FINCHforum

I have read conflicting info. on breeding a blue back to another blue back gouldian. Most info. I have come across says you should not do it, somewhere else talked like as long as they are not related, it should be fine. What are your thoughts on this?

Someone will respond who breeds gouldians, but from what I've read too, it is better to not do so, unless you are very familiar with the breeding line going backwards of both finches.

To understand these claims of blue to blue (yes or no), folks need to understand some minor key notes in genetics.

When a male and female come together, generally, both sexes have different gene pools. We can call this heterozygosity. Heterozygosity is important when it comes to male/female breeding because this means their children get a mixture of genetics that enable them to survive the forever changing environment around us.

However, when heterozygosity drops, this means you've been breeding siblings to siblings or closely related male/female pairs together. When it becomes a homo(same)zygosity organism to another, then their offspring's genetics stop growing, so to speak, and thus makes it difficult for them to adapt to the natural changing environment. This changing environment could be something as little as increase in world's temp, weather changes, evolving bacteria, so on. Without good genes, offspring come out weak because their gene pool aren't growing anymore and so they die off and survivors are often not the best quality specimens one can find.

This applies to ALL organisms that require a male and female. Not just to blue gouldians, not just on birds, but to all organisms that require to mate. With that being said, keep in mind of where you are getting the birds and what gene pool they're from. Thats all you need to worry about. Ignore the color, ignore what kind of bird it is. Worry about if they are related or not.

This genetics rule applies to ALL birds that we breed. You don't want to breed normal to normal and keep breeding siblings with each other. This causes inbreeding, which is the main concern to why people don't like blue to blue. Because blue is one of the newer and more expensive gouldians out there. New + Expensive means people will breed siblings with each other in order to avoid paying another 150 or more for another bird. Thus, causing poor genetics.

Blue gouldians have been out for a while now and it is generally safe to breed the two together. Going for a blue + different color (Say green) isn't exactly THAT safe either. What if the green back is a heavily inbred green back? It has poor genes too and so your offspring may come out with some retardations or negative mutations. Or what if the blue back was heavily inbred and the green back wasn't? Same results. What if both are inbred? Even worse.

Bottomline, a diverse gene pool is the way to go. Know your sources.

Great answer Ebichua!

Thank you for your great detailed information! I have much to learn and the folks on this board are so helpful.

I think that in general that what you have said is true but there are genes that when the bird has both copies it is lethal or results in a poor bird (e.g. blind). The fawn cheek mutation in zebras is one such mutation (higher incidence of blindness if you breed fawn cheek to fawn cheek). This occurs in many different species but in general is very rare. I think your point about inbreeding is key though and that even "normal" birds if inbred are not as good....in other words....diversity is important. Too bad we can't appreciate that in other humans!
Lori