# Breeding male's feet changing color??



## kfelton0002 (Mar 12, 2010)

My 7 y/o gray male Blitz has just started breeding for the first time with a little lutino pearl pied hen in my flight. They currently have 4 eggs together, 2 of which are definitely fertile. My only concern is that recently I have noticed that Blitz's feet have changed color from gray to pink! Is there any explanation for this? Could that just be an indicator that he is split to pied?


----------



## kfelton0002 (Mar 12, 2010)

*Taps at an imaginary microphone* Hello is this thing on? lol


If anyone could enlighten me as to why one of my males' feet is changing color I'd really appreciate it. I have never seen this before and I have been keeping cockatiels for 10 years. I don't know if it would be an aging thing or if it is just a coincidence that it happened right when he started breeding but I'm really curious. Has anyone else experienced this before? Thanks!


----------



## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

Can you post a pix of his feet?

As to your question I am not sure why. 

One thing I do know is that a normals feet should be a deep charocaol grey. But over the course of 40-60 years od captive breeding, and the breeding of other mutations with the normals for splits many normals have lost the deep dark coloration of the feet. It may be seen when the babies are young to weaning, but tends to fade as they age, or are exposed to sunlight...whereas a true normal would maintain the dark feet. Many breeders do not consider this when working with normals, but with selective breeding and working out the splits, many of those original wild type traits can come back.


----------

