FINCHforum

My pair of zebras finally gave me some babies to look at. I'm pretty sure that they'll be recessive silvers, so if anyone can confirm that, I'd really appreciate it.

I think the full spectrum light was doing something with the camera lens, because my first fledging picture made the chick look almost a cream type color.

The dad is an English recessive silver, and I'm pretty sure the mom is the same. I was told she was a fawn, but she doesn't look like the right coloration.

Cuties. Congrats!

Raleighwheels

Beautiful Babies, congratulations!

I sure would appreciate more pictures of the ones you know are recessive silver for sure - tails, underside, etc. I have a "silver" here I have been test breeding to try and figure out what she is. Recessive silver is on my list...

Here's the parents... My hen's a little beat up looking after the clutch. I couldn't get any tail pictures, because some of the chicks are out, and I don't want to freak them out too much.

If all the fledglings in the clutch have the same coloring it would seem that they are all recessive silver. If your recessive silver was bred to a dominant silver hen, odds are you would have some visual NGs as well as visual silvers (dominant) that are split to recessive silver.

If your recessive silver was bred to a FS hen - you would have visual NGs and visual FS that are split to recessive silver.

If you were mistaken and your male was actually a FS you would likely see visual NGs if he was bred to a DS or RS and you would see FF and FS if he was bred to a FS.

To have a consistent clutch you would need RS X RS which would produce all RS.

Of course, those are just the odds. But it looks like there are 7 in that nest shot. That's a fairly big clutch to be consistent without genetics behind it. If you had a small clutch, it would be much less certain.

Oh - my above post assumes that DS is heterozygous. Most of the zebra finch genetics sites indicate that homozygous DS chicks do not hatch. If this is incorrect and your hen could be homozygous DS, then all bets are off.

Some more ventured out today. I can see at least one male so far.

Looking forward to seeing how the chicks develop. Here's a couple pictures of my "silver" hen. She is also lightback, I'm fairly sure, since all the grey hens this male throws are very white underneath. But she's the only one that is silver with the silver tail. One picture is just her and the other shows her next to a full sister. You can see the difference especially in tail colors. She has a very solid light grey color - not a lot of edging on the wing feathers like a grey Isabel has. Does this look like your hen? (And yes, she is grey, not fawn. Lighting sure changes the way the birds look, doesn't it?_

You're hen looks similar to mine. I'd say that the shade of grey is a little different, and the tail feathers of mine are a little more washed out looking.

Thanks!