Aussie Finch Forum

Tiaris wrote: ↑27 Oct 2018, 13:56 Incidentally, the best head colour hens I have bred have not come from same head colour pairings as per traditional Gouldian breeding convention - my best coloured birds have all come from BH hen mothers paired to YH fathers (+ some RH fathers).

Funny enough thats the same for my hens..although I have got one with both chest and belly a shade or two darker than the others..and I dont breed as per tradition either..as I am trying to enhance all 3 head colours...

Update: I have at least 3 dark factor birds in this year's young moulting through. I'll post some pics when I can get our camera to upload again (hopefully soon).

Do these birds have the Dark Factor? or is this some other mutation?

That's induced melanism.

Yes melanism, usually occurs due to lack of direct sun so lack of vitamin D3. It will moult out next year if they haven't already moulted this year.
A good diet and plenty of green food as well as calcium to aid D3 absorbsion and direct sunshine or buy a ready made Calcium D3 in liquid form to add to their water.

Some young are getting close to full colour now..can anyone spot the "dark or better" coloured ones?

Top LHS black head cock and hen beside him though other than the hen on the RHS second pic the rest aren't bad either.

Think you need to give them a bit more sun to bleach them out only joken mate. Craig

Craig52 wrote: ↑18 Nov 2018, 19:23 Top LHS black head cock and hen beside him though other than the hen on the RHS second pic the rest aren't bad either.

Think you need to give them a bit more sun to bleach them out only joken mate. Craig

You got 2..3rd one not as dark ....middle bird 2nd pic..back not as dark but tail blue is a shade or 2 darker than ones on that side..

Tiaris wrote: ↑12 Nov 2018, 12:43 Update: I have at least 3 dark factor birds in this year's young moulting through. I'll post some pics when I can get our camera to upload again (hopefully soon).

Had any luck with pics Tiaris?

Unfortunately no. The computer isn't recognising the camera so can't even get the pics to the computer.
With the dark factor birds though, after the moult there are 7 male dark factor birds. It is very difficult to positively ID the dark factor hens though. I have a similar number of suspects which I am retaining and will pair them to DF males. Most of my hen Gouldians have very strong chest colour which makes it difficult to discern normal hens from dark factor ones. If the hens I have retained are dark factor they should produce some double-factor dark factors next breeding season which should be much darker again & hence much easier to identify - with dominant mode of inheritance, there should ultimately be single-factor and double factor in the dark form.