Each keet gets one color gene and one pearling gene from each parent... if one of the birds in the breeding pair isn't carrying and passing on recessive genes you usually won't see many (if any) recessive keets in the hatches (when dominant genes pair up with a recessive gene the dominant genes will determine the keet's coloring and pearling).One more question, with your more recessive colored birds, do you find that they tend to breed their colors on truer, especially when backcrossed to a parent known to carry that hidden trait?
I'm wondering if my Violet or slate female, if bred back to her sire-- would make more of the same color on a larger scale than if not... Would she, if bred to a slate male-- make pretty much all slate colored offspring?
So yes, if you breed your Slate back to her father this season she should produce Slate keets for you (and theoretically a few non-pearled keets with his recessive coloring as well), but the majority of her keets will most likely have his dominant pearling and her dominant coloring. Breeding her to one of her Slate male offspring next season (if she produces any this season) should produce more Slates per hatch than pairing her with her father does, but you will still always have the dominant pearling genes showing up in their hatches as well, since both birds carry the dominant pearling gene.
If you pair her with up a male that is carrying the non-pearled gene, then more non-pearled keets will show up in the hatches, but you will most likely still get some keets that have the pearling of her father, since she is carrying that dominant gene. Depending on what color the non-pearled male that you pair her up with is and what hidden genes they are both carrying will determine what will hatch.
Odds are always in favor of the dominant genes tho, since they only need one copy to control the outcome.