Need help and suggestions

[johnnybee]

on what colors to breed.
I have pearl and pearl pied and those will be penned together as will the lavender and lavender pied. I have royal purple and royal purple pied and those will be penned together as well as few buff dondot of various shades and they will be penned together along with the whites I have what I believe was a opaline but may be a porcelain and I don't know where to put her.
I have five different pens in order to keep the colors together. I would like advice on placing the opaline/porcelain. Also what if any of the other colors would you mix and match? I guess I'm asking what colors are in the same family and might produce the best colors and possibly some new colors. I know several things come into play like recessive genes and dominate ones but I'm not well versed in genetics.
thanks for any help

 

[PeepsCA]

Opalines are partially-pearled (in the flank area with some barring on the wings like the Royal Purples), Porcelains are fully-pearled all over (like your Pearl Greys, Lavenders, Buff Dundottes etc). Take a good look at her in good lighting and you should be able to see the difference. The Opaline or Porcelain carry both the blue and tan gene, so she's basically a wild card that can hatch different (light) colors, depending on who you breed or pair her with.

Can you use your 5th pen to do some test breedings with her? Depending on who you pair her up with and depending on if she's fully pearled or partially pearled will determine what will hatch... plus if your other birds are carrying hidden recessives she has very good potential to give you a nice assortment of light colored keets, but all the different colors and full pearling of your males will be dominant over whatever she is...

Can you get a good pic of her?

 

[johnnybee]

A slight light blue in the pearling on the wings
Thanks for your help.

 

[JLeigh]

I have an identical guinea but with no blue tinting on the wings. The pearling is the same pattern as a Royal Purple - Opaline?

 

[livenwpeeps]

What color is that light/buff/brown/choc ???? one that is far to the right of the picture. Not the one being discussed or the dark one. It has very pretty shades mixed in.

 

[PeepsCA]

I see pearling all over her... so she is a Porcelain. Her fully-pearled gene is a dominant gene, but her color is recessive and can go either the blue direction or the tan/buff direction.

So not knowing what hidden recessive genes she or the rest of your birds are carrying I'd say that all of her keets should turn out to be fully-pearled, (unless she and any of the males you breed her to are both carrying the partially pearled-gene).

If you add her to your Lavender pen you should of course get Lavenders, and a few Lite Lavenders can show up (and some Pieds in those colors if you have a Pied Lavender male). Porcelains and Pied Porcelains are the maybes from her, if male/males that breed her are carrying the diluted blue color gene... (but her Porcelain color being the lightest dilution of blue makes it really recessive to the Lavender color so you may not see any, but it is possible). If by chance she and the male/males that breed her are carrying the partially pearled gene then you may see some Coral Blues, Lite Blues and possibly even Opalines from her hatches (but I wouldn't count on it, since the fully-pearled gene is so stubbornly dominant). If any of your Lavender or Pied Lavender males are carrying the tan/buff gene you could get mixed hatches from her (if those males breed her).

IMO, she can't do much for you in the Buff Dundotte pen except produce more of them, and probably lighten the color some, but if any of the Buff Dundotte males are carrying the blue color gene or diluted blue color gene you could also get mixed hatches from that pen.

Both the Pearl Grey and Royal Purple pens have the most dominant color genes over her Porcelain color... you will probably only get Pearl Grey and Pied Pearl Grey keets out of her if you add her to either of those pens.... but she does have the potential to lighten the charcoal grey base color to blue. So you may want to add her to the Royal Purple Pen and see if she'll produce any Coral Blues or other partially-pearled colored keets. If she does, you will know for sure she is carrying the partially pearled gene.

Hope that helps you decide where to put her.


And livenwithpeeps, to me that looks like a Buff Dundotte Hen on the right. The Hens are usually darker and they can get the dark streakiness (and also sun fade) that comes and goes with the seasons and each molt. (IMO the color is too light to be a Cinnamon or Brown).

 

[PeepsCA]

I have an identical guinea but with no blue tinting on the wings. The pearling is the same pattern as a Royal Purple - Opaline?

Ummm J... you contradicted yourself lol. The Hen shown in the pic is fully-pearled, Royal Purples are only partially-pearled.

The "blue tinting" on an Opaline (especially the males) can be very very faint... almost to the point it's just a slightly grey tinge, and not really blue, and it will be more obvious in the flank feathers.

If it's an off-white to cream tint then he is most likely just a super light colored Buff (if his feather pattern and pearling matches your Buff and Chocolate Hens).

I'm still waiting on some new pics of him...

 

[JLeigh]

Peeps, you know your eyesight is 1500 times better than mine. LOL. You can spot pearling in a photo that I'd never see with a magnifying glass and that guinea in my lap! What I meant was, my guinea is the same color white as the one in the picture, but with a Royal Purple pearl pattern. So, I'll be glad if he's a light Buff, since I have a dark Buff female. Then I'll get Buff, Chocolate and light Chocolate keets...or...I'll get any color under the guinea rainbow depending on the recessive, dominant genes that dominate over the recessive sub-dominate genes that may or may not be recessive or dominant if the guinea is fully, or partially pearled on Saturdays.

Geesh - I really don't get the genetics of anything. One day I might try, but not now. This much is true - I'm crazy about my little flock of weirdo, screwball birds no matter what they are.

 

[johnnybee]

From the best I can figure out she will go into the lavender pen, at least start off there and possibly be moved at a later date. Thanks so much for your valuable assistance.

 

[johnnybee]

Correction she is going into the royal purple pen.