Pied lovebird mutations, there are several categories; each category is very different from the phenotype or genotype you need to understand. So when breeding pied mutations, you are not wrong in determining the combination pairs for these mutations.
Before discussing the differences between Dominant Pied, recessive Pied, and Mottle pied, you must understand that dominant pied is the first official mutation in Agapornis fischeri.
Pied is a melanin mutation, specifically in the category of "leucism." Leucism is a change in pigment that causes a lack of full and partial dark color.
Leucism can affect all pigments (and this fact also separates them from albinism). Leucism can partially affect certain places that cause the appearance; (pied) the color of the lovebirds.
Leucism is a damaging event or loss of melanoblasts that form in the nerve's upper part, resulting in melanocytes almost entirely being lost in the feather.
The pigment cannot be deposited when melanocytes are absent in the feather part. So Leucism is not caused by inactive errors in the enzyme tyrosinase or black Eumelanin deposits.
In the Lovebird Pied, there is a defect in the distribution of pigment cells from the apex of the nerve, where melanoblasts originate. As a result, too little or no melanocytes arrive on the skin. The enzyme myosin can function normally, but if there are too few or no melanocytes.
Certain skin parts in the Dominant Pied are genetically altered, so melanocytes cannot survive or even die.
Here we can see that there is absolutely no matrix stored in the feathers in
the area of the feathers (pied).
This event is called amelanotic
(less pigment). The amelanotic area (less pigment) is completely "empty," so
no colored melanosome matrix can be found.
This is what underlies how the phenotype of pied mutations becomes intermittent between yellow and green if in the green, white and blue series when in the blue series. And the absence of black pigment in the pied mutation feather has nothing to do with Ino.
Three types of pied lovebirds
Dominant Pied Lovebird Mutation
This breed is the most popular, usually characterized by a firm striped phenotype, and occurs in almost every feather on the body. The phenotype is diverse and random, so it cannot be drawn as homozygous from the pied mutation.
Inheritance mode is dominant, so you only need one Pied factor to cross normally, and then you will soon get Pied chicks.
Some aviculture argues that the best pieds have yellow chest feathers ( green series ) and White for ( blue series ), with predominantly black primary wing feathers, even though the best form of the dominant mutation of the pied is when it becomes symmetrical between the right and left parts.
Recessive Pied Lovebird mutation
There was a lot of confusion here when one of the magazines featured a photo of the Pied Recessive phenotype, showing that the Pied with the primary wing feather color was completely white.
Meanwhile, in the genetic calculator documentation, the Pied Recessive Phenotype shows a photo of the phenotype we know as Pied Mottle.
I'm not saying who's at fault; however, a pied with the appearance of entirely white wing feathers is a combination of DEC, Pastel, and another row of melanin mutations.
Another fact is that no separation occurs when a bird with such a phenotype, if crossed with a normal bird, will still produce pied chicks directly.
So as of this writing, I doubt the existence of a pied recessive on a Fischer lovebird; it may be true that the pied recessive is what we know as a mottle pied.
Mottlle Pied Lovebird mutation
There are many similarities between the Dominant Pied and the Mottled Pied, all having a firm, random pied pattern.
One of the differences between a Dominant Pied and a Mottled Pied is the pied pattern that occurs in most of the head feathers on the Mottle Pied.
If you look closely, the head feathers on the dominant pied always show the characteristics of each species on the eyering.
Fischeri Dominant Pied Mottled Pied, The feather part of the head, becomes sable because there is a reduction in melanin, although sometimes there are some showing traces of crown color, it is skinny.
Compare that to Mottled Pied; they randomly inflict melanin spots on the crown and mask. In some cases, it will resemble a hybrid lovebird.
Whereas in Mottle Pied Personatus, the appearance will be a little chaotic, sometimes having a speckled melanin patch mask feather to the extreme level of forming a melanin block like a halfsider.
The nature of inheritance is multifactorial, just like the case in the half-sider. Pied shades in Mottle Pied usually occur during molting.
It becomes more and more flip-flops as the bird matures. That reason also makes some people refer to it as progressive pied.