FINCHforum

So this weekend I'm purchasing two pairs of Gouldians from a gentleman that is an hour and half away from me! So excited but I want to figure out the genetics in order to get some blue babies. He says that his dilute males which are red heads had siblings that were blues so the dilutes are split for blue.

Birds will appear blue in color only when a bird carrying only "green" sex chromosome(s) (as opposed to yellow) is also DF for the blue body gene.

What do I need for the female in order to get a blue baby? From what I've read so far, there has to be a double factor blue (visibly blue) female in order to get blue babies. Is this the only possible match I can have?

Thank you for any help!

Let see some pics of the bird,

I'm going for blue babies eventually too. The way I understand it is you could get a small percentage of blues possibly with two split to blue partners (neither which would be visual blues) But the percentage is much greater if you have a visual blue as one of the partners but the other partner has to be split to blue, too.

but i'm just learning.............

To get Blue chicks you would need birds that each have the Blue gene. For example 2 split for Blues or 2 Blues or a Blue and split to Blue.

If both your birds parents were split to Blue they would have Normal, Normal split to Blue and/or Blue chicks depending on which genes were passed on so there is no guarantee your bird is split to Blue.
If your birds parents were Blue and split to Blue then he would be split to Blue.

I have a dilute male that is split for blue. I paired him with a greenback split to blue hen they produced the following babies- A greenback, a yellowback, and a silver! No blues yet, but such a pairing can give you many results