FINCHforum

I'm still struggling with the whole genetic thing so if this appears to be a dumb Q, sorry but can someone please clarify the following for me:

When breeding a BC (Black Cheek) zebra to a normal the result is 100% spilt for BC. Does this mean that the young will carry the BC gene but will appear normal looking or will they then have some black cheek coloring and are these offspring single factor BC, meaning one of the parents are BC?

When then breeding the split to BC to a 100% BC the result is 50% splits and 50% full BC, again will the 50% splits appear normal or will they show the BC coloring. The 50% full BC offspring are they then double factor BC or does double factors only occur when breeding BC to BC?

Either this is a really dumb question which no-one want to answer as they are too busy laughing OR no one out there knows (which I seriously doubt with all you clever people out there).

Any takers on this one? Please I'm very confused!

Williep
I for one dont have a clue
BCAMP

Thanks B Camp, at least we now know that I'm not the only member who is allowed to post in the Genetics area, I was getting worried - lol

Does this mean that the young will carry the BC gene but will appear normal looking or will they then have some black cheek coloring and are these offspring single factor BC, meaning one of the parents are BC?

The babies will be normal looking and carry the black cheek hidden. You may notice however that the teardrop on a split will be thicker. They wont have black cheeks though. Thick tears don't always mean they are split for black cheek though, so don't go looking to buy normals with thick tear drops and hope they are split BC. In a clutch of normals from a split to split pairing, you should be able to pick out the splits by the teardrops though.

When then breeding the split to BC to a 100% BC the result is 50% splits and 50% full BC, again will the 50% splits appear normal or will they show the BC coloring. The 50% full BC offspring are they then double factor BC or does double factors only occur when breeding BC to BC?

Only the double factors(homozygous) show the black cheek. If they have a black cheek they got it from both parents. The splits from the breeding would be heterozygous, meaning they got normal from one parent, and BC from the other.
Hope this helps. Its hard to find the right wording sometimes.
If you have posts like this that go unanswered, feel free to email me. I lost my job recently, and spend most of my computer time looking for something new, and don't always make it over here.I may not know all of the answer, but will try to help you find them.

Davey, thanks for the reply you've answered my question 100%.

I'm very inexperienced when it comes to genetics, I'm now trying to move away from breeding BC to BC as the gene is recessive and produces smaller young according to my research. The offspring I got from my BC-BC pairing are not noticeably smaller, in fact the one hen looks a bit bigger but I'll rather go the recommended route in the future pairing them to BC splits, I have a lone BC hen that I will be pairing with a new normal show cock I recently acquired as soon as he is out of quarantine and then I'll pair their babies to my current BC pair.

My only problem with this route is it produces a lot of splits, 100% in the first round and 50% in the second round meaning that out of two average clutches of 8 offspring (4 each) you should on average only produce 2 BC's. What do I then do with all the excess splits as you will always produce more splits than BC's.

I lost my job recently, and spend most of my computer time looking for something new, and don't always make it over here. I may not know all of the answer, but will try to help you find them.

Sorry to hear about your job, hope you manage to find something soon. Thanks for the offer I'll certainly call on your expertise again.

Well, I will never claim to be an expert. I have done a lot of research on color mutations, genetics and inheritance....mostly with boa constictors though. I know enough about genetics to know I'm no expert though!
As I said before you can pretty accurately guess which of your babies are splits in a split to split breeding. I would always keep back some splits from each clutch, because you never know what could come up.

I have a couple pairs from which I keep every baby.
I will the babies from one pairing, to babies from the other, and always try to get something cool.

One pair is a lightback blackcheek cock, with a CFW female. So far all of their babies have been lightbacks with a slightly fawn tint to them, with light orange cream cheek patches, and orange flanking.

The other pair is a silver looking male that has no black, only silvers and soft greys, with a female fawn BC.
All of their babies come out creamy silver.

The babies produced by breeding the offspring from those pairs should be amazing though. and I look forward to getting some VERY soon.

Well, I will never claim to be an expert. I have done a lot of research on color mutations, genetics and inheritance....mostly with boa constictors though

Boa constrictors, very interesting combination. Hopefully they aren't kept in the same enclosure lol!

Wow, your pairing sounds really interesting can you post some pics of your main pairs, I'd love to see them?

What about with white zebras? The breeder i got my bc zebra from had a male black cheek with an all white female zebra and both of my baby males ended having the black cheeks. so if i were to breed them with any color would the babiues have bc's?

williep wrote:I'm very inexperienced when it comes to genetics, I'm now trying to move away from breeding BC to BC as the gene is recessive and produces smaller young according to my research.

I believe you are right here, I have all BC and my first to fledge was a male and you can tell if you look close he is just a tad bit smaller than mom and pops..BUT his offspring (my avatar) was a whopper!! I paired him with CFW-BC, her pic is in the gallery somewhere if you want to see..

So anyway not always do you have small young when both parents are BC, but it appearently happens more often with them.

I have a zebra finch with black cheeks. The father was a normal with black cheeks and the mother was all white. He has the colors of a chestnut flank white except with black cheeks and his brother has turned put to be a chestnut flank white.

Right I'm breeding a black cheek with a normal shown on one of my topics saying (colour mutations ?black cheek zebs )with pictures so will none of the offspring have black cheeks

jamezyboo21 wrote: I have a zebra finch with black cheeks. The father was a normal with black cheeks and the mother was all white. He has the colors of a chestnut flank white except with black cheeks and his brother has turned put to be a chestnut flank white.

If you get CFW males then your mom was likely CFW...if missing her tear then she likely carries pied.... your dad is split to CFW if you get male CFW off spring.