Love Letters and Happy Trails
- Thread starter Morgan
- Start date
Morgan
Hatchling
I thought I should share a little more about Love Letters and Happy Trails for their introduction, so here goes!
Lottie was born on April 17 2020 and has a very bold personality - she has always held her own with my eight rambunctious budgies! She is also rather large in size (I think?) for a linnie - or maybe just for a creamino? She was 55g when I first took her home and she now weighs on average 57-58g. Her mom was mauve and dad olive split for parblue and ino, so she is masking two dark factors. I picked her up at only eight weeks old from breeders registered with the lineolated parakeet society in Southern Oregon. I had asked them for their most outgoing baby, regardless of color or gender, and I was not disappointed! It was a six hour drive home to Northern California where I live and she seemed more fascinated with the new scenery than she was nervous about anything.
Lottie became very attached to me very quickly, but she was lonely when I wasnât around. Although she tried to befriend my budgies, they werenât as interested in her. I wasnât at all opposed to keeping another linnie, so I began looking for a friend for Lottie. I didnât know how she might accept another hen by this time, and I knew I would someday want to let Lottie raise chicks if she had a male partner, so I had much more specific parameters this time. It was the end of the breeding season and I couldnât find another breeder registered with the lineolated parakeet society that had any chicks available within driving distance, and itâs very rare to find one needing rehoming. I also wanted to make sure that my second linnie came from as far away as I was willing to drive to pick him up, and could only accept a green that was not olive, for a safe pairing. After only a month of searching I found Happy in Southern California, where my mom lives, so I was willing to make the 12 hour drive south to visit her and pick him up!
Happy was born on November 26 2020 and has a much more timid personality. He is a dark green split for parblue and ino and is visibly smaller than Lottie, weighing on average 50g. His mom was turquoise and his dad was lutino split for parblue. I picked Happy up at ten weeks old from more of a âbackyard breederâ, and although he was supposedly hand tame for the breeder he was either not as well socialized as Lottie or just has an innately more cautious personality. Happy was definitely nervous on the drive home and for the first month was afraid of my hands, but he would sit on my shoulder just fine! Lottie helped to show him that hands arenât so scary though, and he came around very quickly by offering him lots of treats!
Whew, so that is Love Letters and Happy Trailsâ origin story, and now they are already becoming parents themselves! Happy is a little young admittedly⊠but Lottie is nearly a year and a half so I thought it would be okay to allow it. Preventive measures failed and Lottie laid an egg on the grate of her cage, so I attached a nestbox and put her egg in there instead. She went right in and was perfectly comfortable! I really would love to see how she builds a nest the next time though.
Thanks for reading all that if you did! I am obsessed with these little parrots.
Lottie was born on April 17 2020 and has a very bold personality - she has always held her own with my eight rambunctious budgies! She is also rather large in size (I think?) for a linnie - or maybe just for a creamino? She was 55g when I first took her home and she now weighs on average 57-58g. Her mom was mauve and dad olive split for parblue and ino, so she is masking two dark factors. I picked her up at only eight weeks old from breeders registered with the lineolated parakeet society in Southern Oregon. I had asked them for their most outgoing baby, regardless of color or gender, and I was not disappointed! It was a six hour drive home to Northern California where I live and she seemed more fascinated with the new scenery than she was nervous about anything.
Lottie became very attached to me very quickly, but she was lonely when I wasnât around. Although she tried to befriend my budgies, they werenât as interested in her. I wasnât at all opposed to keeping another linnie, so I began looking for a friend for Lottie. I didnât know how she might accept another hen by this time, and I knew I would someday want to let Lottie raise chicks if she had a male partner, so I had much more specific parameters this time. It was the end of the breeding season and I couldnât find another breeder registered with the lineolated parakeet society that had any chicks available within driving distance, and itâs very rare to find one needing rehoming. I also wanted to make sure that my second linnie came from as far away as I was willing to drive to pick him up, and could only accept a green that was not olive, for a safe pairing. After only a month of searching I found Happy in Southern California, where my mom lives, so I was willing to make the 12 hour drive south to visit her and pick him up!
Happy was born on November 26 2020 and has a much more timid personality. He is a dark green split for parblue and ino and is visibly smaller than Lottie, weighing on average 50g. His mom was turquoise and his dad was lutino split for parblue. I picked Happy up at ten weeks old from more of a âbackyard breederâ, and although he was supposedly hand tame for the breeder he was either not as well socialized as Lottie or just has an innately more cautious personality. Happy was definitely nervous on the drive home and for the first month was afraid of my hands, but he would sit on my shoulder just fine! Lottie helped to show him that hands arenât so scary though, and he came around very quickly by offering him lots of treats!
Whew, so that is Love Letters and Happy Trailsâ origin story, and now they are already becoming parents themselves! Happy is a little young admittedly⊠but Lottie is nearly a year and a half so I thought it would be okay to allow it. Preventive measures failed and Lottie laid an egg on the grate of her cage, so I attached a nestbox and put her egg in there instead. She went right in and was perfectly comfortable! I really would love to see how she builds a nest the next time though.
Thanks for reading all that if you did! I am obsessed with these little parrots.
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Hi Morgan! How great! I am sorry I missed your post the day you wrote it. Been crazy with homeschooling start (began because of Covid, but really am enjoying it now!). I am back into a routine. I love that you are studying genetics! Important. Where is the pair now in the cycle?
It is so hard to make calls on weight of a bird when considering whether to breed them or not. They can be in an active lifestyle, molt cycle, or have a smaller frame that may explain a weight, but if they average over the first year of life to be 50g, I normally would not recommend breeding them. That said, your hen is on a little better than typical size for an ino so I say give it a whirl. I am glad to see a green series paired to a creamino. The breeder that bred the two double dark factors together shouldn't have done that, but few know. It is not as bad as ino x ino or gw x gw however. Mutation stacking is something to watch closely, especially generationally. Linnies for pets are so in demand, and most aren't critical like a quality breeder, so as long as they are healthy and you are happy with the resultant young, it should be ok. First breedings with a new pair we consider a "test breeding". If faulted, you just split the pair. They don't mind, Linnies are easy to pair to new mates.
Keep us posted on what is going on.... how exciting!
It is so hard to make calls on weight of a bird when considering whether to breed them or not. They can be in an active lifestyle, molt cycle, or have a smaller frame that may explain a weight, but if they average over the first year of life to be 50g, I normally would not recommend breeding them. That said, your hen is on a little better than typical size for an ino so I say give it a whirl. I am glad to see a green series paired to a creamino. The breeder that bred the two double dark factors together shouldn't have done that, but few know. It is not as bad as ino x ino or gw x gw however. Mutation stacking is something to watch closely, especially generationally. Linnies for pets are so in demand, and most aren't critical like a quality breeder, so as long as they are healthy and you are happy with the resultant young, it should be ok. First breedings with a new pair we consider a "test breeding". If faulted, you just split the pair. They don't mind, Linnies are easy to pair to new mates.
Keep us posted on what is going on.... how exciting!
Morgan
Hatchling
I thought it was odd the breeders paired two double dark factor, mainly because they wouldnât get much variety in color! I donât think they knew too much about genetics per se, but they did know not to breed ino to ino or blue to blue, and they otherwise took excellent care of their birds. Each pair was kept in a huge flight, they had lots of a variety of fresh veggies daily, and I could tell their babies were all handled frequently and well socialized.
I mentioned to them that I had read (on your website, thank you!) that inos tended to be on the smaller side, and they told me that their ino babies were on average always larger than their colored siblings. A mystery? I wonder if maybe pairing two double dark factors, combined with ino specifically, could somehow affect the size of the offspring as well?
Anyhow⊠I didnât know what a healthy average size for a linnie should be until just now. I did read that linnies have been found in the wild weighing up to 60g, so I figured Lottie wasnât abnormally large at least. Comparatively I was wondering if maybe Happy was a bit undersized. I suppose when future babies wean I can just keep the healthiest, moderately sized ones for any future pairings.
Is breeding larger linnies a cause for health problems that we know of, or is it frowned upon simply to keep them as close to their wild cousins as possible for potential conservation purposes in the future? I know a lot of good/ethical breeders keep this in mind as more parrot species are threatened by deforestationâŠ
I mentioned to them that I had read (on your website, thank you!) that inos tended to be on the smaller side, and they told me that their ino babies were on average always larger than their colored siblings. A mystery? I wonder if maybe pairing two double dark factors, combined with ino specifically, could somehow affect the size of the offspring as well?
Anyhow⊠I didnât know what a healthy average size for a linnie should be until just now. I did read that linnies have been found in the wild weighing up to 60g, so I figured Lottie wasnât abnormally large at least. Comparatively I was wondering if maybe Happy was a bit undersized. I suppose when future babies wean I can just keep the healthiest, moderately sized ones for any future pairings.
Is breeding larger linnies a cause for health problems that we know of, or is it frowned upon simply to keep them as close to their wild cousins as possible for potential conservation purposes in the future? I know a lot of good/ethical breeders keep this in mind as more parrot species are threatened by deforestationâŠ
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It is possible her ino line has a more normal sized gene, and the green you have comes from a small one. Average is 50-65g for domesticated Linnies it seems. I won't breed any at this point less than 56g for a hen (more about size below), but I understand it can be hard to find Linnies, so we just do our best to select for the future.
You ask a good question about potential harm of raising large Linnies for future health ramifications. This happened in cockatiels in the 1980's. They were chosen for weight, and not "physical size". Eventually they ended up with enlarged hearts and other health problems. They corrected the mistake quickly, and now the standard practice is to put the bird into a show box and choose long and large, conformationally correct birds instead of "heaviness". Linnies don't have a huge gap in size like cockatiels do (20-40g differences are common) so I don't see it becoming an issue in our species. I like to select the largest in the clutch IF they also have nice markings, good shape and personality. Sometimes I may really "need" one to be kept to make a pair, but I won't if those requirements are not met or else you end up undoing your forward progress. Does that make sense? Haven't had coffee yet.
