Phenotypic Effects Caused by the Multiple Allele Series of the dil-locus (dilute) in the Budgerigar[Melopsittacusundulatus]

MUTAVI – Research & Advice Group, The Netherlands During the development of normally pigmented feathers, pigment cells also known as melanocytes, synthesize numerous melanosomes (pigment granules) [13], that are distributed by melanocyte dendrites into neighbouring keratinocytes. Colour mutations alter normal pigment synthesis or pigment dispersion. One of the phenotypic effects caused by mutation is pigment…

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The Ideal – Part 2

The Big Issue: Exhibition or ‘English’ Budgerigars Visit a show in the UK today and you will see birds like the one below being awarded trophies as paragons of the breeder’s skill. Ironically, it has taken great skill for breeders to produce birds with these highly exaggerated characteristics: massive heads, a doubling of body size,…

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Starting with Budgerigars

An interest in birds usually begins as a child. Time and time again after a couple of years with birds, the teenager gives up and makes a return to bird-keeping twenty or more years later. Many give up keeping birds at around 16/17 years old and return when they are settled, married and have the…

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Budgerigars and their eggs

We tend to dismiss the eggs and believe it all “just happens” in the breeding room with eggs but to be successful with budgerigars being they exhibition, colour or just pets, it’s vital to understand what’s going on with eggs – and to know what’s normal and not so normal. We pair up our birds…

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Breeding Problems

With any luck we will have chicks in the nests by now, some will have left the boxes and be on the perches. Other pairs will have produced eggs – but things have gone wrong. Some pairs will even have done nothing – and still be sitting there looking at each other. This article is…

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