Walter Ansante

1) Daniel, how does the hobby started in your life? What is your birds origen?

I started at the age of 11, so almost 30 years ago, with the small budgies. In our village in Würenlos there was another champion breeder, where I saw the first big Show budgies. First I didnt like them at all, but suddenly I got infected by the virus called "Show budgie".
The basement of my birds consists from Heinrich Ott, who went regularly to Ormerod/Saddler in the 1970ies to purchase really good birds.
In the following year i had birds from most Top studs in the World like Jo Mannes, Reinhard Molkentin, Pat de Beer, Kurt Vogt and many more. Kurt Vogt was the one i could learn a lot from how to manage a modern stud and how to handle with selling.

2) How many and which are main families in your stud?

Its hard to answer this question because I always try to mix the families, regardless of colours. Like this I keep fertilty and can avoid inbreeding damages.

3) How do you mate the families?

I never breed to close. The maximum is cousin to cousin. I am looking more after the phenotype than after the genotype.

4) What do you prefer to introduce in your stud: in-breeding, line-breeding or outcross birds?

I practice a mixture of all those different ways. Most of the time I let the bird choose his partner itself. Like this most of the eggs get fertile.

5) What is the origin from the birds you use to refresh your blood nowadays?

In the last years I used succesfully birds from Kurt Vogt and Pat de Beer, but also from Erich Schrank, Ralph Jenne, Andreas Conrades and Sepp Klessinger, German breeders, who are also good friends of mine. I prefer birds, who already have a certain amount of my bloodline to work with as outcrosses.

6) How can you keep the pattern or the homogeneousness in your stud, once you introduce fresh blood regularly?

If I bring in a bird I usually let him breed with two different partners and then sell the bird again. Those youngsters will be reintroduced in the original line. Like this, I have already 75 % of the wanted blood line.

7) In your opinion, who are the emergent breeders in Europe today?

Hard to say, because I do not know the english budgie-scene to well. Here in Continental Europe, its certainly still Jo Mannes - the "Big Man". Its impressive, how many good birds in all different colours are flying around in this stud.

8) How to know the exact moment that it should refresh the blood in your stud, and how to know the correct percentage of new blood that should use?

I dont know it and honestly I dont think, I need to know that exactly. Everything you have to know, you can see from the feather structure. To breed budgies, means always to work and experiment with the feather structure.

9) Have you ever used birds to moult french? What advice would you give to those who still have this problem in the creation?

Yes, I did use french moulters very succesfully. The grandfathers of two main families, the Spangles and the Opalines, were two French moulters, bred in August 1997. One of them had almost no feathers at all after loosing them as a baby, but produced outstanding birds, who had no problems about French moulting at all.
But never work with birds who are having feathers problems due to genetic problems, such as missing wings and tails or even showing cysts!!!

10) Which advices would you give to beginning and intermediate/advanced breeders?

Find a local breeder who lives near you, who you feel comfortable with and who supports you also with some good birds for a start. The personal relationship becomes more and more important, much more important than the quality of the birds you are starting with.
Dont buy birds everywhere from different bloodlines. Rather go for an average bird with a good solid background than for a top-budgie from a family in lesser quality.
But everybody must make those experiences himself before believing it, I guess. You always learn best from making mistakes. Thats sometimes hard and can be expensive, but helpful for a bright future.

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Fúlvio Lucietto


1) Which characteristic do you consider the most important in a budgerigar of quality?

The bird has to be powerful, but still nice to look at. I do not like the smaller, elegant birds, but also dont like the big birds missing the stile.
I rather work with a smaller bird with perfect proportion than with a nonbalanced bird.

2) What is you way of thinking to develop bloodline with high quality and consistency?

You need to have patience. Also a certain amount of luck and of course money can help to build a good stud in less time.

3) As a great admirer of your work, I have been following your stud from about 10 years. I have noticed that since 2006, the evolution of your stud has improved. Do you agree with this? What is the reason for it?

I dont think there was a big change in 2006. My idea is, that there was a continuos improvement of my stud over the last 20 years. This is resulting in the best birds also produced in high numbers by now.

4) I read in your interview that you eventually introduce a bird from another breeder in your bloodline and as soon as you use this bird, you sell it. Could you explain how you do this and why?

If the F1-offspring of that bird is outstanding, I keep on breeding with him, of course. In all other cases I will reintroduce the best offspring back into my original line and see what happens in the next generation (F2).


5) Your birds have particular characteristics, for example, facial width and directional head feathers, among others, which easily allow us to identify the presence of your bloodline in many breeders in the world. Is this result a consequence of one specific bloodline or is it a result of the development of your own bloodlines through the years?

I cant answer this question for sure, but I think that both theories are correct. Whenever I saw somewhere a bird with a certain feature, for example directional feathering, I tried to buy it. Even if it was a bird in lower quality. Most of the time the result was very disappointing, but sometimes it helped me to get one step ahead to achieve my target.

6) The feathers of your birds have an incredible texture and smoothness that can be noticed even in the chicks. Is the feeding responsible for this or was this characteristic developed from the genetic selection?

To breed budgies is like putting a puzzle together. The basement of every succesfull stud is of course the best possible and natural food. As you might know, I often work with natural stuff such as vegetables and fruits and feed almost no artifical ingredients. Sometimes I am really surprised to see birds in other places who dont even have fresh water. In summer time I change the water in the flight three to four times daily as a minimum.
Of course to take the right selection is probably the most important thing in the hobby. Often you can see breeders, who sell their smallest chicks, coming from their best cocks for almost nothing. These are the birds you have to continue and they will often bring the quality back in the next generation.

7) Do you consider the development of alternative bloodlines important to be used in the future in crossbreed with your own stud?

I am not sure whether I understand your question. But there are enough studs in Europe working with my bloodline, where I always can get a bird back from a certain line, if needed.

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Renato Uchôa


1) The budgies from Swiss and German have diferent feathers, they look like “blush". In your opinion, does this happen for the dilute factor or because of other thing?

I dont know, because I do not know too well the budgie feathers in other countries. What I can see in pictures, most winning birds have lots of similar features all over the world. And I guess, they all go back to more or less the same genetic background.


2) We can see different types of birds in your birdroom, some are "Buffalos" and others are not. Do you normally use the non "Buffalos"?

The "Buffalo factor", so called by Gerald Binks, seems to be recessive and is hard to fix in your birds. So I am forced to work also with birds that visually dont show it, but might carry the factor.


3) What is the best way to breed Lutinos and Recessive Pieds?

Its always the same procedure. Regardless of the variety, always pair the very best Normals into the rare varietys to improve them. I often work with the Spangle factor, with big success.

4) Do you practice In-Breeding and Line-Breeding. How do you choose Outcrosses?

As told before, I practice a combination of those different breeding system. For outcrosses I am always looking for a certain feature like the directional feathering, big spots or massive neck. Sometimes I just like the special colour on a bird, like a yellow face recessive violet pied, I bought recently. I am now also playing with danish dominant Spangles, also called melanistic Spangles. They are very small, but nice to look at.