florida fancy with white zebra

carlo · Post by **carlo** » Sun Dec 02, 2007 10:16 pm

Hello all!

I have recently acquired a nice Florida Fancy male and I'm planning to breed him with my white zebra finch. What color mutations will I be expecting from this match? Thank you for your responses!

Kathleen · Post by **Kathleen** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 12:21 am

I am new to the world of finches, and therefore I cannot answer your question....sorry. However, I would like to know if your white finch is solid white? or does it have the black tears? I have an all white female zebra with black tears. Do you know what the difference is? Thanks and good luck...it will be interesting to see what they produce...keep us posted.

Post by **Sally** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 12:57 am

I can't help you with Zebra genetics, either, but for Kathleen, you have a chestnut-flanked white female. The white Zebras will not have any markings, but the chestnut-flanked white will have the teardrops and cheek patches.

carlo · Post by **carlo** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 1:16 am

Hello Sally!

Thanks for clearing that up for me(and Kathleen). Let me change my question then: what will a Florida fancy male and a CFW female produce? Thanks again!

Kathleen · Post by **Kathleen** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 8:48 am

Hey Sally....this white female has no other markings....she is pure white with the black tears. Could it be she just didnt' get any cheek color? She's also a bit smaller than the other zebras and so very cute. She is one of the original six rescude and still has feathers missing on her upper back that I hope will grow in one day.

kenny · Post by **kenny** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 10:51 am

hi kathleen
the way the genstics usually work is,you get 50% of each from the eggs so you will have 50% male and 50% female.then you will have 50%florida fancy females and 50% white males as it usually changes the sex around...e.g. a male gets the female colour from the pairing....as long as they are not split for any other colour then they may be split colours (pied ) or they may revert back to their natural colours (grey ) if the breeding previous to that was mixed .i hope that makes sense to you

ken

Post by **Sally** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 11:48 am

Hi, Kathleen, that is how CFW females are marked, just the teardrop, if there is a cheek patch, or even a part of one, it is a CFW male. She probably has missing feathers due to the overcrowding, Zebras will almost always featherpluck when crowded. They will probably grow back, but don't be distressed if they don't. Sometimes, when birds are severely plucked, the feather shaft gets damaged, and they just stay bald in that area.

Kathleen · Post by **Kathleen** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 12:57 am

Hey Kenny....your kidding right? I'll read all that again slowly when I'm not so tired and maybe I'll get it...thanks

Sally...yea this white one is one of the original 6 rescued from the fish tank. Man-o-man when I saw that little thing with no feathers on her neck my heart dropped. Since with me now, she looks better and has some new feathers. No matter though, as long as she is happy, right.

kenny · Post by **kenny** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 10:07 am

hi kathleen
sorry i know it looks complicated but, if you read it slowly you will get it...or just wait to see what comes out of the eggs

ken

Gunnar · Post by **Gunnar** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 1:08 am

CFW is sex linked and recessive. So unless the male happens to carry the gene you will not see it appear in any of the offspring. Males need 2 factors to show such a trait. Therefore any male offspring produced will be split for CFW and produce CWF babies in the following generation. The Florida Fancy is a co-dominant trait. This means that if one parent carries a double factor (ie your male) all ofspring produced will carry at least a single factor. With the florida fancy gene this would appear as a silver or diluted grey color, sometimes refered to as a florida silver or isabell silver. Most of the black markings on the young, both male and female but more noticable on the male, should be a diluted or lightened grey color. Once again all the males produced will carry the CFW gene but not show it. Anything other than Florida silvers produced means your birds are carrying other recessive genes. This is very possible but we can't be sure until we have some breeding results from them.

Hope this helps, Gunnar