Hybrid article - Thanks Tom

[vettepilot_6]

Totally agree Tom...why pollute an already small gene pool we have in finches...

[Craig52]

Hi Tom,Blue caps have been crossed with rc cordons and the resulting crosses are indeed infertile so our Blue caps are still pure.It's the inbreeding that reduces the size of pure bluecaps so that they resemble the size of rc cordons.A good blue cap should be at least one quarter the size bigger than a rc cordon and outcrossed to unrelated blue caps of similar size.
Those cross breeds don't go on any further but the blue cap bird that produced them usually ends up held in someones aviary till it dies and is then lost to pass on it's genes to keep the pure strain going. Craig

[Tiaris]

I agree too. Crossing to "save a species" is just absolute BS. You are not saving anything at all just deliberately destroying the purity of what remains. Javan Munias are a prime example. I fairly recently put my hand up to help with the QFS breeding program as I had bred Javans in the distant past & was happy to help build up their numbers. However, the birds I received were very different physically & behaviourally to what I had bred 20 years earlier. Apart from a few white feathers out of place due to the pied mutation, they had scalloped chests, flecked bellies, lacked the flank stripes and were larger & more dumpy in appearance to pure Javans. Added to this they were quite tame, ready nesters (both pairs built nests 1st day in their breeding aviaries), had typical Bengalese calls & males very readily crowed in my presence. The pure ones I'd bred years before were very slender clearly marked birds with clean plumaged dark and white areas, were extremely shy to the point of being very difficult to even observe feeding let alone crowing, nesting, etc. Both "new" pairs bred 2 small clutches in no time flat containing fawn & pied mutants. This was enough for me. I took them out of my breeding aviaries & gave them all back at the next opportunity with the message that I was happy to help build numbers of a species needing it but totally unprepared to waste my breeding aviary space deliberately producing known hybrids. I haven't seen pure Javans for many years & as far as I'm concerned they're now gone completely thanks to just one man's large scale use of bengos on them. Full credit to those who make the effort to undertake these type of breeding programs though - no fault there at all.

[iaos]

Fair go, what's a parrot breeder supposed to do when the birds they have paid good money for start to drop in value

http://www.petlink.com.au/Classifieds/sale/2481665.html

[TomDeGraaff]

David at the Childers Bird Sanctuary is doing no one, including the birds, any favours by trying to sell a mongrel bird FOR BREEDING.

I have had enough abuse from these kinds of people when I tried a campaign on petlink. I''ll leave this one to braver hearts this time

Tom

[arthur]

I presume a 'Catablue' is a hybrid Blue & Gold X Catalina (itself a hybrid Scarlet X B & G)

B&G's depending on age still bring about $5K . . so why would a hybrid be double that

Somebody will buy it, sadly . . and because of that more Catablues (what a lovely word), will be produced

But you can bet the buyer didn't earn the $10K with a pick and shovel

[Pictorella]

Fair go, what's a parrot breeder supposed to do when the birds they have paid good money for start to drop in value

http://www.petlink.com.au/Classifieds/sale/2481665.html

Not to mention all the mixed species pairings and hybrid conures constantly being offered on petlink.

[Alf63]

Greed & Stupidity on behalf of the breeder. Gross stupidity and a level of responsibility on behalf of the buyer that helps create and foster the problem. No buyer, no market and no reason to breed them.

The ignorance that pervades our hobby is disturbing. Not only with parrot breeders, my local pet shop is currently selling hybrid doublebar/plumheads for $125pr

Alf63