Cockatiels Nail Colors

[Solace.]

Is it when they have a few black nails and a few pink that they're cinnamon or pied, something like that?

A mystery, Charlie has all black nails bar one that is pink.. so would that just be something normal or not? http://planetsmilies.net/shocked-smiley-9489.gif

[Danielle]

That's pied, if I'm not mistaken. Mozart is split to pied and has one white toenail. Quinn is pied and has one dark toenail. Jinx is also pied, but all her nails are grey.

[Solace.]

If he were pied; I'd be able to tell by now wouldn't I? http://planetsmilies.net/confused-smiley-17420.gif

He's got absolutely no markings showing any pied, so I don't know.

[shy bird]

if the nails are difrent colours then he is a pied.

[allen]

that be interesting to no i have a chick that has dark toes as well

[Solace.]

Yeah but he looks nothing like a pied, I've seen a lot of baby 'tiels that're pied and Charlie doesn't look anything like them.

I'm going to check out Twix too now, because he could also be a pied.

[allen]

same with mine there are a few white feathers but thats all

[Solace.]

I found this:

Some birds, but not all, that are only split will show markings such as patching on the head, or a pink toenail or stripe on the beak where it would normally be dark.

So I thought maybe your 'tiels and Charlie could be just split to pied. But then I was reading more and it says

This often leads to the thought that maybe the pied gene is actually dominant. However to call a gene dominant it must be visual 100% of the time in all heterozygous or split birds. As this isn't the case with the pied gene, ie some split pied birds show no visual evidence of pied being present, experts feel it is safer to keep the inheritance mode as recessive until it can be proven otherwise. Regardless of what ends up being proven there can be no denying that there are some stunning combinations and variations available in the Pied.

And now I'm confused. Do you understand it? so is it pretty much saying that it has to be 100% visual to say it's split to pied or pied? ugh this mutation thing bugs me sometimes LMAO! http://www.smileyhut.com/laughing/rofl.gif

Edit: reading on, maybe they're light pied because I just read light pieds will have either mainly grey or cinnamon with some yellow areas.

[atvchick95]

One light nail means Split to pied, Just like the "ticks" or "thumb print" on the back of the head of a non pied bird. like a normal grey with a white patch on the back of it's head.:)

[Aly]

As the others said, on pink nail means pied..Some even have a mixture of colors on the nail-pink and black. I belive I saw that on Duckie's chick? Not sure.

[xxxSpikexxx]

Spike is pied and has one black nail. Could it mean that Charlie is a very light pied?

[Duckie]

two of my chicks are mostly grey; Storm has black strips down its beak, and also has a dusting of yellow in its crest (which is almost all grey too) and a couple small dots of white on the back of its head. Screech, is almost the same as Storm, but has no marking on its beak, strips of yellow in its crest and a few patches of yellow on the back of its head.

I will post some of todays pics in another thread :D

[atvchick95]

Tick Markings and Split Pieds
Copyright © 2003 LINDA S. RUBIN
CF Genetics Consultant/Panel Judge
www.CockatielsPlusParrots.com
All Rights Reserved
Selected Q&A's "From My Mailbox"



Q. I have two 6-week-old Normal Grey cockatiels that have several yellow
feathers on the back of their heads. Their mother is a Whiteface Pearl
and their father is a very light Lutino. What are they?



A. Yellow and/or white feathers appearing on the back of the head,
nape of the neck, or on other parts of the body are known as “tick
markings” and indicate a cockatiel that is heterozygous (split) to Pied.
Because Pied is a recessive mutation, the gene for Pied may be
inherited from either parent.

From: http://www.cockatielsplusparrots.com/mutations-tickmarkings-and-split-pieds.html

[Solace.]

But he doesn't have the tick marking on the back of the head, would that still apply to the 'one pink nail'?

And I was reading on that link. .

Although many cockatiels that are split to Pied are ticked around the
head and neck, not all cockatiels that are split to Pied necessarily show
tick markings. Here is the catch; unmarked birds must be held until
breeding age when they can be testbred in order to discover whether
these birds carry the Pied gene when properly paired. Unmarked birds
that produce Pied offspring are still split to Pied; they just lack the
outward telltale tick markings; many split Pieds do lack ticking.

So if he's split to pied he may not even show (apart from his nail) that he is until he reaches breeding age?

He could also be one that "lacks the tick marking" also? I'll check in a min when I uncover them, but I'm sure it's just grey on the back of his head.

[atvchick95]

yes some don't show any signs of being split to pied it comes out when they're bred

Some show just the "tick" marking, some show just the light nail, some show both

[Solace.]

That's interesting!

I just checked the back of his head and it still looks grey to me. But I do see white coming through under his orange cheek patches. http://planetsmilies.net/confused-smiley-17420.gif

[tielfan]

The problem is that the definition of pied hasn't been completely agreed on! Most people define a bird with two pied genes as pied, and a bird with one pied gene as split pied. However, the one-gene birds do sometimes have those odd little markings - the tickmark on the back of the head, the odd-colored toenail, etc. Because of this, some people say that the pied gene must be dominant and therefore a bird displaying these markings is pied, even though it has only one pied gene. There's also an unproven theory that there may be two kinds of pied gene, one recessive and one dominant.

It sounds like your bird has one pied gene. It's up to you whether you want to call him pied or split pied. Personally I'd go with split pied. A single pied gene doesn't have much of an effect, and you need two of them to develop full-scale pied coloration.

[Solace.]

Ooh well if that's the case I'll just say split pied, thanks tielfan. :)