Tangerine Dwarf Turtle Doves

This project was started in February 2002. It was an off shoot from the Tangerine Senegal Project I worked on in 2000.

The idea is to produce Tangerine, Orange, Pearled & Blond colored Dwarf Turtle Doves & distribute them to other interested fanciers. Using the knowledge I gained in the Tangerine Senegal Project I set to work. FYI: voice, color & pattern variations do occur in the F1, F2 & possibly F3 hybrids.  Usually these facets are combinations of the two original parents & choosing the best offspring for the desired species should be done.

As in the Senegals project I knew the male F1 hybrids also carried the "dilute gene" from the Ringneck Orange Pearled hen parent hidden. The orange color is the "dilute" of Tangerine & "dilute" is a sex-linked recessive gene. Thus producing a F2 Blond & Orange Dwarf Turtle Dove hybrid was possible. What really piqued my interest in this project was the fact that Dwarf Turtle Doves are a dimorphic species. Would the "tangerine" gene affect this aspect - I feel it does in the males. The F1 hybrid males I produced from the Dwarf Turtle Dove male & the Orange Pearled Ringneck hen were tangerine in color, but the the amethyst coloration of the head & chest area was also distributed to almost all of the male's wing shields (see pictures). The F1 Tangerine hens were of typical tangerine coloration as found in the Tangerine Ringneck. Another facet, the Dwarf Turtle Dove is the only "ring-necked" species in which the legs & feet coloration is considered to be black. Would this aspect be affected?  No, the F1 hybrids of both sexes had black or very dark purplish legs & feet.

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