whos the daddy to my duckings!?

[rollyard]

Your five ducklings all look to have fairly even global blue except for areas of no colour (white). For this to be they will have inherited extended black & heterozygous blue. They also have inherited a gene which inhibits pigmentation (but not globally eg c/c), so a white pattern gene (but not that for bibbing alone).

Your grey really cannot be the father because he doesn't have extended black or blue, nor the dominant runner (R) pigment inhibiting gene . Yes, when mated to the black duck some/all ducklings could have inherited E (depending on purity), & when mated to the blue duck some/all ducklings could have inherited E (depending on purity) & 50% Bl, but neither matings would produce patterned ducklings like you have? They look to have inherited the Runner pattern gene. The only duck in your first photo with what looks like the dominant runner pattern gene is your fawn & white duck!

From my readings, the American fawn & whites (purebreds) have homozygous blue, so, if this is the case with your duck, then this would be where the heterozygous blue in all your ducklings has come from. And the dominant runner pattern could only have come from the fawn/white duck. If any of your other ducks (or grey drake) had even a single dose of the dominant runner pattern gene then I would expect some areas/pattern of no colour (white), as in your ducklings produced (R/r+). But your fawn/white duck doesn't have extended black does she, so where did that come from, certainly not your grey drake. That has to have come from your chocolate drake!

As for the facial markings, extended black (which your ducklings all have from what I can see) would likely extend eumelanin into those areas, even in the heterozygote, so even if the base colour of your choc drake is wild-type mallard (M+) the lighter eyestripes that normally run above & below the eye are unlikely to be clearly visible in the ducklings? The runner pattern gene (from the little I have seen) does typically produce white lines extending from the neck in a direct line to the eye which is more in keeping with that genes expression & your ducklings phenotype. The pattern is irregular or haphazard in your birds possibly partly due to their heterozygous state (R/r+)?

If your ducklings were the product of your grey drake & fawn/white duck then you would likely produce something similar to pied blue-fawn mallard type birds.

My views based on my understanding of colour gene inheritance theory. Haven't mentioned sex-linked brown dilution for various reasons.

Good luck with your lovely birds

 

[thedoors5to1]

wow thanks for all the information guys, i still gotta read through it again to understand. the dominant genes and M+ and R's and stuff are a bit confusing for me... haha but its something ive tried to learn more about.

can anyone please post me a picture of a "pied blue-fawn mallard" type bird? or even a "pied blue fawn" too many different things come up when i google pictures for it..
thanks again

 

[gofasterstripe]

Thats what I thought yesterday when i read it. I was lik...OK...now in English please

 

[CityChicker]

LOL, talking about genetics is hard. If you are not extremely specific, people think you are saying something you are not (see my discussion about Blue Fawns that will follow, LOL). Then when you are specific, people either won't read the whole post or will think it is too confusing. Unfortunately, it is just a topic that someone has to take upon themselves to go out and study and commit to memory. Once the light bulb goes off and you understand the basics, it will actually be quite easy to understand how colors are created.

On the color of Blue Fawn, Blue Fawn is the wild type Mallard color (m+) with the addition of one blue dilution gene (Bl/bl). It is also a color that has led to poor CityChicker (can you hear the violins playing, LOL) being accused of knowing nothing about genetics because "Blue Fawn" does not look anything like "Fawn" and I am clueless (so let me try to explain before shooting me a nastygram). The color "Blue Fawn" does not literally mean a "Blue" colored "Fawn". The two colors are in no way related. They are actually quite different. Again, the Blue Fawn color is genetically wild type pattern/color with one blue dilution. Fawn is a completely different color (dusky plus homozygous blue and sex-linked brown in the US, also different in the UK/Europe). Again, sorry to be confusing with the color names, but I did not name the colors.

Pied or Runner pattern is simply the pattern of for example, the Fawn and White Runners. The pattern shows in even one dose (heterozygous). In two doses (homozygous), there is even more white. Most people seem to use the name "Pied" for non-Runners that carry the gene (R/R), for example Calls, etc... A Pied Blue Fawn is simply a Blue Fawn with the Pied pattern of white as well (you can disregard the term "Mallard" as part of the color, it is not necessary to use it, it is just habit that I sometimes include it). There are several people that raise Pied Blue Fawns. I know offhand that Faith Valley Waterfowl raises the color in Calls. I don't think she is a member here, but this is a link to her site. http://faithvalleywaterfowl.com/blue_fawn_pied.html

Again, it bears repeating.... the color "Fawn" and "Blue Fawn" are not necessarily related colors. They are in entirely different color series. A US Fawn could parent a Blue Fawn (or something close to, although not exactly, but that is beyond the scope of this post), but only because the US Fawn also carries Blue dilution. It has nothing to do really with the "Fawn" color per se. Almost any bird that carries Blue dilution could parent a Blue Fawn if paired to a bird that is wild-type.

Anyway, I hope the info. helps and is not too dry reading! I know it is hard to understand at first.

 

[gofasterstripe]

Quote:
OK...I understood that a bit better,,,Thank You so dont worry no nasty grams or poop*y sticks heading your way