Mixing a Blue and a Green Budgie

[Greenish]

I am talking about a medium color blue (not sky blue and not those dark blue) and a regular green.

What will the babies look like.

[usamma]

It depends on what other mutations they have. They will either have a blue gene with white, or a green gene with yellow. Rarely do you get the two to go together unless you have yellowface in the genes also. Green is their color in the wild and is dominant to blue. My guess is that most of your babies (if not all) will be green and yellow.

I bred two of my budgies last year and it was fun, but it was also irresponsible of me. There are so many unwanted birds. It was difficult to rehome mine to good homes. I certainly didn't make any money at it. Please think carefully about what you will do with the babies. My birds had 14 babies!! The mom started laying her second clutch before the first ones were fully out of the nest. I kept four of them.

[Greenish]

Originally Posted by usamma

It depends on what other mutations they have. They will either have a blue gene with white, or a green gene with yellow. Rarely do you get the two to go together unless you have yellowface in the genes also. Green is their color in the wild and is dominant to blue. My guess is that most of your babies (if not all) will be green and yellow.

I bred two of my budgies last year and it was fun, but it was also irresponsible of me. There are so many unwanted birds. It was difficult to rehome mine to good homes. I certainly didn't make any money at it. Please think carefully about what you will do with the babies. My birds had 14 babies!! The mom started laying her second clutch before the first ones were fully out of the nest. I kept four of them.

How many birds, on average, in one clutch? How many clutches per year?

[usamma]

When I had my breeding pair last year, I got help from some serious budgie breeders in the UK. They all seemed to agree that more than 2 clutches per year was unethical and would stress the hens out and compromise their health. An average clutch is around 5 eggs but some can lay more or less than that. My hen laid 8 eggs per clutch and the youngest baby of each clutch died (probably crushed by the others). I had to hand-feed most of the babies for 2-3 days until the parents took over. They eat every 2 hours day and night. You can hear them peeping in the middle of the night for food until they are a week or two old.

[Greenish]

Originally Posted by usamma

When I had my breeding pair last year, I got help from some serious budgie breeders in the UK. They all seemed to agree that more than 2 clutches per year was unethical and would stress the hens out and compromise their health. An average clutch is around 5 eggs but some can lay more or less than that. My hen laid 8 eggs per clutch and the youngest baby of each clutch died (probably crushed by the others). I had to hand-feed most of the babies for 2-3 days until the parents took over. They eat every 2 hours day and night. You can hear them peeping in the middle of the night for food until they are a week or two old.

How do you control them from breeding? Seperation? No breeding box?

[usamma]

Once the clutch has been hatched, if the mom lays more eggs for a second clutch just remove them. (A second clutch will often be laid about a month after the first clutch.) As the last baby leaves the nest box for good, remove the entire nest box. Provide a shelter such as upside down margarine container with part of the side cut out in case the babies want to hide sometimes. The male bird can feed/raise them from this point on with no help from the hen, so the hen should be removed.

After the babies/nest box are gone, you might be able to put the breeding pair back together in a non-breeding cage. Most of the time they won't lay unless there's a nest to lay in. They may mate, and that's okay as long as there is no other nesting behavior.

Some birds will continue to lay in spite of your efforts (with our without a male present). That's another issue altogether. I have heard that you can buy fake budgie eggs made of clay and put a lot of them in a nest box, and it will trigger the mom to not lay any more because she has enough.

[Monica]

Sounds like you are interested in breeding a cobalt (one dark factor) with a normal green.

If there are no hidden mutations (or other visual mutations), all offspring will be green split blue. When we include the dark factor, you'll get some dark green offspring.

[birde]

I have these two budgies in the exact same colours mentioned!
The mother is a normal (not dark or light) blue colour and father is normal green with some yellow. The mother is currently incubating 2 eggs (from what we can tell) but more may be coming soon. What is this about removing the mother after the eggs have hatched? I can't remove mine - she is not hand tame and the only place I could put her is with my tiel - not happening!
I don't understand technical names, so could someone show me pictures of the possible mutations they will produce?

[Monica]

If your pair is a normal green and a normal blue, you'll have all green offspring split to blue. You can see a variety of mutations on this website
Budgie / Parakeet Colors Mutations and Varieties

In regards with removing one parent, this is only if the parent is being aggressive with the chicks... i.e. one (if not both) of the parents are plucking or mutilating the chicks. It's possible for a single parent to raise chicks but it can be much more stressful.

[birde]

Oh ok well the eggs are still being incubated, the male gets in the nest box with her a lot of the time too. I don't think he would be violent but perhaps she might be, I will stop it immediately should it happen. Thanks! :)

P.S. What does 'split to blue' mean?