How to get an orange head Gouldian?

[isabird]

So my orange head/white chest male and black head/normal female produced 8 normal chested babies this season (2 black head females, 3 red head females, 1 black head male, and 2 red head males) but no orange heads or white chests. I was hoping my female had been split to orange head but no such luck I guess...

I want to keep one one of the babies and get it a mate in hopes of producing some orange head babies maybe even some with white chests.
I know the babies are split to orange and white chests.

My question is:
Which baby should I keep (I was thinking a female) is there a particular head color that is better to produce orange? Don't I need the red gene or something? Any help would be great

Thanks!

[nixity]

The easiest way would be to purchase an OH bird to pair to one of your offspring.
This way you will get ~50% that are visually OH and the rest will all again be split for OH.

As you said, if you can find one that is WB then you will also get ~50% that are WB and the rest will all again be split for WB

[isabird]

Okay thanks

But do I need the red gene for it to be expressed? Or is a black head (split to orange ok)?

[nixity]

Okay thanks

But do I need the red gene for it to be expressed? Or is a black head (split to orange ok)?

Well - if the bird you choose for a mate is visually orange it has the red allele present..
If the bird is BH/OH and is a female, pairing to an OH male will give you 50% RH and 50% OH offspring, and the RH Males would be RH/BH/OH, the OH Males, OH/BH.

But if the BH/OH is a male, and you pair to an OH hen, you will also get a percentage of BH YTB females who are visually black, but genetically orange, and unable to express it due to the whole lack of red thing

[isabird]

Thank you so much. looks liek I will be looking for a white chested orange head male. I will keep either my red or black head female.

[Meagan83]

Tiffany is good at explaining things That was helpful to me also. Their genetics can be so confusing.

[albert]

Natalie,

Rich from Carlbad, SD has some on Kijiji you are looking for, his are '10 close banded, reasonable price, best birds you can find in our area.

Grab it before it goes...

[isabird]

Hey Albert,
Yeah I got my parrot finch male from him and saw the birds then. I may go back to get one.
Are you going to the bird fair this weekend? I'm going ot go and try to find a female split to blue for my male
Natalie
P.s. My parrot finches are on eggs

[terriergal]

My question is:
Which baby should I keep (I was thinking a female) is there a particular head color that is better to produce orange? Don't I need the red gene or something? Any help would be great

Thanks!

I would keep a RH female, and breed her to an orange headed or at least RH split to OH mate. WB or Split to white breast would also be nice. I had just that combination the other year and I lost the GORGEOUS male to a water bottle accident earlier this year. I was SO mad at myself. Trouble is it may be hard to find one just like that. You might get lucky though.

You might also on the other hand look for black headed mate with yellow tipped beak. He will be homozygous for black head, but also carry the orange gene. So if you get OH male babies you know they carry one red head gene, one black head gene and one red head gene. The reason I say only in the males, because females' head color cannot be split between red and black They can only be split to orange because that gene is not sex linked.

[terriergal]

Thank you so much. looks liek I will be looking for a white chested orange head male. I will keep either my red or black head female.

Ha ha I have one of those. I am looking for a blue mate for him that is split to white breast because he may be split to blue. It's too bad we are so far apart!

[terriergal]

Okay thanks

But do I need the red gene for it to be expressed? Or is a black head (split to orange ok)?

You must have one red gene to be able to see the orange head. Since hens only have one gene for head color, she will be either straight black head or straight red head. If she has two orange genes, a black headed hen will have an orange tipped beak but you won't be able to see that much when in breeding condition because of her usual dark beak coloration.

A red headed hen with two orange genes will have an orange head because the red allows the orange to be seen.

[albert]

I never missed it after moving to this area
I am looking for some gouldians too, sorry I just do not have any females for you...

[lovemyfinch]

Thank you so much. looks liek I will be looking for a white chested orange head male. I will keep either my red or black head female.

Nathalie, I managed to get a surprise OH WB GB/BB male from my pair. Luck of the draw, chances were only around 1% They also threw a female with the same colourings, so 2 out of 7 babies. He is georgeous.
My female is BH/OH PB/WB BB the male RH/OH PB/WB GB/BB