FINCHforum

Hi all!

I did an age progression of Squeepers' development so far:


I had a couple younger pics of him next to a penny and an egg, but they're blurry.
It's funny looking at these pics side by side as it seems he clearly grew into his eyeballs! LOL

I'm super curious about what his coloring could be.
Any thoughts?

So far, he's all white, with a tad bit of grey coming out on his head.
His back skin is a tad darker than his belly. You can see the differential nicely in day 11's pic.
But even though it's a tad darker, all feathers have been white so far.

Mom was white; dad is a normal grey pied, a bit dilute with white on the wing edges, chin and tail.

Will he keep the white into adulthood do you think?

I would guess a regular CFW hen. A regular because her body is dark not pink, and a hen because usually CFW hen fledglings have varying amounts of dark on their heads that slowly disappears as they molt into their adult plumage.

Olympic_Aiairies --- Thanks for your thoughts!
Ah, see I didn't know the CFW hens started with grey on their heads!
That's interesting. I'd assumed the CFW hens started out all white and remained so.

That's funny that you think Squeeperton's a girl. For some reason, all chicks look male to me. LOL But as more white comes in, he's looking more like a she, as I associate white with female.

Squeepers is definitely starting to think he's a real bird!
In the last day, he's started honking when the others do their excited honks in unison when I enter the room, prep food, etc.

According to your description of the parents

"Mom was white; dad is a normal grey pied, a bit dilute with white on the wing edges, chin and tail."

Your mom can be either and CFW (does she have a tear) or an all white pied

Dad sounds split to pied

If you look closely at some of the babies...the skin is both black and pink in areas as are the beaks some beaks show pink as well as black

The black and pink both on the skin and the beak to the degree it is on the babies indicates that not only does the dad carry pied but the mother does as well....You may be dealing with the pied and normal gene.

Can you post a picture of both parents so a better ID as to what your young may be can be given....in another week you should see more feather growth and a better determination can be made.

cindy wrote: The black beak is an indicator also to a regular CFW... CCFW have pink beaks.

http://www.efinch.com/species/cfwzeb.htm

I was actually looking at that page about 20 min ago!

@Cindy --- Unfortunately, mom is dead and I don't have a good digital photo.
But the hen at the bottom of the page of that eFinch link -- all white on the branch with the tan on her tail -- looks just like Squeepers' mama did, so it would absolutely make sense.

Let me capture a pick of Jackson!

so mom was a CFW...she may have carried a split gene to pied...lots of pied markings in the skin...regular non pied CFW young have all black skin, all black beaks.

Young would based on their looks and dad carrying pied would be Regular CFW pied

Here we go!
I found a bunch of both Jackson and Maggie on my husband's phone.



Mom did have a teardrop, so I believe that makes her a white CFW.

Those photos were taken in not-so-fabulous lighting, so it's difficult to tell, but Jackson has noticeably lighter grey than the other males.

Male is pied

mom cfw

males will be split to CFW

if dad is not split to CFW you will not get visual cfws.

If he is just normal pied the young will likely be normal pieds. You may have normals split to pied and the male's will be split to cfw

Thanks Cindy!

I think I've got it! I wish I could find my genetics book from college to brush up! LOL

So, in short....

Maggie was a CFW, which means she had two CFW genes (CFW/CFW), because that's one of those genetic traits where you need to have both genes to display the trait, right?

Jackson could be either Normal Pied (P/P) or Pied with a CFW gene (P/CFW).

So if we made up those little genetics Punnett squares thingies, we'd have either....

CFW/CFW
P/P

...with all 4 of 4 possible outcomes being the same: P/CFW.

or

CFW/CFW
P/CFW

....with a 2 of 4 chance of a CFW/CFW and a 2 of 4 chance of a P/CFW.


Did I get that right?

Maggie was a CFW but hens only carry one gene to show colour. Think of it this way one shows their colour and one makes them a hen. That's why hens can't be split for a sex linked trait. They either show it or not.
Dad is a pied normal grey. He could be split to CFW or not. Also both parents may carry some recessive genes.

If dada isn't split to CFW you can get CFW hens only. If he is you can get both hens and cocks.

If mom carries the pied gene you could have some pied babies as well.

There could also be other recessive genes hiding in there. That's why I love finches. It's always a surprise.

I just realized you said the dad was much lighter grey than the other normals. It's hard to tell from the photos but he may be a light back. That's a sex linked gene like CFW.

Olympic_Aiairies -- Thanks for the explanation!

Well, that's just complicated, isn't it?
With the way females can't be split for a sex-linked trait.

Indeed, dad's grey is a noticeably lighter than the other normal greys. I couldn't find a good photo that depicted it clearly (and now he's in a different cage), but it's definitely lighter.

I bet you breeder folks must have great fun experimenting with different pairings!