About Blessing's Lory Food Products

   I personally like Adam Lock's Genetics 101 article because he likes to keep the Swainson rainbows as pure as he can www.lisaslories.com  Other Australian article on genetics are good also. The Australians have been doing the mutations the longest.

   My personal experience with genetics  is with  orchids & parrotlets for 20 years. There are similarities in plant and animal mutations I found. I learned that you need to buy the best stock you can afford to work with to come up with the best offspring. Common creates common. 

   I believe that only a basic knowledge of genetics is required for success.  The simpler we keep it; the better it is for all of us.  Example-(How does a TV work? I just watch it.) There are three main genetic inheritances we have to deal with in aviculture.  The first is SEX-LINKED which we did not have in the plants..   It is so called because as the name implies it is linked to the sex of the bird.  The first mutant bird to appear is always a female.  When she is mated to a normal male it passes the factor to its son.  These sons are normal in color and they split to the mutation.  If one of these split cocks is mated to a normal hen it can reproduce the mutant female.

The next inheritance is RECESSIVE.  It is so called because it is recessive to the normal bird.  The first mutant to appear can be either male or female.  If mated to a normal bird all the offspring are splits, i.e. they all carry the color gene but visually look normal.  To reproduce this factor it is necessary to have the factor in both parents, i.e. the parents must be either mutant or both split to the mutant.

The third inheritance is DOMINANT:  So called because it dominates over the normal bird.  Some dominant mutations have single and double factors as in the pied Quarrion.  Others don't.  There does not appear to be any splits in any dominant mutation.  Birds are either mutants of single or double factors or they are normals.

Albinos and Lutinos have no color pigment in the skin area.  That is, their feet and legs are pink or flesh coloured.  Their eyes are always red and any yellow or white feathering is of a clear color.  The red range remains in Lutinos but is absent in albinos.  These mutations are usually sex-linked, but not always, some are recessive. Cinnamons are probably the most commonly seen mutations.  They are in fact partial albinos or Lutinos.  Individual cinnamon mutations may range in degrees between normal and Lutino and albino.  Recessive cinnamons are usually nearer to normal and all I have ever worked with have hatched with black eyes.  sex-linked cinnamons are nearer to Lutino or albino and always hatch with red or plum coloured eyes.  Some sex-linked cinnamons do in fact keep the red eye after they mature and some of these very advanced red eyed cinnamons are recessive.  All cinnamons have no colour pigment in their feet.  The ones nearer to normal are slightly darker than the ones nearer to Lutinoism.  They all retain blue in a diluted form and they retain the yellow red range of colors; although the yellow may dilute into a more of a cinnamon color in some mutations.

The blue mutation is a bird without yellow colour pigment or in the case of par-blue, partially without yellow colour pigment.  These birds only have blue, white and black feather colouring.  In the par-blue mutation the blue and white is infused with yellow and the red is diluted to salmon.  Feet and eyes remain normal colour in all blue mutations.  All that I have come into contact with have been recessive.

Pied mutations are actually birds with albino spots on the skin.  Any feathers that come in these spotted areas are the same as would be on a Lutino or an albino.  Pieds shouldn't be confused with the mottling effect created by vitamin deficiencies or blood disorders.  Pied is usually dominant but it may be recessive.

Dilute and and dilute yellows are birds where the color is diluted except in the yellow and red range.  Feet and eyes remain normal in the dilute colors.  In Fallow the eyes are red. All dilutes & fallows appear to be recessive in inheritance.

Olive is a mutation that has appeared more recently in Australian parrots.  It can't be confused because all green areas become a dark olive.  Blue becomes grey and yellow and red remain.  The only olive mutations  in Australian parrots have been totally dominant without any visual single or double factors.

Color variations are another color form that we see quite a bit.  This is where a variation that exists in the normal bird has been accentuated by aviculturists through line breeding and has become extended in its distribution over the bird.  Currently there are two fine examples  in Sydney in two rainbow lorikeets, held in two different aviaries.  They are exceptionally fine birds but I doubt that there is any future in them.  One of them is in fact currently in my aviaries and at the moment has two normal young ones.  Over the next few years, perhaps I will be able to make more comment.  I would like to point out why I don't think this is genetically inherited.  There are too many things wrong with the bird.  The red has overtaken too many other colours.  The blue belly on the normal Rainbow Lorikeet has been replaced with red and this is just not possible, the blue should have gone to white.  The blue head should have gone to white and should have no red through it.  The beautiful golden yellow would not be seen so richly in a Lutino.

There is one factor in its favour.  The Andalusian (Spanish Dancing Horse) are born Bays and at about five years old turn into Greys.  This does appear to be genetically based.

Perhaps this is similar to what is happening with these birds so that they change colour at a certain age.  At this stage I just don't know.  Joe Forshaw believes it is a hormone deficiency and I tend to agree with this.

AGE OF CHICK                                    BEST  TEMPERATURES

1-5 Days                                              34.4 C– 35.5 C        94 D – 96 D

6-9 Days                                              33.8 C – 35 C          93 D – 95 D

10 – 14 Days                                      32.7 C – 33.8 C       91 D – 93 D

15 – 21 Days                                      30 C – 32.2 C           86 D – 90 D

22 - 28 Days                                       27.2 C – 29.4 C        81 D – 85 D

29 – 35 Days                                      24.4 C – 26.6 C         76 D – 80 D

36 Days to weaning                       21.1 C – 23.8 C         70 D – 75 Di

   Incubate the eggs in an incubator designed for parrot or exotic bird eggs. The incubator you use should have accurate temperature control within one-tenth of one degree, and ideally a system for humidity control. Maintain the temperature at 99.3 degrees F, and the humidity at 40 to 50 percent. We like the INCA.

An egg, to the initiated observer, may seem a simple   reproductive method. An egg nevertheless is an extremely complicated   structure and contains many intricate parts which collectively enable the egg   to hatch through incubation processes. It is, of course, essential that an   egg contains all the nutritional requirements necessary to allow a growing   chick to hatch, if all these ingredients are not present, then obviously the   chick will fail to hatch and the common term ‘dead in shell’ will prevail. It   is therefore important that birds have an adequate diet to ensure that this   phenomenon is reduced considerably. As there are adequate descriptions of   structure of an egg in other avicultural books. Parrots lay eggs with no   color, i.e. white. It is generally felt the eggs are white because parrots   lay in hollow trees which tend to be dark areas and she can see the eggs when   entering the nest. The egg shell is formed in such a way that it is difficult   to enter from the outside but relatively easy to exit for the chick from the   inside. The egg shell contains pores that allow moisture and gases to escape.   Unfortunately, it is also possible for bacteria to enter through the same   pores if the shell goes through a series of cooling. Egg shells also can be   accidentally punctured by the hen’s nail or cracked by a descending blow when   the hen enters the nest. These eggs will invariably fail to hatch as bacteria   will enter. The albumen or egg white consists of three proteins. Globulin,   mucins and albumen. The egg yolk contains proteins and fats which will be   consumed by the growing embryo and will form the main source of nutrition.   The embryo begins to develop before the laying of the egg.

Incubating parrot eggs 35-50%   humidity

Hatching parrot eggs 65%   humidity