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Showing posts from December, 2011

Breeding Alexandrine Mutations: Blue & Grey

In order to achieve a visual blue or grey, both parents must carry the blue gene as blue is a recessive mutation. Breeding a blue/grey is therefore more complicated than breeding a lutino. I don't have first hand experience of doing this but from my knowledge of genetics and extending what I have discussed in my article on the lutino, I would suggest the following. STEP 1 Start with 2 pairs, all birds should be unrelated. Pair One: Normal Alexandrine cock X Blue IRN hen Pair Two: Normal Alexandrine cock X Grey IRN hen Pair one will give you offsprings all of which are split to Blue. The good news is that you can use both males and females from here in step two. Pair two will also give you offsprings all of which are split to blue. If your grey IRN was single factor grey then half of the offsprings will appear grey-green. If the Grey IRN was double factor grey all the offsprings will be grey green. You should use a grey-green from this pairing in Step 2.

Breeding Alexandrine Mutations: The Lutino

Introduction The Alexandrine is a beautiful bird similar in appearance to the Indian Ringneck. The characteristics that distinguish an alexandrine from an Indian Ringneck include red-brown shoulder patches, a wider neck ring and larger size. While the Indian Ringneck is available in several color mutations the Alexandrine is generally available only in the normal green. It is possible to produce Alexandrine  colour  mutations by hybridizing the Alexandrine with the Indian Ringneck. Such a program however requires a long term commitment, space and responsible breeding practices to be successful and to preserve the purity of both species. In this article a breeding program is outlined that breeds a sex-linked mutation such as Lutino into the Alexandrines. To start the breeding program you need a good normal Alexandrine and a Lutino Ringneck. There are two options at the start of the program. 1) A Lutino Ringneck cock paired to a normal Alexandrine hen 2) Normal Alexandrine c