What colors will babies be?

[Lisa]

I have been a Linnie & Caique owner for about 13 yrs. In the past I have owned cockatiels and parakeets as well so I do have bird experience however I have no experience breeding. I recently purchased a breeding pair of linnies off of Craigslist. Now that I have them I have been studying everything I can find about breeding,genetics and pairing,diet etc… mostly on this wonderful forum and equally fantastic Eddie’s Aviary website. I now realize Craigslist was not the best place to acquire breeding stock! I know nothing about their parents and the birds are not banded. I was told they are wonderful parents. The female is cobalt and the male is dark green with grey wing mutation sf I think. From the reading I’ve done this seems to be an ok pairing. I was told they produce turquoise and olive babies but couldn’t they also produce cobalt and dark green? I have read the genetics info many times but feel quite overwhelmed still. I have not been able to figure out the genetics calculator. I am wondering if it is possible to know the colors of babies they are able to reproduce without knowing anything about their parents. Thank you in advance!!

 

[LinnieGirl]

A sf gw d green male x cobalt female can produce sf gw and normal non gw males and females. Colors could include green, d green, and olive. If the male is split to turquoise which most green series are in the US, they could also produce turquoise, cobalt or mauve. If the male is also split to ino, they could produce Lutino or creamino females and males split to ino.

 

[Morgan]

You have a veritable Easter egg basket there! Seems like a good breeding pair, just keep in mind their ages. Especially as females get older egg binding can become a more serious issue. Be sure they have plenty of calcium!

Morning Bird brand (cheaper on Chewy than Amazon) has a liquid calcium that I highly recommend.

 

[Lisa]

Yes it will be exciting to see what we get! Thank you LinnieGirl for figuring that all out. I did find the calcium liquid on chewy and have also bought a mineral block and cuttle bone although my older Linnie never touched her cuttle bone. When do I start supplementing the water with calcium if i am hoping to breed this spring? I was thinking a month before the daylight is at least 12hrs like in mid March? At that time i will ramp up the misting/showers as well as the wetter foods. Is it ok if the male gets only the supplemented water as well? When is a good time to install the nesting box?

 

[LinnieGirl]

You can start the calcium a few weeks before setting them up. Add to their water 5 days a week throughout laying and you can stop after any chicks that hatch are a few weeks old. It’s fine for the male to drink from the fortified water as well.
12-14 hours of light is good, temps can vary but humidity should be between 55-70%. I keep paper towels on the cage bottoms and when they start to shred it I put net boxes up. Boxes have about 3/4- 1 inch of Aspen chips or shavings inside.
I keep mineral blocks or cuttlebone in the breeding cages at all times. Some hens Use it sometimes and others do not. I feel that they use it if they need it.

 

[Eddie's Aviary]

I have used every calcium out there, I don't like the Morning Bird one. Vetafarm Calcivet mixes better and has a taste they enjoy. The top picture of your pair, I see a lot of dark discoloration to the feathering which is usually a result of overpreening. The green greywing is over-clipped which isn't good for successful mating. Do you have dna paperwork on the cobalt? It is unusal for linnies to not be banded, and more unusual for a "pair" to have one unclipped and one over-clipped. The shoulder marking is strong on the cobalt, I would sex that one. $20 is not much to spend to save yourself a ton of time and frustration.

 

[Lisa]

Thanks for sharing your experience concerning the calcivet calcium. I'm sure finding something with a taste they enjoy is a real win. I was wondering why the green ones feathers are colored like that and also why he has a little area with feathers missing above the beak. Would this be the female overpreening him? I can't imagine he could do it himself. I don't notice him rubbing or scratching. What is the cause of overpreening? I'm really not sure how these guys were housed before I got them only that they had recently had a clutch of 4 babies because the seller was selling one of the babies as well as my pair. I was told the greywing male was clipped to close as a baby and his flight feathers will never grow back?? I haven't notice new growth in the time we have had him so......Is that a thing? I have tried to research but cant find any info. I do not have any DNA info or any other paperwork on either bird. I do feel like the seller was honest in telling me they are a proven pair but if I run into trouble with them mating I will definitely follow your advice to DNA the blue. These pics are from the seller before I bought them.

 

[Eddie's Aviary]

Sweet pics! The green is sf gw so doesn't need DNA. I would not bother to dna if yours look like the birds in the pics, the breeder was likely being honest if they bred while in their care. Some buy "proven" pairs and resell without proving themselves, those I am more suspect of. I would test the cobalt if you don't have breeding luck.

The male has extremely short wings in this pic here. Linnies take forever to molt them out. Up to a year or more if secondaries were also cut. I would spread the wing and make sure the feathers that are cut are there. If missing.... test for PBFD immediately. If negative, really bump the protein in the food, and usually requires a vet visit to figure out what could be wrong. If a bird can't push new feathers (meaning no cut feathers are seen), or has tiny and stunted feathers in place... something is majorly up. Fingers crossed that the feathers are there, and just cut. Sorry someone did a trim like this, it is beyond improper. Hugs to your bird!