# Budgie eye color



## Prime

Hi! This is my first time on this site. Hope I'm doing everything right haha

My budgie is a five year old dominant pied budgir. I read online that most budgies irises turn grey as they get older, but my budgies is still completely black. I also had another 5 year old budgie (sadly she died last year while I was away at an internship 😞 ). She was also 5 years old with black eyes. I got her from the petstore but I bought my other budgie from a breeder. Why is it that both of my budgies have black eyes?


----------



## tonic

Some varieties never get an obvious iris ring. Recessive pieds are one and it seems likely your pied either is a recessive pied or a combination of recessive and dominant pied.


----------



## Prime

My budgie is definitely not recessive pied, but could it just be the genetics from a parent that are causing his eyes to be black?

And I'm just thinking it's strange because my girl was clearflight pied from the petstore and also had black eyes.


----------



## PoukieBear

I think there may be some confusion between the "iris" and the "iris ring"

Budgies actual iris' will NOT have any lightening to grey over time. They will remain black (or red, depending on mutation). 

The iris ring is what will lighten over time. Young babies will have an all black eye, and when they mature, they will develop an iris ring (again, depending on mutation).


----------



## Prime

Yes I'm talking about the colored part of the eye. Sorry if I got the term wrong! But yes, my budgie is 5 years old and it never lightened, and neither did my other budgies.


----------



## iHeartPieds

The coloured part of the eye will always be black. Adults just develop a white ring around the iris. As mentioned, some mutations will not develop said ring. If you post a picture we can tell you if your bird does have an iris ring.


----------



## Prime

He does not have a colored iris ring. I know the middle of the eye never changes color, that would be like saying the middle of our eyes would change color 😕

Im trying to add photos but I dont know how it's turning out.
The green one died last year but the blue one is the one i have right now.


----------



## iHeartPieds

I'm not a genetics expert but it could be a combination pied. As in it carries both dominant and recessive pied genes. Which could cause the lack of a white iris.


----------



## PoukieBear

Your green one has a Pied patch on the back of his head, meaning that he is split for Recessive Pied. That's one of the mutations that will NOT develop an iris ring, so it's completely normal for him not to develop the ring.

Your blue guy is a Dominant Pied, and likely split to Recessive Pied as well. (A combination Pied would have a lot more pied markings). So once again, since the Recessive pied is hidden in his genetics, he won't develop an iris ring.


----------



## Prime

Well the green one is a clearflight pied, so those already naturally have a patch on the backs of their heads. So that wouldn't necessarily make her a recessive pied split.
But for the blue one, I guess it would make sense that the recessive gene is hidden. I never thought about that before, but noe that you mention it it makes sense.


----------



## RavensGryf

Prime said:


> Yes I'm talking about the colored part of the eye. Sorry if I got the term wrong! But yes, my budgie is 5 years old and it never lightened, and neither did my other budgies.


Same here. My budgies are visual normals with dark eyes. This means they must have parents who are recessive pied or another mutation that keeps the dark eyes. Personally, I think it's very cute .


----------



## Prime

Yes I think it's really cute 🙂 it makes the birds look like adult babies haha


----------

