FINCHforum

My zebs fledged today! I had been waiting to see what my new little pied looked like and noticed one of them had grey cheek patches. I've never seen that before. Do you think it will keep it?

They are adorable! Are the parents black faced, black cheeked? They look very nice.

Oh so cute! I'm sure if he has that much of cheek patch he will keep it.

that is a BC (black cheek) hen, parents must be both split to BC if they themselves are not showing full black cheeks http://www.efinch.com/species/bczeb.htm (it is not a Black face)

Grey cheek is a separate mutation, they are white in body color
http://www.efinch.com/species/fczeb.htm

How cool! I have never seen one before. It's pretty. I would post a pic of the parents if I could figure out how to do it from my droid phone.

I didn't know there were grey cheeked zebras! Those are cool too! There are apparently many more mutations than I knew about. In town here I've only seen the plain Jane ones. Guess I will be spending some time learning about zeb genetics online tonight! Now that you mentioned it I looked closer at my breeding pair. The hen has some black bits on her chest and on her flank. So maybe she os not just a pied? Sorry for so many posts when this catches up. I am new and admin has to approve all my posts and I cannot remember what I have already posted.

Cute baby! Is this the only one with black cheeks? Welcome to the forum! There's lots of good reading at the Finch Information Center, linked at left, where you will find many articles on housing, diet, and especially the Zebra finch.

CamiMarbles -- Welcome!

What a lovely baby!

eFinch has tons of wonderful photos of the various varieties:
http://efinch.com/varieties.htm

As an aside, I ***love*** that you have an axolotl named Bacon! That's hilarious! I had one too. His name was Guppy.

They are so cute! I saw some black-cheeked zebras about a week ago or so at a bird fair, and I had to resist getting them. Congrats on your babies!

CamiMarbles Yes welcome! I'd love to see pictures when your finch is a little older, to see how it turns out.

CamiMarbles wrote: I didn't know there were grey cheeked zebras! Those are cool too! There are apparently many more mutations than I knew about. In town here I've only seen the plain Jane ones. Guess I will be spending some time learning about zeb genetics online tonight! Now that you mentioned it I looked closer at my breeding pair. The hen has some black bits on her chest and on her flank. So maybe she os not just a pied? Sorry for so many posts when this catches up. I am new and admin has to approve all my posts and I cannot remember what I have already posted.

If it is showing black in the flanks then it is likely a male. Some BC hens can show a smudge in the chest, it is considered a show fault.
Hen BC can have what is called ghost flanking sort of a gray flank with round whitish spots.

Thanks for the welcome! Guppy is an awesome name for an axie lol!

I will have to get a pic of my hen. I know she is a hen, I started with just her and her mate. I could be seeing grey and mistaking it for black.

I actually got the birds because they didn't have anywhere else to go when the pet store closed. I bought their 3 tier double breeder for my canaries and the zebs and a pair of parrotlets came with it. My boyfriend LOVED the sounds the zebs make and said we had to keep them (he didn't have to twist my arm lol!)

Neither bird is banded and they came from less than ideal conditions. They didn't know what a bath was! Now they are all spoiled with good food, room and sunshine.

Zebra finches were my first pet store birds as a kid... Guess they are a gateway bird!

So busy here that I forgot about this thread! I've been tied up with a few new rescues and managed to rehome all but one (a cat that is deaf, has a cleft lip, is missing part of his tail, and is FIV positive.) This cute little zeb got his adult feathers and looks like a normal male zebra finch, orange cheeks and all! I was kinda hoping it would stay grey but i am glad he's a happy healthy little guy

I am picking up 2 zeb/society finch hybrid hens today from a hoarding situation. Apparently the lady had over 40 birds in a cage. The 2 females are the last of them. I'll post some pics of them and my zeb today.

I've never seen a zeb society cross... I will have to google them and have a look. I also have to find out if the will be sterile or not... fun!