[breme]

Hi,
I recently bought this pair. WF Heavy Pied Saddleback Male and a WF Clear Pied female. I am eager to know will I get Heavy Saddleback pied chicks with this pair or not? Experts, kindly advice.

 

[tielfan]

Are you sure that the hen isn't a lutino rather than clear pied? Adult lutinos usually have darker eyes than babies, and they can look like normal dark eyes under ordinary lighting conditions. Looking at the eyes in bright sunlight is the best way to see the real eye color.

If both parents are pied then all the chicks will be pied. It seems likely that some of them will be heavy saddleback pied, but probably not all of them. That's because pied patterns are fairly random, determined by the mix of pied modifier genes that each chick gets from the parent. So the pied pattern of the chicks may or may not look like the parents' pattern.

 

[breme]

Thanks tielfan,

That hen is a clear pied only. But leads to another question.. Say for example, if the hen is replaced with WF lutino Pied, will the saddleback show up?

The WF lutino pied has pied genes masked with viual lutino. So how do we determine the pied markings of a WF lutino Pied?

Thanks in Advance

 

[tielfan]

Saddleback markings can't be predicted with any certainty because there is so much randomness in the pied pattern. But if one or both parents are saddleback, you have a good chance of getting some saddleback chicks.

We usually can't determine the pied markings of a WF lutino pied. If you look at the bird under a blacklight it might or might not be possible to see some faint differences in the feather color. It's easier with a yellow lutino pied, since the pied feathers tend to be a brighter yellow than the non-pied feathers. So you may see that some areas are a brighter yellow than others.