I don't have any experiance in cockatiel breeding. I do in budgies, but budgies are a totally different species so I wont put in imput. But hopefully someone experienced will help you!

 

What a cute little ball of fluff !! Congrats on the hatchling . Not sure on the mutation question tho

 

Just want to congratulate you also. It must be exciting to have those cuties hatch! Hoping to see pictures soon!

 

Egg #2 hatched out and mama and daddy are doing really well so far. 2/4 eggs were fertile. I am really happy I picked out the male, he just started right in as soon as he was put with the rest of the flock. I hope the next pair is so easy going.

I'll have to get a picture of #2 as soon as mama and daddy decide to come out of the box.

 

If he has dark eyes he is male, if he has plum eyes he is female. I have a hard time telling the difference though.

 

I wasn't sure what color I was looking for. I just knew it wasn't pink. Thanks Roxy! The other one looks to have the same color eyes. I'm going to have to pull them out into the light to see for sure.

 

Congrats on the babies! : )

 

Below is a collage I just done up showing the eyes of a cinnamon hatchling. Since the father is a cinnamon the dark eyed chicks eyes should look similar to the one in the illustration. The light grey area will darken within days, and if a male the pupil will always have a wine/red cast to it.

 

Thanks! It looks like I have two little boys. Now does the wf/pf affect the eye or down color any?

 

Split to PF and/or WF will lighten the down color.

 

I took a few more pictures. It looks like one could have a lighter color eye than the other, but the down color is still confusing me.

 

same pictures of the eyes, only less of a zoom.

 

The pix's are too blurry to see...BUT, whaty you can do is to not use the zoom....just take the pix at normal distance (18"). When you download the pis use the crop tool to just crop the head of the chick. This will give you a larger version of just the head.

I downloaded one of your earlier pixc to look at the down color. I adjusted the lighting....does this look closer to the down color?

 

I downloaded one of your earlier pixc to look at the down color. I adjusted the lighting....does this look closer to the down color?

Yes, it does. I'm sure if I had a comparison chick from another pair, I'd see a difference, but these are the only two I have at the moment. I know these two are either split wf or split pf because daddy is visual pf. I'll see if I can get better pictures tomorrow.

 

I know these two are either split wf or split pf because daddy is visual pf. I'll see if I can get better pictures tomorrow.
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Since the father was a visual PF, all the babies would be split to PF. In order for the PF to show up when paired with a visual WF next year, the split to WF also has to be passed to the babies. Many times to know if it has you have to examine the cheek patches when they feather out.

The 1st pix is Rascal, and he is split to PF and WF. As he matures he molted in the white edging to the facial mask with is an indicator of being split to WF. You can't visually tell split PF from the cheek patches....only WF....so you have to know genetic background, such as your pairing to know that it was passed to the offspring.

The 2nd pix is a collage showing cheek patches. If your babies are solid color mutations the patch area will be like the young female, and if a male, the yellow facial mask will molt in lighter (young male), with a white edging by the time he matures.

 

wow so cute babies, and Susanne you are such a wealth of info

they are gorjus!

 

I have one last question does this work with a wf/pf pf also, will all offspring be split to pf or just half of them with the other half split to wf? How does the wf x pf work in future generations? Does the pf negate the wf in a breeding making all offspring pf or is it still pf/wf genetically?

 

ALL should be split to PF. I can't answer on how many may also inherit the split to WF

 

Thanks so much! That's the part that confused me most. I'll keep my eye out for some nice wf birds to have on reserve for next year season. From now on they will be known as split pf.

 

How does the wf x pf work in future generations? Does the pf negate the wf in a breeding making all offspring pf or is it still pf/wf genetically?

I was confused about this as well at first. From what I gathered, PF is a form of WF and is dominant to WF, which is why we get visual PF babies when pairing a PF with a WF. Which would mean when it comes to inheritance the PF would take precedence. Its very interesting to think about!

 

That really messes with everything I've ever learned about genetics and co-dominant/Co-recessive genes. :wacko:

On a lighter note and hopefully less confusing I have another egg. My lutino hen has finally decided to stop playing house. Unfortunately she's got two males in the box with her.

 

Gonna have to play who's your daddy huh?

 

Who's your daddy indeed. There are now three eggs in nest #2 and each one has someone sitting on it. No getting cold for this bunch, eh?

Baby #1 & 2 are doing great, they are the talk of the whole bird community, everyone has come to see them at one time or another. Even Dixie, one of my African Greys has decided she wants to take a peek. Unfortunately she eats babies, so she's not allowed near the boxes.

 

Aww so cute!

 

Baby #1 & 2 are doing great, they are the talk of the whole bird community, everyone has come to see them at one time or another. [/QUOTE]

That's so cute!

 

Egg # 4 today.

 

I have a pied baby. The other one looks like a normal grey, but one of them was cinnamon at hatch, now they both look grey to me.:blink: I'm not sure when the cheek patch color comes in but I'm not seeing any color in the pins on the face.

 

I've made that mistake before too and ended up with normal looking babies so maybe they're split cinnamon and are boys? Very pretty though!