Chicks with silver down...genetics question?

[windwalkingwolf]

Well, it doesn't look like this guy is going to be 'deconstructed', not that I'm sorry about that. He/she seems healthy and normal, especially considering I didn't expect him to live a week. I keep trying to get pictures, but they all make him look a drab blue colour with yellow belly. His sounds are now indistinguishable from his brothers and sisters. He's smaller than them, but he is growing well!

[Giffen Farms]

That's good that he's "beat the odds" and thriving, the 3 of mine are thriving just as well, though the silvery/grey is starting to look more of a blueish tinge

[WLLady]

Yay!!! Thats great!!!

[kenya]

Can't wait to see grown up pictures!

[WLLady]

I would love to see some photos as wings and tail are just starting to grow in too....and of course grown ip photos-or the real thing when we drive by sometime lol

[Dunmohen]

not that i have heard of....lethal white is a mammalian gene, linked to blue eyes in animals like horses etc for those that haven't heard of it. lethal white results in a blind ended cecum (GI tract) so the animals are born normally and then starve to death over the first few days of life because they cannot defecate or absorb their food properly. horrible way to go.
paint horses with blue eyes tend to carry it....and of course paints are "wanted" colours, so it ends up being bred into the population as heterozygotes (carrying 1 copy only) because people like the paints....when there are 2 copies in an animal it is lethal.

Re horses — yes, specifically the overo pattern paint horse, (called OLWS, Overo Lethal White Syndrome) no blue eye necessary, Tobianos and Sabinos can have blue eyes, but are not carriers, when both overo parents are carriers, guaranteed lethal white. Unethical breeders will breed knowing one of the pair has genetically tested positive but are willing to roll the dice. That’s a long gestation only to birth a white foal.

[WLLady]

I have an overo mare that carries....she wont ever be bred....beautiful blue eyes....almost blind in one. Sigh.

[Dunmohen]

I have an overo mare that carries....she wont ever be bred....beautiful blue eyes....almost blind in one. Sigh.

I have a lovely black overo gelding - he’s 18 and has been retired since he was 5 - ringbone...horses *sigh*

[Killerbunny]

Hello and welcome. Why don't you tell us some more about yourself. The link below is to the New Here thread.
I'm New Here Introductions

[Shnookie]

I have a document about breeding crosses. It says that if you cross a Rhode Island Red rooster with a Light Sussex hen the male chicks will be silvery white or cream, but may show smokiness in down. Does this apply to your silver chicks at all?