Cruella - The not so black Ayam Cemani

EldritchAcres

Chirping
5 Years
Mar 12, 2018
37
49
94
I wasn't sure which are to put this in, but it is a story so this seems like the best place!

The Beginning
I love Ayam Cemani, they're my favorite chicken breed! There was a woman who I had followed for a few months, she was on the breeder's list (I only say this now because she is no longer doing anything with chickens and I'm not stating where I live and who it was), was NPIP and had posted pictures of her chicks. She said she was getting out of Cemani and selling her flocks. When someone says this, I assume they mean their breeding flock, after all, she was posting pictures of her chicks, she was breeding them and was listed on the site as a breeder. After meeting scammers and poor birds, I thought I had done my research on her.

I go to pick up a few birds, and she brings them out in a dark rubbermaid tote, it's very early in the morning and I'm parked under a bunch of trees so I can't see well. I do go in and take a small tour of her other birds she had nearest the driveway. We unload the birds from her tote into mine and I thought I saw a flash of white, but hey, it's dark and maybe a stray feather from one of her polish got in the tote. I should have checked the birds, I didn't.

When I get home, one of the birds has a single black and white feather, and her head is very lightly speckled in white. I end up reaching out to the breeder and there is back and forth between us that leaves me angry, she says she didn't know her bird had white on it and never noticed, it's impossible not to notice. I'll leave the rest out of here, but I was furious...I acted respectfully, she gave me a partial refund but our conversations left me really mad. I found out later from my friends more local to her area (I drove over an hour) she's a bird flipper and buys birds from auctions and now she no longer has chickens.

What's Happening?!
But this story isn't about her and it gets positive!
Every single time I looked at this bird, I was mad about the situation...but over time...she got more and more white!
I reach out to some people, I became really great friends with a truly wonderful Ayam Cemani breeder who is dedicated to improving her birds and she said she's never seen leakage like it! Over the next two years, Cruella kept changing.

Last year I went outside around molt and her entire neck was white! And shortly after it grew back in black! My friend suggested Genetics of Chicken Colours - Sigrid van Dort so I reached out to her and she told me..Cruella likely has vitiligo!

My love for this bird has grown so much, she is a sweet girl and truly beautiful and her look is always morphing and astounds me. I'll post a timeline of her feathers below!

Photo Timeline

You can see at the end where she is mostly white - the picture after of her neck is only 2-3 weeks later. I'll have to get a more recent picture of her, those were from Fall 2023, but she is back to having more black.


 The first white feather offense, Day 1
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Edit: I found the picture I took of her after she revered back from white

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Thank you for sharing her story! Cruella is absolutely stunning, especially with all her white patches. @MysteryChicken, I know this isn’t exactly what’s happening with your birds, but I thought you might like to have a look…
That actually looks alot like my Chameleon project birds actually. Certainly don't seem like vitiligo, since I see no change in the Fibromelanosis(Black Skin).
 
I wasn't sure which are to put this in, but it is a story so this seems like the best place!

The Beginning
I love Ayam Cemani, they're my favorite chicken breed! There was a woman who I had followed for a few months, she was on the breeder's list (I only say this now because she is no longer doing anything with chickens and I'm not stating where I live and who it was), was NPIP and had posted pictures of her chicks. She said she was getting out of Cemani and selling her flocks. When someone says this, I assume they mean their breeding flock, after all, she was posting pictures of her chicks, she was breeding them and was listed on the site as a breeder. After meeting scammers and poor birds, I thought I had done my research on her.

I go to pick up a few birds, and she brings them out in a dark rubbermaid tote, it's very early in the morning and I'm parked under a bunch of trees so I can't see well. I do go in and take a small tour of her other birds she had nearest the driveway. We unload the birds from her tote into mine and I thought I saw a flash of white, but hey, it's dark and maybe a stray feather from one of her polish got in the tote. I should have checked the birds, I didn't.

When I get home, one of the birds has a single black and white feather, and her head is very lightly speckled in white. I end up reaching out to the breeder and there is back and forth between us that leaves me angry, she says she didn't know her bird had white on it and never noticed, it's impossible not to notice. I'll leave the rest out of here, but I was furious...I acted respectfully, she gave me a partial refund but our conversations left me really mad. I found out later from my friends more local to her area (I drove over an hour) she's a bird flipper and buys birds from auctions and now she no longer has chickens.

What's Happening?!
But this story isn't about her and it gets positive!
Every single time I looked at this bird, I was mad about the situation...but over time...she got more and more white!
I reach out to some people, I became really great friends with a truly wonderful Ayam Cemani breeder who is dedicated to improving her birds and she said she's never seen leakage like it! Over the next two years, Cruella kept changing.

Last year I went outside around molt and her entire neck was white! And shortly after it grew back in black! My friend suggested Genetics of Chicken Colours - Sigrid van Dort so I reached out to her and she told me..Cruella likely has vitiligo!

My love for this bird has grown so much, she is a sweet girl and truly beautiful and her look is always morphing and astounds me. I'll post a timeline of her feathers below!

Photo Timeline

You can see at the end where she is mostly white - the picture after of her neck is only 2-3 weeks later. I'll have to get a more recent picture of her, those were from Fall 2023, but she is back to having more black.


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That's amazing! I've always been interested in Ayams, but I've never seen one quite like that! Definitely the prettiest bird I've seen today.
 
That actually looks alot like my Chameleon project birds actually. Certainly don't seem like vitiligo, since I see no change in the Fibromelanosis(Black Skin).
I chatted a bit with Sigrid about that, and her skin is black and there isn't any pigmentation change in the skin. She said there won't be a change in skin pigmentation because it attacks the misshappen pigment cells in the feathers.

She also said this might be why after her molt this time, she's more black (I didn't take pictures of this month yet but most of that white in the last few pictures are gone!) - because those feathers don't have the faulty pigment cells that get attacked and turned into white.

But I am also very much not well versed in chicken genetics so I have no idea what she truly has lol. I'm going to have to peek around the boards about your Chameleon project birds!
 
I chatted a bit with Sigrid about that, and her skin is black and there isn't any pigmentation change in the skin. She said there won't be a change in skin pigmentation because it attacks the misshappen pigment cells in the feathers.

She also said this might be why after her molt this time, she's more black (I didn't take pictures of this month yet but most of that white in the last few pictures are gone!) - because those feathers don't have the faulty pigment cells that get attacked and turned into white.

But I am also very much not well versed in chicken genetics so I have no idea what she truly has lol. I'm going to have to peek around the boards about your Chameleon project birds!
Vitiligo will also affect skin pigmentation, not just the pigment in feathers.
 
If Sigrid van Dort says it's likely vitiligo, I see no reason to doubt that. She's a pretty well known genetics expert and fairly recently did a deep dive into the genetics, mechanisms, and expressions of vitiligo in chickens. She would know.

Based on my own research into the condition, I would agree with Sigrid's assessment. Yes, skin is often depigmented with vitiligo, but generally much more slowly than feathers are. Since your bird appears to have started to revert to more normal pigmentation, it's possible that that reversion happened before her skin could be visibly impacted by the condition. On the flip side, Ayam Cemani are famous for having the deepest of black pigmentation, not just their skin but their flesh, bones, and organs, even their blood is darkened. With all of this dark pigment in them, maybe the skin was impacted but not visibly so because of that. Either way, I would agree with Sigrid that that looks pretty typical of vitiligo.

Regardless, what a beautiful bird in all her forms! :love
 

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