# PURE black baby pigeon. Spread?



## Pigeonfan94 (Feb 15, 2010)

I have a squeaker who is pure black. Not a single white feather on him. His nest mate is a tortoiseshell. Their parents are both tiger grizzle, and mostly white. So is this pure black baby spread? I've never had one turn out to be completely black. Is spread recessive, kind of like recessive red? And I know most tiger grizzles are black as babies and then grow white feathers. This isn't the case, because in that scenario the ends of their feathers are always edged in white, and his aren't.


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## AZCorbin (Feb 28, 2011)

Well before I answer I want to clarify terms.
Tiger grizzle, tort shell ect are slang terms and are used differently amongst breeds.
I think you are misunderstanding spread a little. Birds can have the spread gene and not be solid. Tiger grizzle to me, is het grizzle, spread meaning the bird will have a solid black tail and a 'mottled' look.
So two tiger grizzles will produce solid black babies 25% of the time.
Your birds are only het spread (based on the fact you got a tort out of them) so 25% of the time you will get blues out of them. Blue bars or whatever pattern they are (your tort falls into that).
A tortoise shell to me is a blue T-pattern (some call T-check or dark check), het grizzle and bronze (het recessive red is a bonus along with dirty).
So what you describe is normal. One or both of your tigers carries some bronze gene. You may see a fleck if you look around closely however spread inhibits bronze.
There is also the possibility you cock is het dilute which would mean 50% of your hens would be silver.
Just to clarify. Dominate genes does not mean it dominates the look of the bird but rather is inherited dominantly or in one breeding.
HTH


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## Pigeonfan94 (Feb 15, 2010)

This was very informative! Thank you! And the hen does carry recessive red so I'm guessing that's where the torts are coming from.


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