Hi Guys.

I actually have two questions. I know that breeding birds that are too closely related is a bad thing in that any faults or genetic weaknesses may be increased, but how close is too close. Would you consider breeding cousins or uncles to neices, or double cousins? Or would that be too risky as well?

The other question relates to dominant traits. Some one here(I don't remember who) said that YF is a dominant trait in the blue series. Does that mean that all the chicks from a YF hen paird with a blue series cock would be YF? and does it mean the a bird cannot be split to YF?

Thanks in adavance I am determined to understand as much about breeding as I can before mine are ready to breed.

Shell

I don't know about inbreeding. But if you pair a YF hen with a white faced cock you will get half white faces and half yellow faces. YF works abit like the spangle gene. A single factor yellowface will appear as a yellow face but a double factor yellow face will appear as a white face.

Yellowface is dominant to white face in blue series birds, so if you pair a yellowface to a whiteface, all babies should have yellow faces. If you pair two yellowfaces together, that is when you get a mixture of yellow and white faces. This is because if you pair a yw to a yw, the possible outcomes are yw (yellowface) ww(whiteface) and yy (doublefactor yellowface, which looks like a whiteface). There is no visual difference between a doublefactor yellowface and a whiteface blue bird.

 

As far as (in)breeding, before making an informed decision about pairings, I think you should know the history of the birds back a generation or two at least. If not, then I would start out by making sure they are not related at all, as best as you can determine.

No if you pair a yellow face to a white face you will get half and half, because an apparent yellow face is a single factor. Punnet squares!!!!

Okay... I appreciate the replies. I guess I will have to wait for more responses and count them as votes. :hap: :hap:

Rainbow, The reason I asked is that all six of my budgies are unrelated, I was thinking about their babies and their grandbabies. I'm thinking I will need one more pair to keep it clean? Offspring of pair A to B and C to D and so on. Any help would be appreciated. I want to keep as few breeders as possible to achieve the best babies.

Thanks,

Shell

That is good in theory shellball, but here is where I think you may run into a bad case of multiple bird syndrome...

 

Say pair A/B breed, pair C/D breed, and pair E/F breed. They each have 4 eggs that hatch (per clutch, normal double clutch). You now have 30 birds. What if you do not get the results you were hoping for? Next time you pair A/C, B/D, and keep E/F. They each have 4 eggs that hatch (same thing, 8 babies per pair, total in the breeding season). At this second mating, the babies from the first mating are about ready to mate themselves. Do you mate them only to babies from E/F, since they are the ones you know are not related? What if the second pairing of E/F does not give the results you wanted, or you notice a genetic problem begin to crop up in the first clutch of babies from E/F and you cannot breed from them (or their babies) anymore? I'm sure you will part with some of the babies but if not you now have 54 birds that unless you have kept scrupulous records and know for certain that the babies from A/B will only be mated with babies from C/D (as if you bred babies from A/C to either A/B or C/D babies they will be closely inbred, which you want to avoid) then you will need more birds. It gets even more confusing if you switched up E/F also.

 

And remember the 4 babies per clutch is just an average figure, there could be more.

 

And sailorwolf is right - you would only get all yellowface babies if the apparent whiteface were actually a DF yellowface. My bad, I stand corrected.

Yes I know about overpopulation problem. I don't intend on having any double clutches and will find homes for most of the babies. I will be keeping only a few. This post was more of a what if kind of thing. I adore my birds. They are all incredible individuals. Chances are pretty good that I will not breed them all. I just have this "need to know everything" flaw in my brain. If it was of ultimate importance to me to have a particular type of bird above all else, I would find and buy one. I love this sight because it allows me to dream. In reality I know my limitations.

Thanks for the responses.... I can still hope for that perfect little skyblue YFII opaline spangle!!

Shell

Kinda make your head spin, doesn't it?

 

If that is the case, then I think the 6 you have now will be fine to start out with. The same logic applies though, in that if you mix and match the parents out of the six you have, you will limit the combinations you can make while keeping the bloodlines unrelated.

 

Best of luck in breeding that little yellowface blue opaline spangle!

 

How were you thinking of pairing your birds?

The way they are bonding, is Shadow (violet,opaline male)with Sherbet(light green Rpied,clearwing,opaline Hen)

 

Jasper (GoldenfaceII cock) with Venus(Violet, normal hen)

 

Jupiter (Sky blue.Dpied,opaline Clearwing?dilute cock) with Terra (Sky blue Yellow face II)

 

Is it possible to be split for spangle or am I wishing on a star!

Thanks for responding,

Shell

They can't be spilt for spangle unfortunately - spangle is a visual gene! (who would want to hide such a pretty gene anyway )

Thanks Riebie,

I guess I already knew that dominate traits are visible. My heart insists on wishfull thinking! I am sure that eventually I will find my dream bird somewhere. Meanwhile I have my beautiful flock and many fantastic pictures to look at here!

Thanks again,

Shell