FINCHforum

Hello all. I am also confused on what is a split and what the codes for colors mean. My gouldians have black heads, purple breasts, yellow stomachs and green backs. What would these be called?

You have BH,PB,GB gouldians. All Gouldian bellies are yellow - darker for males and/or paler for females.

Split - when referring to back colour means they are split to blue.

The codes are simply the first letter of each colour and part of the body being referred to:
BH = black head
PB = purple breast
GB = green back

thanks so much, makes much more sense now. I was checking out the genetic site and trying to figure out the color codes.

I have also heard that you cannot breed a black headed gouldian with a red headed gouldian. Is that true?

I guess it depends on whom you ask. There's been a study done in Australia that suggests like headed Gouldians prefer to breed together. However many breeders have found that breeding Gouldians with different coloured heads have produced clutches just as large, healthy and happy.

I breed red heads to black heads... that is how you end up with birds that are split. The chick could look like a red head but carry the gene for black head... thus split to black head or RH/BH.

I am learning the gentics mutations myself. Check out Tiffany's site at Gouldians Galore. She has a lot of information on genetics...and has taught me much. Happy learning

Pegspals wrote:
I have also heard that you cannot breed a black headed gouldian with a red headed gouldian. Is that true?

I started out this year with only one pair (bought more in the meantime ) He is a redhead and she a black head. They gave me 3 clutches of the most beatiful babies, and were the most doting parents ever.

If you put a BH male to a RH female you will get al RH males and all BH females.
if the pair is split for YH you could get YH males.

So some breeders like to put diffrent colurs as long you know what you get.

thanks so much for the info.

I have a RH male and a BH female that gave me a clutch of 6 beauties!