Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 8:22 am Post subject: size variation
After sitting down today looking at my breeding pairs enjoying the sun i noticed the difference in sizes...Recently i found my first pair of wilds and snapped them up been looking and trying to produce for ages really tough to find.Compared to my mutations pied,cinnamon,fallow and yellows or lutino whatever you call them i noticed a difference in size so i measured them the cock is 28cm and hen 25cm cock really big anyone else noticed this i cant wait till these produce chicks.
Mutations tend to be breed by selecting pairs...
I noticed that the mutation kakariki we saw in Aussie a few yrs ago where noticably smaller..more the size of a wild colour yellow crown.
Around this time I was trying to breed large wild reds..with little success...Basicaly thru my handing in the air and but all the birds in on large flight and told them to sort things out themselves...
They did and we have been doning so ever since....
Several things where noticable.
1/ We had siblings , cousins, parents all mixed up from several blood lines.
Siblings, parent/ offspring never paired up, thu 1 pair of siblings from batches well apart with unrelated 1 parent did
2/It did not matter if a couple small birds paired , big/small whatever....near every bird produced turned out big.
3/ Even these 'runts' when allowed to pair off themselves following season produced large offspring....in many cases the smaller females where bigger than the male parent.
Now when people , including conservation /zoo people etc visit, they comment on the size of our kakariki, and the size of our yellow crowns too.
I have a therory that the size, shape, depth of colour, and including a ultra violet reflection in the crown determines who they choose, and dont choose, naturally...... _________________ My Spelling is Not Incorrect...It's 'Creative'
To my knowledge there is no direct relation between mutations and size. Only Cinnamon mutations grow slower than others but this doesn't affect the final size.
What does have an influence is inbreeding. The opposite is heterosis and that is what I believe Steps his point. Related birds produce smaller offspring. Unrelated birds produce bigger birds.
Indirectly mutations can affect the size. When a mutation for the first time occurs in an aviary the next step that is taken is to pair the bird with one of his parrents or with one of his offspring.
The best thing to do is to pair this mutation to an unrelated bird but often breeders can't wait to produce more and pair them directly to birds that carry the mutation. In other words, in the early stages when birds carry a new mutation they are all family.
@Steps, about ultra violet. I did some research about this with a UV black light and found no fluorescence in Kakariki.
I agree fully with Peters insist into mutation breeding, which I dont have.
The ultraviolet yes I tried a couple ultra violet lights...and spoke to several ppl about it....they mentioned that the ultra violet bandwidth is quite wide and really need a source with variable bandwidth, which I dont have.
I tried a fish tank light, a party type light and one of those old lights banks used to check bank book hidden signitures
It is therory.
The reason I was thinking ulta violet was this is a predominate bandwiths birds see in...I also came across some research in Asia think it was with budgies along these lines. _________________ My Spelling is Not Incorrect...It's 'Creative'
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