Longevity and Health of Budgies V Show standards

[Marianne Marlow]

yellowfacedviolet, Morgan and anyone else that is interested.

I thought I'd start a thread for this purpose so that we don't clog up the Honey Treats thread

I, for one wish that healthiness of the budgie was taken into consideration, i.e. ability to fly well, how active they are, how long they live etc, rather than just how many big beard spots or how puffy their head is.

[Marianne Marlow]

Roswell and Snowy were exhibition birds that were not considered big enough to show so a breeder was giving them away. I snapped them up!

Roswell lived 6 years 8 months



..and Snowy lived until the age of 4.



I have a current boy called Peter who I think may be a show bird type. The rest of mine have all been pet type.

Peter is around 3 and a half (I'd have to check my spreadsheet)

[Ira]

Marianne Marlow I always love Peter's wings. He's a stunning colour.

Pippin's the only budgie of mine who appears to have some show stock. He looks like he'd suit a monocle at times with the way his eyes look.

When we went to Petwise a couple of weeks back, there were some huge budgies in the aviary, but they were perched on a low down perch so really hard to see. I guess they couldn't even reach the higher perches. They were almost comical to look at, if I didn't feel sad for them too.

A prize for oldest budgie might be a good incentive. Or for breeders to show birds that they think are attractive, even if they're not the 'standard'. Or maybe standards should focus less on body/feather shape and more on colour and condition in terms of the healthiness of the feathers, etc.

[Marianne Marlow]

Ira I know the kind you mean, they are really heavily feathered and sometimes the feathers cover their eyes, I am surprised they can fly at all.

[ariella]

Oct 7, 2021 15:22:59 GMT Marianne Marlow said:

Ira I know the kind you mean, they are really heavily feathered and sometimes the feathers cover their eyes, I am surprised they can fly at all.

I’ve always thought exactly the same.

Henry, my grey, is bigger than the others and definitely has smaller eyes that can be seen compared to the others. He’s a lot like Roswell. 

[skysmum]

I think Bailey is doing considerably well considering he has quite a bit of show blood in him, he will be 9 next May, he has one or two health issues that have to be maintained but on the whole he is doing really well

Excuse the orange beard he had stuffed his face with corn, LOVES his corn




My Inca was a rejected show type, not as showy as Bailey but she only lived 5 years

[ffiscool]

Aw bless, he’s a good boy eating as much as he does. He has indeed done very well there’s no obvious rhyme or reason it seems.

Inca was young 😒

[yellowfacedviolet]

Oct 7, 2021 10:55:51 GMT Marianne Marlow said:

I, for one wish that healthiness of the budgie was taken into consideration, i.e. ability to fly well, how active they are, how long they live etc, rather than just how many big beard spots or how puffy their head is.

Agreed. But it's a tough nut to crack. Budgie societies are among a dwindling number of clubs devoted to companion animals that are singularly focused on show/exhibition issues. "Pet people" and their concerns aren't accommodated. You can join a society for Bulldogs, or goldfish, or turtles and learn volumes about health matters and, in turn, you can be as active as you choose to be in their efforts to educate, fund research, and improve the life experience of their charges.

But for the budgie societies you are hard pressed to even find a link on their websites about basic health matters. The one 'health' link I did find, at an Australian club site, had health information exclusively about breeding, brood stock maintenance and... culling.

In my experience, most society members care not about longevity. They expect their birds to be short-lived. In fact, the last thing they probably want is a bunch of old birds taking up space and using up feed. And I say this as a society member who loves to see his birds make it to be teenagers.

[tweetiepiesmom]

I agree its sad that the show budgies don't live longer. The trait I dislike is the tiny eyes covered with feathers. I remember an aunt always telling me to get my hair out of my eyes! A friend has an English Sheepdog the she showed. Once he got his championship, she stopped showing him and then he was just a pet romping around with her. Maybe budgie societies should do something similar - show them for a limited time and then they keep or sell them as a pet. And yes, a criteria should be to show there is long life in their lineage.

[Morgan]

Honestly I think the feathers being so long that they can’t see or even breed properly without them being trimmed around the vent, and their being so heavy they can’t fly well, is just absurd. They don’t even look good when they get really extreme… I would probably have to enter the show world myself to fully understand their point of view first before really knowing how to make a difference though.

I heard from an ethical, long time linnie breeder (who also keeps and probably breeds show budgies and tiels), that cockatiel show breeders were originally selecting tiels purely by heaviest weight to breed larger showier birds, with some health consequences to the birds over time. They luckily cared enough as a group to change their practices and started paying more attention instead to a balanced body structure than just selecting the largest individuals and were able to turn things around for their stock. I don’t know much more than that though, maybe tiels bred for show also live shorter lives on average anyway…

I really love show type budgies crossed with pet type budgies though! I think I remember reading an article about crossing out show birds to normal green wild type birds every so often to improve the genetic health of breeding stock. The breeder would have to choose a wild type that is otherwise well proportioned and probably a bit larger in size to not completely undo their initial work though. But the crosses are adorable! Sort of midway in body size and feather from a wild type budgie to a show budgie, depending on how showy the show budgie half is.

Ira - I feel like Pippin might be a more or less a 50/50 cross. But I don’t have a lot to compare to so take than with many grains of salt

[Ira]

Morgan Fortunately however much show budgie he has in him, he's a surprisingly good flier, at least in terms of being able to almost pause and change his mind about where he wants to land. He kinda hovers and changes direction. Yuki would struggle with that, although he did do a cute zigzag drift the other day.
Pippin is a noisy flier though. Not that that's saying much because Munchy always used to be. But Pippin starts sounding panicked when he doesn't land for a while.
Also half the time I swear he's blind, or doesn't look before he leaps. I'll have my hand in the cage doing something and he'll fly across, only to realise that there's a hand there and hastily turn around. Or the entirety of me when he's out of the cage and I'm stood near or in the way of where he wants to go...

Good on the cockatiel breeders for at least trying.

I feel that a lot of show breeders probably don't care as long as a good bird lives long enough to win prizes and have a few clutches.

[Morgan]

Oct 8, 2021 6:11:39 GMT Ira said:

Morgan Fortunately however much show budgie he has in him, he's a surprisingly good flier, at least in terms of being able to almost pause and change his mind about where he wants to land. He kinda hovers and changes direction. Yuki would struggle with that, although he did do a cute zigzag drift the other day.
Pippin is a noisy flier though. Not that that's saying much because Munchy always used to be. But Pippin starts sounding panicked when he doesn't land for a while.
Also half the time I swear he's blind, or doesn't look before he leaps. I'll have my hand in the cage doing something and he'll fly across, only to realise that there's a hand there and hastily turn around. Or the entirety of me when he's out of the cage and I'm stood near or in the way of where he wants to go...

My boy MoonGoat smacked me full I. The face this evening when exiting one of the flight cages because I put my hand in to change the water dish. >.< He’s not even skittish! I swear it was on purpose xD