Silver Gouldians

[Carpet Man]

Hi
I have a pair of Silver Gouldians and not 100% sure if there a pair, two cocks or two hens, I want to put them down for breeding so can anybody advise as to how I can identify them

[akidsgal]

Are they related? I am not one to breed 2 silver, or 2 blues together. Split to each is fine. Try to post pics if you can and I am sure that most can tell by their looks. If not able to do so, a sure way to tell is if one sings

[debbie276]

I am not one to breed 2 silver, or 2 blues together. Split to each is fine.

Curious, I understand split to blue but what is split to silver??

[L in Ontario]

I am not one to breed 2 silver, or 2 blues together. Split to each is fine.

Curious, I understand split to blue but what is split to silver??

I think Carol meant that if each bird were split that would be fine.

[Carpet Man]

I am not one to breed 2 silver, or 2 blues together. Split to each is fine.

Curious, I understand split to blue but what is split to silver??

I think Carol meant that if each bird were split that would be fine.

So what are you saying, don’t breed the two silvers together and put them with Blues??? What could I expect to get from that???
Ray

[L in Ontario]

I am not one to breed 2 silver, or 2 blues together. Split to each is fine.

So what are you saying, don’t breed the two silvers together and put them with Blues??? What could I expect to get from that???
Ray

A lot of people say:
Do not breed 2 silvers together.
Do not breed 2 blues together.

But they say it is okay to pair silvers or blues with a normal split to blue or yellow split to blue.

Correct me if I'm wrong on that. They say the combination of 2 silvers or 2 blues will produce weak babies. Some also say it is okay to breed 2 blues together nowadays. Of course they have to be unrelated.

They used to also say:
Do not breed 2 yellows together.
But this has changed and these days it is okay to breed 2 unrelated yellows together.

HTH

[Carpet Man]

Are they related? I am not one to breed 2 silver, or 2 blues together. Split to each is fine. Try to post pics if you can and I am sure that most can tell by their looks. If not able to do so, a sure way to tell is if one sings

I purchased them as unrelated so who knows!!
Ray

[debbie276]

They used to also say:
Do not breed 2 yellows together.
But this has changed and these days it is okay to breed 2 unrelated yellows together.

Yet there are still several that say no to yellow to yellow and others that say there is a lethal gene when you breed yellow to yellow.

[GOULDYGIRL]

Just from my personal experience. I tried it once because I didn't have other options at the time. It didn't work out for me. I bred a pastel and a blue together and the first clutch I got 3 blue babies. I'm not that happy with the quality although, they seem healthy enough. They are 5mos old now and I have two males that sing all day and one hen. They seem on the smaller side to me and they are not even starting to color yet.

The 2nd clutch with the same pair was all duds. The poor pair sat and sat for nothing. I really feel that had something to do with breeding two blues. I will never do it again, not worth it for my birds or me. Just my experience.

Renee

[nixity]

The idea is that breeding the blue mutation together period (blue x blue, silver x silver, pastel x blue, pastel x silver) is not good.

The only bird I've ever had (to my knowledge) that came from a Blue x Silver pairing didn't live more than a year and never produced more than 1 fertile egg (and that baby died the same day it hatched). He was really large, but that doesn't help much if they don't survive more than a year and can't reproduce!!

I have heard similar stories of fertility and health problems associated with offspring from blue x blue pairings, but I have also heard people who insist they do it/have done it without any problems.

My question would be how often do these breeders keep the offspring for breeding future generations? If they just sell all the offspring, they would never really know how the offspring do later in life.

If you have a true pair, I would suggest pairing the hen with a Dilute/Blue male if you can find one - you will get a huge variety out of offspring from this pairing.
Similarly, if you pair the Silver male (what color breast does he have? This will give us a clue as to whether he is SF or DF for yellow) to a Normal/Blue hen you'll get a nice variety of babies if he is SF.

Regardless of the possible complications of pairing these two together the results would be pretty boring if he's DF.. you'll only produce more silvers.
I think the possibility for diversity in a clutch is a little more exciting