Meet Lola!

Lola (unless she turns out to be a he) is the very first bird in my Green Cheek breeding program! She's a Yellow Sided (Duh), and looks a LOT like Allie (on top of the cage). I've got my eye on a handsome Pineapple male currently living in Tulsa right now that I may get as long as Lola is the girl I believe her to be. If everything goes as planned, Lola and Rico should be setting up house in about 3-4 weeks!!!

So cute!!!!

So ,how long before the hubby can retire ? Did Sam find a girl friend yet?

I've got a girlfriend for Sam. I'm just waiting on their nest box to be made. I'm crossing my fingers for some babies ready in time for Christmas!!

I'm trying to find a man for Lola so I can start getting some little Cheeky babies in time for Christmas as well.

I may be able to get some Cockatiel babies in time for Christmas if I'm able to get the cockbird I want in time. He's raising a clutch of babies right now, so we'll see if that works out.

If the husband does retire, is there any room left in the house for him? LOL!

If Lola, to whom I keep wanting to say "Hola", is paired with a pineapple male, what do you expect from the babies in terms of mutations? And will somebody PLEASE get Barry Manilow out of my head!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry, no Manilow reprieve for you! We've been singing it for two days and don't expect it to change it any time soon - it IS where I came up with her name.

As for mutations... If I pair a yellow sided hen with a Pineapple cock, all of the cocks would be yellow sided/cinnamon and all of the hens would be Pineapple

Handy, that! How does mutation get linked to the sex like that?

Ahh, genetics! My favorite thing to talk about!!!

The Pineapple mutation is a cross between the Yellow Sided and Cinnamon mutations. Both of those are sex-linked on the Z (male) chromosome. For a bird to be visual for a sex linked trait it has to carry the gene on ALL of it's Z chromosomes - a male has to carry the trait on both of his Z chromes (ZZ), but a female only has to carry it on her one Z chrome (ZW)*.

With a Pineapple x Pineapple, both birds are carrying the yellow sided (ys) and cinnamon (c) genes on their Z chromes, so when you cross them, all of the offspring will have both the ys and c genes on all of their Z chromes.

With a Pineapple cock will pass on both the ys and the c genes to all of the kids Z chromes. So everyone will have at least ONE set ys AND c chromes.

A YS hen isn't able to pass on the c gene, leaving all babies who need that second c gene to amount to anything more than a yellow sided (aka, boys), flat out of luck. The girls, who only need one set of genes to be visual for a sex linked trait, get that set from their daddy and are good to go.

If you like Punnet Squares, it would look like this (without the lines)

...............Z^ys...........W

Z^ys,c...Z^ys,c Z^ys...Z^ys,c W

Z^ys,c...Z^ys,c Z^ys...Z^ys,c W


That's why sex-linked traits are so handy in some cases.

EDIT: *Birds sex chromosomes are the opposite of humans. While in humans, females are XX and males are XY and the males contribute the gender determining chromosome. In aves, the males are ZZ and the females are ZW and the FEMALES contribute the gender determine chromosome. We use Zs and Ws to distinguish between bird chromosomes and human chromosomes. Cant say I know why - it's just what we do.

Thanks! I had forgotten about the backwards sex thing and I am fairly ignorant about birdie genetics but that made sense.

It's entirely my pleasure.

The genetics are why I'll miss breeding budgies so much. I had no clue that of all the things I'd love about breeding birds, it'd be the genetics (of course, the science) that drew me in the most. If you ever have any questions about genetics, let me know and I'll get your answer. It's insane how much I enjoy learning about trait inheritance.

Vicki#s,
Don't take me wrong, I was thinking I'm the "crazy one", that my passions take over me and controls me, but I see I'm not the only one

Good to be home!