White On Baby Green Cheek?

[featherfanatic]

Hello! My feathered pets of a few years decided to have some babies. The male is a normal Green-cheeked Conure and the female is a yellow-sided. They currently have 3 babies, the eldest being 3 weeks, the second 2.5 weeks, and the youngest 2 weeks. All three of the babies appear to be developing features that define them as normals (Dark feet, dark beak, grey down), but it seems each of the chicks has some kind of white feature. The eldest baby has pure white down feathers of the front edge of its wings, instead of gray, and a white patch in a couple of its toes. The middle baby has white down on the base of its neck and wings. The two older babies have tails tipped in yellow. The youngest baby has a white toenail. The parents are being fed Zupreem pellets as the base, with daily fruits and vegetables. However, there is a couple things that I find odd. The male has an orange feather on each shoulder, and a small white patch on the underside of the front edge. The female also has some white on the underwing. Is there any explanation for the white on the chicks? Genetics? Vitamin Deficiency? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

http://imgur.com/a/xW7mkmM

FYI: This was originally in the breeding section, but I feel it makes more sense in the conure section

 

[EllenD]

First of all, the orange-feathers on their shoulders is a feature of the Yellow-Sided Green Cheeks; sometimes the yellow/orange patches on their shoulders are actually covered-up by the longer green-feathers that are around them, but all Yellow-Sided Green Cheeks have patches on both shoulders that are yellow, orange, or both...

When you're talking about "white patches", are you talking about outer feathers that are white in color, or is this down you're talking about? You need to remember that the oldest chick of the 3 is only 3 weeks old, so they hardly have all of their down-feathers in yet, let alone their outer feathers...So what you're seeing right now as far as the feathers that are growing-in (or not even feathers but possibly the sheaths around the feathers that are growing-in?) doesn't look the way you think it should look...I bred Green-Cheeks for years and hand-raised the babies starting at 2 weeks-old, and they all had a combination of both gray and white down, and then you next see the feather-stalks growing-in with the white keratin sheaths around them, and until all of their outer feathers grow-in completely, you can't really tell what is going on as far as colors/mutations sometimes, sometimes you can tell right away what they are...The Yellow-Sides are pretty easy to spot, as are the Cinnamons and the Turquoise, but the Normals can kind of look like they are going either direction...It's a waiting game...

But if you're seeing something "white" that you think could be a "vitamin deficiency" (which I'd almost guarantee it's not at all), it would help if you'd take some photos of what you're talking about and post them here so we can see them, because it's hard to know what you're referring to without some photos...

 

[featherfanatic]

Hmmm... I thought my link worked. My normal male has an orange feather on each shoulder. I'm talking about the down feathers themselves, not the sheath. I am certain of of the babies are normals (dark beak, dark feet, dark grey down) but on the outer egde of the wing the older chick has white instead. I also can't find a way to share photos aside from the link I provided in the original post.

Photos: http://imgur.com/a/xW7mkmM

 

[EllenD]

Oh, those are completely normal, that's just how the down-feathers look when they are first coming out on pretty much all baby birds, other's have them that look black as well, but the bottom-line is that the "gray" down-feathers are actually made up of both gray and white down, and that's just how a lot of them look when they are first coming out before they spread-out. I've bred Budgies, Cockatiels, Green-Cheeks, Suns, Jendays, and Nandays, and they all had down coming-in that way, regardless of their color or mutations. Totally normal and nothing to worry about...

As far as trying to tell their mutations, for a Green Cheek it's best to wait until the feathers start coming in on their bellies, wings, and faces, then you can tell the difference between a Yellow-Sided and the others very easily...And I've NEVER seen a "Normal" Green Cheek with orange or any other color spots on their shoulders. The "Normals" are pretty much all green and black on their entire wings and back, and pretty solid in color in those areas, with little markings at all in those areas. The Yellow-Sides develop the yellow/orange spots on the top of their shoulders very early on, and they all have them, but some you can't see because they are covered-up by their green feathers on their wings/neck/back that surround them...My own current Green-Cheek is a Yellow-Sided, and depending on where he's at in a molt you can't see them at all, or they are blazingly obvious. I'm trying to remember if any of the other mutations have the yellow/orange caps on their shoulders, but I don't remember, it's been a while since I bred them, and both of my last breeding-pairs were full-Turquoise...

 

[featherfanatic]

Thank you for the input! Once they grow in some more feathers we will see! I have also heard that a little bit of yellow on a normal male could indicate he is split to yellow-sided... Is there any truth behind this?