One must always be careful when choosing their birds either to breed or for pets.  I realize that some people would like to breed for show.  I believe in the shows, but there are some breeders out there whose goal is to breed the biggest and the best with no regard for the health of the birds.  

I first started out with Parakeets and English Budgies.  I love birds.  I wanted the full experience of breeding and hand-feeding.  I had read and heard that the English Budgies were so inbred that they only lived a few years; at the most 5 years. You must realize this was several years ago. I hope the situation has improved with time.

I attempted to breed my English Budgies with my Parakeets and had no luck. Actually, I was a novice, so I never attempted to breed the birds anymore. I enjoyed their company and left it at that. However, occasionally I would come across a few budgies that I wanted to breed.  I had a beautiful olive color English Budgie hen who was very lonely. I looked all over for a mate for her and found a large blue English Budgie  male with a white face.  I named the hen Ms. Olive (Olive Oyle) and I named the male Popeye.  Well, it was love at first site. After the quarantine I decided to put them together. Neither was hand tame so there was a lot of fluttering going on.  In one of my attempts to catch Ms.Olive, I believed she twisted her leg. I kept an eye on her for a day or two. When there was no change I took her to a avian vet.  This was the first time I ever took a bird to the vet. He also believed that I had hurt her leg and gave her some steroid shots. When I took her back to the vet for a follow up, he no longer worked there.  I took Ms. Olive to another vet, who found that it was not a sprain but actually a tumor growing inside her just above her legs. The vet told me that this was NOT uncommon in English Budgies, and was seeing this occurring more and more often. I was told that eventually Ms. Olive would become crippled and no longer be able to perch.  I had two choices:  I could either let her live her life out with her mate or I could put her down. The vet reassured me that Ms. Olive was not feeling any pain, so I decided to keep her. The vet suggested that I put all food dishes and water dishes on the bottom of the cage, which I did.

As days progressed, Ms. Olive got worse. Her right leg turned black and she could no longer stand on it. Her mate Popeye would support her. At night Ms. Olive preferred to sleep on a perch. I would watch her struggle up and down those perches every day. This bird truly had a soul and a will to live. When she finally got to her favorite perch she would lean up against her mate, Popeye.  If she should slip or teeter, Popeye would stretch out his wing and prevented her from falling. Sometimes I would actually see them napping in that position.

Eventually, Ms. Olive lost the feeling in both legs. She was a very strong bird. She still got around with out her legs. She would use her beak to climb and pull herself up to her favorite perch. She then would slide over to Popeye and he would hold her. How she stayed there, I never understood. I think she actually tucked both legs under body and then just balanced herself.  This continued for a few more months.

She was a happy bird all the way to the day she died. She and Popeye would sit and sing to each other and give little birdie kisses. One day I went in and checked on her. She was happily snuggling with Popeye. A few hours later I went back to check on her and she was gone. I found her on the bottom of her cage as if she were asleep. The poor dear.

Popeye just sat there looking mournfully down at her. He was very quiet.  After about a week he snapped out of his mourning and had begun to chatter to himself quietly. About a month later he also died. I truly believe that he died of a broken heart. He loved Ms. Olive so.

In my opinion, as bird lovers and breeders we need to stop the inbreeding.  Inbreeding outcomes vary from situation to situation. Granted, if there was no inbreeding it would be more difficult to breed mutations, but the birds we breed would be healthier. 

Inbreeding has caused a weaker bird.  Inbreeding promotes some mutations that have an increase in genetic problems, such as hemophilia did in the Austrian Royal family. Others have caused baldness in the beautiful Lutino Cockatiel.  Inbreeding causes a higher death rate in our babies.  Inbred birds have a higher  risk of catching diseases.  Some have kidney and liver problems. Too much inbreeding has caused some birds to lose of their natural instincts such as sitting on eggs or feeding their own young. Others will lay eggs and take care of them but the eggs will never hatch. Inbreeding also causes deformity in chicks. We can not forget cancer and tumors being the results of inbreeding.   Please think before breeding any bird back to a closely related bird.