4 babies!

[Monica]

Cute pics! However, I don't know of any "yellow sided green cheek conure species"... There *IS* the Sordid Conure (aka Yellow Sided Conure) which is a SUBspecies of the Green Cheek conure...

However, it is from my understanding that the Yellow Sided Green Cheek conure is a mutation... and when combined with Cinnamon, we call it the "Pineapple". Short and simple, the pineapple is a cinnamon yellowsided green cheek conure...

Normal, Yellowside, Cinnamon, Pineapple
P1090578-full;crop:0.09,0.17,0.96,0.82.jpg

The yellowsided GC conure is to the Pearl Cockatiel
As the Cinnamon GC conure is to the Cinnamon Cockatiel

Yellowsided and Pearl are both "nicknames" for the actual gene which is 'properly' named as "Opaline".

Genetic Calculator 1.3 Green-cheeked Conure
Angies.Imps - Pineapple Greencheek Conure
Green Cheek Conure Color Inheritance


I'm curious about seeing pics of those "cherry heads", too!

[xafsmom]

I didn't call a yellow-sided a species. I said a colour-mutation.

Actually, there's a difference between the cinnamon and the pineapple mutations. Pineapples have more red in the chest, as you can see from your pic - the cinnamon is low on the body, the pineapples move up the chest and are a deeper colouring, most nowadays have it all the way to the chin.

Also in a cinnamon, the wing epaulets have a lime-green tinge, while pineapples have a lemony yellow - no greenish tinge. The cinnamon also don't have the reddish tinge around the lower mandible as most pineapples do, along with the red around the cere - and with the gene pairing for pineapple it's intensified this breeding colouration to almost a dependable colour 'trait'. The pineapple will also have a slight halo around the tips of the tail feathers and the cinnamon will not have the halo.

Tomato tomatoe.


And, sorry for my west-coast slang. A 'Red Masked Conure', or aratinga erythrogenys. Better? ;)

[xafsmom]

Ya know, I edited, and forgot to add in what I was meaning to edit. So, here goes! LOL In the first paragraph, it should read; "You're right, a pineapple is really just a cinnamon yellow-sided gcc, and the difference between a cinnamon and a pineapple is..."

Sorry 'bout that! My fingers get crazy with the enter buttons.

[rockybird]

Beautiful pic!

Can you post pics of the turquoise gcc's? How are their personalities? I have a maroon belly conure and he is just the sweetest most comical and affectionate animal. I love him to death and have always considered another gcc type. Unfortunately, I am not sure my caique would tolerate it, but I have had my eye on a crimson-belly or turqoise someday.

[nailsrglue]

Maroon bellied and GCC are so close genetically that some would argue they are the same bird. Anyways what I'm trying to say is that any mutation on a gcc will behave very similar to a maroon belly. They are both in the same species group. Turqoise look basically like a normal gcc but the feathers are overall a blueish green. They actually have less variety in the colors then a normal. However, the cinnamon, yellowsided, and pineapple mutation turqoise birds are quite stunning. The cinn tur is has a white head and front with a light blue body, the yellowsided tur has bright whites and yellows on its front with the green-blue back. and the pine tur has so many different colors its amazing! Try googling the different varieties to see pics.

Heres a link to a pineapple turquois gcc
http://www.animalnetwork.com/bt/thum..._pineturq3.jpg

[rockybird]

Thanks for the info. nails r glue. I am on a Py. yahoo list (it's awesome - you should join!) that includes famous Py. mutation breeders, including I think Steve Garvin. Anyway, the breeders sometimes report differences in Py. personalities, which of course depends on the individual bird, but they have stated that the Turquoise ssp. seems especially sweet. I wanted to hear it from a petowner's perspective. I will check out the link - I didnt know about the pineapple turquoise!

Actually, I think Rocky is a hybrid maroon belly/gcc. I was told he was a gcc when I bought him from the breeders. When I proudly posted his pic on Py. list, they told me he looked more like some kind of hybrid! The top of his head is green, like a maroon belly, and his tail feathers are half green/ half maroon red. Actually, the top of his head has a slight aqua/blue-green look in the right light.

[Ashling]

They look good enough to eat :) In a good way! Those colours remind me of candy :D

[xafsmom]

I'll try and post some of the turq (parblue) pics, but they're breeders and think cameras are the great demon that's out to get them. The weather here is leaning towards hot, so I don't want to get them too stirred up. They're entirely parent raised birds, but will sidle up to the cage bars and chitter at you. They love getting fruit treats through the bars. The y/s and pineapple breeders aren't as friendly. But all in all, I see no big difference in personality between colour mutations. Just typical individual personalities.

As someone above posted, they're not as colourful as the other mutations - even a normal colour gcc is more colourful! They have zero belly red on them, even the lovely red tails are gone and are..hmm.. kinda a very muted grey with the faintest reddish tinge. In fact the hen of my pair has a tail with no red at all, just grey with blackish lining... but they're a gorgeous blue to make up for it.

Some of the blue gcc's that I adopted out were ex-breeder 'rescues', and were older birds of the Cusick lines. They had weird dark rust coloured bands horizontally up the tail. I thought it was something wrong, so I took three into the avian vet to get them checked out. The vet said there was nothing wrong with them, and the width of the bands excluded any stress banding. She said it was just a colour abnormality. My other blues are also Cusick bred, but have no tail banding as yet, who knows. But, I thought it was interesting.

Here's a pic of a parblue for ya.

[mommyof8]

What beautiful birds

[Monica]

Tina, I posted that info about the GC conures, as I've seen people post that they own a "Yellow Sided Conure/Cinnamon Conure/Pineapple Conure". There IS a yellow sided conure which is not to be confused with the mutation of the GC conure. If you don't know anything about the GC conure mutations then you'll be confused as to what the person is talking about (and I've occasionally seen this happen as well).

I know what you had meant, even though what you posted could be confusing for someone else, since there is the Sordid Conure (a.ka. Yellow Sided Conure) which is a subspecies of the Green Cheek Conure - thus in it's own right is still a green cheek.
"It's a colour mutation of the yellow-sided green cheek conure"

Regardless, some of the GC mutations are gorgeous!


As for the cherry heads... scientifically, they are called "Red Masked Parakeets". I usually use the term "cherry head" instead, because there's also a "Red Fronted Conure." Although sadly, many people mistake mitreds, waglers (aka Red Front), and finchs's conures for cherry heads or visa versa... All that however, is besides the point! You said you were raising some cherry heads/suns and I was curious as to what they looked like!