FINCHforum

Hi Guys,

My zebra pair chicks are now fledged and there are totally 4 of them now My cage is overcrowded now

But one of the chick looks a little different with white patches on wing tips and chest. What variation is that chick?

In the image, the chick is visible on the extreme right.

Very cute. He looks like a little pied fawn.

Wow!! I am not sure, how he got that color because both mom and dad are normal zebras May be from his grandfather or grandmother

The white edges and white spot since the edges are rounded could mean it is split to BB (black breast) or it is split to pied. Split to pied often show white in the wing edges and white under the chin.

If a bird is split to BB the edges of the blotches are rounded, pied blotches are somewhat jagged. The key is the tail bars, if the bird is split to BB then there is a very distinct hourglass shape in the white pattern on the tail. If there is not pattern than it is most likely a split to pied.

It also looks to be that the young might be lightbacks (gray bodies with a light fawn back). If they were full fawns their beaks would be a horn (light brown) color. Black beaks indicated normal or other mutation, split to fawn would also have black beaks.

A very cute little pied! I love when they get white under the beak and in the wings. And you are correct this probalby comes from the grandparents, that is both your hen and male must be split for pied to get a chick like this
You will probably get more pieds if you pair them again.

And I agree, what colour are the parents? They are clearly not normal grey, so are they lightback or fawn?

Hi Cindy,

That was really useful But I hardly know much of it

Hi Ameza,

I am very poor in genetics of Zebras, but visually I cannot make any such white marking on both the parents, except that, the entire belly of the dad, is very light wheatish in color, whereas the mother has a normal light brown belly

I do not have my camera right now else I would have uploaded the parents photo. But soon I will post.

But nice to see a different chick among the family

Also guys, I have one more query, my chicks are 24 days old now. So is this the time to separate them from the parents? I see them eating food on their own. Do they still need the parents or can I separate the chicks?

Check out efinch.com under Variety, it details many of the zebra mutations.

The parents do not always have to show the mutation to produce young that visually show it or certain mutations. Your pair or one parent can have a hidden gene or carry it to have it . When the white appears on the wing edges and under the chin it means the bird is split to pied. If the bird has white throughout it's body then it's considered pied. If you bred your pied to another pied their offspring would have more white....doing pied to pied through generations can give you an all white bird eventually.

When you reference pied on efinch it will explain how it works.
http://www.efinch.com/varieties.htm
http://www.efinch.com/species/piedzeb.htm

According to the species info at the FIC, linked at left, Zebras wean at about 30 days, so I'd leave them for about another week. They need to be eating AND drinking on their own before being separated from the parents. Cute babies!

If you are not planning on breeding the parents again and your flight is big enough and there is no sign of aggression it is ok to leave them in the same flight. Some of my pairs like my black cheek do not mind the young in the flight with them...just. watch for aggression, if any then move the young out.

Ok Guys, thanks for the valuable reply

Currently my cage is bit crowded for 6 finches, but soon I am going to get a bigger one for them