# eye color



## franciscreek (Oct 21, 2010)

can one of you tell me if one eye color is dominant. I have a group of birds some are bull eyed, others are pearl eyed. Im curious what eye color to expect.

thank you in advance


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## Henk69 (Feb 25, 2010)

If both eye colors are recessive you may even get normal wildtype eyes (redbrown?)


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

It depends on what is underneath the bull eyes. Bull eyed birds are still genetically orange/yellow or pearl (both colors can vary a lot as well). Orange/yellow is wildtype and dominant. Pearl is recessive. Bull eyes usually come with pied markings (most often on or around the face). I am wondering if the bull eye modifier can be separated from white, there a bird with no white can still have bull eyes. I have a normal ash-red check, for example, with black eyes. No white - I even studied the tiny feathers on his head to look for any indication of pied. He is orange eyed underneath, as his mate is pearl eyed, and they have produced orange eyed babies.

Anyway.

Bull eyes often come with recessive white. If your birds are recessive white, then the bull eye thing will be recessive (traveling with the white). If pied.....pied can act dominant and recessive so there's no telling. You can even get birds with partially shadowed eyes ("split" or "cracked" eyes) or odd eyes (one eye black or split, one eye fully normal colored, OR one eye split, one eye black)


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## franciscreek (Oct 21, 2010)

Im sorry I should have given you more information. They are capped(white capped) The head is white from the center of the beak to just below the eye. They are all pearl or bull eyed and I would like to raise more bull eyed birds.

thanks again for all your help


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## rudolph.est (May 14, 2009)

The bull eye of your capped birds is caused by selection of the balhead pied gene. I am not sure whether there has been much study on how to get more bull eyes from such a stud as yours.

My suggestion would be to select against colored eyes. In other words, only breed with bull eyed birds, and never (or very rarely) breed with birds that are not bull eyed. Selection takes time though, many generations of strict selection is the only way to ensure a consistent result.


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## franciscreek (Oct 21, 2010)

Rudolph,

Thank you very much, i appreciate the advice.


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