White Zebra Parents make Grey Chicks?

[Nerien]

Talked to a guy who has zebra finches available, going to go take a look tomorrow. He says he had two white parents (not sure what kind of white, true white or CFW or ?), but the chicks, who were born in August, are grey. Is this possible? What would they be? Or are they just too young to have their adult colors, and will they turn white with time? I've been starting to look into zebra genetics, but there is just so much to absorb.

The two I got from Lisa are a CFW female, and the male is normal/split CFW. The are brother-sister, so we are looking to get other, unrelated birds for future pairings. But wondering what he really has, and how to pick, as he also has other chicks unrelated to this gray from white parents batch, as well.

Help?

[cindy]

It is really hard to tell, white can be pied white, CFW (do they have tears, black eyes?) or pure whites.

if dad is white/split ng and mom is white your offspring will be

50% Normal/White
50% White

If both parents are split to white split to gray you can get

50% Normal/White
25% Normal
25% White

there must be normals in their backgrounds....usually if the offspring are going to be white it is apparent in the nest.
See the discription regarding fledglings.
http://www.efinch.com/species/whitzeb.htm

[DanteD716]

Hm, not sure where to start. Can he email you pictures?? If both parents are pied, it is is posislbe to get a pied chick wiht minimum markings, but it is also possible if the parents are CFW to sometimes get a grey chick. If the birds are healthy and active then you should get them. Also, is it possible the hen mated with another male?

[Nerien]

We decided that, as Dante says, if they look healthy and active, we will just pick what looks pretty. Talked to the guy on the phone to get directions. He has been a breeder of big parrots for many years, is now retiring from his regular job, and is switching from the large birds to smaller ones, especially Gouldians. But he was given some zebras a year or so ago, by a relative, and so has some to spare at this point.

So while he may not know specifically much about zebras, he does know about breeding birds, and could tell me when each clutch hatched and who the parents were of each, and which are and aren't related, so I think it will be okay to take birds from him. Expecting to see decent conditions. While on the phone with him, he went into his bird room, and I could hear all the parrots start up their raucous greeting, he has Amazons and Rosy Breasted Cockatoos and at least one African Grey (because he said he was keeping that one) and I think a few others. And now he has zebras and a few Gouldians, which are going to be his new focus.

He's only a half hour down the highway from us, so we are going to go see. Haven't seen another respectable looking ad for birds, one that looks like it's a breeder, at least of sorts, not just someone with a crowded cage of randomly inbreeding birds, within a couple hours of here.

[finchmix22]

Good luck picking out some new zebras. The man sounds like he is taking good care of his finches, especially if he's tracking breeding and hatching dates etc. Let us know what you get and post pics please!

[DanteD716]

Best of luck!! I hope he has grea conditions and bet if he can afford all those parrots, and has the time to track clutches, then the birds will be healthy and the cages clean!

[Vargur]

there is a change that the mom is cfw and dad is white, that results in normal grey offsprings,
split white and cfw.
and there could be many more reasons:)

hope you will find beautiful new zebras!

[Nerien]

Came home with four, and have been looking online to figure them out.

We have a fawn female. Her brother appears to be a blackface and who knows what. The father was grey, didn't think to look closely enough at his cheeks when we were there as we just picked the darker looking offspring, then noticed details when we got home, the mother looked like a CFW but with a very pale fawn-ish tint, which would explain the fawn daughter.

The "gray from white parents" were actually a pied father and a cfw mother. So the babies were greyer than the parents, but pied.

Right now they're in the tiny travel cages, while we rig up the bigger cage they will live in until quarantined for a while. His bird room and cages and all looked fine, but....much better safe than sorry.

Tried getting pictures in the tiny cages, impossible. Got lots of good pictures of bars. After they are in the real cage, will try again.

[cindy]

Congratulations on your new birds. Fawn is sex linked so dad must be split to fawn, he will give fawn offspring if paired with a visual fawn female. Mom can only give split to fawn males if she is fawn and not paired with a fawn visual or split to fawn male.

If a male is a full fawn and a mother gray...he can give fawn visual females.