Background color help?

[Ojaimama]

I have a blue male and a yellow female. I have looked everywhere to get an idea of what she is and what he parents could have been. Please help me figure out if she's got a split in there. She is a beautiful yellow and has some green on her rump.

I breed cockatiels and have just brought these two parrotlets home from a trusted breeder friend of mine. They have thrown 2-3 clutches already and I'm hoping to get into breeding them but would love to know more of their history first so I can be prepared with what I'll likely receive in the babies.

I will post some pictures tomorrow if you'd all like!

[enborgle]

Hi Ojaimama, welcome to the forum!
In parrotlets we can actually get three different kinds of yellow.
American Yellow (no green markings): http://shadypines.com/avimages/yelbig1.jpg
European Yellow (correctly called "pastel"): http://shadypines.com/avimages/pastel.jpg
and Lutino (red eyes): http://shadypines.com/avimages/lutino.jpg

Do you know which one you have?
Is there a reason that your breeder friend does not have a genetic background for these guys? She may be a good place to start.

[GRANNYAT50]

Hi Ojaimama, welcome to the forum!
In parrotlets we can actually get three different kinds of yellow.
American Yellow (no green markings): http://shadypines.com/avimages/yelbig1.jpg
European Yellow (correctly called "pastel"): http://shadypines.com/avimages/pastel.jpg
and Lutino (red eyes): http://shadypines.com/avimages/lutino.jpg

Do you know which one you have?
Is there a reason that your breeder friend does not have a genetic background for these guys? She may be a good place to start.
That first picture is not a very good indication of a yellow mutation. My boy yellow is more of a real yellow and not so white. Like my avatar.
Did you get breeders from your friend? Otherwise your friend should be able to tell you.

[enborgle]

Good thinking GRANNY - the photo I posted is of a juvenile yellow before the first molt, they do get much deeper after that just as the one in your avatar :)

[GRANNYAT50]

Thanks I was surprised when I looked at that picture. When we got Buddy my husband kept saying that he wasn't yellow that he was green and we had quite a go around about it. Then when we picked him up my husband says so I guess he is yellow. They seem to have sort of a whitish wash over the yellow just like Sprout has a greyish wash. Pictures somehow don't always reflect the correct colors of things.:confused:

[Evelyn]

I don't know anything about breeding and colors split, but Buddy sure is a handsome little guy..

[Ojaimama]

Thanks everyone for you help. I've pulled the female out today to really look at her rump. Well to my eye it looks green but after taking a few pics I think it's my eyes playing tricks on me with the whole Yellow + Blue = Green deal. hahaha

Here are a few pics of my new feathered family members. The female started to pluck the males feathers in order to make a nest. So please don't mind the little bald boy! haha

To answer your question about my friend Granny....she is a big breeder of many different birds and bought them from a friend in Los Angeles for her son. She ended up having buyers remorse due to having so many little beaks to feed and so I took them. She doesn't have any info on them other then what her friend said....Blue and Yellow (which I was assuming was Amer. Yellow)

Please tell me what you all think she is. It would greatly help me in the breeding process.

This one you can see the "green" look on her rump!
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d92/sundaymay/IMG_7167.jpg
Here are the lovers!
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d92/sundaymay/IMG_7173.jpg
Guess it's actually blue! haha
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d92/sundaymay/IMG_7165.jpg

[GRANNYAT50]

I am not sure, the second pic looks like she has some white spots on her back and isn't how an American yellow looks. There is another name for that out there but I can't remember what it is so I am not even going to try. I hope someone with a little more knowledge can answer for sure.

[Ojaimama]

Well here's another question....

I've seen a few times that the bars of the cage shouldn't be wider then 5/8 of an inch. That's the size of the cage they're in now. What are your thoughts on that? I also have a cage that has narrower bars but it's not as nice for them!

[Jinx n Noodle]

This is what I understand...

There's no telling what the parents were based on what color they are, thus no telling what splits they have if any. For example, you can have a green baby produced from parents that were green and yellow or green and blue or green and green. So the green baby could be potentially just green with no splits, or green split to blue or green split to yellow; you can't tell from the baby what the parents may be. So you wouldn't be able to tell if the green baby is split to anything by it's visual colors.

Now if your breeder friend can tell you what colors were produced from the 2-3 clutches that these breeders had, you can probably figure out what potential splits they may have.

I hope this makes sense, it's a bit confusing the way I said it, but I don't know how else to explain it.

But I think your female looks like a pastel yellow and the boy is a blue.

[GRANNYAT50]

Well here's another question....

I've seen a few times that the bars of the cage shouldn't be wider then 5/8 of an inch. That's the size of the cage they're in now. What are your thoughts on that? I also have a cage that has narrower bars but it's not as nice for them!
My cages are 1/2 inch I think 5/8 should be OK as long as they can't get their head stuck between the bars.

[Ojaimama]

I know this is going to sound horrible....but is that the worst that could happen? They could get their head stuck? I mean....they shouldn't be able to get their bodies through correct?

[GRANNYAT50]

If they can get their head through the bars they can get stuck, panic and die that's the worst that can happen:eek:

[enborgle]

Granny is right, many a little birdie has gotten their head stuck and managed to hang themselves or panic and break their necks. Better to be safe than sorry.

[Ojaimama]

Well I've decided to stick them into the new cage just because that feeling of worry wouldn't go away. I do agree that the idea of them getting their little heads stuck in there would be deadly.....SOOOO we have a new happy home with narrower bars. YAAAAY

[enborgle]

Great that you had that extra one around, and now you will have no trouble falling asleep tonight, lol!

[Ojaimama]

Isn't that the truth. HAHAHA Now let's pray that they calm down and start "nesting"

[alexander]

i would say your bird is what we in Europe call American Yellow and now you in the states are calling Dilute