Aussie Finch Forum

Is it alright to breed step brother and step sister gouldian, for example same mother but different father, if I bred them together would they have a chance of being deformed and stuff like they can do if you breed brother and sister goulds. Just wondering Thanks

These are the things I would take into consideration before making a pairing like this.

You will be doubling up on the genes/characteristics from the hens side so hopefully the parent hen of the pair you are considering is an excellent specimen.
Are the parent cock birds unrelated? (wouldnt want to double up on both sides at the same time)
Your record keeping needs to be excellent so that you can track the young.
If you sell any of the young, you will need to inform the buyer otherwise they could pair them up and double up again on the hens side
If you keep any young to breed on with, you need to use an unrelated bird.

im not the best at record keeping because i have only just sort of gone into gouldian finch breeding. do i like record the parents and their leg bands and stuff or what

yeah to me this sort of pairing would have to be warranted ie . exceptional birds from which you want to become the basis of a bloodline ELSE you are only going to get birds reproducing ordinary genes which doesn't really cover the risk of defects associated with inbreeding ...
Not an expert here and best I can say is this type of breeding is best talked over with an expert on genetics ....preferably unbiased .

Let us know what you find out please for curiosity sake.

We do have a member who has created a record keeping database, its easy to use and free.
http://ikhom.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Its very user friendly.

Remember the best record keeping system in the world isnt going to be any good if you dont keep it updated.

Myself I wouldn't be trying to breed the to young together, like you not very familiar with genetics. I try to find other birds with the characteristics that I'm looking for- if buying from breeder can get bloodline history. If you can get help with genetic breeding and want to give it a try by all means give it a go. I also heard that if breeding siblings that the fertility rate is lowered and can also have mentally and physically deformed chicks, can anybody elaborate on this if it is true?

TheFinchMan101 wrote:Is it alright to breed step brother and step sister gouldian, for example same mother but different father

from someone from a big divorcing/remarrying family, it always astounds me how many people do not understand the meaning of a "step brother" as opposed to a "half brother".

what you have here FinchMan is "half siblings". your finches in question could only be considered "step siblings" if both birds were raised by the same pair but each actually was only genetically related to one (different) parent. since finches don't take their unfledged offspring from a previous relationship into a new one - we know thats impossible.

they are "half siblings".

I assumed that was what was meant by steps = half .

Toothless is correct. They are half sibs. If they are a mutation that you are trying to establish and are having trouble getting others of this type, this is one of the best ways to establish the mutation. Finch breeders tend to have a big downer on this and similar types of inbreeding. While the breeders of race horses, show dogs, show cats and budgies do it regularly. With careful observation and VERY CAREFUL record keeping they tend to produce some magnificent creatures. And the odd complete disaster.
LML