Color Mutations and Sizes

[Khaiqha]

So the local bird store got in new green , and I noticed they were noticeably larger than my grey irn. I thought they were hybrids, but the store owner assured me they weren't. He said that often times color mutations are smaller, so I must have a small irn. I had a green irn as a child, and though my memory can be fuzzy, I think it was the same size as my grey irn.

Anyway, I came back from a bird show today where all the irns were larger than my grey. The irns I saw were albino, lutino, and pied. This makes me wonder:

Are people just breeding birds to be larger?

I know that budgies are being bred to be bigger and bigger, at the cost of their health. Are people doing this with all birds? Is my irn just abnormally small? Is there just a lot of hybrid blood out there that it's mixed in with normal irns?

I could just be fretting over normal variations within a species. I happened to notice that senegals often come in different sizes as well.

[marie83]

Are you sure they weren't Alexandrines? Those birds sound double their normal size. Saying that over here the show standard budgies are a fair bit bigger than the pet version.

[Khaiqha]

Yeah, the weren't big enough to be alexandarines. Also their beaks weren't as big, and they lacked the shoulder stripe. Their feet were huge and thick though. I originally thought they were alexi hybrids.

[marie83]

The above comment of mine was a result of me misreading your original post lol. I have just realised when you said that the birds where bigger than your grey that you did not mean african grey but indeed your grey coloured ringneck doh! That is why I suggested an alexandrine, I guess its possible the birds may be hybrids and the store don't want to admit that or do not actually know if they are or not. More than possible someone or a group of people are actually selective breeding to produce bigger birds though.

[terri]

I dont have any experience with ringnecks .But there are alot of Hybrids running around out there. I have two . I just bought a conure .Which I was told was a sun [went to a new breeder than my usual] When I got home I thought no way this is a sun.I think its a cross between a goldcap and jenday.I know their doing this alot in conures and macaws .We will probably be seeing it in other species.My catalina macaw though is a love and I think Its cause shes a hybrid .Like the temperament of a mutt dog.

[Khaiqha]

I'm a little leery of parrot hybrids, as technically dogs are all one species, but not parrots. Then again, people have been using mules for awhile now.