Guinea Jeans: Buff Dundotte

The Buff Dundottes are a wild card.  Some things I read say the buff color is more sex-linked, others say it is not.  I have noticed, that with the Dundottes, the females are darker than the males.  For this posts sake, I’m assuming it is not sex-linked and am denoting the buff gene as recessive gene.  Dundotte just means that it is a full pearled version of buff. Like the blue and grey color, the less pearling visible, the darker the buff color gets.

If you missed the previous posts:

1. Click here for the introductions to guinea genetics
2. Click here for discussion of Pearl Gray genetics
3. Click here for discussion of Lavender genetics
4. Click here for discussion of Coral Blue genetics

In my Punnet Square, Buff Dundotte are as follows:

• uu:  homozygous recessive for the buff background color
• PP:  pearled

Source: http://www.strombergschickens.com

 

A Buff Dundotte guinea.  Notice the underlying buff but with strong pearling pattern.

Let’s see what happens when I breed my Buff Dundotte pair (uuPP x uuPP):

	uP	uP
uP	uuPP	uuPP
uP	uuPP	uuPP

Phenotype:  100% Buff Dundotte

Genotype:  100% pure Buff Dundotte guineas

This proves that the Buff Dundottes breed true, meaning I can breed two Buff Dundottes together and know that 100% of the time the offspring will always be Buff Dundotte.  So far, the only unstable color I have is the Coral Blues.

So, I’ll cross a Buff Dundotte with a Pearl Gray (uuPP x GGPP):

	GP	GP
uP	GuPP	GuPP
uP	GuPP	GuPP

Phenotype:  100% Pearl Gray guineas

Genotype:  100% Pearl Gray split to Buff

All the offspring of this pairing will appear Pearl Gray but will carry a copy of the recessive buff background color.  Again, they won’t be true pure Pearl Grays genetically, but will appear as so.  If two Pearl Gray split to Buff are crossed, there is a chance of getting Buffs.

Let’s breed the offspring together, 2 Pearl Gray split to Buff (GuPP x GuPP):

	GP	uP
GP	GGPP	GuPP
uP	GuPP	uuPP

Phenotype:  75% Pearl Grays, 25% Buff Dundotte

Genotype:  25% pure Pearl Gray, 50% Pearl Gray split to Buff, 25% pure Buff Dundotte

I just have to know what will happen if I cross the Buffs with either a Coral Blue or a Lavender.  The blue and buff background colors are both recessive and when one copy of each gene is present they should mix to create a new color.  Let’s see….

First, a Buff Dundotte x Lavender (uuPP x bbPP):

Right off the bat, I know all the offspring will be completely pearled, meaning they’re going to be a light color.

	uP	uP
bP	buPP	buPP
bP	buPP	buPP

Phenotype:  100% Porcelain guineas

Genotype:  100% pure Porcelain

Source: http://www.strombergschickens.com

A Porcelain Guinea.  Notice the prominent pearling.

Let’s breed the offspring….  Porcelain x Porcelain (buPP x buPP):

	bP	uP
bP	bbPP	buPP
uP	buPP	uuPP

Phenotype:  25% Lavender, 50% Porcelain, 25% Buff Dundotte

Genotype: 25% pure Lavender, 50% pure Porcelain, 25% pure Buff Dundotte

The Porcelain color gene does not breed true, but rather gives 50% Porcelain and 25% of each parent coloring.  Interesting.

Now I have to know what happens when you cross a Buff Dundotte with a Coral Blue.  Since the Coral Blue coloring gene doesn’t breed true, I could get some interesting colors and even some darker buffs since the Coral Blue carries a semi-pearled gene.

Coral Blue x Buff Dundotte (bbPp x uuPP):

	bP	bp
uP	buPP	buPp
up	buPp	bupp

Phenotype:  25% Porcelain, 75% Opaline

Genotype:  25% pure Porcelain, 50% semi-pearled Opaline, 25% non-pearled Opaline

Source: http://www.strombergschickens.com

The Opaline guinea.  You can see the Buff as well as Blue is expressed here.

The Opaline color is bluish-white, that it is hard to distinguish between semi- and non-pearled.  So, both genotypes “buPp” and “bupp” will be called Opaline.

I’m curious as to what I’d get if I were to cross an Opaline with a Buff Dundotte (bupp x uuPP):

	bp	up
uP	buPp	uuPp
uP	buPp	uuPp

Phenotype:  50% Opaline, 50% Buff

Genotype:  50% pure Opaline, 50% pure Buff

I’m starting to think that if I would cross my four different colors enough over many generations, I would eventually end up with all the existing guinea colors, and probably make some new ones!

I’m becoming the mad scientist of guinea genetics!

Now didn’t you learn something!  This information will really come in handy when you’re “guinea shopping” and planning on breeding.  Many colors, like Lavender, Coral Blue, Porcelain, etc. can look very alike because of their underlying colors.  But now you can understand their colors on a genetic (genotypical) level and know that if certain birds are paired, you can get new colors, or that they breed true.  Pretty cool, huh?

I am planning on continuing this with the rest of the guinea colors as soon as I find good information and figure it out myself.