[mlgortt2015]

I bred this loaner pair, out of 4 eggs, he is only one that lived. I was told dad is cinn pied, and mom is whiteface lutino with grey eyes(guessing cause she is split pied?)But dad may be silver pied? The babies feathers are dark at tips, but light on rest of feathers on tail, and wings have a diluted look on secondarys. The adult pic is dad. He looks cinnamon in the pic, but next to my other cinnamon, he is almost pewter looking. The breeding pair came from auction, so dont know the history of them.

 

[tielfan]

Dad is cinnamon pearl pied and the baby is grey pied. Baby does have some odd light-colored secondaries that look like they might be a bit of tricolor, which is caused by a genetic accident during embryonic development. But there are other things that can cause wrong-colored feathers. If you keep this chick, it'll be interesting to see if his coloring changes over time or if it stays the same.

I can see that you're in Ohio. The pewter mutation is only found in Australia so he can't have that. There's a dominant silver mutation in the US but he doesn't look like that either. His pied feathers interfere with our ability to see some of the key features of DS, but DS adults can develop sort of mottled coloring on the body similar to emerald, and he doesn't have that. All the other silver mutations are Australia-only.

No one actually knows what causes some lutinos to have weird eye colors. There's been some speculation that it's related to the other mutations and splits that a bird has, but if there's any correlation it doesn't seem to be very reliable.

 

[mlgortt2015]

Thanks Tiel Fan. I know that the pewter is in AUS, I was just using it as a reference I have heard that the pied mutation can change a wf lutinos eyes to a grey color. The dad just molted, and his feathers have lighted even more. I have decided to keep the baby for breeding for next year. I am looking for a mate for him. Figured, since dad is cinn Pearl pied, and mom is wf lutino, he is a he, since girls would be cinnamon and pearl, boys will be pieds or normals(I try and set up my pairs so I know the sex of the babies without DNA testing). He is a very pretty baby, no matter what mutation. I still love them all. Thanks for the advise, and I will have to post some pics when he is done molting into his adult colors.