George and Ida Van Der Togt Specialist Breeders.

There are some true colored mutations of Alexandrines in existance   overseas which include the Lutino, Blue, Pied or "Spangle" and the   Clearheaded. During some of our visits back to The Netherlands we had   the opportunity to visit the aviaries of J. Postema and J. Bastiaans,   both bird breeders known worldwide. This experience not only motivated   us to continue expanding our collection of breeding parrots but also had   given us lots of new ideas while talking to these breeders and  improved  our knowledge.

Since Australia has closed its doors to the legal  importation of  exotic parrots, all coloured mutations of the Alexandrine  parrot that  are in existance within Australia are from hybridising with  the Indian  Ringneck parrot (Psittacula Krameri Manillensis).

A  word of warning: If you are contemplating attempting such a  challenge  don't go into it half hearted. This is not a project for  beginners and  you should keep in mind the following points.

You need lots of  aviary space to cater for your green hybrid split  birds. These need to  be mated back to good size pure Alexandrine  (preferable the biger  Nepalese Alexandrine sub species - Psittacula  Eupatria Nipalansis).

You  need to start with a couple of pairs to prevent inbreeding.  Inbreeding  should be avoided at all costs as often the progeny may  develop abnormal  feathering or prove to have low fertility or even be  infertile.

You  need lots of time and money. Experts say that it takes at least 5   generations for a mutation produced through hybridisation to be  similar  in size and appearance as a pure bird of the same species. It  can take  at least 3 years and sometimes up to 5 years for a young bird  to be  sexually active. Now do your sums, if you have no setbacks such  as  snakes, disease, hawks, rodents, broken wire or escaped birds, and  you  start now you will need at least 15 years of breeding to get your  first  real colour mutation.

Extensive knowledge of genetics is needed.  You will need to know  which colours are sex-linked, recessive and  dominant. Ignorance of  genetics can lead to a lot of frustrations.

Thorough  records need to be kept. This is only possible by permanent   identification of birds. We suggest using individually coded stainless   legrings. The aluminium rings will be too weak for the strong beaks of   the Alexandrine Parrots and may result in the bird squashing the ring   and possibly cutting off circulation to its foot - another potential   setback that you don't need.

To increase the result of a breeding  program, artificial incubation  can be of enormous benefit. The use of  foster pairs who are to incubate  and raise more valuable eggs and babies  is another option.

With establishing a mutation through  hybridisation you need to be  sure that the size is going to increase. If  you take a short cut and  breed a split hybrid back with another split  hybrid you also acquire  lots of maybe split hybrids and small green  hybrids. What are you going  to do with these? These progeny which are  not continued with in the  breeding program need to be culled. Selling  these unwanted hybrid birds  for the pet market is another option but  even if sold as pets, people  change their minds and will often still  breed with genuine Alexandrines  for sale. These are undersized birds  with hardly any shoulder patch. I  want to point out that you need to  take care when purchasing such  parrots. A lot of people are against  mixing two different species as  the true species will get ruined if we  breed with inferior birds. To  borrow a quote from Stewart Williamson "We  must jealously guard the  genetic pool that we have here in Australia."