Whiteface+Pearl=Normal grey cockatiel?

I'm confused right now. I bred a whiteface male and a female pearl and I ended up with a normal grey female cockatiel. I thought the baby would be a pearl, whiteface, or a whiteface pearl. Could someone please explain how this happened?

I dont know a great deal about genetics but I am presuming that you had studied the genetics of what should be the offspring produced from crossing a whiteface male and a pearl female and learned that they should produce whiteface or white faced pearl but Im guessing what you did not look into is that your white face male or your pearl female could be split with their parents having a grey cockatiel in their genetic mix so in order to explain the fact that you got a normal grey female cockatiel I think you need to look for the answer in the genetic split of the parent birds...like now you have what looks like a normal grey cockatiel but she has white faced and pearl in her genetic split mix so she is no ordinary Grey either...its the genetics that dictate the colour they produce and sometimes the genetics of the parent birds are more complicated than just looking at the colour of the bird in front of you. Hope this helps you in your search for an answer.

I think whiteface is recessive so if the mother doesn't have the gene you won't get any. Pearl is sex linked the male needs to have the gene to get pearl babies. I think both parents have to have pearl to get male pearls. I think I'm not a breeder and I know snake genetics better than the birds lol.

But with only one baby it certainly isn't enough to say they don't have the genes to produce pearl or whiteface.

I think if I'm right about the genetics the female normal baby only has whiteface in her genes. It would have to be male to have pearl hiding in the genes along with the whiteface genes.

riddick07 said:

I think whiteface is recessive so if the mother doesn't have the gene you won't get any. Pearl is sex linked the male needs to have the gene to get pearl babies. I think both parents have to have pearl to get male pearls. I think I'm not a breeder and I know snake genetics better than the birds lol.

But with only one baby it certainly isn't enough to say they don't have the genes to produce pearl or whiteface.

I think if I'm right about the genetics the female normal baby only has whiteface in her genes. It would have to be male to have pearl hiding in the genes along with the whiteface genes.

Click to expand...

I searched and yes you are right it is recessive

Whiteface - Just Cockatiels!

BIRDIGIRL said:

riddick07 said:

I think whiteface is recessive so if the mother doesn't have the gene you won't get any. Pearl is sex linked the male needs to have the gene to get pearl babies. I think both parents have to have pearl to get male pearls. I think I'm not a breeder and I know snake genetics better than the birds lol.

But with only one baby it certainly isn't enough to say they don't have the genes to produce pearl or whiteface.

I think if I'm right about the genetics the female normal baby only has whiteface in her genes. It would have to be male to have pearl hiding in the genes along with the whiteface genes.

Click to expand...

I searched and yes you are right it is recessive

Whiteface - Just Cockatiels!

Click to expand...

Yay I vaguely remember from when I first got into birds since I really liked the whiteface pearl pied cockatiels. And then when my normal looking grey male and my pearl female breed I wondered what that would produce.

Wait, but if the parents had the normal grey gene in them, wouldn't they have the normal grey coloration since its dominant to most other mutations?

Grey coloration isn't a mutation. All these morphs and colors you get in animals like the cockatiels and snakes are mutations, defects, changes, whatever you want to call it in the genetic code.

Genetics can get crazy complicated and I'm certainly not one with experience to get all the information accurate lol

Here is s link thst explains whst happened in your case if you click on it and scroll dow to the pic entitled what happened you will get your answer
Cockatiel Genetics 101 - Â* Â* Â* Â* Â* Â* International Cockatiel Resource Â*Â* Â* Â* Â* Â* Â* Â* Â* Â* Â* Â* Â* Uniting the World!
It ssys:
"Understanding genetics helps to pair up birds of compatible genes. When there is no shared genes the offspring will revert back to the mormal mutation which is the Dominant gene over all sex-link and recessive genes..."