I don't plan to try breeding right away, but if I do choose to set them up in the future would like to know that the pair I chose made sense. I know it's probably a matter of taste, but any help would still be appreciated!Thanks! Hilary
Starter Pair of Goulds?
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Hilary
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Starter Pair of Goulds?
Any suggestions for goulds? I haven't had them before and will be visiting a breeder in a little over a week, but with all of the options am not sure what to ask for. I read about RH, BH, OH, dilutes, etc - ack! I don't plan to try breeding right away, but if I do choose to set them up in the future would like to know that the pair I chose made sense. I know it's probably a matter of taste, but any help would still be appreciated!
Thanks! Hilary
I don't plan to try breeding right away, but if I do choose to set them up in the future would like to know that the pair I chose made sense. I know it's probably a matter of taste, but any help would still be appreciated!Thanks! Hilary
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Crystal
- Brooding
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It really does boil down to your personal preference--if there is a certain combination of colors you like on a gould (such as a "white headed" white breasted yellow, or a black headed lilac breasted blue, etc.), you can either purchase that color combination outright (if it is available) or you can purchase birds which will produce young in those colors.
That being said, I read a while ago that it is usually a good practice to avoid breeding blue directly to blue and silver directly to silver. Blue and silver birds tend to be the more 'inbred' mutations (or at least were in the past), so breeding blue x blue etc. can lead to weaker chicks and possibly lethal gene combinations. Outcrossing tends to be the best way to reduce this problem (breeding a blue to a wild type bird to produce split for blues which can be bred to other splits or back to blues to generate more [unrelated] blue goulds, etc.).
As far as other general advice on what to look for, it is the same as purchasing any new bird: go for young, healthy stock. In the case of goulds that you plan to possibly breed in the future, I personally would not purchase birds unless they were parent raised--sometimes fostered gouldians are less consistent (imprinted if they were fostered under a different species, etc.) than parent raised ones. You would also want a pair that was unrelated in the case of breeding.
A good combination for producing a little of everything is a split white breasted dilute (single factor yellow body cock) who is split for blue with a black head and yellow tipped beak X a red headed (split yellow head) lilac breasted (split for white breasted) split for blue normal body hen.
You could get white breasts, purple breasts, lilac breasts, yellow head, red head, black head, normals, yellows, blues, and silvers from this sort of pairing (in a few combinations).
Of course once you start looking for something that specific, your odds of finding the exact combination you seek at one breeder become much smaller. Good luck though and feel free to ask more questions.
That being said, I read a while ago that it is usually a good practice to avoid breeding blue directly to blue and silver directly to silver. Blue and silver birds tend to be the more 'inbred' mutations (or at least were in the past), so breeding blue x blue etc. can lead to weaker chicks and possibly lethal gene combinations. Outcrossing tends to be the best way to reduce this problem (breeding a blue to a wild type bird to produce split for blues which can be bred to other splits or back to blues to generate more [unrelated] blue goulds, etc.).
As far as other general advice on what to look for, it is the same as purchasing any new bird: go for young, healthy stock. In the case of goulds that you plan to possibly breed in the future, I personally would not purchase birds unless they were parent raised--sometimes fostered gouldians are less consistent (imprinted if they were fostered under a different species, etc.) than parent raised ones. You would also want a pair that was unrelated in the case of breeding.
A good combination for producing a little of everything is a split white breasted dilute (single factor yellow body cock) who is split for blue with a black head and yellow tipped beak X a red headed (split yellow head) lilac breasted (split for white breasted) split for blue normal body hen.
You could get white breasts, purple breasts, lilac breasts, yellow head, red head, black head, normals, yellows, blues, and silvers from this sort of pairing (in a few combinations).
Of course once you start looking for something that specific, your odds of finding the exact combination you seek at one breeder become much smaller. Good luck though and feel free to ask more questions.
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Hilary
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Ack - thanks Crystal! I'm hoping that the breeder knows this much about his birds! I actually have a breeder with males available, and a wholesaler who may have a bigger selection but probably won't know as much about the individuals. This is amazing - for my other finches it's just a matter of making sure they're healthy!
Hilary
Hilary