This gave us outcrossed splits for Cinnamon in Normal & Olive colouration. We than managed to find another Cinnamon in 1999 which we bred to one of our outcrossed olive splits Cinnamons. In the third clutch we bred our first new Mustard mutation on the 29-7-2000, it has been recorded in text "as probably the first one", having given the hatch date of our bird may clear this up one day. The bird is not as light in colouration as the Cinnamon, but has more of a royal golden look.
This colour is now available in many aviaries around Australia.
The male Mustard is a lighter golden-yellow colour than the female birds as can be clearly seen in the photos. These bird can be sexed by colour in a lot of cases but it is always recommended to get the birds DNA sexed to make sure if it is to be sold.
In genetic terms, the Mustard is a recessive mutation with the olive (grey green) part being dominant and is referred to as a Grey Green - Dilute.
The Recessive gene.
This gene applies to many of the Rainbow and the Red-collared Lorikeet colours.
It mainly means that you need the gene on both sides of the sexes to breed a coloured bird.
The Recessive splits are not a visual split, so look normal but carry the gene!
Normal X Recessive split = 50% Normal + 25% Splits + 25% possible Splits.
Recessive Colour X Normal = 100% Recessive Splits .
Recessive split X Recessive split = 25% normal + 50% Splits + 25% Colour.
Recessive split X Recessive Colour = 50% Splits + 50% Colour.
Recessive Colour X Recessive Colour = 100% Recessive Colour.
The Dominant gene for the Grey Green/Olive. This gene is fairly simple: When bred to a normal it either shows the colour up or it doesn't. That means, any bird that doesn't show this colour gene, will not carry it in it. So this bird bred to a Normal shows either the colour or not and there are no splits involved. Roughly it goes like:
Grey Green X Normal = 50% Grey Green + 50% Normal and is not split for the colour.
The head colouration between the cock bird & hen bird is also quite different. The hen bird caries more of a brown colouring through the grey on the head, were as the cock bird has more silver to lightest of blue colouration.
This colour can differ between bloodlines the same as it does in Cinnamon (dilute), there are lighter lines of cinnamons and darker ones in the same colouration. To some extend this can also be said for the mustard as it caries the same Cinnamon genes.
Here we can see the big difference between the colouration of the hen bird (left) and the cock bird (right).
The hen birds always have a darker mustard colour and the cock birds more of a royal gold to lighter mustard.
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