Budgies are popular, colorful pets that make our homes look lovely. They come in different colors, and we have over one hundred colors for budgies, with the primary ones being blue and green. Some budgies have many colors that slowly melt into each other, thus the name rainbow budgies. How, then, do you breed a rainbow budgie?
To get a rainbow budgie, combine four different mutations in one budgie in multiple stages. These mutations include clearwing, yellowface, blue, and opaline. For instance, a breeder will need a male with a yellowface and a female with clearwing. After that, take the male budgie from your result and combine it with the clearwing female. Lastly, combine the female budgie with a male yellowface budgie.
A rainbow budgie is a blue-series budgie with specific mutations. The mutations can be recessive, dominant, or sex-linked. These color mutations include:
1. Blue Mutation
Ever wondered, How are blue budgies made? The answer is simply due to mutation.
Blue series budgies are blue due to a mutation. Budgies have an enzyme that gives them their yellow pigment. If the pigment is removed, a blue mutation occurs, thus giving the budgie its blue-ish shade.
As the mutation is recessive, both parents must be blue or split for blue when breeding the rainbow budgies.
2. Clearwing
This is a diluting mutation. The variation helps dilute the color of rainbow budgies feathers, thus giving them their pastel effect.
Budgies with the clearwing mutation have no marking on the body, and their flight feathers are light-gray in color. Clearwing is a recessive trait, and both parents must carry it.
3. Yellowface
This mutation provides the yellow face and mask of budgies. It’s a recessive trait, and both parents must have it.
This mutation has three variations:
- Yellowface 1, which provides a lemon-yellow color
- Goldenface that is responsible for the deeper yellow color
- Yellowface 2, which gives a buttercup yellow color. Famous for creating rainbow budgies, as it’s not as overpowering as the golden face variant.
4. Opaline
Responsible for the soft graduation of colors as it reduces the intensity of striations between the top of the head, neck, and wings.
It’s a recessive and sex-linked trait. Hence, the female should be visibly opaline, and the male should be visibly or split for opaline.
To produce rainbow budgies, it’s important to understand the nature of the mutations and how to combine them, as it helps determine the genes needed to create a rainbow budgie.
What Is The Best Way to Breed Budgies?
Budgies can be easily bred if they are in pairs. They have to be checked by the veterinarian to determine their sex and health status before pairing up. Birds that are not related are to be bred to avoid birth defects.
To get a rainbow budgie, combine three different mutations in one budgie in multiple stages as stated below:
- Both parents are to have a clearwing or split for a clearwing mutation.
- The male parent has an opaline budgie mutation or split for opaline.
- Both parents must have shades of blue or be clearwing or split for either color.
- At least one parent should be visibly yellowface.
Possible Pairs and Steps When Breeding Budgies
You can combine the gene mutations in the following pairs to form rainbow budgies:
- Yellowface, clearwing, and opaline blue split for green males plus clearwing blue split for green females
- Opaline, clearwing blue male plus yellowface, clearwing blue split for green female
- Yellowface, opaline blue male plus blue, split for clearwing female
Steps to Follow
1. Pair up yellowface and clearwing mutations
Combining yellowface or opaline blue or golden face males with clearwing blue females will result in yellowface, blue, or golden face, split for clearwing and opaline male budgies and yellowface, opaline mutation, split for clearwing and split for opaline clearwing females.
2. Yellow males plus clearwing females
Pairing yellowface blue or golden-face males from the results in step with clearwing blue females will result in 25% pure female rainbow chicks.
3. Final pairing
Yellowface blue, split for clearwing or opaline male( step one results) plus female rainbow (results in step two) will result in 100% male and female rainbow chicks.
How Can You Tell If a Budgie Is a Rainbow?
For a budgie to be referred to as a rainbow, it should consist of physical and genetic traits.
Due to their combination of different mutations, no two rainbow budgies look the same.
The following are some of the characteristics of a rainbow budgie:
1. Color of The Eyes
Rainbow budgies’ eyes are black at maturity, with the iris white in color.
2. Body Color
A rainbow budgie is a blue series budgie that can be cobalt, mauve, or sky blue. Those with darker factor genes are violet or gray in color.
3. Wings and Feathers
Its flight feathers are pale gray in color due to clearwing mutation, and its wings can be off-white with yellow or opalescent blue with green markings.
4. Feet and Legs
A rainbow budgie has feet that are grayish and whitish in color due to the shades of blue, which is a dark genetic factor.
5. Cere Color
Males have ceres with a medium to deep blue color, while females have light blue or white ceres.
During the breeding season, the male’s cere turns deep blue, while the female’s is bronze and crusty.
6. Tail Feathers
The tail feathers are grey and boast a deep body color, with other areas being lighter.
Shorter tail feathers have a flushed yellow color.
7. Head Mask
Due to the golden or yellow face mutation, the head mask is yellow or golden yellow, deepening into green.
8. Cheek Patches
They vary from medium purple to deeper purple or violet.
How Do You Breed Budgies Colors?
The color of the offspring of a given pair of budgies is determined by:
1. Base Color
Base colors determine the color of budgie feathers. They can have yellow or white-based pigments.
Yellow feather pigmentation is responsible for dark and light green, olive, yellow, gray and green colors
White-based or blue pigment is recessive and gives budgies cobalt, grey, mauve, white, violet, and sky-blue colors.
Since green or yellow-based colors are dominant, pairing a yellow-based budgie with a white-based one will result in yellow-based babies.
2. Presence of a Dark Factor
Every budgie has some level of dark factor ranging from zero to two dark elements. These dark factor genes cause color variations.
In the case of green-based pigmentation, the presence of two dark factor genes results in an olive chick, while for one dark factor, the color of the chick is light green.
For white-based budgies, the one with two dark factors is sky blue, while for one dark factor, the color is mauve.
3. Cinnamon Mutation
This is a diluting mutation that affects the colors that babies are to have.
Cinnamon chicks have redder skin than normal budgies, deep plum-colored eyes, and paler tail feathers.
4. Color-adding Factor
They are of two types; grey and violet. The grey factor is the dominant one. Hence;
Yellow-based plus grey factor results in grey-green babies and
White-based plus grey factor results in grey colored babies
Violet is a semi-dominant color-adding factor, and it darkens the green body color of budgies.
How Do You Get a Pink Budgie?
You will never find red pigmentation in budgies. Hence, any pink tinge on a budgie will be due to a colorant in the bird’s food rather than having genes for the pink color.
Are Rainbow Budgies Rare?
No, rainbow budgies are not rare. As they are in high demand, more budgie breeders are willing to undergo the lengthy process of breeding rainbows.
Hence, it’s easy to find rainbow budgies for sale near you.
The birds can be bought from:
- The local breeders
- Pet stores near you or online
- Bird shows
- Rescue centers
Rainbow Budgies Price
The average cost of rainbow budgies ranges from $30 to $90, and $100 for exotic breeds.
The prices vary depending on:
1. Whether the budgie is hand or parent tamed
2. The color and age of the bird
3. The availability of rainbow budgies.
4. Your geographical location
5. Whether you are buying from a breeder or pet store.