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Breeding A blue Fischer with a peach faced lovebird

pattyg2009

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Hello,

I have a pair of love birds that I have been breeding. The female is a blue Fischer and the male is a peach faced. I have found conflicting information about breeding them. Some say not to, that it will lead to the offspring being confused and infertile as adults and others say it's ok. Can anyone put this to rest for me? Should I separate them now and put them with more suitable mates or are they ok? The second clutch has just hatched but the babies of the first clutch seem normal. Any info would be great. Thank you!
 

Shastasmom

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I am not an advocate of hybridizing peachies with eye-rings (i.e. fischer's, masked, etc). For one thing, the babies are normally mules (at least the males) and personally, they are not near as striking as a normal peachfaced or fischer's. Finding a female peach faced is very easy and male Fischer's are also relatively easy to come by. I'd split them up and get their own genus if you are wanting to continue breeding.

Also - I don't know if you rest your birds by taking down the nesting box in between clutches - but if you don't you should. I normally only let my pairs give 3 clutches in a calendar year. Female lovies can and do get egg bound and/or lay soft shelled eggs if bred too often. It's best to let them rest between clutches for a few months if at all possible.
 

painesgrey

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Most keepers are against hybridization for various reasons, the biggest being that it is detrimental to the purity of the species. Hybrid offspring and their offspring (ad infinitum) will never be pure Fischers or pure Peachfaced, meaning a responsible breeder wouldn't touch them with a ten foot pole.

That being said, it's entirely possible for you to have perfectly healthy, viable hybrid offspring. You could also end up with offspring that have genetic defects, including infertility.
 

Tinta

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I personally would not breed different species of lovebird together.
On top of the possible defects in health and confusion (I've read the birds have very different nesting habits and this confuses the birds born of both species) I've literally never seen an "attractive" hybrid lovebird. Though beauty is really subjective, I imagine that it would make finding homes for them a bit harder than it would be otherwise.
 

pattyg2009

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so I also have two black masked lovebirds that are on their second clutch as well. Their nesting habits seem to be identical and the two females even helped each other build their nests.
The "hybrid" babies and the black masked babies act very similar and are very sweet. Also the hybrid babies look just like the peach faced male. I also only had males in this first clutch.

When I purchased these birds I wasn't told what type of lovebirds they are. So it could be possible that My adults are hybrids too. Can anyone tell me for sure what types they are if I post a pic?

Also for letting them rest do I just take the boxes out of there cage or do I need to separate them? And how long should they rest before the next clutch?

I want to make sure my birds are as happy and as healthy as can be.

Thank you everyone for your help I really appreciate it!
 

pattyg2009

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The pic is mom with 3 of the babies. I'll post pics of all the adults next.
 

pattyg2009

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Tinta,

I read that article and it helped a little but now I'm questioning the type of bird the white and blue mom is. She doesn't match any description in that article. She is all white on the head and collar but her underside is blue and her wings are grey and white. She also has a pale pink beak like all the rest. So maybe she is a hybrid of some sort? Their babies also look similar to the pic of a pied peach face. So I'm very confused. I'll post some more pics of her.
 

Tinta

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All the adults look to be non-hybrids to me.

I don't really get how you can say those hybrid babies look just like your PF male, though. He's a gorgeous opaline and the babies are...well, I guess have similar colors but don't really look alike at all.
 

pattyg2009

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They look like the pied peach faced in the article you sent not like my male. But the female has no grey on her head at all and all the research I saw shows Fischers with grey on the back of the head. She is a little dirty in the pics.
 

Monica

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Maybe your fischer hen is something like a Pastel Blue? (head doesn't appear to be clear enough to be called a sable? Not sure if she's pied or not?)

pastel blue fischer | Flickr - Photo Sharing!


Genetically speaking, the hybrid offspring should be something like Peachface x Fischer hybrids split opaline, blue and pastel. Any female offspring would be Opaline Peachface x Fischer hybrids split blue and pastel. However, the offspring should be sterile, meaning that they can't reproduce. If they try to, the offspring may become confused because one parent carries nesting material in their rump feathers while the other carries it in their mouth.


If you were to sell or give away the hybrid offspring, you probably wont have to worry about them being bred, since they are sterile... however, they are completely worthless to anyone who *does* want to breed lovebirds.
 

Chihuahua

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the hen is a mutation of some kind which may be why she does not match the description.
 

pattyg2009

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Monica,

Thank you so much that really helps. I've read a few articles that say I should kill the offspring and It is against my moral code to do so.

I am also not trying to get money for my birds. they will be given away as pets and that's it. I handle them for a few hours a day and they are super friendly and great with people.

So I guess I don't really have anything to worry since they cannot breed if someone was to try.
 

Shastasmom

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As far as resting goes, I remove the nestboxes in between clutches. I also have cages with grates in the bottom so that the hens can't try to build a "nest" on the cage floor and thwart the resting cycle. I was looking at my breeding records for this year and one of my lovebird pairs went in Feb. 2015 then again in September 2015 and is laying again now. She has only one egg so far so I will count this clutch into my 2016 records. Then I will remove her box for at least 4-5 months. Hope this helps. :smileflower:
 

pattyg2009

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That does help! Thank you so much! I figured after this clutch I will give them at least 3 months. Their first clutch our black masked only had two fertile eggs out of six. Now she has four out of six. So we are very excited to see how they are!
 
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