Neville

From that pair you would expect to get: 50% spangles. All green series unless the cock is split for blue with 50% being grey green. No greywings unless the hen is split for greywing. It will be interesting to see how they turn out

A classic rainbow is a type 2 yellow face opaline clearwing with any shade of blue or violet, but there are many other combinations that are just as colourful. The easiest to create is a yellow face opaline spangle which you can get by simply crossing a type 2 yellow face blue opaline male with a spangle female. Another very colourful combination is a type 2 yellow face cobalt opaline cinnamon dominant pied. You can get pastel shades by adding cinnamon or dilute to the mix. Opaline and cinnamon are both sex-linked so must be carried by the male and if you are introducing dilute it must come from both sides as it is recessive

Yes to get a recessive pied from 2 normals they would both have to be split. Only some birds that are split for recessive pied have a head spot

1st bird is a type 2 yellow face sky blue dilute male about 2 months old 2nd bird is a sky blue spangle male adult 3rd type 2 yellow face sky blue spangle female about 3 months old 4th sky blue dominant pied dilute female about 3 months old As has already been mentioned, after the moult the 2 yellow face birds will probably show a lot more green Thanks for the PM, I’ll answer here so others can comment. A true classic rainbow is a combination of opaline, clearwing, type 2 yellow face and any shade of blue, So you don’t have all the right mutations to breed one. However there a lot of other combinations that are just as colourful. To get colours on the bird’s back you need opaline and I see that the bird in you avatar is a yellow face opaline but I can’t see the sex. Is it available for breeding? Unfortunately the dilute mutation that 2 of your birds are is recessive so unless they are paired to another dilute the chicks will have dark wings, Spangle, dominant pied and yellow face are all dominant so half of the chicks from these types will show the mutation. Opaline is sex-linked so if your bird is female none of the chicks will be opaline unless the male has the gene also. If your opaline is male his daughters will all show opaline. So to get very colourful chicks it might take 2 generations. How to pair them to get colourful combinations! I’m sure that no matter how they are paired you will get beautiful chicks If the yellow face opaline is male I would pair it to the type 2 yellow face sky blue spangle female. This would give you a good proportion of yellow face opaline spangle females which are very beautiful. You would also get spangles, normals and ordinary opalines with black on the wings. If the type 2 yellow face sky blue dilute male is mated to the sky blue dominant pied dilute female the chicks would all be dilutes. Some would be yellow face sky blue dominant pied dilutes which I think you would like. You would also get chicks similar to both parents If you paired the sky blue spangle male to the type 2 yellow face sky blue spangle female you would get some chicks similar to both birds, some normals with black wing markings, some pure whites and some yellow face whites I hope I haven’t confused you too much!

To produce males that are split to both ino and cinnamon it doesn't matter which way round the parents are. I your case all the female chicks will be ino. The odds of producing a lacewing from these split males is about 6.25%. The odds would probably be better if the split was mated to a cinnamon or an ino hen There is no reason why you can't breed fallows to inos except that by doing so you are unlikely to improve either mutation.

The 4 1/2 months old one looks female but it is hard to tell from the photo whether the cere is brown or pink. If it is pink then it will be male, it is a recessive pied and males of this mutation have pink ceres Baby 1 is male. It is also a recessive pied so it's cere will stay pink all it's life Baby 2 is a female sky blue normal Baby 3 is male dark green normal Baby 4 is a female sky blue opaline Baby 5 is a female green opaline Opaline is a sex-linked gene so: Unless the mother has an opaline wing pattern like the last 2 chicks then any babies she has with this wing pattern will be female

Both type 2 yellow face double factor spangles. The cinnamon would have to come from the male to show in the chicks but I doubt that it would show on a double factor spangle. I was looking forward to seeing lacewings because I'm surprised that they are not bred accidentally more often. Lacewings are a combination of the cinnamon and ino genes, so if a cinnamon was mated to an ino (lutino or albino) then any male chicks born from the pair would be split for both cinnamon and ino. These split males could father a small percentage of lacewing hens

Sunny doesn't look like a young bird to me. You have a yellow face double factor dominant pied or possibly a combination of recessive and dominant pied types. I don't think that iris rings, which would help in estimating the age, will develop. The cere is definately a sign of sexual ill health or hormonal imbalance, but if it is peeling it is a sign of recovery. Apart from the cere it sounds very healthy in every other way. The best of luck with a beautiful bird

Single factor violet can be very hard to see on a sky blue or a mauve (or a green) and often the "Hue" around the neck is the only sign. On a cobalt bird you should be able to see the single factor easily. Double factor violet is very distinct on both sky blue and cobalt birds

Some spangles have spots that are the same colour as their bodies. I don't think that these ones are a sign of recessive pied. The ones with clear spots would probably be split for recessive pied. The only one I have with a body coloured spot is split for opaline but I don't know if there is any connection

This chick is from a pair of normals, the mother is split for recessive pied but she has no spot. The other chicks are all normals with no spotshttp://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll78/nev90/131.jpg

If the cock is split for opaline about half the chicks will be opaline greywing

A dominant pied would have clear flight feathers and a clear area across the front

Not necessarily. One of the parents could be split for recessive pied and the chick inherited the split. If it was dominant pied then it would have the other characteristics of a dominant pied as well

I've had several birds with similar sized spots to Merlin's that have been bred from recessive pieds mated to normals. There is no doubt in my mind that any size spot on an otherwise normal bird is a sign that it is split for recessive pied

The bird is both mutations but you can't see the recessive pied because it is covered by the ino. You may notice that it doesn't develop iris rings

Since the father is splt for ino (lutino or albino) then you would expect that half of the female chicks would be ino and half of the males would be split for ino. If your cock bird is also split for blue you could get albinos in the future. Any ino chicks you get from this pair will be masking recessive pied so if one of them was mated to a recessive pied male that wasn't split for ino then all the chicks would be recessive pieds. Hope I'm not confusing you

I agree that you have a female budgie. A very beautiful sky violet opaline spangle. I'm surprised that the breeder let you take her when she was only one day out of the nest, generally chicks should be left with their parents for at least a week after leaving the nest to be sure that they are feeding properly

Thank you Elly for bringing this thread foreward. It is very interesting. I also have noticed that many spangles have the spot, in some cases it could be a sign the the spangle is split for recessive pied

Coco is a recessive pied male. It is correct that recessive pieds don't develop iris rings, this can makes it quite difficult to tell their age. As far as females not responding to humans as well as males is concerned I think that it is probably an old wives tale

All pieds have a clear patch on the back of their heads of varying sizes but a spot on the back of a normal bird's head can only be recessive pied. If a bird is dominant pied it would have the other characteristics of a dominant pied as well. The bird in this picture, now adult and mated to a recessive pied, regularly produces 50% recessive pied chicks

It's probably just recreational sex, it happens a lot with teenagers. Most likely they won't lay any eggs

Male

I agree with Elly. Type 2 yellow face mauve clearwing (or greywing) recessive pied

Unless there are hidden recessive genes and sex linked genes present you should get 50% spangles and 50% normals Is the spangle a violet? If he is then half the chicks will inherit violet