Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Obtaining Birds from Good Lines
By Blake Ma
Blake enjoys working with lovebirds and has a passion for exhibiting and breeding them
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Orangefaced Australian cinnamon and orangefaced green babies. |
Whiefaced violet pied and green violet pied babies. |
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Baby lovebirds in their play cage. |
If your goal is to become an exhibitor, establish relationships with other exhibitors. If you obtain good offspring from their champion lines or from birds that have placed on the top bench before, then those offspring will have a better chance of producing show-quality offspring. This is not to say that you can’t find a bird in a pet store and have it do well on the bench but, in most cases a line of show-quality birds has been worked with for many generations by many people.
Find out who the best breeders of certain mutations are. If you know that one exhibitor always wins in the American cinnamon section and that’s a section you would like to concentrate or focus on, get a bird from that exhibitor’s winning line and work off of that. You are taking something that’s potentially really good in their bird, perhaps pairing it to one of your own birds and creating something new while working to carry on those show-quality traits into the next generation.
Also, show-quality birds are, in general, a little bigger in size and have better colorings and markings than the birds you typically find in the pet store. The best way to create relationships with other exhibitors is to attend shows and meet them in person. Most are very friendly and willing to help a new exhibitor.
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Obtaining Birds from Good Lines
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