What mutation pairs creates pastel babies?

[luvourpets]

Hi, I went to a bird show a week ago and saw a pastel face cockatiel. They were very beautiful, but the prices were so high. I was wondering if this is a mutation combining two different mutation cockatiels. If so which mutations should I combine to get pastel babies. I have read that a yellow face and a white face creates pastel babies. If this is so, how do I get a yellow face? Do I combine a regular gray with a white face? or a cinnamon with a white face to get a yellow face? Any ideas or tricks of getting certain mutations? Below is a picture of my cockatiel, can someone tell me what kind of mutation are they? I was thinking they are lutino pearl, if not can someone tell me what they are? Their colors are prettier in person, the camera light kinda makes it too bright and cant see the true colors on them. I am trying to learn more about the beautiful colors of mutations in cockatiels. Any help and suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[Monica]

They both look like pearls to me... Can you get a better picture? And how old are they?

As to how to get pastels in the first place... well you will need a pastel bird to begin with.... or one that carries the mutation... and fromy my understanding it's not all too common...

Originally Posted by http://www.acstiels.com/Articles/Genetics/gen7.html

Visual Pastel occurs when a cockatiel has either two pastel genes OR if it has one white face gene and one pastel gene. A cockatiel with only one pastel gene but no white face gene would still have an orange cheek patch. This phenomenon is called "complimentary" since these genes "work together". The white face gene replaces the normal dominant "orange cheek patch gene" on one ;half of the rung. This allows the otherwise recessive pastel gene to do its magic on the other half. ;In this case it is recommended to breed pastel to white face to give 50% pastel and 50% white face babies. Pastels can also be bred together to get 75% pastels.

Originally Posted by http://www.acstiels.com/Articles/Genetics/new_rare_mutations.htm

Pastel is a rather subtle, but attractive mutation that is rather appropriately named. The pastel mutation can be combined with just about any other mutation with some beautiful results. All of the pastel cockatiels I’ve seen have looked just like their normal counterpart (ie., pastel pearl vs. pearl, etc), but the yellows, oranges, browns and grays are softened a bit. Hence the name, pastel.

A really beautiful bird was a pastel pearl recessive silver. Wow! Talk about a very soft, subtly colored bird. This is a neat mutation that gives a sort of facelift to the birds we’ve come to keep on a regular basis. A pastel lutino is just the neatest canary yellow, and the pastel cinnamon really brings new life to this otherwise muted brown color.

Genetically, pastel is unique in the cockatiel world; it is both dominant and recessive at the same time. Specifically, the pastel gene is only dominant to the whiteface gene. To produce a pastel, you must breed it to either another pastel or to a whiteface. The pastel mutation is not sex-linked (like pearl, cinnamon and others). It doesn’t matter whether the pastel is the male or the female in the pair to produce pastel offspring. Chromosomes occur in pairs in cockatiels. Because of this, a visual pastel must carry the pastel gene on one chromosome and either the pastel gene or the whiteface gene on the other chromosome. Depending on whether your bird is carrying the pastel gene once or twice would determine how many pastels and how many whitefaces you will produce.

Most of the pastels I’ve encountered just carry the gene once; they are pastels split to whiteface. When a bird such as this is mated to a visual whiteface, about one-half of the chicks will be visual pastels (split whiteface) and the other half will be regular whitefaces (no pastel genes). If you have a pastel cockatiel carrying this trait on both chromosomes, then all of the offspring will be pastels split to whiteface.

Yellowface is another recent mutation that has generated some interest. While it’s a few years old, the yellowfaces haven’t really made a splash on the scene, so to speak. I don’t know why. Personally, I think any of the mutations can be attractive (provided they’re on the right bird). There have been a relatively high number of new mutations in the past few years, so the market is a bit flooded, so to speak, and I’m sure the economy of the past few years has put a squeeze on all of our new bird budgets. Yellowface cockatiels look pretty much like normals, except that the traditional orange cheek patch has been changed to a golden-yellow.

Genetically, yellowfaces cockatiels are produced through the same sex-linked mechanisms as lutinos, cinnamons and pearls. If you have a yellowface male paired with a normal hen, all of the female chicks will be visual yellowfaces and all of the male chicks will be split to yellowface. If you have a normal male paired with a yellowface hen, then all of the chicks will be normal, and all of the male chicks will be split to yellowface. If you pair a normal male split yellowface to a normal hen, the about one-half of the female chicks will be normal and one-half will be visual yellowfaces, while all of the male chicks will be normal, half will carry the yellowface gene. This is the same color gene-passing process for any sex-linked mutation.

Originally Posted by http://www.tailfeathersnetwork.com/birdinformation/cockatielmutations.php

Pastel Face is a less common mutation, and is much like how it sounds. The yellow and orange pigmentation in the cockatiels is diluted to a more �pastel' hue. Making the face a pale yellow and the cheek spot a pale pastel orange. Note that it is different to the normal dull of the immature and female face, and is apparent even in the immature/female face as a clearly different, �pastel', shade of yellow and orange.

Yellow Face/Yellow Cheek is another uncommon mutation, and again is fairly self-explanatory! It is where the orange cheek spot of the tiel is diluted to a clear dark yellow color, making the whole head yellow. The cheek patch is still visible on the yellow face as a darker yellow, but it is not as vivid as the normal orange cheek spot.

[luvourpets]

Here is another pic of them, but in person they are much lighter than in the pic.

[luvourpets]

BTW they are 2 years old. So I am guessing they are both hen because I read that most male pearls looses their visual pearling at 6 months, although some will retain it. I understand that you will need a pastel to get pastel. But how did the pastel color started since its a mutation? I can't remember where I read it but I thought I read that they breed yellow face with white face and that creates pastels. Maybe I just misread it. How about the yellow face? Are they not very common either? I haven't seen one in person.

[tielmama]

I have a yellowface cinnamon pearl female named Babybird. She is just such a cutie. Even if I do say so myself.

[luvourpets]

She is beautiful. Wish I had one of those too. I just love seeing all the beautiful color mutations. How much did you pay for her if you don't mind me asking and where?

[tielmama]

A breeder in Illinois sells her tiels to a local pet shop where I live in IN. You will be surprised, but she was only $69.00, I think. They are always that price, no matter what the mutation. She has a boyfriend named Rosybird. (I thought Rosy was a girl until he began to talk, whistle, and mate with Baby!)

[luvourpets]

Would you happen to have the breeders number, website or email? I would like to get one.

[tielmama]

No, I don't, but if I get in to that store, I'll see if they will give the number up. They're funny about things like that sometimes.

[luvourpets]

Thank you, hope you can get it. Thanks again