Correct guess of colours? (Zebras)

Learn about mutations and expected breeding outcomes.
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Nova
Hatchling
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Posts: 49
Joined: Thu Sep 22, 2011 2:19 am

Correct guess of colours? (Zebras)

Post by Nova » Sun Sep 25, 2011 12:52 pm

Still learning about colour genetics - I know we have a lot of knowledgeable people here so I wanted to see if I'm calculating this correctly...!

I have a lightback hen and a black cheek cock that currently have a nest with three fertile eggs. If all goes well (cross your fingers!) I should have little chicks in roughly a week. They've tried a few times before but the eggs have never been fertile, this is the first time they have been, so I really hope they'll manage to get some babies now!

I've been trying to make a guess on what colours the offspring might have...
I unfortunately don't know the background of the parents, so we're going to have to base the guess on what we can see alone. I would love to hear if I'm doing this correctly, or if I've misunderstood/missed something =)

From what I understand:

Lightback is sex-linked, the hen will pass it on all of her offspring. However the cock is probably not a carrier so he will not. So any resulting offspring hens may or may not be lightback depending on whether they inherit their gene from the hen or the cock, whereas all male offspring will be split for lightback - am I understanding this correctly?

Furthermore all offspring should be split for black cheek, since it's recessive and the cock therefore must pass it on to all offspring.

Meaning possible outcomes in this group would be:

Males:
Gray split for lightback and black cheek

Females:
Lightback split for black cheek
OR
Gray split for black cheek

Does that sound about right? :D

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cindy
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Location: west central Florida

Re: Correct guess of colours? (Zebras)

Post by cindy » Sun Sep 25, 2011 1:19 pm

According to the genetic advisor
http://zebrafinch.info/colours/genex.asp#

Here are your results
50% Normal/Black cheeked Lightback Males
50% Normal/Black cheeked Females


This is provided they are not split to anything else. Visually they may look like one mutation but carry more than one.

I plugged in lightback for the female and BC for the male
Last edited by cindy on Sun Sep 25, 2011 1:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Nova
Hatchling
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Posts: 49
Joined: Thu Sep 22, 2011 2:19 am

Re: Correct guess of colours? (Zebras)

Post by Nova » Sun Sep 25, 2011 1:20 pm

Sounds about correct then! Thank you :)
Now it's just the waiting game...

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