The finches I breed belong to the Estrildidae family and consist of the Lady gouldian finch, zebra finch, red throated parrot finch (also referred to as the red faced or red headed) and Goldbreast Waxbill.
Housing for these feathered friends:
Finches can be kept indoors in cages, flights, or bird rooms as well in outdoor aviaries. The larger the area the better for your finches as this will offer space for flight and excercise. Also more space per bird results in less squabbles. In the Aviary Notes and Aviary Photo Section I have examples of many ways to keep these pets. I like to breed my gouldians as a single pair in a standard breeding cage. This make breeding for true mutations and accurate record keeping simple. Colony breeding for some of the species such as goldbreast seem to work well for them. I have found roomy flights the best for active breeding pairs such as parrot finches. It is best to offer flights to all species when not breeding as this will keep birds in optimal shape until the next breeding season. Many species bennifit from segregating the sexes during the resting period after breeding.
Diet for my Peep Keeps:
A good finch seed mix is the base for these grass finches. I personally use ABBA products but there are many good mixes out there in the market. Some people even like to mix thier own. I will add canary grass seed, sunflower chips sometimes to increase the protein. I also will add Higgins Fruit and Veggies at times. I also offer vitamin fortified pellets, ABBA, Roudy Bush, and Zupreem.
I use Goldenfeast Australian Blend as an additive. I try to vary the diet depending on if the birds are breeding, moulting, or resting.
Other than seed they get Commercial eggfoods, boiled eggs, chopped fresh greens,carrots, broccoli, and dried insect mixes. I do raise mealworms but have weaned all the birds to boiled eggs shreded to loook like mealworms.
They also have minerals in the form of an oyster shell grit, mineral dust, cuttle bones and chrushed eggshells. I rarely use vitamins in the water other than a calcium with vitamin D suppliment. This I will use for egg laying hens if necessary. The birds seem to do great on thier diets, breed and raise chicks that are healthy, live long lives and are in beautiful feather..... so it must be what they need.
I have natural products to address health concerns. Charcoal for stomach problems, kelp and iodine for feathering, bee pollen for immune system support, alfalfa for blood and liver cleansing, Herb Salad for other natural remedies.
Occaisionally problems do arise so I have some meds such as antibiotics, air sac mite treatments, wormer, etc. on hand because if a problem does come up it is best to have these things on hand already as many times, time is of the essence.
Health Issues:
I am not a vet and do not have an avian vet in my area so I have relied on many web sites of avian experts or keepers with much experience. I will list the links that I find helpful in diagnosing health problems.
I have also just invested in a really nice microscope with camera and discovered a great forum and books on 'Poopology' . I am on a study to detect any health issues in my flock that may be apparent in their feces. Early detection could prove to be a life saver. I do believe in striving to give my birds the best care that I can.
A helpful chart:
http://www.auspigeonco.com.au/Articles/commoncanary_finch3.html
Breeding:
I have a large flock of gouldians and have them breeding basically at 2 different times of the year. One set comes into breeding condition late fall through winter. The other gets started in the spring. I don't change their diet to bring about these changes as in the Austerity diet popular with many. However I do change the diet depending on what the bird is doing. If the birds are in the breeding mode I feed more high protein foods. Normally I will allow 2 to 4 clutches, decided by factors such as how many was in each clutch, the age and condition of the birds, and of course the results from the pair. After the chicks are weaned I discontinue the eggfoods and go to a seed diet with some greens. Usually the birds will begin thier molt or if they seem to still be energetic I seperate them into same sexed flights. The larger flights allow for plenty of exercise and seem to really cut down on the stress while birds replenish their bodies after the demands of raising chicks.
I cage bred my gouldians with one pair to a cage. I find this gives better breeding results and makes record keeping accurate. I have tried once to colony 4 pair of red head gouldians and found it to be more trouble than it was worth. Some of the problems I experienced were crossbreeding with different mates, abandoning nest with eggs or chicks, male and females territorial squabbles, attacks on fledglings of other pairs, etc. The four pair were in a large 16' x 18' floor to ceiling indoor aviary with at least 30 nest and still all these problems. I had maybe 16 chicks survive for the whole season. These numbers pale in comparison to cage breeding where one pair can produce that many. Coupled with the desire to keep genetic lineage records I have abandonded any colony breeding. With the Goldbreast waxbills it is a completely different story. They thrive and breed beautifully in a same species colony setting. And I must say, they are a very stunning sight with so much gold. I currently have an aviary with around 30 goldbreast free flying and the vocals are very pleasing to the ear. I have other pairs in two other aviaries so that I can always gaurantee unrelated pairs.
I like to pair the gouldians up that have a fondness for one another. As I collect the birds for breeding I will put a males in in breeding cages and add a nest within a few days. I will collect females and put them in their own cage placed around the male's cages. As soon as it is apparent who the hen is looking at ...and sometimes hens will be looking at the same male. I will then pair what I think will make nice chicks with a strong genetic background. Sometimes this is not possible as the hen may be a sister, an uncompatible mutation, or possibly just not a good match in conformation. This is when I will step in and place the hen of my choice with the male. Most times they will accept each other. Though on a few occaisions I have relented and put the two that had eyes only for each other together as they would not settle down with another. Many times I will have 10 to 30 pairs set up at the same time and some tend to flirt with the girl next door. Closed cage breeding banks work best but a towel hung between the cages will help stop one from coveting the neighbor's hen.
I try and offer the birds much privacy but I do nest checks if I suspect problems. I occaisionally will suppliment feed, I always replace tossed chicks the first time but if tossed again I will offer the tossed chick to my society pair if they are in the brooding mode. Most times I will handfeed and have become very successful at it. I find that most of my pairs are good parents raising their own chicks and this is how I think it should be. If a pair proves not to rear their own young I will seperate them and try again when they are more mature. I find that failure to bred and rear sucessfully is usually due to my errors like pairing birds that are not mature enough, pairing birds that are not in breeding condition or not in sinc with each others breeding cycle, or just not compatable pairs. It is rarely the birds fault with failure to rear a family.
I have much patience with all my pairs as I feel they know what they are doing, how to do it, and when to do it........ and have been rewarded with many chicks over the years. A hatchling is a wonder to behold, I never tire of witnessing this miracle of life.
Genetics, Mutations, and Names of Gouldians:
Simplified Genetics...
I know when I first started to keep and breed gouldians I found this topic most confusing. I really didn't comprehend much of it until I studied the book The Gouldian Finch by Authors: Stewart Evans, Mike Fidler, Dr Stacy Gelis, Russell Kingston, Dr Debra McDonald, David Myers and Sarah Pryke
Also the book A Guide to Gouldian Finches
and their Mutations by Authors: Milton Lewis, Dr. Rob Marshall, Dr. Terry Martin, and Ron Tristram
I highly recommend both. I will now give you my simplified version of gouldian genetic and the resulting mutations.
Let's talk color....
There are 2 type of colors in play. The Pigment color and the Structural color or Optical properties that we see.
Structual color: The way light reflects determines what colors we see. Example: The blue on the neck and rump of the gouldian is not the actual pigment color. It is the results of the barbs on the feathers. This structure is called boxed celled. They absorb light from the red spectrum and reflect it as blue spectrum...cool hunh? we see blue though there is no pigment for blue found in the pigments of gouldians.
Another cool note... gouldians can see reflected light in the ultraviolet range...we cannot as we have only human eyes. So they may see each other very different than we see them.
Pigment color: There are 4 pigment colors. 2 are known as Melanins and 2 are known as Carotenoids.
Melanins: 1) eumelanin = black
2) phaeomelanin = reddish-brown
Carotenoids: 1) lutein = yellow (absorbed through food)
2) astaxanthin = red (made by the body with lutein)
The different parts of the bird or under different color influences. The blues are a result from the structural properties.
Single pigments are the result of the yellow color of the belly and the head colors. However the black headed bird has distinctly different feather barbs than the red or yellow headed bird. The black head's feathers are much finer where as the red and yellow heads have fattened barbs. The single pigments listed above are the ones responsible for black, red, and yellow heads.
Now for the rest of the bird, the purple breast, the dark blue in the tail, the green of the back. These occur by pigments mixing or ommiting, thus producing a new color. Yellow pigment with blue structural color makes green. phaeomelanin, or reddish-brown, mixed with blue structual creates Purple. Eumelanin, or black, added to structual blue creates the dark blue of the tail feathers. Not so complex after all, Males have more pigment than females, hence the depth of their color.
Now for the mutations of things such as white breast, blue back, and lutino. These mutations have been observed in the wild. Though they are not likely to reproduce. Shunned by the group due to their odd color, target for easy prey, or simply do breed yet the trait is a recessive gene and it would take 2 birds that carried it to visually show it. Odds are low for that happeneing.
Mutations are simply the failure for the bird to produce normal color pigments.
Example: A bird failing to produce the structual blue feathers then the result would be a lutein pigmented bird only...thus yellow.
A bird not able to manufacture lutein from their food would result in a blue bird since lutein is responsible for the yellow (yellow + blue=green in normal wild colored birds) They also lack the red coloration as the astaxanthin is made from the lutein.
A white breasted bird lacks the ability to produce any color. A genetic defect from the wild bird. White breast is a recessive trait.
A lilac breasted bird is only partially blocked and is also a recessive trait.
Mutations can happen at any time. It is simply a result of a genetic defect. Though most mutations today are bred from generation to generation from the first carefully bred mutants.
Never quite looked at it like that, now did you?
Let's Talk Genes...
Foundation of genetics:
Life starts as a single cell which divides into 2 cells, then four cells, then 8 cells, then 16 cells... okay you get the idea.The instruction of the cell is contained in the nucleous. The nucleous contains the chromosomes which are always in pairs. There are 2 kinds of chromosomes.
1) autosomal chromosomes- these are similar to one another,in length and shape. These are known as X chromosomes. All are of this kind except for one pair.
2) sex chromosomes - A stunted , vestigial structure and different from the X chromosomes. This sex chromosome is know as the Y chromosome.
Females have only one sex hormone therefore is know as XY. Males have 2 x chromosomes , known as XX.
Y chromosome carries no genetic material but the X chromosome carries the full genetic material.
So how do these chromosomes make beautiful colored birds?
They form a special DNA code. This code is a specific set of instructions to the developing chick. These instructions are inherited from the parents. One set from the cock and one set from the hen. Sex and color are inherited traits.
Dominant and Recessive Traits:
If one genetic trait takes precedence over others it is called dominant.
Such as, red head feathers are dominant over black head feathers. So if you have a red head father and a black head mother then all the chicks will have red heads like there father. However the chicks will have also inherited aone gene from their mother, the black head, which is recessive. So even though theses chicks look like they are red headed, they have a hidden black head gene. This is what is referred to as split for. Meaning that it is a red head split for black head. Written like this: RH/BH. So if that chick is later paired with a black head or split to black head mate then they could produce black headed gouldians. They will also produce the dominant red head.
The term for birds that are pure color (no splits) is called homozygous.
The birds that have a hidden recessive trait or 'split for' are called heterozygous. These are the genotype of the bird.
When a trait can be passed down from either parent it is called and autosomal genotype. However some traits are sex linked..............
Sex Linked Traits:
When an egg is fertilized by the male's sperm and the hen's ovum it receives a combination of the parents genes, traits, or chromosomes. Both sets of chromosomes provide genetic instructions gor the chick. These instructions are passed on like in the earlier color iherotance discussed earlier with the exception of the chromosome that control sex-linked traits.
As pointed out in the beginning the hen sex chromosome is shorter than the cocks. This means that it will only contribute one gene for each trait that is on that part of the chromosome.
Red Head and black head are sex linked traits. This means that recessive traits passed on by the father can be espressed just as easily as dominant traits if the hen does not have a complimentary dominant gene on her chromosome...... This part still confuses me,,,,,,,
A simlper way to say it is a male chick will always show the dominant color, no matter which oarent it got it from. Female chicks receive a shorter chromosome si this means that they only need one recessive gene from their father to display the recesive color.
For example...If you have a single factor pastel male (dilute) and a green hen breeding.. you could get yellow hens because they could get the one recessive yellow gene from the father. Boy was I surprised to get a yellow bird from my green parents the first time this happened. As a matter of fact this is what made me dwelve into studying genetics...inquiring minds want to know.
Now more confusing stuff. The yellow headed bird, which many people call orange head because it does look orange. The yellow head gene surpresses the carotenoid synthesis which produces the red color. ( red color is produced in the body by lutein..go to the color section and read again) This can be passed by either parent, and autosomal trait. The lack of red pigment that produces this yellow or orange head can only be seen if the bird was a red headed bird to begin with. The way these traits mingle it means that a yellow headed hen will always be homozygous (can not be split for another color). A yellow headed male can be yellow or even split to black. How do you know if the bird has the yellow gene? Look at the beak. If the yellow headed bird is showing in a visually black headed bird then the beak will be tipped in yellow. But also, a black headed bird can carry the yellow trait without expressing it. This will show as a black headed bird with a red tipped beak.
The way you pair a sex linked trait will have a great effect on the color of the chicks. Many times you will not get the recessive color with the first generation (F1). But will only get split birds. With the next generation greater possibilities develope. For example. If you have a normal, wild type green backed bird and you breed it with a blue hen you will not see any blue chicks in the nest. But each one of those chicks will have the recessive trait hidden within them. These will be called split to blue. When these chicks are bred with other split to blues or blues you will then get blue chicks in the nest. Boy was I surprized the first time I had a blue chick in the nest of 2 normal looking green backed birds.... I had bought them as greens and they turned out to both be split to blue. Back to the genetic studies I went. The thing about split birds is that you just can't tell by looking at then if they are or not. Buying from a breeder who keeps accurate records helps out a lot. But then again, if you are like me, surprizes are fine too.
Another point to make on this example...say you have a green looking male bird that is split to blue and you bred it to a green looking hen that is also split to blue.. you may get blue chicks, green chicks split to blue, or just normal green chicks. The catcher is you will not know which of the green chicks are normals and which ones are split to blues....that is until you breed them. If you get blue chicks in the nest then they are split. But don't be dissapointed if you don't get blues the first clutch...this does not men that they are necessarily normals. I had a pair of 'normal' greenbacks that bred the first year. They had 3 clutches of pretty green chicks. The next year again I paired them and got 2 clutches of green chicks and then on the 3rd cluth there was a blue, actually 3 blues. They produce at least 20 chicks before the recessive gene matched up and produced a blue. I will pair them together again next year.
It's kind of like Forest Gump says.."It's kind of like a box of chocolates... you never know what you are going to get." At least in the case of buying a bird that the parentage is not known.
Here is a link to n online gouldian gnetic mutation forcator. You don't have to download anything. Just type in the color of your male and the clor of your hen and it will calculate the possible outcome of the offsprings and the percentage that these colors will occur. You can learn a lot by just creating different dream pairs.
http://www.amadinagouldove.cz/gouldian-genetics-forecast-online/english/
stopping point
Names the Same...
There are many color mutations available. The Rainbow Finch is a common name of gouldians and understandably so with so many vibrant and pastel colors.
The names that are used for each mutation can be confusing due to the fact that different people and different areas call them different names. However there is a standard that can be applied to any mutation and it should be recognized around the world. The abbreviations for head color, breast color, and body color, are written in this order RH PB GB or red head, purple breast, green back. Any other information that identifies the mutation may also be noted such as SF pastel, single factor of yellow or DF pastel, double factor of yellow. This is referring to the inheritance of a yellow gene copy such as a green backed bird with a single factor for yellow would be noted as RH PB GB sf pastel or RH PB sf pastel GB. A blue bodied bird with a single factor of yellow are pastels also.
To simplify, pastel means yellow. A green bodied bird with a single yellow factor will change from a medium green to any color from a diluted green to a lemon-lime color. A green body bird with a double factor of yellow would appear yellow.
A Blue bodied bird with a single factor of yellow will be in any color from light blue to silver/grey. A blue bodied bird with a double factor of yellow will be a silver to white bird.
Now this applies to males only as females only need a single factor to express the color.
Breast colors will also play a part in the back colors. Purple breasted birds will always have a darker body ground color. White breast and Lilac breast will allow the body color to be lighter. So a SF pastel green bodied bird with a purple breast would be a diluted green. A green body bird with a white or lilac breast would appear lemon-lime to yellow.
There are other abbreviations you may see from time to time. I will list them along with the common names given to them. Mostly the common names were derived by how the birds look to the eye. A description of the color but not necessarily the true genetics behind the colors.
Abbreviations: What it is: Common Names:
RH PB GB red head, purple breast, green back Normal RH
BH PB GB black head, purple breast, green back Normal BH
YH PB GB yellow head, purple breast, green back Normal YH/
Orange Head
RH LB GB red head, lilac breast, green back
BH LB GB black head, lilac breast, green back
YH LB GB yellow head, lilac breast, green back
RH WB GB red head, white breast, green back
BH WB GB black head, white breast, green back
YH WB GB yellow head, white breast, green back
RH PB GB sf pastel same as above description RH Dilute
BH PB GB sf pastel " BH Dilute
YH PB GB sf pastel " Orange Head Dilute
RH LB GB sf pastel " RH LB yellow back sf
BH LB GB sf pastel " BH LB YB sf
YH LB GB sf pastel " OH LB YB sf
RH WB GB sf pastel " RH WB YB sf
BH WB GB sf pastel " BH WB YB sf
YH WB GB sf pastel " YH WB YB sf
RH PB GB df pastel the double factor RH PB YB
causes the body to RH PB Yellow Back
appear yellow
BH PB GB df pastel same as above description BH PB YB
YH PB GB df pastel " OH PB YB
RH LB GB df pastel " RH LB YB
BH LB GB df pastel " BH LB YB
YH LB GB df pastel sometimes df or DF added OH LB YB df
RH WB GB df pastel " RH WB YB DF
BH WB GB df pastel " BH WB YB
YH WB GB df pastel " YH WB Yellow
RH PB BB red head, purple breast, blue back Straw head,
Salmon head
Beige Head
BH PB BB black head, purple breast,blue back Black Head Blue
RH LB BB red head, lilac breast, blue back
BH LB BB black head, lilac breast, blue back
RH WB BB red head, white breast, blue back
BH WB BB Black head, white breast, blue back
RH PB BB sf pastel same as Pastel
BH PB BB sf pastel above description sf blue
RH LB BB sf pastel "
BH LB BB sf pastel "
RH WB BB sf pastel "
BH WB BB sf pastel "
RH PB BB df pastel the double factor Silver
BH PB BB df pastel causes the body to appear White
silver or white DF Blue
RH LB BB df pastel "
BH LB BB df pastel "
RH WB BB df pastel "
BH WB BB df pastel "
Other abbreviations and terms:
RL or rl red line describes the red
line seperating the breast
from the belly
rtb or ytb red tipped beak or yellow tipped beak
dwb dirty white breast describes the mixed
breast color of a lilac
and white breast
RB rose breast describes the lighter
shade of lilac
TH tangerine head describes a orange red
head color
Mel melanistic describes the abnormal
dark/black spots
Lutino red eyed yellow
Albino red eyed white
CW clear wing describes absense of
wing color
SG seagreen color US rare mutation
RB royal blue US rare mutation
BLH blue head possible new mutation
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