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Freeimages / Julie Elliott-Abshire |
To read the full article, click on "The mutant ‘feather-duster’ budgie". Also, there are a couple of very short videos below, one of which is a feather duster budgie.Nora’s long, curly feathers seemed to lack some component of the normal barb, barbule and hook structures of standard feathers, and they greatly hampered her mobility. Although able to eat normal budgie fodder and shuffle around, Nora couldn’t climb, preen or fly like other budgies, and she could hardly chatter or squawk either. However, with Warren’s help she did eventually learn to perch on the low rung in her cage.Nora’s parents were both descendants of English show budgies, the only birds known to produce ‘feather duster’ mutants, the first such case being reported in England in 1966. Breeders think a mutation (genetic copying mistake) in a recessive gene causes the problem.
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