How do you get pied birds or mutations?

Question

and y are they so expensive

how are they made because i have heard of breeders spending years and years breeding and making new mutations

i would like to breed some mutations

but also i just dont understand how they happen

is it a flook when i happensor it taes years of breeding and other stuff

Answer 1

I breed parrotlet mutations. You have to understand genetics to be able to breed specific color mutations.

Pied is a dominant trait, meaning that if you have a bird carring a pied gene, it will be visual for pied. If you have a bird that had only one pied parent it is single factor pied. A single factor pied bred to a bird that is not pied will produce 50% pied offspring. A double factor pied bird has both parents that were pied. The double factor pieds if bred to a bird that is not pied, will produce 100% pied offspring.

Some mutations happen in the wild- these are called homozygous mutations. They are mutations where a bird is carrying a single set of recessive or s*x-linked traits. A lot of times homozygous (primary recessive) mutations are blue, yellow, lutino, pied, dark factor, pastel, pallid

When breeders take two of the primary recessive mutations and breed them together this creates heterozygous or secondary mutations that carry two sets of different genes. These mutations are actually visual for both traits. Secondary mutations do not occur in the wild. Some secondary mutations are yellow fallow, blue fallow, albino, dilute blue, grey, pastel blue/yellow.

Mutations can be a surprise when they happen because alot of times you don't know a birds entire genetic make up. You can put two birds together and they have a recessive gene that they aren't visual for and every once in a while a color you don't normally get will pop up....that is the wonder of genetics.

If you are serious about breeding mutations then you first need to decide on what species you want to breed. Only choose one to start with because each species is a little different and it can get a little over whelming. Find out all the mutations for your species. Then read everything you can on genetics,autosomal recessive traits, s*x- linked traits, homozygous and heterozygous mutations. Once you understand the basics then you can learn the harder mutations like par-blues, par-ino, and understand albinistic color morphs. Once you pick it up for one species, you will understand a lot of the rest. I think that budgies and Indian ringneck mutations are hard ones to start with because there are so many.

Answer 2

The color mutations are all based on genetics. If the parents both were a mutation, the resulting chicks will show it. If one parent has the mutation, the resulting chicks might show it (visual mutation), they might just carry it (be split to a certain mutation), or they might not have it at all.... Then if you get into parents that are split for mutations the results get even more complex, or if you have dominant or recessive mutations.

Depending on which species you're talking about, will make a difference in the price of the bird. Some species have had pied mutations around for awhile, so it's nothing special, others are just now getting pied mutations, so they're highly sought after by serious breeders. Sometimes it's someone purposely breeding generation after generation to get a color. Other times it's a genetic fluke that ends up looking pretty instead of being a lethal mutation...

You have to know the background and genetics of the birds you're planning on breeding, before you can breed to get any specific mutations. The exact way the mutations work can vary from species to species as well, so without knowing which type of bird you're specifically talking about, I can't get into more detailed info,

Answer 3

Breeding of mutations takes a number of years and his hard work,most of it is just luck that you may find a bird that carries an unusual gene (colour) then you have to select another bird that would produce the extra gene and so on.

It takes many years of  selecting and breeding,to get the colour that you want,

You an take the easy route and buy your breeding stock in the colours you fancy.then breed your own.

But for new colours???

Time ,Patience ,Selection and Years of Work and it does not always work out the way you wanted it too.