RH Gouldian's New "Dye Job"

[nixity]

I never took any of it as critique - I was just posting a photo of her after her first molt for point of reference

I think it was James Watson (a genetic expert in Australia) but do NOT QUOTE ME ON THIS - who said that added carotenes to Gouldian diets do not work to enhance or otherwise modify the color seen. I believe the conversation took place on one of the Yahoo birds (GPA maybe?) after the whole female controlling embryo sex study was released.
There was extensive testing with it because of hens who have dirty masks or males who have different red or orange shaded masks.

Enhancing the diet like you would a Canary showed no marked change in the color of the birds.

Just food for thought.

[nixity]

I wasn't taking any of it as critique

I only posted the picture of her after her juvenile molt for point of reference to what her head color looked like in that photo.

Food for thought:

I had a discussion with some peeps shortly after the study was released about Gouldian hens manipulating embryo sex based on partner head color on one of the yahoo groups.
I think (and DON'T quote me on this) it was James Watson, who is an expert in Gouldian genetics from Australia, who said that adding carotene additives to a Gouldian's diet won't change anything about their color.
If it wasn't James, it was someone else who knew that this had been tested in Europe many times to no avail to try to brighten dark headed hens and also enhance the red color of red headed males for show.

It's not the same as adding it to a colorbred canary diet where they NEED the added/enhanced carotenes to produce the color otherwise they just appear yellow.

Gouldians will produce these colors without any added carotene and seemingly adding more (like a supplement intended for colorbred birds) does not affect them. (This isn't to say that a poor diet won't result in poor coloring, it will, I'm just saying adding enhancers won't bring out any additional color in a bird that is on a well-balanced diet)

It was brought up again when the "orange" Gouldians surfaced from S. Fl which I believe turned out to be hoaxes.

At first it was suggested perhaps yellow birds were being colorfed, but again it was dismissed because color feeding them doesn't change the birds.

I remember it looking like the lights they were under appeared to be colored lights that when a yellow bird was held under them, it changed the appearance of the bird to appear more orange or something, cause even the handler's hands looked orange-ish in the photos.

[DCbeachboy]

Hmm....sounds like Gouldian colors just cannot be manipulated in the way some other species can be -- just as they don't like to have their diet manipulated to try new foods, as we all know very well! I also found your observations about the lighting to be of interest. I'm sure the widely varying lighting conditions in which we keep our birds definitely can make a very notable difference in the hues of Gouldians, in no small part because of their vivid coloring.

I had devoted quite some time to researching avian lighting needs several months before picking up my birds, even speaking with a couple of avian vets on the issue -- and while I'm no expert, for whatever it's worth, here's what I decided seemed to make the most sense to me personally, on the 2 main considerations of cage lighting. (Since I can't provide my birds with an outdoor aviary with access to natural sunlight, I've tried to mimic that experience as closely as possible.)

1) UV: There is just too much conflicting opinion on this issue to know the truth. Some insist there is no real benefit at all, while others insist that birds critically need a UVA/B-emitting bulb when they're deprived of the sun's natural UV rays. But the birds apparently have to stay within 6-8 inches or so of the bulb to absorb very much UV, and the UV emitted apparently begins decreasing after six months or so -- requiring more frequent bulb changes than regular bulbs. After giving it considerable thought and becoming more and more frustrated that there seemed to be no real clear-cut answer to this question, I finally had an epiphany! I realized: so what if the bulb doesn't provide a benefit by helping with Vitamin D production? Even if that's the case, I'm left with just a bulb that still provides quite good lighting. I'm not out anything, other than a few extra dollars. And IF the bulbs DO help the birds produce Vitamin D, then great -- that's a bonus! Why take the chance of possibly denying my birds that benefit, when I stand to lose nothing really by giving it to them -- just in case? So I opted to include one Arcadia 18w fluorescent as the 1st of 2 bulbs in a timed fixture sitting directly on cagetop. It claims to emit 2.4% UVB and 12% UVA.

2) FULL-SPECTRUM: Unfortunately, the term "full-spectrum" is widely abused, and often used as nothing more than a marketing gimmick. And while "daylight" bulbs are a far better choice than regular fluorescents, they still are nowhere near natural daylight in terms of correctly showing an object's true colors. But there ARE a few truly full-spectrum bulbs out there, so I took extra care to locate the bulb with one of the closest possible matches for both color temperature and color-rendering index (CRI -- which refers to the quality of color light), as that provided by natural outdoor lighting. (As a point of reference, natural sunlight has a CRI of 100 at high noon around the equator, and a color temperature of 5,000K -- or 5,500K when both sunlight and skylight are combined.) As I understand, you should always aim for a bulb with a CRI of around 94 or greater, and a color temperature ranging somewhere between 5,000k and 5,800K. I found several fluorescents that met both these parameters, but there were 2-3 that were by far the closest matches. The one I opted for is the 17w Philips TL90 F17 T8/TL950. It offers a CRI of 98 and color temperature of 5,000K -- you really can't get any closer than that to natural outdoor lighting. Several other excellent bulb choices are listed here: http://users.mis.net/~pthrush/lighting/kinds.html

This combination of both a UV bulb with a high-quality truly full-spectrum bulb seems to really make the birds' natural colors "pop" -- I've even had two different friends who've seen their photos ask if I keep the cage outside, because the lighting looks so amazingly natural. But the main thing is, I feel as if I'm providing them the next-best-thing to the great outdoors. And on the occasional day when I've got the windows open, they even get a natural breeze!