Single Factor Red Heads - fact or fiction?

[Cavoodle]

I’ve got a thing about pure blood birds and am after a pair of Red Heads.

After calling a few people I get the impression that finding unpolluted (wrong word but I’m sure you’ll understand the intent) red headed gouldians may be a challenge.

Kind of makes my wary of buying off anyone except the breeder as well.

Am I wrong?

[TheFinchMan101]

You are very true, trying to find pure blood red heads can be very hard to get and its probably best if the person your getting them off is 100% sure that there pure and they have a strong bloodline. Hope this helps

[gouldianpaul]

Hi Cavoodle,

The yellow backed gouldian is a sex linked dominant mutation...therefore any normal young that are produced from these birds do not carry the yellow back gene, meaning all of these normal birds offspring will always be normal birds....unless a recessive mutation is mixed in there along the way.

I often read many forum comments about the beauty of the normal gouldian...whilst I adore a good quality normal bird just as much as a good quality yellow back I appreciate other members passion for the original bird....but in my opinion a good quality bird and/or blood line is still a good quality bird...irrespecitve of weither it is normal or mutation.

Given the number of mutations being bred these days the resulting drop in price from several years ago will hopefully encourage breeders to focus on quality and not what color is that bird. I remember a breeder in Queensland wanting $450 for a single factor cock bird 10 plus years ago...today that same bird is worth about $50 in Melbourne. I see this as a good thing....we should pair our birds according to the quality standard we want to achieve and the price of all offspring should be based on quality and not the color of the bird.

I hope I haven't bord you with my rant, but as breeders i feel we should value our birds based on their quality and not how much the market is prepared to offer us for them....cheers, Paul

[POLAR GOULDIANS]

Hi Cavoodle,All hens are single factor ( SF ) for head colour, only a cock bird could be red / black head. The only way to be sure of SF or DF red head is to breed the bird, if the cock is red / black then half his daughters will be black headed.This is regardless of what head colour hen he breeds with, as the daughter gets the head colour from the father.If he is DF red head then all his daughters will be red headed. Don't worry about being split for yellow head, another kettle of fish , so to speak. Check this link out, may help get your head around it. http://www.finchinfo.com/genetics/lady_ ... colors.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
If the person you buy off does'nt have black headed hens, then chances are good that the birds will be pure red head. Plenty of breeders only keep one head colour, or keep them seperated.
Hope this helps

[Clawd]

Thanks for the info

Regards

Clawd