Ringneck
Genetics
With as many
primary and secondary mutations as are now available to
the average Ringneck breeder, a basic working knowledge
of genetics is important. One of the most asked questions
I get is “If I put my Blue male with my Lutino hen, what
color will the babies be?” I am not a geneticist and certainly
don’t claim to be an expert, but I do understand how each
of the Primary mutations are inherited, and so can you.
Once you understand how each color is inherited, you will
begin to understand how to breed more efficiently to produce
the Ringneck colors you desire. What follows is a very
short and simple explanation of inheritence and several
formulas (test pairings and their projected offspring).
I hope that this explanation along with the charts will
be of some help.
Primary Mutations
are genetic building blocks. They occur spontaneously
and cannot be created. In order to breed a certain primary
mutation, it must be present in the parent stock either
visually or in split(hidden) form.
Secondary Mutations
are the colors produced by combining two or more Primary
mutations.
| Primary
Mutations: |
Secondary
Mutations: |
| Lutino |
Albino |
| Blue |
Grey |
| Grey-green |
Blue Cinnamon |
| Turquoise
(Pastelblue) |
Turquoisegrey |
| Cinnamon |
Fallow Grey-green |
| Fallow |
Blue Lacewing |
| Lacewing |
Turquoisegrey
Lacewing |
| Yellowheaded
(Buttercup) |
Yellowheaded
Grey-green |
| Yellowheaded-Yellowtailed |
Creamheaded
Turquoise |
| Greensuffused
Yellow |
Whiteheaded-Whitetailed
Blue |
| Greencinnamon |
Blue Pied
|
| Dark Green |
Cobalt |
| Pied |
Turquoisecobalt |
There are
four types of genetic inheritence in Ringneck Parakeets:
Recessive:
To produce
offspring of this inheritence, both parent birds must
carry the mutation either visually or in split(hidden)
form. To produce a split to a recessive mutation simply
breed a visual example of the mutation(male or female)
to a mate of any other color. All of the resulting offspring
will be split to that visual recessive color.
Sex-linked:
Visual female
offspring of mutations carrying this form of inheritence
can be produced by mating a male that is carrying the
mutation either visually or in split(hidden) form to a
mate of any other color. To produce visual sex-linked
offspring of both sexes, both of the parent birds must
carry the mutation. Only males can carry a sex-linked
mutation in split(hidden) form.
Dominant:
To produce
both male and female offspring of this inheritence, only
one parent(male or female) must carry the mutation visually.
There are no splits with a dominant inheritence and double
factor birds can be bred by mating two single factor birds
together. A double factor bird(male or female) when mated
with any other color will produce 100% visual single factor
offspring. Double factor birds can only be produced with
a dominant inheritence.
When reading
the genetic formulas, Visual mutations will always be
CAPITALIZED, split traits will always be in lower case
and will follow this mark / . DF means double factor
and the charts are always set up like this:
MALE
X
FEMALE
MALE
FEMALE
OFFSPRING
OFFSPRING
Genetic
Charts
