Melopsittacus undulatus

Budgerigars or simply called budgies are native birds of Australia and are found in wild usually. The beauty of these birds have compelled human beings to make them , the lovable pets. 

The normal Budgies are very small in size as compared to other parrots but the E.Budgies are a little bigger then the normal budgies and that's why they are called King budgies or Exhibition Budgies(E.Budgies).

MUTATIONS

The wild budgies of Australia are mainly found in green color but there are many colors available now.

Some of the names are given here but the list is very long:

Green are the original dominant color of wild budgies.

Blue is a very popular variation in normal green budgies.

Dark Blue is very beautiful budgie and very much liked in Pakistan.

Olive is splendid looking bird and on pairing with blue gives cobalts and mauves.

Grey is a sober looking bird and on pairing with green may produce olives too.

Albino are snow as white having red eyes and are result of breeding blues with yellows.

Lacewing is a sex-linked variety and very beautiful.

Clearwing are beautiful as there wings have no patches. They come in different colors too.

Danish Pied are also called "Harlequins" and are easily available in Pakistan and very very cheap.

Australian Dominant Pieds are very popular in Pakistan and even the new bird hobbyists like to keep pieds as pets.

Lutinos are part of family of "Ino's" so are the Albinos. They are just like small chicks.

Spangle is very beautiful mutation of budgies are are very good breeders too. 

Sexing Budgies

Budgie sexing is very easy and can be done by just having a look at it. The area around the nostrils is bluish or purplish in males and white or tan in females. 

Breeding Budgies

If you have Exhibition Budgies then, according to my observation, they breed better in pairs then in colony breeding but simple plain budgies easily breed in colonies without having problems.

A hen usually lays 5 to 6 eggs (sometimes up to 8 or more) and incubates for about 19 to 21 days and if there is no other problem like disease or poor diet, the result of babies is 100%.

Try to avoid the pairing of Exhibition budgies with normal sized budgies. This will greatly effect the size of Exhibition budgies.

In Pairing of dominant pied with any of the budgerigars, it is important that the budgie is a dominant pied. This will give you some pied offsprings if not all of them. 

Do give your budgies some resting time in non-breeding season or extreme summer season (as in Pakistan). If the box is available to them the whole year, the hens will never get tired of getting ion the egg laying cycle again and again even without a mate!.

for more on nest box

Budgie babies

Budgies are very active parrots and they try there best not to let there health deviate or the health of there babies to suffer. They are excellent parents. Budgie babies are grow up real fast. When they are young, their forehead area has thin lines of black feathers which usually implies that the bird is not an adult but when it grows up, its forehead becomes clear of these lines.

The most interesting thing is that sometimes, these babies mate and lay eggs before their forehead is clear. So you can get at least one breed from the baby budgies of the first clutch of the breeding season easily.

Budgie Diet

Budgie diet is also a no problem except that if you have kept big parrots before this, you will notice that the budgies eat double than any bid parrot. They are hungry almost every time and if you will put any new thing to eat in the cage, all of them will go to the thing in real hurry as if they were hungry for a long time.

There diet is plain seed mix. But as in wild these parrots eat almost every thing so to make the diet a balanced diet, you have to give them a little variety of fruits and vegetables also. 

Do provide them with plenty of calcium through cuttle fish bone or eggs (boiled).

Sometimes the Exhibition budgies get over weighted as they are not very fond of flying and are very slow working birds. To avoid this, you should feed them with watery fruits more, which will keep them busy and will prevent them to eat more of the seeds.

for more on diet

Budgie Health

Budgies don't get any problem easily even if you are breeding in colony but remember that putting or adding a new bird in the cage may invite certain germs and bacteria in the cage that will become a bridge to diseases later on. So don't forget to keep the new bird in quarantine for about 10 to 14 days.

The female E.Budgies often develop tumors in there uterus which inhibits them from laying eggs. Sometimes an egg is blocks in the uterus and cannot get out and if this problem is not treated well in time, the bird may die.

Many diseases emerge from minimum use of green vegetables. Do introduce some green vegetables to your birds. It will keep many diseases away.

A best way to keep you budgies away from any king of disease, spray them with Dettoled water and it will help to keep away germs.

Treating birds with vitamins and de-worming them occasionally is also a good idea. 

I usually use homeopathy medicines to cure the diseases that have very clear symptoms and therefore no new problems or side effects emerge from this style of medication.