Rubylina Macaws

[mom2three]

Anyone familiar with Rubylina macaws? I am still researching which type of parrot would be best for our family. I am still leaning towards the blue and gold but have an opportunity next week to meet some baby rubylinas. I know they have Scarlet in the mix and I have read they are generally a dominate bird but also lots of articles about it really is about socialization. If the parents generally have a pleasant demeanor is that passed to the babies or is it completely how the babies are raised and socialized?

 

[RavensGryf]

Must be cross between Ruby and Catalina hybrids? Never heard of Rubylina, but with scarlet on both sides (mostly scarlet) must be a gorgeous bird. I'm sure some mac people will chime in soon. I'm going to google pics right now!

 

[weco]

Although I have no macaw experience at all, I wanted to chime in here about the breeding/cross-breeding of hybrid birds.....and while I am not a zealot on this subject, but I do think it is wrong to cross-breed different parrot species so that we can command a higher sales price for the offspring.....it has also been proven that hybridizing birds causes genetic deficiencies/defects in many of the offspring and by breeding with hybrid birds, often severe defects are imposed on the chicks of these breedings, much like the life shortening that inbreeding caused the German Shepherd with its inherent hip dysplasia, but heck, while the owner got an award winning dog, the dog is only saddled with a painful life that usually ends in euthanization.....with birds, there are other maladies/health problems caused by hybridization, the least of which is the morality conflict that is raised.....

Though some parrot species will naturally cross-breed, they are not trying to create designer birds, rather many are just trying to follow Mother Nature's directive to procreate when we humans have cut down their natural habitat....

Here's some extra reading about hybridizing parrots:

General Care Articles/Talk/Weaning/Aloe/General/Entertainment/Breeding

Hybridization also can cause offspring to be carriers of genetically different viruses/pathogens that may have otherwise remained dormant had particular birds remained specie pure and not produced hybrid offspring: Detection and Heterogeneity of Herpesviruses Causing Pacheco's Disease in Parrots

Ethical considerations: Tips For Breeders

Hybridization shortens a macaw's lifespan: Macaw Care Guide, All about Macaws

Congenital defects: http://www.parrotforums.com/conures/25809-pyrrhura-x-large-conure-hybrids.html

Sorry, really didn't mean to hijack the thread.....

 

[Pinkbirdy]

Ive had 2 Hybrid Macaws [they both had the sweetest dispositions ].Also their was Scarlet in them .Love these birds

 

[Birdman666]

That's a hybrid/hybrid cross...

Ruby - GW/SCARLET + Catalina SCARLET/B&G

I would expect the temperment and behavior to be more like greenwings or catalina's. Both of which really do have outstanding temperments.

Scarlet's don't so much have dominance issues, as they are one of the beakier macaws. They communicate with their beaks, and can sometimes be "pinchy." (There is a good description of it somewhere on this forum from someone who owns one...)

Socialization is the key to ALL macaws in my opinion. In my mind there are really only two varieties of macaws.

Mush Macs - the relatively docile goofy lap birds most of us know and love;

And the NOT Mush Macs. [And to me the difference between the two is usually human.]

 

[Wvbirdlover]

Is that the kind of macaw that's in those 'Storminator' videos on YouTube ( the videos aren't about the macaw, but the macaw is a bird that appears in some of those videos.) the macaw is beautiful, that's for sure. I don't know anything about the hybridization of the species. I wondered what kind of macaw that was. It's definitely beautiful, but after reading a bunch of articles, on cross breeding other species, to enhance color, the articles read like you get further away from the birds true personality. I really don't know this to be a 100% true, but I would definitely do Lots of research.

 

[RavensGryf]

Birdman, didn't you mean Catalina = Scarlet and B&G (and Harlequin = GW and B&G)?

 

[Birdman666]

Birdman, didn't you mean Catalina = Scarlet and B&G (and Harlequin = GW and B&G)?

You're right. I always get those two mixed up for some reason...

Catalina's tend to have B&G dispositions. Ruby's tend to be a lit bit more beaky greenwings...

I've fostered both of those before. (My Ruby came to me as an evil bird, but she had been raised exactly wrong, and had significant issues!)

I've never played with one of these hybrids before, but I'd still guess they're pretty much mush macs... especially if you get a baby and socialize it properly.

 

[RavensGryf]

I KNEW that you knew...

I think any hybrid with scarlet is especially beautiful, but with these several generation hybrids, I do wonder about the hardiness and whether the genetics are weakened.

I'm curious about this... Have enough of these 'designer' 2nd and 3rd gen hybrids been around long enough to know whether they're as hardy as a purebred, or if they are more prone to problems related to their genetic mix?

 

[Birdman666]

I KNEW that you knew...

I think any hybrid with scarlet is especially beautiful, but with these several generation hybrids, I do wonder about the hardiness and whether the genetics are weakened.

I'm curious about this... Have enough of these 'designer' 2nd and 3rd gen hybrids been around long enough to know whether they're as hardy as a purebred, or if they are more prone to problems related to their genetic mix?

Well, not really, but if genetics shows us anything it's that INBREEDING is generally worse than mixing in terms of overall hardiness. Mixing expands the gene pool. It doesn't weaken it. Certainly Catalinas have been around long enough to know that they are not genetically inferior...

Not that I am in favor of large scale hybrid operations... or designer birds. I prefer them the way nature made them. What you get, is an unidentified mutt... we don't really know what kind of macaw that is... made up name, for a made up species. Until the species specific stuff ends up being lost...

And I still take Greenwings over scarlet's any day... I love the facial feathers for starters. I just think they are the prettier of the two... Although the most beautiful big mac I ever owned or fostered, if looks were everything, was that Ruby. (Evil through and through. But she sure was pretty!)

 

[horsesculpter]

Any old cattleman knows that hybrid cattle are growthier, more disease resistant and generally better than their parents. This knowledge has been used in the cattle industry for years. Also mixed breed dogs, and many other species benifit from expanding the gene pool. It is inbreeding that causes problems and the above mentioned example of German shepherds is from inbreeding, not cross breeding. You may have issues with cross breeding endangered species, but it certainly does not diminish their health, intelligence or disease resistance. We have a Catalina we love dearly. She has about a two hundred word vocabulary and according to her vet is magnificent. I think a lot of the disposition probably has more to do with their home environment than their mix.

 

[weco]

I did use the analogy of the shepherd, but am pretty sure I clearly described it as an inbred breed, but I'm not sure that mixed breed dogs have any specie benefit or expand the original gene pool, rather, I'm pretty sure that any dog that issues from a crossbred mating does not establish a new, pure gene pool, but actually only produces another new mutt gene pool.....I will agree with your position that cattle have been bred for disease resistance, ability to withstand severe weather conditions, increased meat production, along with selectively breeding in various other salability qualities, but the breeding of cattle has been thoroughly and is continually studied, unlike the cross-breeding of parrot species.....

Since you sculpt horses, you might find something I read a couple of years ago interesting, it's about the relationship between human chromosome 20 and horse chromosome 22, with a little bit of mouse chromosome 2 thrown in, and though I don't remember any Texas cattle baron having been mentioned anywhere, the primary researcher was from College Station.....

[http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/articles/05_03/horse.shtml]

I've also heard that Don Brightsmith, the primary researcher of the Tambopata Macaw Project is now teaching at A & M, so maybe the two researchers will get together & we'll have beefier macaw leg-quarters in the poultry section of your nearest H-E-B supermarket in the next few years.....

It's not so much that I have an aversion to cross breeding endangered species, I have a problem with people interested in creating "designer" birds, macaws or other parrot species, chasing the almighty dollar, but then you may have noticed that I prefaced my earlier post with "and while I am not a zealot on this subject, but I do think it is wrong to cross-breed different parrot species so that we can command a higher sales price for the offspring....." I have the same problem with breeders of "designer" dogs too, but I don't think we'll have to worry about finding any designer dogs being fattened up in any Kansas feed lots.....