FINCHforum

Some of my finches were abandoning their chicks, so I ended up hand rearing the chicks- development was going great, but then I started to notice some odd behavior from the youngest one. At first I thought the issues I was seeing was due to the chick being tossed, but something about it was strangely uncanny.

Every once in a while while resting, the last couple of feathers on the right wing would stick up a little.
At first it was just a little...now it is almost straight up, but it comes and goes

As the youngest fledged, I noticed that it wasn't really using its left foot very well...the front toes were basically always limp.

Finally, there was always something a little unusual about its throat, where it always seemed like it moved in and out like a tongue would when it flicks in and out! It's hard to explain exactly what, but then it hit me today while feeding it, that the tongue never really bobbed in and out like the others while begging - it's like half the size and kind of looks like it never got detached from the throat! Definitely strange to explain, and hard to take pictures of, but attached are the photos that I (think) show it. Curious if anyone else has seen this before.

I think it’s slip toe on the leg where there isn’t enough bedding in the nest

Thanks, that actually helps a lot - I had heard of splayed legs, but not slip claw before. I since moved the little guy to a cage with some low perches, and the foot does seem to be recovering as he's able to get his feet in position.

His wing though...seems to like to point at the sky

keijikage that’s good with the leg hopefully it will form itself correctly

And with the wing I think it should be fine as they grow into adults they lose feathers and grow new ones so new ones should appear

Just an update - the slip toe went away, but it still looks like he is thrusting his tongue under his beak.

It makes it harder for him to husk seeds, so i've swapped them to pellets so it doesn't seem to be impacting him too much.

keijikage what mutation are these chicks

And great news maybe he’s just slow at developing

I'm actually not sure what the mutations are. The mother was a CFW(I think - the markings were very diluted) and the father a penguin - I don't know any of the history before that.

Of the chicks, two are penguins, one is a normal gray, and the last two(which includes the slow developer) are a big question mark for me. The other penguins looked like these before they started getting their adult plumage, but they started growing in patches of white much earlier.

keijikage yeah they do look strange mutation I dunno if they are just piers but they look more unique than that

Have any of them got all black tails with no dots

Nope all of them have similar tail markings - this is a little bit of an older picture, as they are currently going through a phase where they like to nibble on each other's tail feathers. I will have to wait until they grow back to see what they finally end up being.
The one sticking it's head up in this photo is at the bottom of the last photo with the redder beak and the other one with a little bit of tan in the beak ended up whitening out.

Yh I’m unsure I aren’t good with zebs I only know the basics

But they do look unusualt

Hi@keijikage they are white breast or penguin not all but at Least 3.
@Fraza how are you doin my friend

haroun hi haven’t seen u in a while I’m doing great at the moment so much better with less birds


And I have exiting news for u, zebra expert

I got my self a beautiful black breast Male and he’s trip paired and had eggs with my black breast fawn and fawn large British
Chicks hatching this week !

How u doin ?