DB>Just a couple of questions to start with:
DB>(1) What sort of age do female budgies normally stop breeding?
DB>(2) What is the closest relatives that can be bread together
DB>without any noticeable degrading of health or appearance?
I had a female budgie who had her FIRST clutch at age TEN. She was only
bred once (this was an accidental breeding), and she lived to be nearly
13 before succumbing to a big tumor on her liver.
As for closest relatives, I asked an avian genetics expert from
University of S. California (Dr. Cathy Tofts) about that a few years
ago. She said that half-siblings is as close as should be bred together
for more than one generation. But she did say that if you do create
genetic problems with inbreeding, what's mostly going to happen is
dead-in-shell eggs way before you'd see deformed babies hatch and
survive.
I hope this helps.
--Kathy
 * SLMR 2.1a * Headline: "Tuna Biting Off Oregon Coast"
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