Piebald - White Coverage

[lizzy_troy]

Is there some kind of "rule" about how to classify a piebald as low, medium, or high white? Or do you just eyeball it, and it can be different depending on who you ask?

[lizzy_troy]

Obviously, more extreme low and high whites would be easy to identify. I'm taking about the ones that could be either/or: low/md or md/high.

[Eric Alan]

Buy based on how you think it looks, not how it's being advertised (no, there aren't "rules").

Also, the amount of white a pied has isn't genetic (unless it's a combo pied - some morphs will influence the amount of white that the pied gene throws). A high white animal can throw low white offspring and vice versa.

[lizzy_troy]

Thanks! I already have my pied, got him on Saturday. I want to call him a high white, because it's definitely more than 50/50, but I could see him being borderline medium/high. I'll post pics later because he's in shed and doesn't want to be bothered.

[BrianDallek]

Can i disagree and say that the amount of white (hi vs low) could very well be genetic. Ive talked to 3 separate breeders on this subject. One has a high white male that has only produced high white babies two years in a row. The other is selling his low white pied male cause of three seasons of producing all pieds with almost no white. I dont think there has been enough record keeping to go either way. I think its one of those things that somebody said and then a million people repeated.

[Eric Alan]

You're not really disagreeing, actually. I just didn't say "hasn't proven to be genetic" to keep it simple. I've heard the same as you from some folks, but that "proof of concept" hasn't been put into large-scale production yet, as far as I'm aware, to determine it's reliability/repeatability. There are still plenty of instances where the amount of white of the parents has not directly transferred to offspring.

[lizzy_troy]

Here's Colonel Flagg in fresh new skin. what do you think? Medium or high? He has another long white patch at least as long as the one clearly seen in the pic, with the top of his tail being colored.



Best pic of the back end of him that I could get.

[h00blah]

Looks like a great medium - high ! Very cool looking! I love mediums!

It's pretty much what you see really. If the pattern to white ratio seems about 50%, then you got a medium. If it's mostly white with a few patches, then it's a high white. If it's mostly patterned with some white, it's low. There's various degrees, but it's all upto what you see. There's no test you can give to check the percentage unless you count the scales .

[lizzy_troy]

....unless you count the scales .

Just the thought of that makes my brain itch!!

[jmccauley51423]

Wow pied is def my favorite gene!