Gouldian - what color mutation is he?

[Animalzoo]

MariusStegmann
What do you mean, breed your own? Do you mean breed him to one of his offspring!? Or just keep breeding his babies until a random blue appears?

Also, why a black head green back? Whats the significance of that?

[Animalzoo]

Just a second thought on this, I do have a pastel male. So what if I took one of the female offpring from this blue male and bred her with a pastel.

Is he pastel male because he carries the blue gene or is it a simple yellow parent?

[hanabi]

Animalzoo

Hello Sue,

For offspring phenotype forecasting you should give this excellent website a try:

http://www.gouldianfinches.eu/en/geneti ... a/english/

Cheers.

Ross

[Animalzoo]

hanabi

What a fantastic website. Thanks Ross!

[debbie276]

Is he pastel male because he carries the blue gene or is it a simple yellow parent?

Pastel is a yellow gene not Blue. He has 2 Pastel genes and 2 Blue genes. His parents had to each pass down 1 Pastel and 1 Blue gene for him to have 2 of each.

[Animalzoo]

debbie276

Debbie, I was referring to another bird I have. I have a pastel male who I was thinking of breeding with an offspring of the blue. But it sounds like as you say he's pastel due to yellow parents so I can't make blue babies from him.

Make sense?

[debbie276]

To make Blue each parent must pass on a Blue gene so you would need either a Blue or split to Blue for each.

Makes perfect sense ;)

[MariusStegmann]

Animalzoo Sue, I mean that if you breed your silver to a normal, the chicks will be split for blue. You can then perhaps swap splits with someone for unrelated blue splits or breed those splits again to a normal. The chicks that you would get would be possible Blue splits, maybe 50% of them would be split for blue I think. Those hens can then be bred back to the cock and and possibly give you blue babies. If the one hen does not work, try another, because there is no outside indication of whether the hen carries the blue gene. In any case the first generation offspring from your cock will be valuable because they will all be split for blue. Why I say breed to a black headed green is just because in my personal opinion, the prettiest blue is a black head, white breast, blue back. If it was my bird, I would be very impatient to get blues and breed my first generation blue splits together, brother to sister (yes I know it is inbreeding, and probably not the best thing to do, but it would give you blues.)

[Animalzoo]

Animalzoo If it was my bird, I would be very impatient to get blues and breed my first generation blue splits together, brother to sister (yes I know it is inbreeding, and probably not the best thing to do, but it would give you blues.)

Is that why they say the gene pool isn't big enough yet? It's been said not to breed blue to blue for this reason. I'd be nervous personally, but I understand now the long term plan of action you've suggested.

I do have a contact who is in the Gouldian world and knows I want a blue. I'm hoping to buy another actual blue (rather than silver) at some point so I could breed that one with one of the splits.

Thanks.