Sex-Linked

Canary Notes - Sex-Linked or Recessive

By Kevin Wirick

The breeding season should be underway for most of us now and you wonder how new colors can be produced.

First, the sex-linked factors; they include Ivory, Brown, Agate, Isabelle, Pastel and the Satinette. A male is capable of carrying all or any one of these factors depending on what he was breed from. The females will not carry any of these colors, i.e.; they are what you see. By pairing a normal male (pure) to a sex-linked variety female, you will produce males that are carriers of what the hen color expresses. If you pair a red orange lipochrome male to a rose hen you will produce all red orange birds (frost or non-frost) with the males being split to ivory. Should you get any ivory birds at all, then the male is split to ivory and the sex would not be obvious.

Occasionally, you may have a visual normal for years and not know for sure what he carries. I had a Bronze for five years before I was sure of every factor he carried. This bird carried both sex-linked and recessive factors. The best way to test breed a bird is to pair him to what you think he may carry. If you have a Bronze that you think might be split for brown, pair him to a Brown. If any Browns are produced this male is split for that factor.

One sex-linked factor that may people are not breeding correctly are the Rose Ivory. This color is very soft pink, similar to a Creamsicle. Many breeders want to produce Ivories but after two or three years of pair Ivory to Ivory these birds will turn a pale yellow. The correct way to breed these is to pair a normal red orange male (frost or non-frost) to an Ivory. This pairing will only produce males that are carries of Ivory. Pair this male to your Ivories and this should intensify the ground color. You could also pair a Rose Ivory male to a red hen and the males will be carriers of Ivory and you will produce Ivory hens the first year.

By following the formula given below, you can sex some of your young as soon as they hatch or before they leave the nest.

Sex-linked variety male to a normal hen will produce the sex-linked variety hen and normal males split to that sex-linked characteristic. By substituting the word "Ivory" or "Brown" for sex-linked you can figure what our basic color expectations would be.

Recessive factors work in a different way. These include Ino, Opal or Recessive White. The recessive factors are very easy to understand. When working with recessive factors it is best to breed a recessive (pure) to a normal carrier of that recessive gene. When you put two pure recessive factors together you will produce weaker or smaller birds. By pairing a recessive factor to normal bird you would only get normal birds but all these would be split for that recessive gene.

If you paired a normal/recessive to a recessive you would expect to produce 50% normal/recessive and 50% recessive young.

Again, by substituting the word "Opal" or "Ino" for the recessive factor we can figure our basic expectations. For a recessive factor to appear it must be present in both birds. This is why it is very difficult to know what you have in your bird room if you are pairing normal x normal. I have had normal/Opals in my bird room for five or six year until I happened to put two carriers together.

These sex-linked and recessive rules will apply to any species that have those traits such as Cockatiel, Parakeets and even Finches.

303-456-0068