upatsix.com - Your Source For Pet Bird Information

Unfortunately, the little creamino died. I think they got too excited about the third baby and didn't feed it. Both of the other babies are doing great though. I can see little pin feathers coming in through the skin, and they look dark. Looks like they may be the dark factor males!

Both babies are pied! I guess I have to reconsider what colors the parents are...can birds be split pied? Is it sex-linked? The grandfather to these babies is a green pied (on the father's side).

Yes, parents can be split pied. No, pied is not sex-linked. In order for chicks to appear pied, they must get the pied gene from both parents... otherwise, there's only the possibility that they may carry the pied gene.

Which means, both parents are split pied!

Yes, parents can be split pied.

Pied is co-dominant so a bird cannot be split for pied. If you don't see it, it's not there. However, Pied can be as little as a different colored nail! Being co-dominant, you only need one parent to show the coloring.

Well, I guess that the male is pied. The female I'm sure is not since both her parents are not. Like I said the father's father is a green pied so I guess the father is a pied, but he sure looks non-pied. Does that make him a dark eyed clear (since he looks creamino but has a blue rump)?

Co-dominant? I have learned that birds can be split for pied... I know more about pieds in budgies and cockatiels... and normally when they are split for pied they have a clear spot on the back of their heads... guess I've always read different, but then again I know that mutations can be different within different species of birds...

brimonster wrote:Well, I guess that the male is pied. The female I'm sure is not since both her parents are not. Like I said the father's father is a green pied so I guess the father is a pied, but he sure looks non-pied. Does that make him a dark eyed clear (since he looks creamino but has a blue rump)?

Both of your parent birds are blue series, so all babies should be blue series. Pied won't show on your male because of his yellow coloring. He's a blue series australian cinnamon. Any creamino babies will be females and you'll know them by red rather than plum eyes.

Yeah, the dad is split to ino, they did have a creamino but it didn't make it. The other babies are doing good though. What's funny is that I was going to start breeding blue pieds and it turns out this pair is throwing blue pieds for me! I was actually hoping for dutch blues or dark factor babies, but pieds are even better (for me!).

So I was reading my "Colored atlas of Lovebirds" book and found the section on pied PF lovebirds. It says they are Autosomal Dominant, which means a bird can have 2 factors of pied but they will look the same. Since it is dominant, only having one factor will be enough to show the pied. No, they can't be split, and yes, a parent must be pied for babies to be pied. I guess I'm just confused because that would make the father blue pied...and that color did not show up in the genetics calculator results (for his parents) from the ALBS website...And I thought I was actually starting to understand Lovebird genetics!
I guess I shouldn't sound like I'm complaining though, since Blue pieds were what I was going to start breeding for! These babies are actually medium blue pieds (they have one dark factor). They actually look slate pied but the oldest one is starting to show a blue rump. They are also single (?) violet factored. The rump is more of a periwinkle actually.