How early can a Sebastopol be identified by feathers?

[Goosegrrl]

I got 4 goslings in late March, they were about 2 weeks old at purchase. They were sold to me as 3 pilgrims and one unknown. Once I picked them up I determined that there was indeed a pair of Pilgrims, one claimed as Pilgrim but I had doubts and assumed it was an embden, and the stated unknown was a white chinese.

I'm now questioning myself about the identity of the 'unkn/embden' as it feathers in. It does have a faint grey patch just above the tail feathers, but doesn't look quite like the male Pilgrim. And his feathers just do not seem to be smooth like the other 3... they look rather lumpy is the best I can describe it.
My question is... how early do the feathers start to show on juvenile Sebastapols?
I'd like to identify this guy...

 

[AndreaV636]

I searched through my sebastopol gosling pictures from last year and came across a few as they first feathered out. Hope they can help you somehow! One shows their down color at 2 weeks of age. Another picture shows our grey saddleback feathering out at around 9 weeks of age (I wish the picture showed more detail, but it's the only one I have at that age!). And the last shows our dilute blue male at 10.5 weeks of age.

 

[Goosegrrl]

Thank you very much.
I'll keep watching him... he does seem to have lumpy/looseish feathering like the pic of the 9 week old. The others all and what I think of as normal firm feathering, his flutter in the breeze a bit on his back. It's just a matter of wait and see I guess. It's just frustrating not knowing exactly what he is. The others are so obvious... and he's just the constant question in the bunch.
If he is a Sebbie I'll most likely rehome him to someone who has others.

 

[AndreaV636]

So hard to wait!!! Looking back at my pictures, though, I think you're very close to knowing. At 10.5 weeks, there was some pretty obvious curl starting already. Do you have any pictures of the gosling in question?

 

[Goosegrrl]

I appreciate your reaponses...
I've finally decided that this boy is either embden or embden mix as he's not as big as I would expect an embden to be. His feathers just are not as tight as my one Chinese or my pair of supposedly Pilgrims that now,appear to be Cotton Patch(entirely different story there *sigh*), which are very tight and sleek.
I much prefer my Pilgrim/Cotton Patch pair ... they are so calm and sweet. The Chinese is loud of course, but the embden is nearly as loud and chatty and not as sweet tempered as the Pilgrims/Cotton Patch.
My next step is to positively identify whether the ones I was sold as Pilgrims are for sure Cotton Patch... because those would be fine. I want more of those but dont want to get Pilgrims and cross them obviously.