Chuckie!...meet KATERI!!! (pic)

[jmc]

Any crested duck is 'heterozygous' for the crest. (Let me just invent the gene designation and all it 'cr+')

okay? each bird has one gene from each parent. The non crested or wild type bird would be cr+/cr+.

the mutation we can put down as 'CR'. this seems to be completely dominant to the non-crest gene, cr+

since the CR mutant gene is dominant to the uncrested gene, cr+, any bird with but one CR will have a crest, since the CR dominates over the cr+.

Chuckie and Kateri are both CR/cr+. because CR is a lethal gene, ANY bird that is homozygous CR/CR will be 'dead in shell'.

there is no living crested bird that is CR/CR; yet all living crested birds are only CR/cr+ (heterozygotes)

if Chuckie and Kateri were bred (CR/cr+ x CR/cr+) about 25% of their offspring would be dead in shell, since they woould each receive the lethal CR allele from each parent. 25 % of their offspring would be normal wild type (cr+/cr+), having no crest, since each of this group would receive one cr+ allele from each parent. 50% of the babies would be crested. NOTE: even CR/cr+ birds will not always show a crest, even thoiugh they have the gene. But for the sake of simplicity.....................

crested birds can show nervous system disorders and spinal disorders, at times. That is why some don't keep crested..........but the bulk are okay...........

 

[sonew123]

Quote:

yah what whas said !!!

 

[jmc]

how could little Chuckie refuse 'the eye' from little Kateri!?

not the best lighting, i realize...........

btw, she is an Ancona (seems to be tricolored, note the lovely fawn wash on the side of her face...)

 

[sonew123]

she would melt his heart

 

[toadbriar]

She really is tricolored! The only tricolors I'd seen so far have been blues with those black splotches. But Kateri has almost a calico kitty thing goin' on! How cool, I wonder how that works. I'm not so good with genetics, but been fascinated for ages - breeding Anconas is how I'm dipping my toe in and trying to learn

The crested gene reminds me of the merle gene in dogs, and the lethal white gene in horses, and high-white pattern in rats - never breed two together, or get babies with tragic and profound birth defects. What's interesting to me is that in all the other species, such conditions are linked to a color or pattern, but in ducks it's a skull malformation issue.