sick blue gouldian

[Toddmin]

rancho2, I hope your hen is feeling better. Has she had any more issues since? On another note, didn't you say you bought the blue hen along with the blue male? If they are both blue, I would advise not allowing them to mate with each other.

[rancho2]

hi todd,

yup, she does appear to be doing much better and yes, she came with a blue male. do you mean not to let them mate for awhile, like earlier posts advised? or something else?

[MiaCarter]

rancho2 --- Breeding blue x blue is one of those problematic genetic combos that can result in inbred health issues that result in weak chicks.
One of the gouldian gurus will know better, but I believe this weakness is due to the high degree of inbreeding that's required to achieve these rarer mutations in the first place. This results in genetic flaws that are passed along down the line; it's exacerbated when you mate blue x blue.

You generally want to breed 2 green-backed split-to-blue.
If you breed two split-to-blue goulds, you'll get 1 in 4 chance of a blue chick, 2 of 4 will be split to blue and 1 in 4 will have no blue genes at all.
That practice is out-crossing.

If my memory serves, you get a split by breeding blue to a green-back. Blue is recessive, so the offspring would be green-back with a "hidden" or recessive blue gene.
And as mentioned, these split to blue birds will produce 1 in 4 blues when mated with another split to blue.

[rancho2]

I had no idea!!!!!!! thanks for that. I will definitely look into it. ;-[

[MiaCarter]

rancho2 -- Indeed, good to know!

I'd breed them each with a green back, then breed those offspring to get more blues.

Blue x blue is one of several problematic combos.
Another one is in zebra finches. It's one of the lighter mutations, I believe fawn cheek x fawn cheek?
That one causes eye problems.

[rancho2]

i would like to breed all the birds at some point. i have a pair of yellows (though they're still quite young), a green back female and dilute male, and the pair of blues. what do you think about putting the slider in the cage and separating some of the pairs? and if so, what colors would you separate? there's also a pair of owls that can be on one side or the other. this is the cage they're in but it is redone so there's more light and 2 nesting boxes (plus a basket for the owls) on each side.

[debbie276]

Most areas have too small a gene pool yet to chance breeding blue to blue. You could breed a Blue with anything split to blue, it doesn't have to be 2 green split to blue birds to get blue. To get a Blue chick the chick will need to get a blue gene from EACH parent in any combination that allows that.

good luck

[rancho2]

I'm having a hard time grasping the split stuff. my thought is to put the blue M and green F, and both yellows on one side of the cage and the blue F and dilute (or is it pastel? no black ring on him), and owls on the other. what do you think?

[debbie276]

"Split to" means they are carrying 1 gene that is hidden so a Normal split to Blue would have 1 blue gene that it could pass on to the chicks.
If you put a blue with a normal that is not split to blue all the chicks will be Normal/Blue. A blue with a SF Pastel (dilute) would give you males that are SF Pastel/Blue and Normal/Blue and hens that are either Pastel/Blue or Normal/Blue. The "/" means "split to"

The genetic section of this web site may be great to help to you learn the ins and outs of genetics.
http://www.gouldiansgalore.com/

good luck

[rancho2]

thanks should be interesting

[rancho2]

everyone is separated now but the blue boy is still calling and watching the blue girl. there's a slider splitting the cage. do i need to actually block their view of each other? or just give them time to get used to their new potential mates?

[MiaCarter]

rancho2 -- I'd just give them a bit of time to adjust to the new mate. I'd expect them to be a bit upset.

In cases where they're just peering at the former mate, totally ignoring the new one, blocking the view is a good idea.
Sometimes, you need to separate them so they can't hear each other either. Some birds won't bond with a new mate if they can still hear the old mate.

(Which makes sense. Imagine being in a prison type situation and you can see and hear your husband off in another cell. You're going to hold out hope of getting back to him unless you no longer see/hear him. Then you may think he's gone forever, so you bond with a new mate.)

[rancho2]

i can block the view but i only have the one big cage so can't change that but if things don't improve i'll block the view. thx miacarter