Aussie Finch Forum

Hi there I see your interest in Crested Mannikins and like you I have a great interest in all Crested Varieties of birds as I was very heavily involved in Breeding the Crested Budgerigar in South Australia back in the early 1980s and it became an obsession with me to breed all three types of cresteds in buderigars. These were Tufted, Half Circular and Full circular Crested all three of which could be bred from any form of Crested. And it looks like these 3 forms are still only available in the Budgerigar. Should you be interested in the Genetic make up of the Crested Variety you can look up the article I wrote in Australian Birdkeeper Volume 7 Issue 3. You should be able to get it up on Google. Main reason I wrote the Article was because there were and still are mainy people that offer advice on Genetics and they have no real understanding of it. I agree that you should be careful breeding Crested to Crested in many varieties of Birds, BUT in the Crested form of the Budgerigar you can breed Crested to Crested any time as it is mainly the Full Crested you want in the show ring in Budgerigars and there is no Lethal gene to worry about with them. A good example of this is to breed Tufted to Tufted and you can and will get Tufted Half circular and Full Circular in many of the chicks without worrying about them dying due to the lethal Gene in most birds. Hope you have more success with your Crested Mannikins as I still have these lovely little guys in my Bird Collection and only wish I could have them with Tufts and Half Crests too. Get a copy of the article I wrote and it may increase your enthusiasm to breed these lovely birds
Thanks Kosy

oh thanks,I will try and find it.she is fine and seems to have found a mate but its too cold to try any breeding I think for a couple more months.The 12 of them
have one big nest they built along with 2 spice finchs so that will have to be going if I hope to get some little ones
I have never seen a crested budgie,they are cute I will see at the bird shop if they are obtainable here..mind you I have 4 budgies alredy and one silly old girl has been in a box for a month ...3 days ago I heard babies! so I may well end up with more ,allthough winter is a very silly time so not sure how they will go
she may know what shes doing I guess...

A few shots of some of my cresteds

I love the fringe
If you get four of them together you will have yourself the "The Beatles"

No Di, you will have the Bengles

i purchased two pair of bengalese and when i had a closer look later one had a very strong crest and one with a tuft sticking up on its head. they seem to be rather common in perth anyway.