Possible black cheek zebra nestling?

[Themcleodflock]

Hi so I have 2 nestling zebras 13 and 14 days old. The parents are visually: a blackcheek CWF female called Flora and a visually normal grey pied male called Pip. I do not know if they are split to anything else, but Pip is heavily pied so it is difficult to tell much beyond him being a normal grey pied, he only has the edge of one cheek patch and both flank markings are broken.

I've attached photos of the two nestlings, one appears to have dark cheeks, does this mean it will be a black cheek normal grey? And if it is black cheek, does that mean that Pip is split for BC?

[lovezebs]

Themcleodflock

Try to PM Cindy, she might be able to give you an answer to your question.

~ Elana~

[Aspen]

If they are black cheeks, then both parents have to have it, either showing it or split for it. That is how recessive genes work. Gotta come from both for babies to have it.

[Themcleodflock]

The father might be split but his pied markings cover almost all of his cheek patches.

[MiaCarter]

Aspen has it right.

Can you post photos of the parents?

I don't think I've ever seen a black cheek CFW hen in real life. The only pic I've seen is on Roy Beckham's site:
http://www.efinch.com/birdpix/bccfw.jpg

Does dad have any traces of black check patches? Or is the only patch traces orange?

Certainly you could have a split.
This is not a sex-linked mutation, so I believe males and females can be split. (Please don't quote me on that.....Just woke up and my mind isn't firing on all cylinders yet! LOL But I'm pretty positive this is a trait where females can be split.) So dad can definitely be split.
And if mum is visibly black cheek, then she's definitely a black-cheek gene carrier.

That baby on the left certainly does look black-cheeked. I've never seen a normal grey that looks like that. Very cute!

[Themcleodflock]

Flora is pretty much identical to that photo, she has dark grey cheeks like that, a pale grey cap and very faint tail barring. I can get a good photo of her later. The dad, Pip, has only the very smallest trace of one cheek patch which is orange, but his pied covers the rest.

The babies are almost fledging now, they keep looking out of the nest and almost coming out. The little black cheeked one came out and flapped about a bit yesterday, but went back in and stayed in the nest today.

I'm going away for a few days (a nice neighbour is going to feed them whilst I'm away). So hopefully they will be fully fledged when I get back and I can get some good photos of the whole family.

[Themcleodflock]

MiaCarter I managed to get some good-ish photos of the whole family. You can see how heavy the pied is on the father and the black cheek CWF mother, as well as the black cheek grey fledgling and a normal grey fledgling, no idea on genders of the fledglings yet as neither have started singing etc.

[cindy]

CFW is sex linked, hens do not carry the gene only males carry the gene. Hens can not be split to a sex linked gene but will give you split to CFW males.

BC is recessive both males and females can carry a recessive gene and can be split to it.

Your father bird is pied/BC (split because your one offspring is not full BC)
your hen is CFW BC

so depending on if the offspring a full or split to BC then the males will also be split to pied and CFW
the hens will be split to pied.