confused...

[joemau]

i'm planning to buy a black cheek male and a phaeo female...but some of the breeders are against this and some are not, the reason of the other breeders that are against this is that it weakens the mutation strain....is this true?

[Nagdabit]

I don't know if I'd say it weakens it, but it might not really accomplish much. Technically a Phaeo is a combination of the Florida Fancy and Black Breast mutations. Since Florida Fancy works to suppress all black markings, by combining it with a Black Breast the orange is extended beyond normal parameters. However since a Phaeo already has orange cheeks, by combining it with a Black Cheek the benefits might be negligible.

Breeders are constantly trying to combine Black Face and Black Breast to get an almost all black bird, and probably just as many are throwing in the FF and Orange Breast mutation to get an almost all Orange bird. Not sure what it is you are trying to breed for and, where you are located, but there's a breeder in New Jersey that specializes in finches that are predominately orange. Beautiful birds, he's usually at the Spring show in Baltimore. Hopefully we'll be able to pick something up from him this year.

[joemau]

i was just planning...hehehehe...but my original plan was either to buy a pair of black cheeks or a pair of phaeos...i think i need to buy extra cages again....

i have a problem with the normal gray male and the fawn cheek female, the male does not let the female roost in the nest basket at night...does this mean that they are not a pair?

[Nagdabit]

How do they get along during the rest of the day? Is there mutual interaction such as perching together, preening one another? If they're spending the better part of the day on opposite sides of the cage then I'd say no. On occasion we've had birds that just refused to couple up, but that's fairly rare. Usually they come around, although sometimes it does take a little while.

[joemau]

@Nagdabit: they perch side by side but they don't preen each other...the cock always jumps and dances to the hen but she ignores him completely...my wife would just say better do more jumping and singing to impress her norm (we call our normal grey "norm")...but when they're about to roost the hen would just cling either at the side of the cage or just perch...the cock would sing to ask her to go to the bamboo basket but she does not want to go in....my friends would just say i have a problem finch...

hope she accepts the cock in a few days....

[joemau]

just got a blackface male x normal gray female...

nice editions to my collection of zebra finches...

[L in Ontario]

Oooooh congratulations! Pictures, pleeeeeease!

[joemau]

i will post the pictures of the bf male x normal gray female...

i am also planning to buy a jumbo black cheek male x jumbo phaeo female....hoping...

[joemau]

just wanna share...

[joemau]

just wanna share...

[joemau]

just wanna share...

[joemau]

just wanna share...

[joemau]

just wanna share...

[lovemyfinch]

Beautiful little fids.

[joemau]

my bc male has chestnut brown spots on it's side but i read that bc

males have black spots on their sides...do i have a bc split?