New "blue" dilute

[CandoAviary]

This very light BH dilute colored out very quickly. He is 6 months old and I moved him to the a balcony flight once he got his 'hard' feathers. He now looks like he is developing some blue just like another dilute I have. This one has the prettiest seagreen tail feathers though.

Here with a normal BH

And close up of last picture


More good news, I paired my bluish dilute with a BH yellow hen and they had 3 chicks in the nest this morning. looks like 2 yellows and a dilute???? 2 dud eggs.








he had a least 6 stalks of millet spray around the top of the nest. I moved 3 of then out of the way...it was overkill. They had one chicks with their first clutch, which they tossed. It was given to societies. Poor thing got caught in the coco fiber upon fledging and severely broke it's leg. The society would not fed it even when I would put it back in the nest. It was too frighten of me... sadly it perished. So I am releived to see the parents really taking good care of this clutch.

[lovemyfinch]

Congrats o the new clutch Candace It's always wonderful when the parents do a good job

[Domenic]

If the offspring of this pair make it to adulthood you should definitely pair one of the hens up with your blue headed guy. I wonder what kind of head colors they might produce..

Both of your blue heads are very very beautiful. Here's hoping this clutch is successful!

[CandoAviary]

The chicks in the nest look to be about 5 to 6 days old. I looked because I heard peeping So I am sure the parents will feed these out
I do plan to keep and pair offsprings together. I was planning on trying to breed for this lighter grey head color even before the blue appeared so now ...most definatly! I will also try and incorporate my bluish head blue pastel chicks into the mix.... He and his pair are on eggs too

[isabird]

lovely male

[Pukasand]

Nice job, Candace. I am intrigued with the Blue heads.. good luck!

[KoacNation]

I have 5 gouldian fledglings, maybe 3 months old by now. Along with 4 adults. I thought goulds dont mate as early as 6 months. Is that normal or did I not follow this thread correctly? My aviary cant handle many more finches!

[CandoAviary]

Koac,
2 different birds The first dilute is 6 months old and in a flight with juveniles....no breeding for a while yet. I usually wait until they are around a year, sometimes a couple of months younger, sometimes several months older. It depends on when they complete their moults and are in breeding condition (I like them to have long tail wires for the males and dark beak for the hen) Plus it takes a bird a while before they have the weight and muscle tone to be good parents. Not only in the hen being to expell the eggs so she does not become eggbound but also to be in shaoe to meet the demands of feeding hungry chicks.

The second male pictured was a chick I breed in early spring of 2009. So he is close to 1.5 years old. He had one hatchling out of the first clutch and tossed it. Within the week they started laying the second clutch and are feeding wonderfully. I had posted about this bird in a post Nixity made about her Blue head pastel... so I kind of was just giving an update on hom. Sorry for the confusion. Here is the link to that other post. The head pictures on page 2 is the bird that I am breeding now.
http://www.finchforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=9610
And the other "Blue Head" post.
http://www.finchforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=9803
Interesting to have these blue shaded dilute and pastels popping up. I hope to breed some together (they will be unrelated so don't worry) and see if I can get even more blue on the heads. I really like it on the green backs with the light grey heads. On the blue backs it isn't quite as noticeable, but I plan on breeding my blue pastel with this dilutes sister

[Kathryn]

Prettyful!

[CandoAviary]

I lost my Blue boy. He had spasms for 3 days, I forced fed him, he perished. He was feeding his 3 offspring and the oldest had just fledged. The 2 others were fed by the hen for a couple of days after I removed the male but I am now feeding them myself. Hopefully his offspring will carry on this unique head I still have the blue headed blue pastel and then the green dilute pictured above at top... I will continue the effort of producing blueheads... I now call it "Project Slater". These are some of the last pictures I got of him
In memory of "Slater"

[Domenic]

How unfortunate. Sorry for the loss Candace.

[lovemyfinch]

Sorry to hear of the loss of such a beautiful bird.

[L in Ontario]

[CandoAviary]

Thanks for the comments, I sure wish I knew what happened with him. He wasn't sick, the night before when I went out to cut lights out he was fine, sitting with one of his chicks on the perch...I told him what a good daddy he was. The nest morning first thing when I opened the doors and started the fans I saw him on the floor of the cage with his eyes pulsing and one foot opening and closing in a repetitive maner. He leaned to on side. My husband said he think he had a stroke. I had never seen anything like it before. Maybe it had something to do with the mutation itself. Maybe it was just not meant to be. I have set up the pair that produced him. Maybe they will give me more blue heads and hopefully it won't turn out to be something genetically faulty. Slater had a short life but a happy one.

[Domenic]

I hope it has nothing to do with the mutation, it sure is a pretty one. Do you know the history of this guy? Is there a chance he was inbred?