Porcelain Isabelle Silkie Questions...

[catwalk]

Porcelain isabel in silkies is, like bacres says, buff diluted with lavender. Silkies have yet to come in mottled, so a genuine porcelain doesn't publicly exist. Isabel is what the red pigment is called when it is diluted by lavender, so it can come in any pattern where red is present. This is an isabel partridge:

and here is her baby, developing similar markings:

I imagine that the hen is heavily inbred to exhibit her coloring, as it took her over two years to start laying, and a year more to be fertile. So, while beautiful, it comes at a price...

 

[E.M. Silkies]

Quote:
Thanks, these really help!

 

[TurtleFeathers]

I was told that porcelain in silkies is NOT true porcelain, as in porcelain d'uccles and other breeds that involve lavender and mille fleur type coloring. There is no mille fleur/mottling involved in porcelain silkies. What you see in silkies is tecnically isabel - lavender diluted buff, which has already been suggested. So its my understanding that the term "porcelain isabel" incorrect/redundant. Its either porcelain OR isabel in silkies, I'm not sure which, but its definitely NOT both. I'm told that it may have to do with the intensity/amount of lavender showing vs. the intensity/amount of lavender diluted buff showing (because it varies from bird to bird), but I can't say this for sure. Someone that breeds/shows these will be able to clarify that further.

But I CAN tell you for sure that the lavender coloration has to come from BOTH parents - either by way of two visual lavenders, two split to lavenders, or one of each. My knowledge of the genes involved in the buff coloration and how it is inherited is extremely limited, so someone else will have to fill in the blanks here.