Our Way with Lutinos

 By

                                                                                          Gren & Pat Norris

 Lutinos were one of the first varieties with which I started when I was a boy and had some degree of success. They have always been one of the first varieties I looked at when visiting shows and it was no real surprise when some six years ago we decided to include them once again in our stud.

Our first birds came from a very good stud in the north of England and I eagerly awaited the sight of the first lutino chicks. Two years later I still was awaiting the sight of our first lutino chicks. The birds were very fit and produced numerous eggs but none were fertile. We discussed the problem with our good friends Alec and David Woan, noted for their excellent lutinos and they loaned us two of their hens. Success, both hens went down with two of our original northern cock birds. A number of chicks were produced of good quality and one young hen won several best of colour cc`s and became our first registered lutino champion. Later that year Pat and I judged in South Africa and whilst there we were invited to see the Molkentin stud. Reinhard and Holger had some excellent birds which included some very good lutinos. We were fortunate in being able to purchase one excellent adult lutino cock which excelled in both size and was a really deep golden colour.

When this bird came out of quarantine we were able to pair it to two of our young hen birds and produced a number of extremely good cock birds which excelled in both size and colour, one of which became our second registered champion lutino in 2002 winning seven best of colour awards. Although a number of useful hens were also produced they were not as outstanding as the cock birds and lacked the deep golden colour. Sadly the Molkentin cock bird died when paired to the second hen bird but he had given us some youngsters of quality with which to work

Whilst in South Africa we were told by Reinhard that he had used the spangle variety of budgerigar to improve his lutinos and we decided to give it a try ourselves. Like most lutino breeders we had used yellows and both opaline and normal green series birds as outcrosses but were never really happy with the results. Dark green dominant pieds were also used but again the results were disappointing. Greygreens and grey yellow were not used as any lutinos produced which were carrying the grey factor in their background lost so much in colour. One of the spangle hens we intended to use was an olive and the other was a dark green bred from the olive the previous year. Hens were preferred to cocks so that we could be sure that we were not introducing cinnamon blood which again gives problems if lutinos of good colouration are the aim. As well as carrying one or two dark factors in their makeup both hens were selected for their feather quality. We have found that many spangles carry a particular soft feather which we wanted to reproduce in our lutinos. In addition we were seeking to improve the feather length, a feature sadly lacking in most lutinos.

Both hens were paired to sons of the Molkentin cock. The sons were both selected for their length and excellent colour. The results from the spangle pairings were not spectacular. The dark green hen produced only one lutino hen. Not an outstanding bird in any way, of good colour but not really the deep colouration I was seeking. The good feature however was the feather quality which was of the soft type.

The second pairing which involved the spangle olive hen did much better producing three lutino hens and two dark green split lutino cocks. Neither cock birds was of good quality and both were sold. All three hens however were very useful birds, not outstanding but birds with which one could work. Two had the soft feathering I was seeking and one of these, also had excellent colour. The only disappointment was that the feather length had not improved. All three however were to play a significant part in future pairings.

Although we had concentrated on the Molkentin bred cocks we also had another very useful cock which had won three best of colour awards for us and was also the best young bird at the 2001 National Exhibition. This birds main failing was its lack of the good colouration we were seeking. Its feather quality however was good. It had been bred from one of the original cocks we had purchased paired to a young hen from one of the Woans hens.

When the time came to pair up, this cock bird we paired to a very good coloured  hen bred from the spangle olive. Pairing number 2 was the Molkentin bred cock which had bred only the one chick the previous year paired to a sister of the hen in pairing No 1. Pairing No 3 was the other Molkentin bred cock which we had used the previous year paired to the single hen bred from its brother.

Pairing 2 and 3 therefore were uncle to niece in each case and were used to give us benefits of line breeding and thus concentrate the good points. Both cocks had excellent colour, good length of body and feather and wide heads. Both hens had the soft feather and were cousins.

The result from these three pairings were very pleasing. Pairing No 1 produced two excellent cock birds, both excelling in length, size and feather. One young cock was a really deep rich colour with the other lacking the colour of its brother. The hen birds produced were not of the same quality but were very useful and well worth keeping.

Pairing No2 produced 4 chicks, 3 cocks and a hen. The young hen was really disappointing and was not retained but two of the cock birds were all that we could have wanted being of wonderful colour, body size and feather quality. The other young cock had excellent length and colour but was down on head quality when compared to its two brothers. Sadly the father of these four youngsters died before more quality youngsters could be produced.

Pair No3 produced far more chicks than pairings 1 and 2 but the quality was much more variable. No cock of real quality were bred but several of the hens turned out to be very useful and of good size and feather. This is one of those pairings were the chicks improve a great deal after they are through the first moult.

We now have for the first time lutinos in sufficient numbers of the quality we hoped to breed. Not all of them will be good show birds but between them they carry all the features we set out to create.

Feather quality was the hardest part and anyone who breeds lutinos knows that most young lutinos carry very little down as babies when compared to the normal varieties of budgerigar. By using the spangle budgerigar as an outcross several of the youngsters we produced carried much more down than usual. All of those with the heavy down are retained and the nest records marked to show this. We are convinced that by using these birds in all our future pairings, lutinos equal to the very best normals are attainable.

To this day we have 4 registered Champions and have won major awards including best in show with lutinos. We look forward to continuing this line of lutinos and improving the quality each year.