Pineapple conure question...

[chickymonkey]

This may seem like a funny question, but how does a breeder breed for pineapple conures?

I tried to google it and the genetics make my head spin.

Is it a color mutation of 2 other conure colors? If you breed those 2 colors will all babies be pineapple or some pineapple and some not? Do they breed pineapples to pineapples and get....more pineapples?

Just wondering.

 

[Thingamagigs]

You will need a basic understanding of genetics to be able to grasp it, its a little "tricky".

It is a combination of mutations, the cinnamon mutation AND the yellow side mutation.

Both cinnamon and yellow sides are sex linked, so a female cinnamon with just one cinnamon allele (heterozygous for cinnamon) will have a cinnamon phenotype. In other words she only needs one cinnamon gene to look cinnamon. A male must be homozygous to have a cinnamon phenotype, a heterozygous male is refered to as "split for cinnamon". In otherwords a male must have two cinnamon genes to look cinnamon, if he only has one he is a carrier.

Breeding two pineapples is likely to give you mostly pineapple babies, but if the female is only heterozygous for both, there is a small chance of having plain old normal, yellow sided or cinnamon males. All females will be pineapple.

 

[ConureLady]

its obviously very complicated.. let me make it more complicated for ya...
if its just a visual pineapple, they can come out normal or yellow sided...
normals and yellow sided are the most common babies you are going to get.
two pineapples doesnt mean you will get pineapples. but it can if they are split. from what i understand, splits mean you can get a mutation. one split- one mutation, two splits- two, triple- 3..so on..
i still dont understand if it means they split to ONE bird with a mutation of out a flock of x amount of babies, or if it means just one kind of mutation.. such as two splits being two pineapples or two splits being two kinds of mutations..
yellow sided and normals are wild mutations. pineapple, cinnamon, etc are not..
i currently have a cinnamon and a yellow sided that are trying to breed.. we'll see what happens. i assume they will be yellow sided because the male is from petco, where they have generation after generation with the same genetics and same mutation..so i assume his genes are strong.
however, turquoise can happen for any reason unknown. you cant breed two kinds of birds and come out with turquoise.. turquoise are random wild natural mutations that happen for no apparent reason. but two turquoise parents will have 100% turquoise..
i know someone that bred pineapple and cinnamon and got normals.. but those normals were split back to cinnamon and one mint. so i guess thats a double split

 

[Thingamagigs]

its obviously very complicated.. let me make it more complicated for ya...
if its just a visual pineapple, they can come out normal or yellow sided...
normals and yellow sided are the most common babies you are going to get.
two pineapples doesnt mean you will get pineapples. but it can if they are split. from what i understand, splits mean you can get a mutation. one split- one mutation, two splits- two, triple- 3..so on..
i still dont understand if it means they split to ONE bird with a mutation of out a flock of x amount of babies, or if it means just one kind of mutation.. such as two splits being two pineapples or two splits being two kinds of mutations..
yellow sided and normals are wild mutations. pineapple, cinnamon, etc are not..
i currently have a cinnamon and a yellow sided that are trying to breed.. we'll see what happens. i assume they will be yellow sided because the male is from petco, where they have generation after generation with the same genetics and same mutation..so i assume his genes are strong.
however, turquoise can happen for any reason unknown. you cant breed two kinds of birds and come out with turquoise.. turquoise are random wild natural mutations that happen for no apparent reason. but two turquoise parents will have 100% turquoise..
i know someone that bred pineapple and cinnamon and got normals.. but those normals were split back to cinnamon and one mint. so i guess thats a double split

^This is all wrong, sorry

Split means they are a carrier... because it is a sex linked mutation, a heterozygous male will be a carrier, in bird speak "split for cinnamon/yellow side (or both)".
Breeding two homozygous pineapples ensures you will get nothing but pineapples. If you breed a pineapple male (which has to be homozygous for both cinnamon and yellowsided to be pineapple in the first place) to a pineapple female who isn't homozygous then you may get everything from normals, to cinnamons and yellow sided... but only in the males. Being that the male must be homozygous to be pineapple, all babies will inherit at least one cinnamon and one yellowsided allele... this means that ALL females will be pineapple.

In this way, you can also breed a pineapple male with a normal female and have a method of automatically sexing the babies... all females will be pineapple, all males will be normal split for pineapple (i.e. a carrier for both cinnamon and yellow sided).

 

[Thingamagigs]

My pineapple female is heterozygous for cinnamon and homozygous for yellowside. My pineapple male is obviously homozygous for both.

When they breed, all girls will be pineapple. I have a small chance that I will get some yellowsided males but should mostly get pineapple males.

If your male is a yellowsided conurelady... and your female is pineapple... it will depend on what the male is carrying and whether or not your female is homozygous or heterozygous. If we assume she is heterozygous and your male is not split for cinnamon... then you could get the following:
Males: normal cocks who are split for yellowside or split for both yellowside and cinnamon. Yellowsided cocks who are not cinnamon carriers. Yellowsided cocks who are split for cinnamon.
Females: Yellowsided hens and pineapple hens.

Does that make sense?

 

[lene1949]

This might help:

MOD EDIT: Link originally provided in this post in 2012 was re-published in 2016 and is now no longer relevant.

 

[Thingamagigs]

That is a great link lene and also makes me ponder what the breeder of my birds was saying about my hen. It just didn't click until I read that (having a blonde moment).
But truly, the breeder should have known better.

 

[everdusk]

...
In this way, you can also breed a pineapple male with a normal female and have a method of automatically sexing the babies... all females will be pineapple, all males will be normal split for pineapple (i.e. a carrier for both cinnamon and yellow sided).

This was the case for my Pinapple, Prim. We knew she was a female because of her breeding (though I believe she was still sexed with her other siblings). I had to spend a lot of time trying to understand genetics to understand how it worked, and I still feel confused most of the time. It is really very interesting! I should also point out her siblings were 1 normal and 3 yellow sides, she was the only pineapple.

 

[chickymonkey]

Thanks, everyone!