Just came across this article:
http://www.parrotsociety.org.au/imag...usive_June.pdf

Lutino Blue and Gold Macaw!

For obvious reasons, the breeders do not wish to be named/identified. But I'm glad to hear that the lutinos are alive and well!

These were at the QLD parrot convention last weekend, they are beautiful.

$130,000 per bird though, hehe. Just a tad expensive.

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That's an outrageous price for a mutation that should have never been created! I can't beleive what some breeders do to make a buck. Breeding of blue and golds should be kept to breeding to different gene pools not this inbreeding $!#£ that creates mutations like this!

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If you ever see animal abuse or hear of it, please report it to your local humane society immediately. Animals suffer daily from negligent owners and we need to put a stop to it. So please do what's right, don't just sit by and do nothing, help the poor animal and report it.

These birds were not created intentionally, if I remember correctly, the parents of these lutino Macaws were completely normal Blue and Golds, bought for producing normal babies. These lutino mutations were a random (and natural) occurrence and were not bred for or forced in any way.

In Australia, our Macaws (among other exotic species) are very expensive and very rare, hybrid and mutations are frowned upon by most breeders and bird clubs. As we can no longer import any birds from any other countries for breeding purposes since some time in 90’s, we must keep our limited blood lines pure.

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My mistake, it's just that normally this is caused by inbreeding and I hate when people do that on purpose just to make a pretty color.

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If you ever see animal abuse or hear of it, please report it to your local humane society immediately. Animals suffer daily from negligent owners and we need to put a stop to it. So please do what's right, don't just sit by and do nothing, help the poor animal and report it.

Yes, it can be frustrating. I think the amazing colours that nature and evolution have created are beautiful enough. While I won't argue hybrids like miligolds, camelots and catalinas are gorgeous, I don't think they are a good idea.

We do not have much (if any) intentionally bred hybrids birds like macaws, conures or amazons due the reason posted above. There have been a few cases of hybrid macaws I know of personally, but as far as I'm aware, they were an accident. The breeder thought the pair was two females, lol. This created a catalina if I recall, and Scarlets are VERY expensive and rare in Australia, no one would intentionally breed one with a Blue and Gold.

We also have a smaller population and not as wide spread interest in pet birds as the US, so demand for hybrids is not yet something commonly found in Australia. While it is frustrating at times that exotic species like Macaws, Amazons and Greys are so expensive, I am also a firm believer that is a "good thing". We do not have need for more then 1 rescue centre, we don't have thousands of unwanted birds and we have less people who would buy the bigger and more demanding birds like Macaws or Amazons on "impulse” because of their price. MOST people who go to buy these birds have researched them first, as they cost in the thousands and are not easy to find. Pet stores do not often stock them, and breeders will only sell them to genuine owners as there are often long waiting lists. It is very rare to see someone with a pet Macaw, and when you do see one, it's incredibly well looked after and spoiled rotten.

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The only down side is that there are thousands of toos that get discarded and mistreated in their place. I wish that people would tale as much consideration in getting a pet or having a child as they do buying a house. :-(

And where do you think green cheek mutations come from?

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Proud volunteer and supporter of The Gabriel Foundation http://thegabrielfoundation.org/

The only mutations I support are yellow sided, cinnamon, pineapple, and turquoise. Yellow sided is a natural mutation that happens in the wild and they got cinnamon from that, from just a random mutation in a gene somewhere along the line. They got pineapples from cinnamons and yellow sideds, no inbreeding. I honestly don't know where turquoise came from.

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If you ever see animal abuse or hear of it, please report it to your local humane society immediately. Animals suffer daily from negligent owners and we need to put a stop to it. So please do what's right, don't just sit by and do nothing, help the poor animal and report it.

My point is that in order to proliferate color mutations, a fair amount of inbreeding or "line breeding" has been involved. Although those mutations may have "popped up" naturally, people have inbred them since that time in order to produce more.

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Proud volunteer and supporter of The Gabriel Foundation http://thegabrielfoundation.org/