I've always wondered - perhaps this is in the wrong forum... but...

Is it true that, in order to obtain a mutation, one has to mate a related pair of birds?

For instance, I spoke with someone who has blue mutation amazons. He swore his birds were imports and were wild caught; that the mutation occurred in the wild.

Any feedback on this?

Kathie, I thought mutations were determined by the dominant and recessive chromosomes from each parent.

I could be way wrong though.

Edited to add: I think it's the recessive's that determine the mutation coloring.

the only one I really remember reading anything about was a blue Eclectus that was inbred to achieve that.

From reading I have done, I know that the blue mutation yellownapes are in fact a mutation that appeared in the wild- they were first found in a lot of import birds.

From my understanding, for a lot of the more rare mutations, such as the blue naped amazons... you have to do quite a lot of line breeding and such to achieve the mutation.

I think you need one of these:
and a whole lot of glass tubes and colored bubbling water in them with lots of fire and smoke and a long white smock stained with Lord knows what.
Yep, well at least that's how I did it back in the day.

.... Just think how many would be sold it that was true ...mad scientist alert!

Mike -you crack me up!

So it is true that the blue amazons were wild caught, huh? (The guy actually sounded very sincere). I wonder if it is also true that hybrid macaws are found in the wild. Sometimes I read that they have been (with no documentation) and others say not (also with no documentation).

There is a store here in NJ that has a blue mutation amazon - gorgeous but he wants $25,000 for it.

Isn't line breeding bad, just as bad as regular inbreeding?

Hey Glider - where you been hiding? Haven't seen you for a while.

I am not a breeder, and I don't know what line breeding is. Maybe someone like Joel or Denise can answer your question. I would think in-breeding is probably not a good idea.