Black Budgie

Question
Hi,
I have wanted to breed my 2 budgies for a while now(both blue and white) and my dream came true!! I now have 4 babies and 3 of them are mostly white with the odd blue patch here and there (Like the male parent)but then when the 4th baby started to grow pin featehrs i thought it would be deep blue, however this baby is now 2 weeks old and there is a very distinct black colour all through the wings, tail, head and part of the chest. Is this rare?? If so do professional breeders look for black budgies to breed off?? And also would the budgie cost more to sell?? (Not that i want to though) And finially would this mean that one of the parents (or both) had a blood line of a black relative down the track?? Hope this helps. Thanks
Georgia

Answer
Hi, Georgia,

At 2 weeks of age, I wouldn't get too excited that this baby will be feathered black.  I'd be looking for other reasons that this baby has black on its body.  At 2 weeks of age, this baby should still have yellow down feathers.  I'd wait until this bird feathers out completely in order to see what color the baby turns out to be.

In over 18 years of breeding, buying, selling, etc., budgies, I've never seen a black feathered budgie.  I've never seen one in shows either.  I'd say a black budgie wouldn't win first place in a show, as budgies are supposed to be colored probably the way your other budgies are colored.  Since this would be an oddity, I'm not sure a black feathered budgie would be readily acceptable as something to breed from.  To be black feathered, both parents would have to have this DNA, but since it's an oddity, don't know this could have happened, especially to these 2 birds that you just happen to own at the same time.  I think something else is going on here.  

Chrys