the mottled Color in cochin bantams

[cochin123]

Hi is the mottle in a mottled cochin recessive or dominant...? Or is there both in the variety and it just verys it by bird?
Thanks
Cochin123

 

[hinkjc]

Mottling is a recessive gene. It does act a bit different on different breeds, I am noticing. I have mottled orpington that are showing more "paint" than I would have expected for a split, and they do not have 2 copies of the gene. It tends to go away by maturity though, so for good mottling you want two copies (meaning two generations) to get there.

 

[cochin123]

That's what I thought but I am being told by other breeders that u can breed a over mottled to a solid and still get mottleds .. but they wont have that much white in the when they r younger ... I was like

so id thaught that id ask it here lol

 

[Coopa Cabana]

The Mottled gene is recessive, which is why a lot of Cochin breeders will breed in a Mottled to improve type. But therein lies the problem - there's a lot of solid birds out there that are actually split to mottled. Unless you ask the lineage of your solids, you could unknowingly have a mottled pop up now and then when breeding mottled to solid.