# Silky Fantails



## bundyray (Nov 7, 2009)

G'day I have just recently obtained a male silky fantail, guy I bought him off wanted to get out of pigeons and would only sell him to me if I took the lot so now have 8 fantails, was just after some information is the silky gene dominant will have to post a pic as he's kind of pied and think I need to return his offspring to a self colour so black, white, or blue bar? oh will post pic tomoro morning just stoked I managed to obtain a silky so am telling everyone lol


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## doveone52 (Aug 3, 2009)

All i've heard about silkies is that you shouldn't breed silky to silky or you'll get a sickly looking bird.


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## bundyray (Nov 7, 2009)

Ok here he is thinking I gotta breed black? or possible blue bar?


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## Columba livia! (May 4, 2009)

What a beautiful bird!!


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

Oh he's gorgeous! Very elegant looking 
Silky is dominant, and mating silkies to silkies makes porcupines. They'll have nothing but quills and any feathering they may have open up, will be very brittle and snap off. These birds can't get up off the ground. It's a pitiful thing to see 
To get black offspring, mate this guy to a black hen. He himself is a black splash, and I see some bronze in his wings. Although you could mate him to a blue and still end up with some blacks, putting two blacks together will make them all that color. As far as the white, you may have to breed that out of them, depending on what all white genes he and his mate are carrying.

To get white, mate him to a solid white bird. There is a good chance many of the children will be solid white, or it may take two generations from the pair before you have solids. It depends on if he is carrying the recessive white gene.

And for blue bar, mate him to a blue hen. Black is actually blue. It is the spread gene that turns it black. Regardless of the solid color on his wings, he still has a pattern underneath, which is either bar, check, or (although unlikely) barless. If it's JUST blue bars you want (and no checks), then you'll have a better bet with that if you put him with a BB. Even then you could still get checks if dad is a check, because it is more dominant to bar.


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## bundyray (Nov 7, 2009)

oh it's just that the selfs are far less maintenance lol did have a silver saddle in the mix wouldn't mind trying for self silvers and am planning on mating him to a blue bar hen pics of him in my profile albums but the old silky is still my favourite


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## loftkeeper10 (Jul 31, 2004)

are any of the other out of him because it can be hidden by a normal feathered bird that carriesi the silkie gene one thing to watch for is splayed wings on silkies raised them for years just kept them in single pens off the ground


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

really cool looking, it's tail looks like a bunch of bottle brushes...lol...


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## bundyray (Nov 7, 2009)

loftkeeper10 said:


> are any of the other out of him because it can be hidden by a normal feathered bird that carriesi the silkie gene one thing to watch for is splayed wings on silkies raised them for years just kept them in single pens off the ground


I don't think any of the others are out of him basicly the group I bought were 2 hens and 4 cocks plus 2 squeakers have noticed a couple with kind of silky feathers in fan of 1 squeaker and it isn't really a saddle so could be possible he's the father have penned him off with the best hen to try and get a couple of squeaks from him will have to use my rollers and others as foster's the big moult happens in february/march should I cut off they're fans?


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## bundyray (Nov 7, 2009)

spirit wings said:


> really cool looking, it's tail looks like a bunch of bottle brushes...lol...


I don't know if you've seen emu feathers but I reckon thats what they look like lol


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

In my first post I accidentally said recessive. It's not recessive  I meant dominant. Heterozygous birds appear like your fantail, and homozygous birds can be nearly bald. Mating this guy to a normal hen will give you about half and half. If he were mated to another silky, you could get some silkies, normals, and mostly extreme silkies.


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## doveone52 (Aug 3, 2009)

I want one! That is so pretty! When you get offspring, let me know, please.


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

doveone52 said:


> I want one! That is so pretty! When you get offspring, let me know, please.


um, she is in Australia, would be a bit far....lol..


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## risingstarfans (Sep 13, 2008)

Do you know Howard Piper? he's in your town....one of the best fantail breeders/exhibitors in the world!

go to aroundtheworldfantailpigeons which is a yahoo! group with over 400 members worldwide.


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## bundyray (Nov 7, 2009)

spirit wings said:


> um, she is in Australia, would be a bit far....lol..


Oh I'm Male  you should check out my profile have pics of my silver  oh and am jealous of the fact that in U.S. you can use the postal service to frieght your birds here we've only got the air frieght option and the return plane ticket for me is cheaper than to frieght the birds


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## bundyray (Nov 7, 2009)

risingstarfans said:


> Do you know Howard Piper? he's in your town....one of the best fantail breeders/exhibitors in the world!
> 
> go to aroundtheworldfantailpigeons which is a yahoo! group with over 400 members worldwide.


Do they reside in Bundaberg, Queensland, Australia?


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## LilBirdy (Apr 24, 2012)

Beautiful Silkie Fantail - I have a couple silkie ringnecks one is paired with a red pied with normal feathers, the other to a rear crested of normal feathers and color. In both nest 1 squab was silkie the other a normal feathered.My silkies are more bottom dwellers then my other doves and hang out with my fantails. I like the silkie fantail ill have to keep my eye out to see if any california breeders.


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