# what color?



## citycowgirl (Feb 16, 2011)

hi everyone,
got 2 young homers and had a few questions. first.. what color is he? 







and second.. what color babies will i get if i mate him with this hen when they're older? thanks!
p.s sorry for the bad pictures.. they just arrived and are a little scared!


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

the top one looks like a tiger or mottled red and the other one looks like a yellow to me...or a khaki?... not sure.. but just thought I would guess to see how close I come.lol.. im sure someone that knows for sure will post ....


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## loonecho (Feb 25, 2010)

Looks to me like you have a recessive red mottle cock and a recessive yellow hen. Recessive yellow is recessive red with the addition of the dilute gene. Dilute is sex-linked which means young cocks need two copies to show the effects and young hens need only one copy.

So, pairing these two up will give you all recessive red young, with young cocks carrying one copy of the dilute gene. Some may be mottled like the sire and some may be solid recessive red. 

There is one caviat though. If the cock bird above is carrying a copy of the dilute gene, then you will get approximately 50% recessive reds like him and 50% recessive yellows like her across both sexes. He may carry the dilute gene (heterozygous) because as mentioned above he would need two copies (homozygous) in order to show the effects and thus be recessive yellow himself.

Hope this helps.

Loonecho


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## sreeshs (Aug 16, 2009)

About the second picture, I have a doubt its "pale"

I can be very wrong here, yet recently I saw a mail and then related to it some pigeons which I had seen, I think "dilute" factor causing yellow is much more of a golden type. (again, I can be very very wrong here  )


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

Recessive red mottle and recessive yellow. You'll get all recessive red kids, and the males will carry the dilute gene.


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## citycowgirl (Feb 16, 2011)

thanks everyone!
so what exactly does recessive mean? i've been seeing it everywhere


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

Recessive means it takes two copies of the gene for the trait to show physically. Therefore, recessive reds/yellows need two copies of the recessive red gene to look like that. With the addition of the dilute gene (one copy for hens, or two for males), it turns rec. reds into rec. yellow.


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## citycowgirl (Feb 16, 2011)

thank you


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## george simon (Feb 28, 2006)

*Hi COW GIRL, The first bird pictured will will lose much of the red color when he molts ,as he is carring the modifing trait called molt to white thus as he gets older he will become whiter and will reach a state where he is more white then red. I have birds in my loft that carry this trait and some people some times call red grizzle but this is not true as they are recessive reds carrying the molt to white gene.* GEORGE


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