I get many emails from folks that have visited my site asking how to develop their
own breeding program. The answer isn't a simple one, because there are many
different reasons one may want to begin a breeding program. There are also many
ways to begin.
The old adage "If I would have known then what I know now"" most definitely applies
to this topic when I reflect back on how I got started... I began (as many of us do) by
breeding tiels who's chicks went on to become sweet pets for kids of all ages. This
was (and still is) great fun. Yet, during this endeavor, I couldn't help noticing that
some chicks (and some breeding stock) were more appealing to me than others. I
began to collect larger stock, longer crests, bigger eyes, fuller bodies, etc.. from well
known exhibition breeders and that is how TopTiels began.
The mode of inheritance for each of these attributes still fascinates me today.
Genetics, and the applied system of breeding a better bird has become one of the
most creative outlets I've ever had the pleasure of working with. This is the enjoyable
part for me, so this is what my breeding program is geared toward. The mutations of
these birds is of little consequence. But, everyone is different and breeding
Cockatiels has many different avenues to travel down. Maybe you're more interested
in breeding Rares (Dominant Yellow Cheeks, Recessive Silvers,Pastelface, etc...)
and the size and deportment of your birds is not quite as important to you. Maybe
your interests lie in breeding the best Lutino, or the most attractive crest, or the
sweetest pets available. Whatever your reason for starting your own breeding
program, welcome and best of luck to you !
How you go about achieving your goals can be the difference between 10 years and
25 years, though, and hopefully this article will serve to shorten the time necessary to
set the desired characteristics into your line of birds.
In the beginning, I was given invaluable pearls of wisdom by very accomplished and
well known breeders. Yet, I chose to ignore one of the most repeated sayings which
was "start small". Instead, I opted for a large quantity of pedigreed stock to sift
through at my leisure. This proved completely unnecessary as time passed and I
realized how many chicks one great pair of Cockatiels can produce! Upon reflection,
I could have accomplished the same "end result" in an equal amount of time by
carefully selecting 3 or 4 outstanding pairs of bird to begin with and then crossing
the resulting offspring back and forth to achieve my desired results. Water under the
bridge now, I guess .. But, I hope I can stress to you how much easier starting small
can be.
Let's begin by using "Breeding Better Lutinos" as an example of how a successful
breeding program is formulated. Let's also define an initial budget to get started and
while we're at it, let's give this program a timeline. We've got $2500 to buy 5 pairs
and we want top bench placing Lutinos within 3 years. Fair enough ? Now, to
achieve a predictable result (meaning that we want most if not all of our chicks to be
outstanding examples of our work), we're going to keep our breedings very close and
linebreed. We begin by researching NCS show catalogs and establish that, over the
last three years, Josh Maple of Maple Leaf Aviaries has consistently won top honors
with a Lutino hen he has named "Sunburst". This bird is striking and has most, if not
all of the qualities we are looking for in our own aviary. A quick call to Josh reveals
that Sunburst was a fortunate mix of many talented breeders such as Linda Greeson,
Keith Jennings, Lloyd Bailey and Philip Feret. It's important to know the pedigree of
this award winning bird, because we're aiming for the same "type" of bird in our
aviary. TopTiels and many other award winning breeders are more than happy to
discuss or better yet, send copies of the pedigree into your email. Some breeders
even include pedigrees right on their websites.
These pedigrees are much more valuable to us than simply showing who this
Cockatiel's parents are. The pedigree is also the "recipe" of how this bird was
created. One of the most important "tips" we can take from any skilled breeder's
pedigree is that very seldom do we see that two birds of the same mutation have
been bred together to create the individual. Professional breeders use "splits" to
achieve visual birds. For example, Sunburst's paternal grandparents were a Pied
split Lutino and Pearl cock (grandfather) bred to a Lutino hen (grandmother). This
resulted in a Lutino cock that is the father of Sunburst. Since the Lutino mutation is
sex-linked, male Lutinos pass their mutation onto their daughters visually and their
sons as "splits" (or non-visual). Female Lutinos pass their mutation on to their sons
as a split, but do not pass the Lutino gene onto their daughters at all.
own breeding program. The answer isn't a simple one, because there are many
different reasons one may want to begin a breeding program. There are also many
ways to begin.
The old adage "If I would have known then what I know now"" most definitely applies
to this topic when I reflect back on how I got started... I began (as many of us do) by
breeding tiels who's chicks went on to become sweet pets for kids of all ages. This
was (and still is) great fun. Yet, during this endeavor, I couldn't help noticing that
some chicks (and some breeding stock) were more appealing to me than others. I
began to collect larger stock, longer crests, bigger eyes, fuller bodies, etc.. from well
known exhibition breeders and that is how TopTiels began.
The mode of inheritance for each of these attributes still fascinates me today.
Genetics, and the applied system of breeding a better bird has become one of the
most creative outlets I've ever had the pleasure of working with. This is the enjoyable
part for me, so this is what my breeding program is geared toward. The mutations of
these birds is of little consequence. But, everyone is different and breeding
Cockatiels has many different avenues to travel down. Maybe you're more interested
in breeding Rares (Dominant Yellow Cheeks, Recessive Silvers,Pastelface, etc...)
and the size and deportment of your birds is not quite as important to you. Maybe
your interests lie in breeding the best Lutino, or the most attractive crest, or the
sweetest pets available. Whatever your reason for starting your own breeding
program, welcome and best of luck to you !
How you go about achieving your goals can be the difference between 10 years and
25 years, though, and hopefully this article will serve to shorten the time necessary to
set the desired characteristics into your line of birds.
In the beginning, I was given invaluable pearls of wisdom by very accomplished and
well known breeders. Yet, I chose to ignore one of the most repeated sayings which
was "start small". Instead, I opted for a large quantity of pedigreed stock to sift
through at my leisure. This proved completely unnecessary as time passed and I
realized how many chicks one great pair of Cockatiels can produce! Upon reflection,
I could have accomplished the same "end result" in an equal amount of time by
carefully selecting 3 or 4 outstanding pairs of bird to begin with and then crossing
the resulting offspring back and forth to achieve my desired results. Water under the
bridge now, I guess .. But, I hope I can stress to you how much easier starting small
can be.
Let's begin by using "Breeding Better Lutinos" as an example of how a successful
breeding program is formulated. Let's also define an initial budget to get started and
while we're at it, let's give this program a timeline. We've got $2500 to buy 5 pairs
and we want top bench placing Lutinos within 3 years. Fair enough ? Now, to
achieve a predictable result (meaning that we want most if not all of our chicks to be
outstanding examples of our work), we're going to keep our breedings very close and
linebreed. We begin by researching NCS show catalogs and establish that, over the
last three years, Josh Maple of Maple Leaf Aviaries has consistently won top honors
with a Lutino hen he has named "Sunburst". This bird is striking and has most, if not
all of the qualities we are looking for in our own aviary. A quick call to Josh reveals
that Sunburst was a fortunate mix of many talented breeders such as Linda Greeson,
Keith Jennings, Lloyd Bailey and Philip Feret. It's important to know the pedigree of
this award winning bird, because we're aiming for the same "type" of bird in our
aviary. TopTiels and many other award winning breeders are more than happy to
discuss or better yet, send copies of the pedigree into your email. Some breeders
even include pedigrees right on their websites.
These pedigrees are much more valuable to us than simply showing who this
Cockatiel's parents are. The pedigree is also the "recipe" of how this bird was
created. One of the most important "tips" we can take from any skilled breeder's
pedigree is that very seldom do we see that two birds of the same mutation have
been bred together to create the individual. Professional breeders use "splits" to
achieve visual birds. For example, Sunburst's paternal grandparents were a Pied
split Lutino and Pearl cock (grandfather) bred to a Lutino hen (grandmother). This
resulted in a Lutino cock that is the father of Sunburst. Since the Lutino mutation is
sex-linked, male Lutinos pass their mutation onto their daughters visually and their
sons as "splits" (or non-visual). Female Lutinos pass their mutation on to their sons
as a split, but do not pass the Lutino gene onto their daughters at all.
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| "Your website along (with your MOST AMAZING, DROP DEAD COCKATIELS I HAVE EVER SEEN) is awesome! I cannot believe there are actually cockatiels out there that look like this." - Joey, Ontario Canada "I am just in awe with the wonderfully colored birds you have... Just wanted you to know how fantastic your birds are." - Debbie, Indiana "You have one of the best web site and THE most beautiful Cockatiels I have seen. " - Adriana, Dallas Texas "Don, The birds are just absolutely great! The one pearl pied and the normal felt like Turkeys when you hold them! THey are very full in the chest and solid birds!!" -Linda, Laguna Hills CA |
| How to start your own Cockatiel breeding program |