[Jill85]

Hello

My partner and I are new to Quakers & have a baby blue boy & a baby green girl. My partner used to breed cockatiels, budgies, fish (anything he could really) & now he would like to eventually breed our two Quakers

What colour variations would you expect to see from a Blue Quaker breeeding with a Green female?
Also any handy tips you can offer on general quaker care would be appreciated

Thanks
Jill

[Carrie~Anne]

Welcome to the forum

Before setting those two up to breed, the female should be about 2 years old and the male should be at least 18 months old. While they are capable of producing young before that, the extra waiting period gives the hen time to make sure she's strong enough to lay eggs and helps to ensure that both birds are mature enough to raise chicks.

If you have a male Blue Quaker and a female Green Quaker, then all the chicks will be Green split to Blue. That means they will all look green, but carry the blue gene. If the female Green Quaker is split to Blue (and no way to visually tell, but if you know her parents you might be able to tell from that), then half the chicks will be Blue and the other half will be Green split to Blue.

Seeing as how you have a while to wait before breeding, now is the time to do lots of research into Quakers and their breeding habits. While similar to Cockatiels/Budgies, there are some things that are different.

As for general Quaker information, this forum is an excellent source for Quaker stuff

[Andie's Mom]

If you haven't ever had quakers before, I would strongly recommend the book "A Guid To Quaker Parrots" by Mattie Sue Athon, Great book loaded with all kinds of information.

As far as what can you expect to get when you breed a blue quaker to a green quaker. Depending on whether your green is actuall a green/blue (green split to blue, which means one parent was green and the other was blue) If not you're going to get mostly green split to blue and you might occasionally get a blue, However if you were to get a green split to blue and breed it with a blue they you'll get some greens and some blues the greens will carry the blue gene though so again they'd be split to blue.

There's a formula on genetics somewhere back in the archieves or maybe someone with a better memory than might at the moment will come along and give it to you.

I would not start attmepting to allow them to breed until they are at least 18 months old and its better if the female is a little older than that, her body will be more mature and there's less chance of problems such as egg binding which can cause death.