My first silver?!

[spsurfer]

After 7 years with gouldians I think I may have my first silver. I usually keep anywhere from 5 to 15 pairs each year and mostly prefer black head greenbacks. The last few years I added a few yellowbacks all single factor and always breed them back to my best normals. This year my buddy sold me a bh-pc-yb hen who was a possible split to blue. The split to blue didn't really matter to me b/c I have never had any blues nor had the interest. Having only outdoor unheated aviaries i just figured they wouldn't do well here. My new yellow hen decided to pair up with a single factor yellow cock that I have had for years but has never gone to nest before. He is kinda undersized and really not much to look at compared to others I have. I would have sold him but he has a slight blue tinge to his white breast and I thought that was odd so I've held on to him hoping I could reproduce that. Anyways, to make a short story long, the first clutch had 3 fertile eggs when I went to band them I noticed one baby was a grey color that I have never noticed before. But since this was my first chance at getting double factor yellows I figured that was the difference. After the baby fledged it was nearly pure white and I noticed the center nodules are also white. Countless hours have been spent on the glamorous gouldian website trying to confirm my suspicions that I do in fact have a silver. The same pair has since gone for round 2 and hatched 6 more. I tried to identify the babies by comparing to the glamorous gouldian website but it seems to have disappeared. That is what brings me here to the forum and to my first post. can any body take a look at these pictures and tell me what they think?

[Sally]

I don't know anything about Gouldian genetics, but there are others who may be able to help you. I was going to refer you to gouldiansgalore, the website of member nixity, but it is no longer available. She had a genetics forecaster that was used by many.

Welcome to the forum! There's lots of good reading at www.finchinfo.com, though you sound like you already have lots of experience. If you put your location in your profile, it makes it easier to answer locale-specific questions later on. We'd love to see photos of your birds and your aviaries!

[Sally]

I always forget about the Gouldian genetics information right here at the Finch Information Center:

http://www.finchinfo.com/genetics/lady_ ... colors.php

[debbie276]

Countless hours have been spent on the glamorous gouldian website trying to confirm my suspicions

Pretty sure you mean gouldiansgalore.com

Your male and hen must be split to Blue in order to get a Pastel Blue ("silver")

Should be interesting to see what it molts out to.
best of luck

[spsurfer]

Ok, so by dumb luck my cock is split blue and I knew there was a chance the hen was going to be. I am familiar with gouldian genetics just haven't had much or any experience with the blue mutation. Was hoping one of the more experienced could tell me 1. That this is a silver and not a pastel blue and 2. The nest of 6, if any of those can be identified. I usually don't disturb my nest for about a week to 10 days when I band them. It's just these new colors got me obsessed again! Yes I meant gouldians galore, my bad. And I'm working on profile as I type. Thanks for the replies!

[debbie276]

1. That this is a silver and not a pastel blue

Pastel Blue is what some call a "silver" meaning it has 2 Pastel genes and 2 Blue genes

You might want to try contacting Tiffany via her facebook page, not sure what happened to her web site.
https://www.facebook.com/GouldiansGalore

[spsurfer]

Looks like 3 silver or blue's?

[Sam007]

I think, out of 5 Chicks,
One Yellow Back Chick
Two Normal Green Back or Pastel Green Back Chicks
Three Blue Back Or Silver Chicks

[spsurfer]

update

[debbie276]

coming along nicely!

[lovezebs]

spsurfer

They're looking wonderful. Look at those tiny feathers coming in .

[Madcat]

What are the parents??? Nice babies!

[spsurfer]

Hen is black head purple breast yellow back. Cock is red head white breast sf yellow. Luckily both split blue. I've never had any blue backs before. The hen was from a friend and I was told she was a possible split. The cock I've had so the recessive blue gene was passed on and by dumb luck these two paired up. He does have a blue tint to his white breast I wonder if this could be a marker for the blue gene? Sometimes I think she may have the same blue tint on her head.

[debbie276]

There is no visable way to tell split to Blue. You will find many tints and slight variations in colors in each bird.

[nixity]

Yeah - my website is back up. Lycos crapped out and apparently has ZERO customer service available. Took me two weeks to get my domain transferred out of their hands and over to GoDaddy. Insane!