Lovebird Parentage Test 

Many of the popular parrot species kept as pets, e.g., lovebirds and budgies, have up to 30 different colour variations, most of which are inherited as Mendelian traits. Despite this, the genes and mutations linked to the variations are yet to be discovered. Therefore, should a chick hatch with wildtype coloration, breeders use pedigree data (including the parents’ coloration) to predict the probability of that bird being a heterozygote of a specific variation. Pedigree information must therefore be accurate and complete, but this is not always the case. A routinely available commercial parentage verification test that a breeder or buyer of a bird can request before a sale is made, is the solution to incomplete and inaccurate pedigree information. (Reference: Zwan 2019)