CFW & Fawn Zebra Genetics

[MiaCarter]

Okay, here's one for you.

I've got Squeepers, a CFW male. (His mum is CFW and dad was a pied NG, split to CFW)

I've got Cecily, a fawn hen. (Her mum was NG and her dad was NG, split to CFW and Fawn.)

Here are Cecily's and Squeepers' babies:


How on earth do I have a white bird and a grey bird???

I expected pale fawns.

cindy ? Anyone?


Unfortunately, it seems that darker baby is still a bit "off." Her movements are really odd. It's like she gets "stuck" in uncomfortable positions - usually with her head/neck - then tries to get out of that position but can't. She also never lifts her head, so it seems like it's something with her neck.


And as a funny aside, I was looking at that photo above and I realized I have a nearly identical photo of the mum, Cecily, taken at nearly the same age (Cecily looks to be about 2 days older in her photo). It's a cute mama and baby side by side:

[cindy]

To give a better opinion on what your birds will be take another picture in a week, feathers should be in. I do not see a white bird but fawn, beaks look like pied beaks, black and pink.

If you are seeing white feathers on the wing edges it could be a split to pied baby.... to early to tell.

Pied babies have pink and dark skin in blotches or all white pied will have pink skin. CFW babies have black skin and beaks.

[MiaCarter]

Thanks, cindy !

I will definitely post a follow up pic shortly!

It's curious because I was looking back on photos of my CFWs and they all look about the same as Molly (the lighter baby above).

They don't have the black skin that most speak about (FYI, the dad Squeepers is a CFW and his baby picture is my profile picture. His skin was a medium pink and a horn color beak, which then turned black once he feathered up.)

But I recently realized that all of my CFW babies have come from bloodlines with fawn - something I didn't realize I had in my genetics pool until Cecily was born. (With the exception of Squeepers....who could have fawn in his bloodline. Not sure. His mum died before he was born and his bio dad hasn't fathered any more bio babies. And these are the first babies Squeepers has fathered.)

So I wonder if the fawn could be showing up in my CFWs, making their skin a bit lighter than most others. None of mine have had the black skin that I've always read about and seen on sites like eFinch.

[cindy]

you can have fawn CFWs.

CFW babies are black from the start.

[lovezebs]

MiaCarter
Whatever mutation they turn out to be, they are awfully cute Mia.

I hope little baby will be alright.
I wonder if someone might have stepped or sat on it's neck, causing some damage (?)

Elana

[Majd]

MiaCarter you are very right... Those genetics information are totally inaccurate... I have the same pair of yours (fawn female and CFW male) and they now have two babies the same age of the ones in your photo and they have the same colours... Can you please tell me what they grew up into? Do you have pics?
Thanks!

[Babs _Owner]

MiaCarter

All I wanna say is "AWWWWWWWWWWWWW! CUTENESS!

[MiaCarter]

Majd - They grew up into a normal grey and a CFW.

The darker bird grew into a normal grey boy named Sue (after his grandpa, Molly Sue).
Like every grey male in that bloodline, he has the very light edges on his primary feathers. That's common on normal grey males who are split to CFW or fawn.

Thankfully, he is totally normal and healthy now, despite the abnormalities he exhibited early on with his head and neck and movements.
I agree, lovezebs - perhaps someone stepped on his neck early on, causing some sort of injury.

The CFW is a hen named Molly and she has a very slight beige tinge to her (but it's only apparent in super bright light when she's standing next to her dad, who is snow white.)
So I wonder if she may actually be a fawn genetically, but looks closer to a CFW.

I'm still perplexed because that couple shouldn't have been able to produce a CFW (Squeepers is a CFW male and Cecily is a Fawn hen).
So your guess is as good as mine. The parents were caged together and didn't participate in free fly from the time they started nesting, so I know there were no other possible fathers....but there were 2 other hens in there with them. I'd never seen any of them mate with Squeepers, nor did I ever see them enter their nest to lay an egg, but anything is possible I suppose!

[lovezebs]

MiaCarter

So Molly Sue lives on, in Molly and Sue. That's really sweet.

[MiaCarter]

lovezebs Yes! I knew I had to name them after Molly Sue, being Squeepers' first babies!

[Aspen]

Mia, just for fun, what color were the other two hens in the cage? If perhaps Sqeepers was umm... not entirely faithful, and the other hens were the ones who laid the eggs, that may explain things? And did the other hens have access to any other males?

[DanteD716]

CFW is a sex-linked trait. CFW hens and normal males split to CFW and Fawn should have been produced... I'm confused as to why everyone is saying the genetics don't add up...

[MiaCarter]

Aspen - the other hens were normal greys. They didn't have access to any other boys, though, as I segregated that cage when Squeepers and Cecily started nesting. (With hopes of avoiding this sort of problem! LOL)

@DanteD716 - Ah, you're right on the CFW hens.

Squeepers is a CFW male, so he's CFW/CFW.

Cecily is Fawn. (Mum was NG, dad was NG, split to fawn and CFW.)

So that means that we can get two possible combos: CFW/Fawn and CFW/NG.

I was thinking that fawn *wasn't* sex-linked, but it is. That's where I got confused.

But that said, I was under the impression that any darker birds would be a tad lighter in appearance or have a fawn tone, perhaps on the underebelly (and curiously while the grey male originally grew in with light feather edges, those seem to have moulted away, making him one of - if not THE darkest NG that I've got!) So it's just plain bizarre! (Especially since every other grey male in both family lines has the light-edged feathers)

[DanteD716]

MiaCarter if mom was CFW and fawn there'd be no way to produce a grey chick. Birds cannot be split to grey because it is dominant

[DanteD716]

Also since CFW is sex linked, she'd be just normal fawn