Bird Show

[Lacey6116]

Hi everyone,

Just got home from the bird show in my area and bought 2 gorgeous boys! My camera is charging so i will take some pics of them when it is ready and post them on here.

I saw the strangest bird there (he was not for sale). His left hand side was yellow and his right hand side blue! The breeder told me that early on in the egg that they were actually twins, but fused together to make one bird, although somehow they each kept their own dna! which made the colour. Has anyone ever seen this? i so much wanted to take a picture of him, but wasnt allowed.

So as most of you know i am totally hopeless at genetics and how things work (try as i might to figure it out!). But i left the bird sale more confused than ever! I spoke with a few breeders about my girl Angel (she is all white). One breeder told me that i could breed her with any colour and i could get all white birds from them but they would only be female and that the males would look like their dad and in order to have white males i would have to breed her with another white male. The next breeder told me that was complete and utter rubbish and that she had got all white birds (male and female) from 2 blue birds that she had bred. Next breeder tells me thats a lie and that doesnt work at all. Sooooo confused and confuddled, i decided to stop trying to work out what colours i would get and just go for birds that i thought were gorgeous. I guess everyone interprets what they read/learn their own way, and i guess somewhere in there things happen that isnt in any book!

Will post pics in an hour or so of the guys i bought today! and if anyone could explain the above i would really appreciate it

[Squeak_Crumble]

oh my goodness!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What you have there is a half sider, one of the rarest mutations of budgies.

[clicklbd]

Chimarism is when one organism has the dna of two distinct organisms. This can happen with people too. I saw something on Discovery Health where some guy was clearly the father, but they couldn't believe the mother was the mother. All of her kids seemed to be related, just not to her. Turned out she was chimera, and when they looked at the dna of her ovaries vs the dna of her blood and certain other tissues, it didn't match!

Some people can look split in color. I think that's what they say happens with birds like this. It sounds pretty cool to see.

[LadyBlue]

Wow!
It sounds like a half sider!!!
That would be it wasnt for sale!!!!
they're really rare.

[Lacey6116]

It was very cool to see and i did try my hardest to get him to sell the bird to me with no luck - but all the best to him - he is going to try and breed and hope that the same happens with humans (as in twins are passed down). I have his number and he has mine and he has promised me a baby if it happens that way.

What do we think about the conflicting breeding information? am so so confused (which is normal for me and my gang of budgies!)

[nev90]

I'd very much like to see a half sider, but it's unlikely that the owner will be able to breed more of them from it. As far as your white hen Angel is concerned without knowing several generations of the ancestry of both her and her mate it is impossible to predict the chicks colours except for ruling out any colours that are dominant to the colours of the breeding pair

[Lacey6116]

I'd very much like to see a half sider, but it's unlikely that the owner will be able to breed more of them from it. As far as your white hen Angel is concerned without knowing several generations of the ancestry of both her and her mate it is impossible to predict the chicks colours except for ruling out any colours that are dominant to the colours of the breeding pair

I agree, and after getting so many conflicting opinions from breeders today, i have decided to forget what is dominant and what should be paired with what and just buy budgies i fall in love with and see what happens - i know for the most part it is somewhat known of the outcome, but i have decided to take the unknown and let nature take its course!!!

[Wonderbird]

Yes I agree it sounds like a halfsider. I heard about this chimerism in humans. They had a documentary on Discovery Health where a woman had her kids taken away from her after a dna test ruled she was not the mother although she gave birth to them. The authorities didn't believe her and that dna doesn't lie. Well it was an interesting story. Half of you is one dna and the other half is another dna. Very wierd. "I Am My Own Twin" Discovery Health Channel.

[Pippin's mom]

I just saw a pic of a halfsider either in a magazine or online. One half was blue the other green. It was very interesting. To bad you weren't allowed to take pics!

[Wonderbird]

I guess halfsiders start out as fraternal twins where you would need a double yoke within the egg?

[Kerry C]

Yes I've seen half siders.

What happens is 2 sperm fertalize the egg, but early on the cells combine to into 1 chick.

Why wouldn't they let you photo the bird? That would make me think they didn't come by that bird totally on the up and up.....

Here is the half sider that was shown at the Grand National in CA last Oct.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2220/1516855634_8adeedb27c.jpg

Sorry this one's a bit fuzzy. My camera was acting up.
This is the other side of the same bird.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2069/1516855608_72b4f97980.jpg

I also had a friend who produced a bird that was 1/2 feather duster.
One side was normal and the other had the long flowing feathers.

Also there is a pic of a half sider on the rotating pics at the top.

[clicklbd]

I also had a friend who produced a bird that was 1/2 feather duster.
One side was normal and the other had the long flowing feathers.

Also there is a pic of a half sider on the rotating pics at the top.

Did the feather duster live? I understand they don't usually live long (I wondered if a half and half lived longer.)

[pal0m1n0]

Here is the picture from the budgie gallery.
http://talkbudgies.com/photoplog/images/1384/medium/1_americ.jpg

[Kerry C]

Did the feather duster live? I understand they don't usually live long (I wondered if a half and half lived longer.)


I think he kept it alive for about a year. Not too bad for a feather duster and it does help if you keep the feathers cut around their eyes and beak.

[Lacey6116]

Hi Kerry,

I was wondering at the time also why he wouldnt let me take a pic of the bird. I just assumed that no pics were allowed to be taken at all, but i didnt check.

I'd never thought about him getting the bird by "wrong" means.

[*YouGotBudgie*]

Hmm yes that would've been interesting to see...

[LoVeMyKaiTo]

Yes I've seen half siders.

What happens is 2 sperm fertalize the egg, but early on the cells combine to into 1 chick.

Why wouldn't they let you photo the bird? That would make me think they didn't come by that bird totally on the up and up.....

Here is the half sider that was shown at the Grand National in CA last Oct.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2220/1516855634_8adeedb27c.jpg

Sorry this one's a bit fuzzy. My camera was acting up.
This is the other side of the same bird.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2069/1516855608_72b4f97980.jpg

I also had a friend who produced a bird that was 1/2 feather duster.
One side was normal and the other had the long flowing feathers.

Also there is a pic of a half sider on the rotating pics at the top.

He is sooo cute, I love the colours :D

[ravengypsy]

If you post a picture of your "white" budgie we can help more. There are a few types of "white" budgies in fact... some dilutes look white, some cinn dilute spangles look white, double factor spangles look white, and dark eyed clears look white. Not to mention the albinos with red eyes. .... each type works differently with inheritance...

I'm making the asumption that she's an albino with red eyes, as that's the most commonly known "white". The inheritance for an albino is recessive, meaning that it takes two carriers of the gene to get albino chicks. Either a male albino or a male split to albino will give you that. Although you won't get ALL white chicks unless both parents are albino. With a split to albino male you'd get 50% albinos (male & female) and 50% normals split to albino (male & female). If paired to a normal (not split to albino) then you'd get all normal chicks and all will be split to albino.

So the questions to answer your questions are: A) what male do you want to breed with her? (post a pic) and B) does your female have red eyes?


And as already stated above the other one mentioned is a Half-Sider... not a geneticly inheritable trait but more a freak of nature with genetics from twins fused into one bird. I've also seen halfsider feather dusters, where only one side of the bird was feather duster gene and the other half was normal feathers.

[MyPudgieBudgie]

I work in the field of genetics, and this type of thing is a freak-show of it all! If you search tetragametic chimerism on Wikipedia, it explains pretty well. What basically happens is the fusion of two fertilized eggs, or an egg is fertilized and an additional sperm fuses to it. The genetic info of each cell is maintained, and the resulting organism is a "DNA jigsaw"! Pretty cool, actually. This guy has a few pics if you want to take a look. Hope this clarifies! Cool you got to see this.
http://theparakeetplace.piczo.com/?g=12756649&cr=6&linkvar=000044