The ‘Golden Yellow’ is just a fancy name for the Cinnamon-Isabel Splendid Parakeet. Like most such names it exaggerates the true appearance of the bird. Nevertheless the combination of Cinnamon and Isabel, to produce the composite variety which we call the Golden Yellow, does reduce green colouration noticeably more than either characteristic would on its own. The result is a Splendid Parakeet with a pronounced overall yellow appearance. In this article I outline a plan which will allow any breeder to produce Golden Yellows without having to worry about the genetic complexities involved.

Many admirers of the Splendid Parakeet will have been interested by recent articles featuring Golden Yellows, but might have been put off trying for themselves by the difficulties reported and the small number of such birds bred. Rest assured that it is not necessary to feed and house a large number of birds to produce Golden Yellows of your own. A perfectly viable breeding programme could commence with as little as two or three pairs. With sound management and good records, together with a little good fortune, you too could have Golden Yellow Splendid hens flying around your aviaries in the second season; followed by cocks in the third season.

Few breeders have sufficient genetic knowledge to produce these birds reliably — follow the plan I set out below and you could soon be churning them out at a rate to turn fellow enthusiasts green! If your interest have been aroused, and notwithstanding what I have just said, you should be aware that breeding this composite variety does require commitment and a fair measure of patience. Because the Cinnamon and Isabel (sometimes referred to as the Sex-linked Dilute) are both sex-linked varieties they do not combine so readily and predictably as most other colour forms. It really is necessary to follow a well thought out breeding programme to avoid everything ending in confusion and disappointment.

Both the Cinnamon and the Isabel are lighter, or diluted, varieties of the Splendid parakeet. In the Isabel, there is a fairly modest reduction of the black melanin deposits in the feathers. The primaries are dark grey rather than the near black of the natural form, green areas are somewhat lighter giving what may be described as a moss green, and blue areas are a little lighter. In the Cinnamon, melanin deposits are both reduced and changed to brown giving a more marked diluting action. The primaries are greyish brown (more beige-like in the female), green areas approach lime green, and blue areas are again lighter. Neither characteristic directly affects yellow or red (psittacin) ground colour. However, more of the underlying ground colour is allowed to show through and both varieties take on a more yellow overall appearance. Combining the two characteristics has an additive diluting effect, giving us the most yellow Splendids it is possible to produce at present.

Although I have previously referred to breeding seasons, the plan I will describe is set out as four separate stages. With a small number of breeding pairs this is advisable because you might not achieve the target for each stage in one season — especially in Stage 2 where the results are unpredictable and depend upon the mysterious crossover occurring. Fortunately for us, it does seem that in this case crossovers occur with reasonable frequency.

Stage 1

Your target for Stage 1 is quite straightforward and calls for the production of double-split cocks — that is, Normal cocks split for both Cinnamon and Isabel. The basis for this is a number of pairs either made up of a Cinnamon cock to an Isabel hen, or an Isabel cock to a Cinnamon hen. With both of these pairings all the young cocks produced will be the desired double-splits. (Technically, they will be Normal/cinnamon/isabel Type 2 splits — but don’t concern yourself with that.) To avoid any later confusion, it makes sense to clearly identify these double-split cocks with a coloured leg ring or keep them separately from any other Splendid cocks in your collection. The young hens will follow the colour variety of their fathers.

That was the easy bit. Prepare now for Stage 2, where it should all start to happen and it is worth using all the breeding facilities you can muster.

Stage 2

For this crucial stage you should pair up all, or as many as possible, of the double-split cocks (from Stage 1) to either Cinnamon or Isabel hens. This time, the centre of attention will be the young hens which appear. Most of these will be either Cinnamons or Isabels but, if lady luck smiles, there will be a few which are of an even lighter, more yellow, colour than the Cinnamons. These are the result of the desired crossover and will be your first Golden Yellows. Treasure them, and keep them safe for the next stage. (Don’t be concerned if the odd Normal also occurs — this is part of the same process. And don’t be fooled into thinking there’s anything special about those double-split cocks which happen to throw Golden Yellow daughters — at this stage that’s down to pure chance.)

Although their usefulness may vary, you will also use some of the young cocks in the next stage. The ones to choose are the Cinnamons (a few of which may be split Isabel) and the Isabels (a few of which may be split Cinnamon). There is no way of knowing which are split and it is a matter of chance whether you choose the best ones. If you do, you will get some Golden Yellow cocks in the third stage — if not, you can be quite sure they will appear in the fourth stage.

Now that you have seen your first Golden Yellows, I hope you will be inspired to continue in your efforts to establish a breeding line of this lovely composite colour variety. Whatever you do, do not be tempted to pair indiscriminately at this or any other stage. The pairings I describe are chosen to follow a logical path and reduce wastage to an absolute minimum.

At this time you should assess your success so far. If you have at least four Golden Yellow hens you should go straight on to Stage 3 without further ado. If you have less than four it would probably be advisable to repeat Stage 2. Or, at the risk of some complication, you could go on to Stage 3 with what Golden Yellows you do have whilst repeating Stage 2 to obtain more.

In any event, once you have finished with Stage 2 by producing a reasonable number of Golden Yellow hens you can safely dispose of, or find another use for, the double-split cocks (Type 2) from Stage 1 as well as any young Normals. They have served their purpose and should not be used again in this programme. The critical stage has passed and you will not have to rely on any more crossovers occurring. From now on, all the young birds produced will be useful for the on-going breeding of Golden Yellows.

Stage 3

In this stage pair the Golden Yellow hens from Stage 2 to the to the Cinnamon or Isabel cocks also produced in that stage. Naturally, you will have to be very careful not to pair brother to sister. The cocks produced by these pairings will be either Cinnamon/isabel or Isabel/cinnamon, while the hens will be straightforward Cinnamons or Isabels (except as noted below). The young cocks and their Golden Yellow mothers will go forward to Stage 4.

Do, however, keep a close eye on the youngsters produced by the above pairings. There is a chance that some may be Golden Yellows — cocks, as well as hens. If so, lady luck has smiled upon you again and you will know that the father you chose was a Cinnamon/isabel or an Isabel/cinnamon. Make a note of, and identify, such pairings and carry them forward to repeat in Stage 4.

The Cinnamon/isabel or Isabel/cinnamon cocks you have just bred, or identified, are very special birds. In effect they are Cinnamon/Golden Yellow or Isabel/Golden Yellow and, because of the way their genes are carried, their breeding potential is not affected by crossovers. I have purposely not introduced you to (nor encouraged you to breed) Normal/cinnamon-isabel Type 1 double-splits. These, although a better proposition than Type 2 double-splits, will always suffer from reverse crossovers and give fewer Golden Yellows.

You now have the raw material to go on to Stage 4, where the efforts of the past few seasons will come to full fruition. At this point you will certainly have a good number of Golden Yellow hens and may have a smaller number of Golden Yellow cocks. The following pairings take this into account and will consolidate your efforts by building up numbers.

Stage 4

If you do have a few Golden Yellow cocks you can pair them to Golden Yellow hens provided they are good robust birds and not at all closely related. Their young will all be Golden Yellows.

The main pairings, though, should be the Cinnamon/isabel or Isabel/cinnamon cocks produced in Stage 3 to the Golden Yellow hens from Stage 2 and/or Stage 3. The young from these pairings will be roughly equally divided between Golden Yellow and Cinnamon/isabel or Isabel/cinnamon cocks and Golden Yellow and Cinnamon or Isabel hens. That is, about half the young should be Golden Yellows in both sexes. If you were lucky enough to produce Golden Yellows in Stage 3, and brought the responsible parents forward, the same remarks will apply.

Let me emphasise this point: at this stage at least half the young birds you breed in this program should be Golden Yellows! Can any fellow breeders of your acquaintance match this rate of production?

Now you have established Golden Yellows in both sexes you can breed more by repeating any of the pairings used in Stages 3 and 4. You can also pair Golden Yellow cocks to Cinnamon or Isabel hens. So long as you do not re-introduce Normals into the line, the Golden Yellow characteristics (Cinnamon-Isabel combination) will be consistently passed on just as if you were working with any ordinary sex-linked variety. When fresh blood is required, introduce this by way of Cinnamon or Isabel outcrosses, whether cocks or hens, to avoid disturbing this happy state of affairs.

To add further interest to your Golden Yellows, they could be interbred with the various parblue (Seagreens and Pastel Blues) and true blue (White-breasted) varieties to give a whole range of the most beautiful and subtly tinted pastel Splendids. In producing these composite varieties, introduce the parblue or blue factors only through the Cinnamons or Isabels brought in as outcrosses. For instance, do not use straight Seagreens but choose instead Cinnamon or Isabel Seagreens. Although the genetic constitution of the blues and parblues does not seem to have been determined with any certainty, you should be aware that there may be both single-factor and double-factor forms. In general, the double-factor birds may be assumed to be more blue (that is, less yellow) than the single-factor.

Finally, the plan I have outlined can be used to combine any two sex-linked characteristics in any species simply by substituting the factors concerned for Cinnamon and/or Isabel as appropriate. Only Stage 2 will differ in that the frequency of crossovers, and therefore the proportion of hens of the combined (composite) variety produced at this stage, will vary between different factors and different species.

Copyright: Clive Hesford, 1995

Note 1: The above article, slightly edited for this format, was originally written in 1995 for a popular weekly avicultural publication. As such, it was set out as a straightforward program for practical breeders and there is no theoretical discussion of the reasoning behind the various pairings.

Note 2: Nevertheless, I have used the term (Normal/cinnamon/isabel) to describe the so-called Type 2 split, where one mutant gene is carried on one X-chromosome and the other mutant gene is carried on the other X-chromosome (repulsion phase), and another term (Normal/cinnamon-isabel) to describe the so-called Type 1 split, where both mutant genes are carried on just one of the X-chromosomes (coupling phase) and are thus said to be linked.

This I believe is both logical and usefully informative and will, I hope, become the recognised convention in more informal discussions on avicultural genetics where the technical terms, coupling and repulsion phases, are neither universally understood nor appropriate.

Note 3: The Lacewing Budgerigar is an interesting case. This composite (Cinnamon-Ino) variety is widely bred as if it were a primary variety and breeders seldom if ever, perhaps through ignorance, perhaps because it might endanger its status as a Budgerigar Society recognised variety, report incidences of crossover products.