I have a pair of gorgeous cobalts - the hen is an opaline cobalt and the cock is a normal cobalt. They are both the same very intense and very beautiful blue colour. They have had two clutches, the first giving rise to only one chick ( a very pretty normal sky blue hen) and the second clutch gave us three chicks. Amongst those three chicks, one is a rec pied cobalt hen (I think) and the other two are both normal cobalts (one hen and one cock - I think). Anyway, the normal cobalt chicks are such a different blue from their parents...I would actually describe it as a dull slate blue..sort of a greyish blue...dull and definately not pretty. I also have another adult cobalt hen that is this same dull grey-blue cobalt.

 

If they are all cobalt, why are some so vibrant and others so dull looking? Is there a differnt cobalt mutation? If so, what could they be?

Edited December 27, 200915 yr by defieldsfamily

Hi there......can you get any photo's?

Hi there......can you get any photo's?

It sound like mauve, cobalt being dark factor can produce mauve....sorry can't help anymore mutations give me a brain shutdown!!There are heaps of mutation guru's here..they will know!

Edited December 27, 200915 yr by anne101

Without photos, hard to assist you.

Without photos, hard to assist you.

 

 

 

Yes...pictures woul help immensely but I cannot seem to get any that reflect the true colours...both types end up being somewhere in the middle - it's frustrating.

 

I did see a picture of a similar shade budgie on the internet that said it was mauve so maybe that's what mine are. If anyone has a mauve budgie I'd like to see your pics if possible.

 

I will keep trying with my own camera and see if I can get a good snap.

From the description AND the fact that you paired 2 cobalts together I would have suggested mauve. It's a funny dark slatey blue grey colour - often patchy too.

hello

this is a picture of a muave hen

 

their are all diffrent shades of mauve

i find that its quiet easy when the chicks are feathering up to see if their mauve as they look grey to start but with a deep purple almost black cheek patch

 

then when they get to about four weeks you can see the odd very vibrant almost violet feathers on top of the greyish looking ones just near under tail

 

i will find some more for you of chicks if you like

 

 

 

oh and as nubbly said

two cobalts makes mauves and cobalts

 

your birds must be split rec pied also to achive one so both perants are / rec pied to get a rec chick

 

but defenently has to be mauve birds

the sky blue you got was it bright blue or just a lighter to the other cobalts

Edited December 28, 200915 yr by GenericBlue

Well, now I really want to see pictures of your birds, even if they aren't right colors.

It would give us something to look at while we wait for newer ones. :doh:

i agree they sound like mauves

The expected result from pairing two cobalts would be:

50% cobalt

25% sky blue

25% mauve

Well, from all your replies and the picture of the mauve hen, I think that is exactly what Snap & Crackle are. I have finally managed to get a half decent picture. This is one of them with their older sky blue sister

This is their mother :

and this is both parents:

and this is the other adult hen that is the same slate grey blue as Snap and Crackle shown here with another sky blue

Edited December 30, 200915 yr by defieldsfamily

Anyone?

Thank you for the pictures, DF! I enjoyed looking at them. I can see what you mean, about the colors not coming out true to life. My monitor makes both parents look like sky blue (or dare I say it? Sky-violet -sorry Macka! )

 

But obviously, if the parents were sky blue, so would the babies be, and you wouldn't even be having this dilemma, would you?

 

So based on your descriptions and what everone else has said, I would tend to agree with them, your slatey-blue looking babies are probably mauve.