Ask Lafeber

Mini albino lutino bush budgies

How do i now the diffrence between male or female cause i got to albino lutino mini bush budgies both are white with white blue nostrils ?

Hi Tony,

OK, I do need to clear things up for you. There is only one kind of Budgie – the Budgerigar Parakeet. This is a grass parakeet which is native to Australia, and only occurs in green as the natural color. All other colors have been developed by humans through captive breeding. While a color mutation could occur in the wild, it generally means the bird will not survive very long because it doesn’t blend in with the flock or surroundings.

Captive breeding has resulted in a wide variety of color mutations, as well as different physical characteristics – but all were originally derived from the wild Australian Budgie.

In America, most breeders bred for different colors, but this meant a lot of inbreeding took place so the result was very colorful birds that are much smaller, and genetically weaker than the wild budgies. They are sold as American Budgies.

In Europe, most breeders first worked to breed a superior size with good genes. It took decades before the first color mutations were achieved and even today, you do not see the color variety in a good English Budgie that you find in American budgies, however the English budgie typically have better genes and are overall healthier. They can be twice the size of the American Budgie. They are sold as English or European Budgies.

The term “bush budgie” is purely a marketing term, designed to sell the normal green budgies because sellers found themselves left with the green birds since customers preferred the fancier colors. So a “bush budgie” is just a natural green budgie.

There is no such thing as a “mini bush budgie”. Sadly this is also a marketing term for American budgies that are very small as a result of too much inbreeding, meaning that genetically they are very weak and their life span is likely only 6-8years old. What you have are small American Budgies, again derived from the wild Australian budgie. I would not recommend breeding these birds if they are smaller than the average budgie. Albino and Lutino – Latino is incorrect – are entirely different color mutations. An Albino is pure white with pink/red eyes. A Lutino is solid yellow with dark or pink/red eyes. So it sounds like you have two Albino budgies and unfortunately those tend to have a lot of health problems and have a short life span because most are achieved through inbreeding. I say most – there are some very healthy ones out there – but if yours are small and were sold as “mini”, I would not expect good health from them. Sadly I believe you were misled by someone. Again, I would enjoy these birds as pets and do not try to breed them. If you got them at the same time, from the same place, they are likely related and may even be from the same clutch. You will end up with weak, sickly offspring, if any survive. As for the sex, you generally can’t tell on the white budgies and would have to take them to a Vet for a DNA test. On most of the solid color and pale colors in budgies, the cere color will be the same for male and female budgies.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda