I'm not sure if my 5 year old silkies are purebred or mixed

[Pecksthesilkie121]

I have 7 silkies who hatched 5 days ago and I'm stumped because I'm not sure if my lil silkies are purebred or not because 3 of them have 5 toes in each foot but the other 4 have only 4 toes on each foot so I'm not sure if they are pure or a mix. Here they are:

 

[NatJ]

They might also be "purebred" but not the best quality.

Where did you get the chicks? (Bought from what source, or hatched from eggs that you got from what source.)

It is sometimes possible for Silkies with 5 toes to produce a few chicks with 4 toes, due to how the genetics for that trait work.

As they grow their feathers, watch to see if the feathers have the silkie texture. If they do not have silkied feathers, they are definitely not purebred Silkies. If they do have silkied feathers, they are more likely to be purebreds, although still not guaranteed.

You will probably have to pay attention to various traits as they grow, to figure out whether they are "pure" enough for your purposes.

If you want them as pets, a "poor quality" Silkie can make just as good a pet as one with the right number of toes. If you want to enter them in shows, only the ones with 5 toes have a chance of being acceptable. If you want to breed them and get good quality Silkies for your own satisfaction or for selling, then you don't want to breed the ones with 4 toes, and you may not even want to breed the ones with 5 toes because they are likely to carry the gene for 4 toes too. If you want a long-term breeding project to produce good Silkies using these birds as a starting point, you could work with all of them.

I notice you have several different colors. Just out of curiosity, Is there any pattern to which colors have what number of toes?

 

[Pecksthesilkie121]

Q

They might also be "purebred" but not the best quality.

Where did you get the chicks? (Bought from what source, or hatched from eggs that you got from what source.)

It is sometimes possible for Silkies with 5 toes to produce a few chicks with 4 toes, due to how the genetics for that trait work.

As they grow their feathers, watch to see if the feathers have the silkie texture. If they do not have silkied feathers, they are definitely not purebred Silkies. If they do have silkied feathers, they are more likely to be purebreds, although still not guaranteed.

You will probably have to pay attention to various traits as they grow, to figure out whether they are "pure" enough for your purposes.

If you want them as pets, a "poor quality" Silkie can make just as good a pet as one with the right number of toes. If you want to enter them in shows, only the ones with 5 toes have a chance of being acceptable. If you want to breed them and get good quality Silkies for your own satisfaction or for selling, then you don't want to breed the ones with 4 toes, and you may not even want to breed the ones with 5 toes because they are likely to carry the gene for 4 toes too. If you want a long-term breeding project to produce good Silkies using these birds as a starting point, you could work with all of them.

I notice you have several different colors. Just out of curiosity, Is there any pattern to which colors have what number of toes?

i didn't buy them they hatched. They're mother is a black sultan and their father is a brown sultan and both of them are purebred with 5 toes on each foot. And by the way the chicks with the 5 toes on each foot are: one of the brown ones and one of the white one and the white one with black lines on its back. So I'm not sure if the others are like purebred

 

[NatJ]

I have 7 silkies who hatched 5 days ago

They're mother is a black sultan and their father is a brown sultan

Are they Silkies or Sultans? Since those are two different breeds, I think one must be a typo.

They're mother is a black sultan and their father is a brown sultan and both of them are purebred with 5 toes on each foot. And by the way the chicks with the 5 toes on each foot are: one of the brown ones and one of the white one and the white one with black lines on its back. So I'm not sure if the others are like purebred

"Purebred" usually means both parents are the same breed, and all grandparents are the same breed, and so on for enough generations that they will mostly produce chicks of the same kind as themselves.

So either they are all purebred (both parents and all chicks), or they are not. You cannot get some chicks that are purebred and some that are not if they came from the very same parents.

Probably they are all purebred, but have a few not-quite-right genes. That is fairly common with purebred animals.


I had asked about whether different colored chicks had different numbers of toes because I thought they might have different parents. Since they all have the same parents, it makes sense that you are seeing almost all possible combination of colors & toes.


As regards specifically the toes:
All 7 chicks have the same parents.
Both parents have 5 toes per foot, but more than half of the chicks have 4 toes.

If each parent has the gene for 4 toes and the gene for 5 toes, I would expect about 1/4 of the chicks to have 4 toes. Obviously, you have a much higher rate than that, which could be because there are only a few chicks total, or could mean that something else is causing the 4 vs. 5 toe difference.

I have read that chicks with the genes for 5 toes will sometimes have 4 toes anyway, possibly due to incubation conditions or possibly based on some other genes that are not fully understood. So that may also be causing some of the chicks to have 4 toes.

 

[Pecksthesilkie121]

Are they Silkies or Sultans? Since those are two different breeds, I think one must be a typo.


"Purebred" usually means both parents are the same breed, and all grandparents are the same breed, and so on for enough generations that they will mostly produce chicks of the same kind as themselves.

So either they are all purebred (both parents and all chicks), or they are not. You cannot get some chicks that are purebred and some that are not if they came from the very same parents.

Probably they are all purebred, but have a few not-quite-right genes. That is fairly common with purebred animals.


I had asked about whether different colored chicks had different numbers of toes because I thought they might have different parents. Since they all have the same parents, it makes sense that you are seeing almost all possible combination of colors & toes.


As regards specifically the toes:
All 7 chicks have the same parents.
Both parents have 5 toes per foot, but more than half of the chicks have 4 toes.

If each parent has the gene for 4 toes and the gene for 5 toes, I would expect about 1/4 of the chicks to have 4 toes. Obviously, you have a much higher rate than that, which could be because there are only a few chicks total, or could mean that something else is causing the 4 vs. 5 toe difference.

I have read that chicks with the genes for 5 toes will sometimes have 4 toes anyway, possibly due to incubation conditions or possibly based on some other genes that are not fully understood. So that may also be causing some of the chicks to have 4 toes.

So what your basically saying is that all the 7 chicks are still considered purebred but it's just a fail or an error in the genes wich made the 4 chicks have 4 toes on each foot.

 

[NatJ]

So what your basically saying is that all the 7 chicks are still considered purebred but it's just a fail or an error in the genes wich made the 4 chicks have 4 toes on each foot.

Yes.

 

[Pecksthesilkie121]

Yes.

Ok thank you for your help. Nat

 

[Rhodebar Lover]

A good easy way to get an idea is see if they feather out silked or not. Since it's recessive to have silked babies there has to be that gene on both sides. Not saying that one of the parents/grandparents couldn't be mixed but it would give you the idea if they're mostly Silkie.