# Can The Babies have different Colors than parents?



## zimmzimm3 (Aug 17, 2007)

I don't know the technical names but the pair that hatched out a baby are light grey, dark grey, and black. I was wondering if the babies could come out different colors. They are Homers and the guy i bought them from just had about 20 homers together and some of them were white and some were brown and he just liked to watch them fly so he lets them breed and hatch babies when they wanted. So there is know way to tell who the parents are. Thank You!!


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## Matt D. (May 12, 2007)

Well how much do you know about genetics... there are dominant and recessive genes. Two parents could look a totally different that their babies if they are heterozygous. You should do a google search on pigeon genetics.


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## Guest (Jan 19, 2008)

well the answer is yes, sometimes colors come out that dont match either parent but its all in the genes and they way they are crossed so if you dont know what their background colors are for sure you can have odd colors pop out at anytime  like I have a bluebar cock mated to a yellow hen and I get all blacks but then I have a white cock and black hen and they throw bluebars and white splashes and then I have a red cock and a black hen and they have thrown whites soooo sometimes you just never know whats in their genes but you will soon enuf if you let them that is


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## zimmzimm3 (Aug 17, 2007)

Matt D. said:


> Well how much do you know about genetics... there are dominant and recessive genes. Two parents could look a totally different that their babies if they are heterozygous. You should do a google search on pigeon genetics.


OK i don't know much about pigeon genetics i do know about dominate and recessive genes though. Thanks


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

Genetics can get pretty complicated BUT, I'm going to show you some places that helped me a lot with genetics (the good thing is there's pics too!)

http://www.angelfire.com/ga/huntleyloft/Page1.html
http://www.angelfire.com/ga3/pigeongenetics/


Just a few quick things I know off the top of my head...
- The three basic colors are Blue (also called wild type or blue/black), Red, and Brow.
- Red is dominate over Blue and Brown, and Blue is dominate over Brown.
- Yellow, Khaki, and Silver are all dilute colors. That simply means the bird is one of the main colors, they just have the gene that makes them lighter you know?
Yellow = Red dilute
Khaki = Brown Dilute
Silver = blue dilute

- Recessive colors like Recessive red and Recessive white, are nothing but cover-ups. The bird can be genetically blue, but if it has recessive red in it, it makes the bird appear completely red from head to tail. Recessive white is the same too. This is why a pair of white birds might throw blue bars or whatever with no white on them. The white just covers up the genetically blue bird.

- Checks and T-pattern checks (you'll see what that is on that site) dominate over bars, and bars dominate over barless.
- Spread is something important if you end up with black birds. Spread is nothing more than a color modifier that takes the color of the tail band, and colors the whole pigeon that color. So for example, if your blue bars are carrying the spread gene, their babies will be all black. Spread is also pretty dominate...so like...I have a black cock paired to my pied indigo check hen....all of their babies so far have been black because the dad has the spread gene. They also have a few white marks from the hen being pied (plus I think the male MAY have a white spot or two?)

Genetics can get really complicated. But to answer your question, it is very possible that the babies will be "oops babies" as far as color goes. Sometimes you have those colors that only show up a few times in the young.....and some that come and stay forever showing up, then leave all of a sudden. There is a way to somewhat show which colors a certain bird is made up of. I think all you have to do is find a bird with a lot of recessive genes (not talking about recessive red or white, I mean like....the genes that are less dominate) and mate the bird you want to test with it. All of your bird's dominate traits will show in the young, while the other bird's traits will hide.

So I think I've confused the world enough for one day....the sites will give you guys a much better explanation than I can do! 
Time to go to bed...


Edit: One last thing! This one is a WHOLE lot more simple and easier to remember! The whole sex-linking thing....let's just say you have a red bar cock mated to a blue bar hen. IDEALLY, all the male offspring will be a form of blue, and the female a form of red. Just kind of keep it a rule of thumb that the boy babies will take after their mom and the girls will take after their dad (not necessarily in color either, also goes for racing too in most cases).


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## zimmzimm3 (Aug 17, 2007)

MaryOfExeter said:


> Genetics can get pretty complicated BUT, I'm going to show you some places that helped me a lot with genetics (the good thing is there's pics too!)
> 
> http://www.angelfire.com/ga/huntleyloft/Page1.html
> http://www.angelfire.com/ga3/pigeongenetics/
> ...


I took a look at that website and the cock and hen are checkered.


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

Well then in that case, the babies they make will most likely be checks too. They'll probably also be blue, but you never know....especially when you get them from someone that lets the colors mix. I've had two red ones put out blue and white birds, and I've had two white birds put out an almost completely black one. It's always fun to see the little quills start coming in a different color, and then trying to guess what it'll look like when all its feathers come


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