upatsix.com - Your Source For Pet Bird Information

You may be interested in reading this article on "red suffusion lovebirds" which may be quite similar to african greys (both are african birds!)

http://www.africanlovebirdsociety.com/genetics/red.htm

Some sites with red african greys
http://www.wingscc.com/aps/g-red.htm (read the info at bottom)
http://www.animal-world.com/encyclo/fea ... cruffy.php (Red factor grey which is probably due to feather plucking)
http://www.wingsnwhiskers.com/timnehgrey.htm (timneh)
http://www.tcaviary.com/chickpages/cagc.htm (bottom of page)

In short, red factor could indeed be due to deficiencies in diet as chicks, but I think there are other reasons to the suffusion as well.

Oh btw, not sure if you've read this before, NYC, but thought it may be of interest to you...

http://www.pyrrhurabreedersassociation.com/hoffmans.htm

You might want to look up info to see if you can get a hold of either person mentioned in the article...

Here's some info I found...

http://www.landofvos.com/dale/dalebio.html
Aviculture Institute
Newhall, CA

http://www.eclectusville.com

I have a book on Lovebird Genetics, I actually breed Lovebirds. The red and orange suffusion has been found in adult birds as well, though it is not as common. Another really neat mutation is the Danish Red. It looks a lot like a red suffusion but it is just white and red.

if you browse through even here on up@six you will notice at least a couple posts for birds for sale where the seller mentions red factor or "might be a mutation" but at the same time mentions the adult or baby was heavily plucked at one point.

actually there may be a breeder or breeders who was/were intentionally plucking the babies to turn the grey feathers red or the green feathers yellow and so on

alot of people just didn't realize that was the source of extra red in greys or extra yellow in amazons or so on until finally lately...

that's sad if the only hybrids of africans are the subspecies crosses. to me subspecies are just varieties of the same species. i mean looking at things from a universal perspective.

Ah yes, I had forgotten you had the book! Didn't realise you were a breeder of the "red suffusion" lovebirds, and I can't recall ever hearing of a "danish red", so would love to see pictures if you have any!

No, I'm sorry, I must have said that wrong. I breed Lovebirds, but I do not breed suffusions, nor have I ever seen them in person, just what I have seen in books.

Well it was 3am when I read your post so I certainly could have read it wrong! The only red suffusion that I've seen are in pictures on the websites and one in a lovebird book by Pam Higdon.

i'd love to see red lovebirds, too!

Have you ever contacted Richard Cusak of Outback Aviaries? I know he has hoffmans as well as most pyhurras and I believe he was one of the first in the crimson bellied consortium, I'm not sure if his stock is related to cedarhills or not but he's a good one to check out.