How exactly did people hundreds of years ago create the different colored parakeets?

[NatJ]

There was hardly any technology during that era. I am amazed at how the process of selective breeding works. Can someone please explain this?

You don't need technology. You just need to be able to keep the birds in cages and care for them properly, so you control the matings and predators don't eat them.

Most of the domestic animals we have now came from people mating the male & female they liked best, and keeping the best of the offspring for the next generation. It could be the cow who gave the most milk, the biggest pig, or the prettiest colored budgies.

Knowing about genetics can help, but breeding still comes down to selecting the best ones for breeding. And of course we don't see all the times in the past that someone tried crossing this one with that one and did NOT like the results We only see the ones that were good enough that people kept breeding them.

 

[BigRedHenny]

I need to do a bit more research on that part but this is my hypothesis -
As Budgies exclusively belong to the southern part of Australia, I guess the English budgies are a result of years of selective breeding and choosing the biggest budgies. That will also answer why English budgies live less than an Australian budgie and have a pretty shaky immune system

I have to agree because a lot of the English Budgies I’ve seen nowadays were the result of inbreeding and shorter lifespans.

 

[Zoohtasim]

I have to agree because a lot of the English Budgies I’ve seen nowadays were the result of inbreeding and shorter lifespans.

Yeah, I had one English budgie but it lived for only a year where my oldest birb here is 6 years old.

 

[BigRedHenny]

Thank you all for the insight! It’s so cool how biology works!

 

[BigRedHenny]

Just asking, do you have any budgies?

I have a pair of Budgies, a pair of Red Rumps and a pair of cockatiels. I don’t really care what colors they produce. My questions about how they come about in the first place is like the question about why is the sky blue (I can google that answer easily but I couldn’t find the answer on google about why Australian Budgies are always green when compared to captive bred Budgies). Now thanks to everyone here, my question has been answered.

 

[Zoohtasim]

I have a pair of Budgies, a pair of Red Rumps and a pair of cockatiels. I don’t really care what colors they produce. My questions about how they come about in the first place is like the question about why is the sky blue (I can google that answer easily but I couldn’t find the answer on google about why Australian Budgies are always green when compared to captive bred Budgies). Now thanks to everyone here, my question has been answered.

What colors are your budgies? Are you planning on breeding?

 

[BigRedHenny]

What colors are your budgies? Are you planning on breeding?

I have bred Budgies before and I’m currently breeding my birds. I used to handfeed the baby birds but that was a time consuming process of “every two hours of delicate handfeeding” until they could wean themselves. So I let the parents take care of their babies nowadays.

My male Budgie is blue and the current young female I purchased is lutino.

Captive bred parrots are difficult to find in pet stores nowadays. Prior to 1992, you could see an Amazon or African Grey at your local Petco and PetSmart. Times have changed (for the better) as to prevent the depopulation of wild parrots, but I believe there will be a time in the future when most of the captive bred parrots remaining in the USA will suffer from too much inbreeding.

 

[Zoohtasim]

I have bred Budgies before and I’m currently breeding my birds. I used to handfeed the baby birds but that was a time consuming process of “every two hours of delicate handfeeding” until they could wean themselves. So I let the parents take care of their babies nowadays.

My male Budgie is blue and the current young female I purchased is lutino.

Captive bred parrots are difficult to find in pet stores nowadays. Prior to 1992, you could see an Amazon or African Grey at your local Petco and PetSmart. Times have changed (for the better) as to prevent the depopulation of wild parrots, but I believe there will be a time in the future when most of the captive bred parrots remaining in the USA will suffer from too much inbreeding.

Mhm, that's good to hear.

 

[Serin]

English budgies are the result of about 150 years of breeding the biggest and most exaggerated budgies in every brood to each other. Every generation they get a little more fluffy.

The many colors of budgies all originate from color mutations present in the genes of wild species. As someone else said, they rarely survive in the wild but have no disadvantages in captivity. Wild budgies also have a larger gene pool than domestic budgies, because all domestic budgies are descended from just the few thousand that were exported from Australia and managed to breed in captivity. This means that the recessive genes are more likely to be shared by both individuals in a breeding pair and produce offspring with two copies of the gene, so which show the novel color.