Another question

[Christine9]

I have one more question about my two new lovies. One of them is a jade and the other is a pied yellowfaced slate. I purchased them from a pet store that told me they are from the same breeder. Their hatch dates are 8-10 & 8-12, however, when I asked if they were from the same parents, the girls at the store told me that they didn't know, but that they didn't think, because of their different colorings, that it would be possible for them to be related. So, I am wondering, is this true?

[linda040899]

Christine,
I have a pair of visual green series parents that can produce WF Creaminos so a lot would depend on the genetics of the parents. Let's just put it this way. It's not genetically impossible that they could have the same parents and I would be suspicious based on the hatch date. While breeders will sometimes share the hatch dates of birds they sell, they usually don't bother with the genetic background of the birds because most pet shop personnel would not understand it anyway....... :)

Let me think about what combination of Peachie mutations could produce both of what you have.

[Christine9]

Christine,
I would be suspicious based on the hatch date.

That is just what is making me think that they are, in fact, siblings. The fact that they hatched 2 days apart.

And I agree about store personnel not understanding genetics. I mentioned something about the jade one have a dark factor, and the girl didn't even know what a dark factor was. Not that I am any expert in genetics, but I am learning. :)

[linda040899]

Christine,
Based on the hatch dates, yes, I would be suspicious but it's also possible that the birds came from different parents, as well. There have been times when I've had 2 pairs that had babies hatching and, very occasionally, I've had babies hatch on the same day but in different nests. This would be very unlikely if the shop deals with small breeders, but in larger facilities, it could easlily happen.

[BarbieH]

Could the pet store contact the breeder for you? Or would you not trust them to give you an honest reply? Maybe you could get the breeder's info and contact directly.

I'm not very well versed in green series genetics, but in order for these two birds to be siblings, it looks to me like both parents would need to have a single dark factor ... and two recessive pied genes, or one dominant, one recessive. Does that sound about right? Not sure at all about how Yellowface works, but if it's like Whiteface, you would also need at least two splits, yes?

[shylevon]

A lot of breeders supply nestboxes to the entire aviary at the same time. Thus, they have several hens nesting and hatching at the same time. All my birdies hatched within days of each other, but they are not related.

Pied is a dominant trait and blue is recessive. It is not guaranteed that all babies from a clutch would be pied, but it makes one wonder if these two are related if one isn't.

[Keltoth]

It would be VERY easy for them to be siblings. A Jade is a green-series with one dark factor. A Slate is a blue-series with TWO dark factors. All you would need for parents to get this combo of chicks is one WFBlue parent with a dark factor and that is split to OF and one green-series parent that has one dark factor and is also split to blue and OF. Other scenarios that could produce these chicks would be two medium green parents that are both split to blue and OF, an Olive parent that is split to blue and OF and a Cobalt parent that is split to OF - or my personal favorite for this scenario - a Slate parent that is a full Orangeface (aka Yellowface) and a Jade parent that is split to both blue and OF. That's right - the very birds that you have could produce offspring in their same colors, if your Jade is split for blue and OF! That is not a huge stretch of the imagination at all.

With their hatch dates being so close and it being so easy for them to be siblings, I would err on the side of caution and assume they are, in fact, siblings.

-Eric

P.S. - Don't let the pied thing throw you. I have two seperate clutches of chicks at the moment that each have one pied chick while the rest of the clutch is non-pied, and I have a chick born from a third set of parents in which the father is Pied, but the chick is not. Pied is VERY hit-or-miss, and can "hide" in offspring and not be visible, only to show up in THEIR offspring.

[Christine9]

Thanks so much for the replies. I am going to go ahead and assume that they are siblings, because I was told that the breeder was a small, local breeder. I have no plans to breed them, it was more or less of a curiosity issue. I have to say, though, these lovies can get soooo confusing when it comes to genetics. I don't know how you guys keep track of it all!

Thanks again! :)