White Indian Myna

[vettepilot_6]

So I gather because no new blood introduced...mutants are starting to appear because of inbreeding?

[loz]

I was checking out Myna traps on the net today & if I can catch the bugga, I'll sell it to Danny for a good price. Or I do have a spare aviary, if I can get a pair, I'll go into business. So put your orders in now, or maybe auction it off on Ebay.

[mattymeischke]

I was checking out Myna traps on the net today & if I can catch the bugga, I'll sell it to Danny for a good price.

Shoof international, based in Enzed, have numerous excellent traps which can be bought online and are usually delivered to your local rural supplies joint.
They also hav lots of bait stations, mouse and rat traps & cetera...

Go to http://www.thefarmstore.com.au to check out their catalogue.

The pigeon/starling trap is probably most suitable for mynahs:

pigeon and starling trap.JPG

but they have many others, including:

small bird trap.JPG

and this one:

magpie trap.JPG

among others:

various traps.JPG

They are relatively dear, but great quality and have served me well....
They could be easily built at home if the price is an issue, the designs are quite straightforward.
BTW, my skylarking has so far only caught starlings; Danny, did you still want a hen? If so, how do I sex the buggers?

So I gather because no new blood introduced...mutants are starting to appear because of inbreeding?

It is a subject of some substantial interest to me that some species, like Gouldians, Zebs and canaries, seem inherently more mutable than others. In some species (eg: kookaburras), white birds occur quite frequently, but they are usually picked off by natural predators. I understand that the emergence of pied birds is often caused by a shallow genepool (maybe why Collingwood and the old Western Suburbs League team are both magpies....). Other mutations are more often random and do not necessarily reflect inbreeding. Inbreeding does however increase the frequency with which rare recessive mutations are expressed.

[mattymeischke]

Loz, have you seen this thread: viewtopic.php?f=211&t=5463&hilit=wild+mutations

And re: the traps above, for anyone interested in the Shoof cat traps, their cat trap is too small for many of our ferals.
I got woken last week by a monster feral trying to get the half-a-bream out of the small trap.
The next night I stepped up to a larger cat/possum trap and gottim.
Of course, he is now in a much happier place, freed from the daily grind of preying on wildlife and putting Mum and Dad's chooks off .

[Danny]

Yes Matty, definately need a hen but happy to take a handful and sex them up here. This link has oodles of information on sexing them http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/JFO/v022n0 ... -p0023.pdf . Also http://www.british-birds-in-aviculture. ... 43879.html