Van McDuff
02-18-2008, 10:50 PM
My budgies produced a clutch of five. It's their second successful breeding.
The first produced one chick only. Most of the chicks are not the colors I expected.
The cock is a normal gray (I'd say medium in color tending to dark) and the hen is a gray green spangle pied. Two of the chicks are gray green pied and not spangle. They are the same shade of green as the hen. Three of the remaining chicks are gray spangle with no pied markings. The chick from the first clutch is a gray spangle pied. What surprises me is that all the gray chicks are very pale in color, a very light gray. Their wing markings are soft and muted.
Why a normal gray green on the greens and a dilution of the gray? Could it be that the double gray (gray factor from each parent) causes dilution in the same kind of manner that double factor spangle causes loss of visible markings?
I was expecting babies colored with the same intensity as the parents.
Thanks for your input.
The first produced one chick only. Most of the chicks are not the colors I expected.
The cock is a normal gray (I'd say medium in color tending to dark) and the hen is a gray green spangle pied. Two of the chicks are gray green pied and not spangle. They are the same shade of green as the hen. Three of the remaining chicks are gray spangle with no pied markings. The chick from the first clutch is a gray spangle pied. What surprises me is that all the gray chicks are very pale in color, a very light gray. Their wing markings are soft and muted.
Why a normal gray green on the greens and a dilution of the gray? Could it be that the double gray (gray factor from each parent) causes dilution in the same kind of manner that double factor spangle causes loss of visible markings?
I was expecting babies colored with the same intensity as the parents.
Thanks for your input.