Did I get ripped off on my Cemanis?

[FiveMileFarmer]

first she said it is normal for not all to have totally black faces, but half of them did, so i was like ok whatever.

but then today when i got them home and got a closer look the one with the totally black faces have slightly feathered feet, not fully feathered, just a few, but i don't think thats normal.

do cemani's EVER have this? or did i get sold some classic snake-oil?

thanks!

 

[Pyxis]

Sometimes yes that happens, I have parents that have no feathers on their legs and twice I have had a chick hatch with a tiny bit of down on the legs. I've never kept one to see if they actually get feathers in when they feather out though. I know other breeders have run into this too (here's some discussion of that). I wouldn't keep any with the leg feathers for breeding though - they're not supposed to have feathered legs so you don't want to pass that on.

I'm also curious what you mean by not totally black in the face - do you mean they have some mulberry or red in the combs and wattles? That too is normal but again those are not birds I would use for breeding. Or do you mean different colored feathers? Because that shouldn't be happening.

Where did you get them?

 

[FiveMileFarmer]

The birds with the totally good looking black faces have slightly feathered legs. The others just have have wattles and combs that are not totally black (which she said was normal) ...so basically none of these are ideals for breeding? Is the feather leg thing dominant or recessive? Could I breed it out with a clean legged bird? It sucks that it seems from sex 6 birds the best "all black faced ones" are slightly feather legged and the clean legged ones have some rose is their combs. ... Thoughys

 

[Pyxis]

That is too bad. I think it must be recessive if the parents have clean legs. The problem with it being recessive is that if you breed to a clean legged bird it may appear to be gone but it's really just lurking waiting to pop up again in the future. Personally if I had your problem I'd just breed the clean legged ones even though the color isn't great and see if they will throw good colored offspring (some do) and then use the offspring to start a breeding flock. Of course there is the chance that your not all black birds carry the leg feather thing which would put you back at square one. If half your birds have it it sounds like it's probably pretty prevalent in the breeder's flock.

Do you have pictures? I'd be curious to see the feathering on the legs.

Quick edit: I did some research and there is a recessive feather leg gene, which I bet is what this is. It's called pti-3. Or it could just be stubs and not true leg feathering, but still I wouldn't use birds with that for breeding.

 

[FiveMileFarmer]

Thanks for the info! I appreciate it and I feel a little better. I'll get you some picture tomorrow.

 

[FiveMileFarmer]

i got them from a private breeder here in VA she said they were direct decedents from GFF birds.... is it normal for some rose colored combs as well?

 

[ChickenChaser9]

i got them from a private breeder here in VA she said they were direct decedents from GFF birds.... is it normal for some rose colored combs as well?

I would consider that a fault but some birds will 'grow out of it' and look right come maturity. With that being said, well bred Cemani are difficult to get ahold of in my experience and expensive to boot. So I would not say it is normal but it may well be that a couple of them will still be good for breeding. Hard to say, need pics.

 

[FiveMileFarmer]

Yea I got 7 bird but they are "brother and sister " song can. Not breed them together right?

I'll get licks as soon as possible

 

[FiveMileFarmer]

So basically they all have at least one flaw. Some are very very close to perfect but not exactly perfect. I think in the eyes of very high quality breeders they would all be culls. But some , just barely. My question is , is it AT ALL possible to get ANY perfect birds, by chance?

 

[ChickenChaser9]

The only quality cemani breeder i know of is elite beaks in tuttle oklahoma.