicks will be this or that like my greywings both split parents gives a 25% chance of getting a greywing so a 1 out of 4 chances lol thats all i need to know

 

[Zoohtasim]

Ive been breeding for years never used those charts as never got the point lol and these days im just out for the %of chicks will be this or that like my greywings both split parents gives a 25% chance of getting a greywing so a 1 out of 4 chances lol thats all i need to know

The point really is to make the breeding expectations clear for beginners and it quite hard to mess up a punnet square. But as you and I, both of us have been breeding budgies for years, we can just work the math up in our minds. But because my posts stem from a VERY easy and beginner method to make everyone understand, I use the punnet square Anyways, how did you find yesterday's post about the Spangle Mutation?

 

[AntiqueB]

This is getting really interesting. Do you know if the same sort of genetics are what make chickens laced? It almost looks like the Spangles are laced budgies.

And I was just wondering if there were Cinnamon Spangles, when I got to that example! When I finally get another budgie, I'm going to wow the pet store with knowledge, thanks to this thread!

 

[Zoohtasim]

This is getting really interesting. Do you know if the same sort of genetics are what make chickens laced? It almost looks like the Spangles are laced budgies.

And I was just wondering if there were Cinnamon Spangles, when I got to that example! When I finally get another budgie, I'm going to wow the pet store with knowledge, thanks to this thread!

Thanks a lot! Means a lot to me that people find this thread helpful!! And also, I'm not into chicken genetics yet, first I'll master chicken care, then I'll touch the genetics part. It seems too complicated

 

[Poultrybonkers]

Thanks a lot! Means a lot to me that people find this thread helpful!! And also, I'm not into chicken genetics yet, first I'll master chicken care, then I'll touch the genetics part. It seems too complicated

I already know budgie mutations is why chicken genetics was easy to follow lol but I only know the genetics Im working with theres somw out there I have no idea how it works once you start it gets easier

 

[Rosa moschata]

Birds don't have XX or XY sex-chromosomes -- they are ZZ (male) and ZW (female). You have the two pigments reversed -- melanins are inside the feather, and psittacins are on top. Melanins are brown to black, and appear blue because feather structure bends the reflected light. The dark factor, gray, and violet mutations affect that structure to alter the refraction, bending the light a little differently. Psittacins are deposited on the outer parts of the feather, and the refracted blue filters through yellow giving green. You're doing an otherwise great job, but just wanted to give you a little polish.

 

[Zoohtasim]

Birds don't have XX or XY sex-chromosomes -- they are ZZ (male) and ZW (female). You have the two pigments reversed -- melanins are inside the feather, and psittacins are on top. Melanins are brown to black, and appear blue because feather structure bends the reflected light. The dark factor, gray, and violet mutations affect that structure to alter the refraction, bending the light a little differently. Psittacins are deposited on the outer parts of the feather, and the refracted blue filters through yellow giving green. You're doing an otherwise great job, but just wanted to give you a little polish.

Thank you! I actually knew the chromosome part but because I wanted to keep it simple I went with XX and XY. Didn't know about the refraction and light part!! Just proves there's sooo much to learn from everyone!! Thank you for the input!