Red rump x budgie

[Jack]

I have a male red rump and a female budgie. I have noticed him mating with her a few times but thought nothing of it, he sings and dances to her and this morning i saw him feeding her in the nest. She also has 2+ eggs. Is it possible to get a budgie x red rump?

[Aimie]

I was wondering a similar thing, like do you have to keep the same lovebird colours/species or Budgie colours together and separated from others for breeding reason's. I wouldn't think a red rump and a budgie would be interested in each other, I learn something new everyday on here. . I'm not a breeder so i have no idea what will happen. You will have to post us some pictures of the babies when they hatch and you know what they turn out to be. Or we could guess along with you when you are waiting for them to reveal what they are.

[jusdeb]

A Hybrid is what you will get if it indeed does happen and the problem there is what are you going to do with the young .

Might be an idea to get them mates of their own species .

[Jack]

They do have mates of their own species but they have chosen each other.
I know it will be a hybrid and i know the offspring will be infertile but i was just wondering if it was possible, thats all.

[anzac]

I suppose if the babies don't have any health issues, and you'll probably keep them, you can just wait and see?

[jusdeb]

The offspring may be sterile . Mother nature is funny like that and not all Hybrids are sterile .

Very unusual for them to pair off with each other if they have their own specie available to them .

To answer your question , anything is possible however its up to you to decide if you want to take the chance of it happening .

[Aimie]

This may be a dumb question but why would they be infertile? Wouldn't it be like when two different dog breeds mate and you get a crossbreed of the two?

[jusdeb]

Its mother natures way of checking that only her designs evolve .
It is hard for me to explain but it goes like this all dogs are from the Canine family and so can interbreed .
Birds are made up of many familie ie Psephotus ( Grass Parrots ) or Polytelis ( Princess Parrot ).
Which some can produce hybrids if the families are closely related while others can not because the families are too far removed from each other .
Its pot luck as to whether they are fertile or not .

Anyone with knowledge of genetics please feel free to correct me as I have only explained it how I understand it .

[jusdeb]

I always believed that a Corella x Galah produced mules ( sterile young) but I saw in a pet shop recently a "proven breeding pair " consisting of 1 normal Galah and 1 Corella x Galah ...so now Im confused too .

[avinet]

This may be a dumb question but why would they be infertile? Wouldn't it be like when two different dog breeds mate and you get a crossbreed of the two?

There is a difference between breeds and species - the different dog varieties are all part of the same species - just like, say, Eskimos and African Pigmy's are all part of the human species.

With parrots, Budgies and Red Rumps are from different species, so if a budgie and Red-rump bred it would be like a horse and a donkey breeding - two different species. And if a horse and a donkey breed you get a mule which is a hybrid and is infertile. Similarly a horse and a Zebra can interbreed - obviously two different species which I think also produce an infertile hybrid.

To answer another point, budgie of different colours will quite happily mate with each other, they have absolutely no colour prejudice at all For many casual budgie breeders that is one of the joys of budgie breeding - mixing colours and see what turns up. Of course the serious show breeder doesn't do that - they carefully pair up birds to get the colours and conformation they are seeking - often a real skill.

With birds some hybrids end up being fertile and some infertile, and it is difficult to know with any particular pairing what will happen. For instance, a Galah and a Corella cross is generally fertile, but a Turk and a Scarlet-chested is generally infertile while most lovebird species can produce fertile offspring,

I have only heard of a single case where a Red-rump and a budgie produced off-spring - that was in England in the 19th Century - so it is certainly not beyond the realms of possibilities that Jack's pair could have fertile eggs. However evolutionary speaking they are pretty distant relatives so it is highly likely that the babies would be infertile.

Some amazing pairings do occasionally produce babies - I knew of a Princess and an Indian Ringneck that had babies and I was due to hand raise them but unfortunately they died at around 2 weeks before being pulled.

And in my aviaries at present I have a 2 year old female that is a cross between an Indian Ringneck male and a Crimson-wing hen. Not only two different species but two different continents. What is doubly interesting is that the male ringneck was a yellow lutino and so their daughter that I have is a pure yellow bird, with a sex-linked inheritance of the yellow from her father. I don't know if she is fertile or not - I suspect not - but if a suitable Crimson-wing male becomes available I might be tempted to try her out, maybe next year.

If your pair did breed successfully Jack, be sure to record it all on camera, the pair together, eggs and babies from hatch to fledging. It would be a very interesting article for one of the bird magazines with the photographic evidence to support it.

cheers,

Mike

[jusdeb]

Thanks Mike , explained it much better than I could . Thumbs up .

[Aimie]

Ahhh.. Ok . I get it now.. thanks guys LOL

[ruben]

Hi there!
I also have Red rumps and read over the internet that they sometimes interbreed with different species.
although budgies wasn't mentioned birdspecies like rosellas, Starlings and sparrows was named as potential mates. It is best to keep a breeding pair seperate from other species then.

[avinet]

Mar 11, 2012 16:24:36 GMT 10 ruben said:

Hi there!
I also have Red rumps and read over the internet that they sometimes interbreed with different species.
although budgies wasn't mentioned birdspecies like rosellas, Starlings and sparrows was named as potential mates. It is best to keep a breeding pair seperate from other species then.

Red-rumps have most often hybridized with various Rosella species, as well as other member of the same genus as themselves - Psephotus (Mulga Parrot etc). There is also one report of breeding with a cockatiel but it dates from the 1880's so might be a bit suspect. They have also been reported as hybridizing with King Parrots, Princess Parrots and Elegants. Again for Budgies getting involved, the only record comes form the 19th Century and has to be regarded with caution. A recent book on bird hybrids makes no mention of it. Also it would be impossible for Starlings and Sparrows to breed with parrots.

It is certainly best to keep Red-rumps separate form other species if they are going to breed - they are very territorial and are quite likely to kill birds they share a flight with during breeding season.

cheers,

Mike

[mollythebudgie]

I've had a similar situation with my 2 birds the exact same gender and breed as ( budgie is the female red rump is the male) the male has tried mating with the budgie but she pushed him off as she was only 10 months at a time she is older now.

[pauladall]

My red rump has just hatched out 4 babies all doing great I have noticed that our male budgie is now trying to mate with her and has been seen mounting is this common among these breeds they are in an aviary with choices of partner s