# anthracite budgie



## Ahmad siddique

Guys tell me about anthracite mutation.why is this mutation is so rare.Can this mutation be produce by selective breeding of dark grey budgie?


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## PoukieBear

I may be wrong, but Anthracite is a separate mutation, and breeding greys will not produce anthracite. 

Even if you pair a DF grey to another DF grey, you will only end up with DF grey chicks. To get darker chicks, you would still have to add in a dark factor (or two!) like mauve. But the chicks still won't appear as anthracite.

I'll see if I can do a little more digging into the genetics of it for you though!


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## StarlingWings

Michelle is correct, it's a different mutation than grey caused by hyperpigmentation of the normal pigments of the body feathers  

Not sure on inheritance patterns, etc. though


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## Ahmad siddique

First of all thanks for the reply.
This mutation anthracite is not very common but there must be a way to produce it. I don't know about this mutation but it visually looks like a very dark factor bird.


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## StarlingWings

To breed for a mutation, you must have a pair of budgies who will produce chicks of the mutation you are looking for. Anthracite cannot be bred for without having starting parents  

All original mutations arose from non lethal errors in the DNA of the bird which later became easy to breed for using birds that already had the mutations. 

Therefore, the only sure way to get a mutation is to breed birds that already have it. It cannot be selected for until you have an actual bird with the mutation - for example, if you already had anthracite birds, you could breed them selectively to get darker anthracites, but you can't do that without already having one. 

Does that make sense?


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## Ahmad siddique

Thanks. It helps a lot


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