What in the heck color is this guinea??

[BaGAWK!!]

Mmmkk, I just got this guinea keet, he is almost 2 weeks old I believe, but what color would you call this? I saw both of the parents - Mom was coral blue and dad was this psychedelic, strange color pattern that I will call 'tie-dye'...His base color was either pearl gray but more like royal purple, and he had light patches over his back like he got into the bleach bottle. No, it wasn't pied, I know what that looks like. Pied has large white patches, this was faded w/pearling visible, looked like a tan or buff color but you could definitely see the pearling. There was another female there also, same pattern but darker base color. I have royal purple, pearl gray, buff dundotte, and lavender adults now and have never seen this color before on an adult guinea, and this keet fits nothing I have ever seen before. The lady that sold them to me said she only ever saw the female coral blue lay eggs and the tie-dye was the only male they had in there that she thought was old enough to breed.

Sooo....anybody have an idea? I also got one from her that has less white, and another that looks just like a pearl gray keet but has more lines on the side of his head. All from the same parents. Come to think of it, there are 3 juvie whites in with this pair of parents, they are supposed to be 4 months old or so. Could one of the whites be the father already? Sorry photos are sideways.

These babies look brown just like pearl gray babies, they just have white on the wings, and are growing in white-ish and pearl gray feathers:

This one is from the same parent but looks all pearl gray except has more lines on the side of his face:

 

[GuineaLady93]

The first three pictures are of a Royal Purple keet and the last 2 are Pearl. I think

 

[BaGAWK!!]

Ok, I will buy that

what do you think the strange colored father had going on? I thought guinea colors bred true and you couldn't mix. But this father bird looked like a mish mash of colors if I ever saw one!

 

[GuineaLady93]

I don't know...

Take a look at a color chart and see if he looks like any of those.. http://www.guineafowlinternational.org/colorchart/

 

[BaGAWK!!]

I already did, he looks nothing like any of turn in the cOlor chart. I am stumped. I wish I would have taken a picture of him.

 

[GuineaLady93]

Yeah, I wish you could have got a picture..I have no clue what it could be. Sorry.

 

[BaGAWK!!]

I sent a MSG to the lady I got them from, she will send me a pic tmrw and I'll get it up. Can't wait to find out what he is

 

[GuineaLady93]

I can't wait to see him, it sounds like a crazy color!

 

[BaGAWK!!]

Anyone else want to take a stab at it?

 

[PeepsCA]

Ash is right, first 3 keets are Royal Purples and the last 2 are Pearl Greys. They are losing their fuzzy keet down and getting their first set of baby feathers, and the beginning of their pearling is just starting to show up.

Keets go thru a major change as they get in their first set of feathers and then they will go thru more changes with each molt, especially the partially pearled colors. If you are not familiar with the changes the specific colors go thru as they grow, some are really hard to ID. The Royal Purples can be hard to tell apart from Pearl Greys because they will have lots of pearling until they feather out into their adult feathers/markings, by about the time they reach 3 1/2 months old. Thru all the changes the narrow broken head stripes are indicative that the keet will be partially pearled, and wide stripe in the middle with 2 sets of narrow stripes on the sides indicates it will be fully pearled.

The male you are describing sounds like he might be a sun-bleached Brown or Cinnamon that could be going thru a molt and is growing in some new healthy dark feathers, making him look splotchy... my Brown, Cinnamon and Chocolate birds go thru drastic color changes depending on what time of year it is. They are typically lighter and sorta ratty/rough looking come Fall as they start molting, then darker and smooth after Winter, especially in the early Spring when the sun finally comes back out. Would love to see a pic of the male tho, hope she send you one.

As far as breeding true... that's rare because most Guineas (especially in backyard flocks of mixed colors) carry a lot of hidden recessive genes in their background, so depending on the color of each parent bird and which recessive genes each of them are carrying, it's hard to know/predict what will pop up in their hatches. I've had Buff Dundottes and Lavenders hatch from an all Pearl Grey and Royal Purple flock (most of their keets are always Pearl Greys and Royal Purples tho).