# Homozygous Indigo Grizzle



## rudolph.est (May 14, 2009)

I recently bred a almost pure white racing homer (by accident - I was out of town for work, and my friend who was looking after the birds for me didn't notice the pair breeding on the ground, otherwise he would've put them on false eggs).

The accident is the amount of white, that the hen was a blue indigo check pied, the cock an indigo het. grizzle (no pied at all in ancestry). The baby (still in nest feather) just has a couple of red flecks on the neck, and is pure white otherwise. It looks almost exactly like the ash-red homozygous grizzles I bred last year. Obviously this pair was not in a separate breeding cage, but I have no ash-red birds that could have fathered this youngster. 

I'm assuming the baby is a ****. indigo het. grizzle (due to the red flecks and lack of colour otherwise). Has anyone else ever bred a homozygous indigo grizzle? Or does anyone have a picture I can compare it to?


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## NZ Pigeon (Nov 12, 2011)

No, I have not seen myself. NZ Pouter has a lot of indigos and grizzles. He may be able to help It sounds to me like the three genes that all cut pigment have worked together to produce a phenotype similar to an ash red **** griz.

I guess **** indigo cuts a lot of pigment so the pied and grizzle may have done the rest. Its making your project of producing whites off **** indigo **** grizzles look extremely viable.


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

I've had het indigo het grizzles but that's it. I'm guessing the piebald had a lot to do with how white it is. May get more color on it as it moults.


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## Print Tippler (May 18, 2011)

So birds can gain pigment? I was under the impression that the birds do not do that. Just that when they moult into adult feathers it just looks darker just how the feathers are layed down but each indivually feather that was white would stay white


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

What's what I thought too! I always thought they could only get lighter. Now piebald birds I'm almost certain do NOT gain color. But apparently grizzles do cause I've seen it with my own eyes in a bird I got last year. Was almost all white when I got it and now he's clearly a grizzle. I also had a hen a couple years ago that started out quite light and stayed with a lot of white...but instead of the grizzly whitish colored feathers, she put in more solid, darker feathers randomly throughout her body. I'll see if I can find before and afters.


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

Okay here's the 2011 Auction bird I was talking about. At first, looked like an almost white somewhat-stork grizzle.
















Now:


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

Okay this one isn't very dramatic. It got a lot more white BUT the wings gained color.








2 months later








As a yearling:


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## copper (Aug 25, 2010)

New York flying Danishes start out almost all white and moult in darker with each moult.After 4 or 5 years they are almost all self colored with a white heart or rose on their shoulders.


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## Print Tippler (May 18, 2011)

I thought Danes went from black to mottle and was just a classic tiger grizzle?

Pretty interesting Becky. I had a grizzle with almost who no bars at all moult to be full bars. While the nestmate staterted off with full bars. Also both put on a Hazey color on the shield.


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## rudolph.est (May 14, 2009)

MaryOfExeter said:


> What's what I thought too! I always thought they could only get lighter. Now piebald birds I'm almost certain do NOT gain color. But apparently grizzles do cause I've seen it with my own eyes in a bird I got last year. Was almost all white when I got it and now he's clearly a grizzle. I also had a hen a couple years ago that started out quite light and stayed with a lot of white...but instead of the grizzly whitish colored feathers, she put in more solid, darker feathers randomly throughout her body. I'll see if I can find before and afters.


Yes, all my grizzles grow darker at the first moult. This is especially true of T-pattern grizzles (their wing shields usually are very light when they feather out, but get more colour as they moult). Blue bar grizzles on the orther hand show the bars when they feather out, but the bars become more intense as they moult.


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## copper (Aug 25, 2010)

Tipplers go from black to mottle ,not Danishes.


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