Blue Breasted Gouldians?

the.puppeteer · Post by **the.puppeteer** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 11:03 am

Any new pictures?

christie99 · Post by **christie99** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 12:54 pm

None yet. We seem to be in a holding pattern from what I can see on breast color. I'll add new photos as soon as there is something new to see.

She is getting her darker tail feathers and a sheen of blue on her rump like expected.

christie99 · Post by **christie99** » Sun Sep 14, 2008 8:44 pm

Well, no new photo here, but a coloring update. It looks like this little girl is melanistic. She is developing the dirty yellow belly feathers. I have natural and artificial light for them, so I'm thinking it may be a hormonal cause. I will still update when she is fully feathered out.

Here is a site with some photos of melanistic gouldians. It clearly shows the dirty yellow belly feathers.

http://www.erythrura.net/engoulm03.htm

fairestfinches · Post by **fairestfinches** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 4:13 pm

christie99,

Do you know the genetics of both parent birds?

My guess is that they are split to lylac breast. Michele has a thing for the lylac breast and part of her breeding program concentrates on producing consistent lylac breast. She has an excellent knowledge of gouldian genetics and is a member of a think tank of gouldian genetics experts dedicated to trying to figure out new mutations.

From our personal experinces we have had several split to lylac breast parents that have produced birds with some blue breast, but nothing as solid or as the photo at the beginning of the original post.
The one time anomoly of the blue breast does happen from time to time, but no one has ever claimed (to the best of my knowledge) or proven to be able to reproduce the blue breast in more than one generation. Although we keep trying, we haven't had any luck yet.

Sean

christie99 · Post by **christie99** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 6:18 pm

I know the genetics on the hen one generation back, she was the product of a WB/OH/GB male and a RH/RB/GB hen. The cock came from an aviary that had RH normals, OH normals and a few yellow and blue backed birds. I'm not saying that the possibility isn't there, but she is showing the characteristic dirty yellow belly feathers of a melanistic bird, she should molt out normal next time.

christie99 · Post by **christie99** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 7:33 pm

Photo update of the melanistic? finch. She sure is stunning looking so far!

By herself, you can see the dark feathers around her legs and belly.

With mom on the bottom of the cage trying to hide from the camera. This cage was cleaned less than 24 hours ago and needs it again already.

the.puppeteer · Post by **the.puppeteer** » Sat Oct 11, 2008 8:02 pm

Wow she is gorgeous! Keep the pics coming.

christie99 · Post by **christie99** » Wed Nov 12, 2008 7:54 pm

No new photos, but the blue is still coming in strongly with really dark feathers everywhere else.

All the other chicks are coloring normally, so my little oddball is the only one with such striking colors. When the group is colored a bit more (3 are just getting breast color), I'll get photos of them all.

L in Ontario · Post by **L in Ontario** » Thu Nov 13, 2008 11:26 am

Great - I'm really looking forward to see updated pics!!

christie99 · Post by **christie99** » Tue Mar 24, 2009 10:21 pm

Well, she is almost fully colored, FINALLY!!

Here are the new photos, start on the first one linked, scroll forward, they are also dated.

melanistic girl

summert85 · Post by **summert85** » Tue Mar 24, 2009 10:42 pm

awww she looks great! :=) coming out so pretty. thanks for sharing.

B CAMP · Post by **B CAMP** » Tue Mar 24, 2009 10:44 pm

She looks good bet she gets better and better

christie99 · Post by **christie99** » Tue Mar 24, 2009 11:15 pm

Thanks!! I wish she would keep the blue sheen, it really is pretty, but I highly doubt that she will. The red mask on her is coming in nicely too.

fairestfinches · Post by **fairestfinches** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 9:17 pm

We have had a couple of blue breasted chicks, but have not been able to get it to repeat in the next generation.

Every blue breast that we have had develop came from lilac breasted parents. From our experience with this mutation seems to be coming from the lilac mutation. There is very little information available about it so it is just speculation right now.

The blue breast is starting to be a hair more common, but they are still rare.

I think it would be awesome if we could actually get ours to reproduce it in the next generation, but no luck thus far.

Guess we'll just have to keep trying.

Sean

christie99 · Post by **christie99** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 6:58 pm

Here are the fully molted photos, finally!!

Here is a photo of her sister, who looks identical to mom