Hi,

 

I'm new to the forum but have been lurking for a while reading posts

 

I have a nest of babies with a couple of puzzles in it, and I'm hoping someone can clarify things for me. The parents are our house pets: Loki, a GF ?cobalt opaline cock, and Tundra, a skyblue cinnamon opaline dom. pied hen. At the moment their babies look like:

 

1. Skyblue cinnamon opaline

 

2. GF violet cinnamon opaline

3. Skyblue opaline DF dom. pied

 

(From the top: 3, 1, 2)

 

 

(This is a blurry shot of the 3rd baby's violet belly)

 

 

 

4. Skyblue opaline

 

 

5. GF violet opaline

 

 

 

These are the parents:

 

 

 

My question is ... why do I have a baby that looks like a DF dominant pied??? Tundra is definitely dominant pied (or am I wrong? She doesn't have a head spot) but Loki shows no sign of being any variety of pied. The baby is almost entirely white except for the forehead barring, a couple of small patches of opaline, and some skyblue rump feathers. Is it just a recessive pied?

 

Also, to have violet babies Loki would have to have a violet gene, yes? He has violet-ish patched on the sides of his neck - is this the indicator for the presence of violet in him? The violet in the babies is very pale, almost a pastel colour.

You can't get a DF Dominant from this pairing.

 

Also the Cobalt would have to be a Violet Skyblue to give any violetfactors to the chicks.

 

 

 

If he was a violet Sky you can't get a violet (Violet Cobalt) chick as there is not a dark factor in this pairing.

I did a post on the Violet factor My link

 

I can't see cinamon in the chicks but that could be my eyes.

 

 

 

That's why I'm confused! Is the white baby just a recessive pied that looks like a DF dom. pied? In that case Tundra has genes for two different varieties of pied?

 

I've read a few explanations of the violet gene, including your post, but that doesn't solve my problem. The older violet baby is definitely a pale purple colour on her belly, so where did it come from? There's no possibility of another cock bird having been involved - our only other male up until a couple of weeks ago was a very young DEC or DF spangle (not sure which yet). Loki and Tundra were on their own for a couple of weeks before she started laying. I have no information about the history or parentage of either parent bird.

 

I think correcting the colour with the photo editor has darkened the cinnamon somewhat. If you compare the chicks in the first photo with the 4th chick, you'll see a definite difference in the colour. This is the photo before I corrected the colour:

 

Edited July 31, 201113 yr by elf

a Male DEC has a pink cere and a male DF Spangle will have a blue cere.

 

Also a DEC has no iris ring and has pink feet. but DF Spangle and even normals now can have pink feet, so don't let that confuse you. lol

 

 

Thanks

 

The white boy is probably a DEC but he's only just finishing his first moult. I can't see an iris ring from a distance but haven't taken him into the sun for a good look. His cere has darkened and turned purple, maybe en route to turning blue? Time will tell. He also has a faint violet sheen.

 

I love the colour variations that budgies come in but sometimes I think it would be nice if it were all a bit simpler

Im no good with the technical stuff but you do have some stunning birds.

 

 

There is a very good book that you can get at good pet stores called. "A Guide to Colour Mutations & Genetics in Parrots" by Dr Terry Martin BVSc.

 

 

it will help explain the genetics of Budgerigars. I highly recommend it. It helped me when I started out.