I am learning so much from the people on this site and I am so thankful to have found it. I posted some previous questions regarding the genetic make up of my keets, pairing off, splitting bonded pairs, etc... now that I have been much better educated on what I thought I already knew quite a bit about... I have some more genetic questions regarding offspring.

 

First, please know that I have followed the advice given and have separated Patches and Innocents due to Patches' age being less than 8 months old. For now she is in the main aviary with the other females and Innocents is in a cage alone... ( I don't like that part of it but it's what's best for them. I got Patches in April 08, so I know she will be at least a year old by January or February 09 and will reunite them then. So thank you all for your advice.

 

Secondly, at this time I think the only pair I'm going to allow to mate are my Mauve Hen Opaline and my Green Cock Opaline. I know for sure both of them are old enought and in breeding condition. I'm told that their babies will be 100% Opaline and most likely all will be Green unless Hen is split for Blue. I had one question on that... Why does she have to be split for Blue if she herself is already a shade of blue (mauve)???? The Hen would have to be a a shade of blue and be split for blue in order to have any blue offspring??? Also would it be true to say that if either partent is split for anything that may not be "visible" they could have offspring that "show" that split??

 

Lastly, I was reading another post where someone asked how to get yellowfaced keets and keep the blue body color.... and I'm wondering the same. As stated before I do have one Sky-blue, Greywing, Yellowface2, split to recessive cock... come January, when I reunite Patches and Innocents, I was thinking of pairing him with my Blue Normal Hen. Can anyone tell me what their babies would be (% if possible, please)? Can you get YF1 (keeping the blue body color) from a YF2 cock ?? If I'm understanding this genetics thing at all I think since they are both blue I will get all blue babies, and I think that since the hen is Normal most babies will be normal, and I think since the cock is split to recessive and YF2 I have a very small chance for a pied or YF2 to pop up, but I don't know %, I don't know for sure if I got it right, and I don't know what my chance of getting a YF1 out of the deal is????

 

So if you could answer these few questions I would appreciate it. I am not only looking to do what is best for my keets, but if and when I do move forward with pairing and breeding (other than the one pair I'm going to allow to breed) I would like to try to obtain the best color "results" as possible.

 

You have all been so helpful and I am thankful.

The mauve is a blue so doesnt have to be split to produce blues- (whoever answered this question for you mustn't have read it properly) if you pair her with a blue or green split blue male if the green cock isnt split blue you will get greens.(all opaline) If either are split for say rec pied or greywing etc then yes the young could show it.

 

A YF2 wont produce YF1's but if you pair that cock to a normal blue you will get yf2 blues, blue normals, young will be split greywing and some may carry rec pied if he is split for it. Not knowing if your blue normal hen is split for anything its hard to say exactly what will come out, if she is split rec pied also you may get pieds

I'm told that their babies will be 100% Opaline and most likely all will be Green unless Hen is split for Blue. I had one question on that... Why does she have to be split for Blue if she herself is already a shade of blue (mauve)????

 

This is just around the wrong way the MALE will have to be split blue for any of the offspring to appear blue in their clutch. She will give the blue gene to all her offspring (making them split for the gene - meaning they carry the gene but don't appear blue)

 

Lastly, I was reading another post where someone asked how to get yellowfaced keets and keep the blue body color.... and I'm wondering the same.

 

You need the yellowface type 1 gene to get this look, a type 2 is dominant over the type 1 gene and you will not be able to get young as type 1's using a type 2 bird.

 

Hope this helps, keep asking the questions. The yellowface gene is tricky and I'm trying to keep it basic at the moment so as not to overload your mind.

Edited July 12, 200817 yr by Nerwen
typing mistake

Thank you for your replies on this. I understand all of what was said now. So at this point, it's just waiting to see what happens with the offspring to find out more about the parents.

 

My male sky-blue greywing yf2 split for recessive is a good bird to use for breeding because there's so many options of what will show up... I guess time will only tell now. )

 

Although breeding is risky, it can be very informative too... just by viewing the offspring you learn more about the parents then you knew before you bred them. )

 

One question about sex-linked genes... are sex linked genes only passed on from the cocks Y ?

Thank you again for the info. I'm sure I will have alot more questions.

In birds sex linked is the opposite to humans. A hen is XY and a cock is XX. So if a hen has albino on her X gene then it will be visible as she doesn't have another X to cancel it out but a male must have both X genes carryin the sex linked trait for it to show up.

Sex linked is as Melbournebudgies said carried on the X gene. A hen will appear as the variety while the males can carry the gene. Genes such as INO gene, Cinamon, Opaline and texas Clearbody are all sexlinked. A Hen with a sexlink gene will give that gene to ALL her sons. A Cock with sexlinked gene (visable) will give it to ALL his daughters.