Five years ago, a striking blue mutation of the rainbow lorikeet was produced by an Aussie breeder. There was only a single blue rainbow lorikeet in existence when we wrote our first blog post about it, but in the years since, efforts to establish this mutation have proved successful.
Victorian breeder Jordan Lewis has been working with this mutation from the beginning. He started with a single blue hen, which was paired to a normal cock bird. And then another unrelated normal cock bird. And then another, and so on and so forth, until dozens of split blue offspring have been produced.
Split blue lorikeets with different fathers were bred to produce more visibly blue birds, which were then paired with unrelated normals to produce another generation of splits with as much genetic diversity as possible.
The majority of the birds carrying the blue mutation gene are held within Jordan Lewis’ collection, but several have been moved to other collections for safekeeping. Don’t expect them to be broadly available to purchase for at least a few more years, and anticipate any that do eventually hitn the market to cost more than a new car.
Some species that produce blues are not as attractive as the originals. But you can;t say that about this mutation, it is beautiful.
No mutations for me i will stick with our native originals .
I love the blue mutant ion and would love to buy one of its off springs if it has any