I Need IDs of my Zebras Please (Im New to this )

[Rowan]

Hi Everyone!
I'm Rowan live in UK. I bought a pair of zebra finches from a local breeder in London on 4th of February. According to the breeder this pair is non related and both born last year.I didn't know much about Zebra finches so I didn't know what else to ask. I bought them and made a cage using wood and cage wire by my own hands and provided them with a temporary cardboard nest box and the male started making the nest and I didn't want to interrupt him with his hard work so I left the nest box as it was. They both were very happy in the cage and finally laid 6 eggs and all hatched but unfortunately two chicks died because they were very tiny compared to the size of the others and not been fed. All I want is to ask you all if you can help me to ID these Finches. If you can come up with something that would be much appreciated. Thank you all !

These are some pictures of my Male.

These are some pictures of my Female.

[Sally]

I'm not a Zebra expert, but your male looks like a normal Grey to me. The hen looks a bit lighter, but she may also be a normal Grey. There are others on the forum who will be better at IDing them for you. Please keep us posted on how the other 4 babies do.

Welcome to the forum! There's lots of good reading at www.finchinfo.com, where you will find many articles on finch care. If you put your general location in your profile, it helps later on when we are answering locale-specific questions.

[Rowan]

Thank you for your quick reply

I'm not a Zebra expert, but your male looks like a normal Grey to me. The hen looks a bit lighter, but she may also be a normal Grey. There are others on the forum who will be better at IDing them for you. Please keep us posted on how the other 4 babies do.

Welcome to the forum! There's lots of good reading at http://www.finchinfo.com, where you will find many articles on finch care. If you put your general location in your profile, it helps later on when we are answering locale-specific questions.

Thank you Very much for your quick reply Sally both of these finches have light colors. I have seen the normal Zebra finches in a pet shop and they had dark colors on their body and what made me curious to ask about their IDs is they now have a white baby.

[Sally]

You're right, the male is also much lighter than normal, so much for my ID ability with Zebras! Hopefully others will be able to be more accurate. Since they now have a white baby, there are obviously some genetic splits in the mix.

[lovezebs]

Rowan

Welcome to the Forum, and congratulations on your Zebra babies.
Zebras, tend to be one of those gifts that just keeps on giving, so be prepared for more little cuties appearing in your nest box .

Regarding Zebra genetics, I'll tag our Cindy for you. She'll be able to tell you exactly what mutation your kids are.

Thanks for sharing pictures, and good luck.

[Rowan]

Thank you Sally and lovezebs I managed to take three babies out of the nest and took some pictures of them today. I used to hand raise budgies when I was young so I hand fed these zebra babies with my experience few times to help the parents to focus on the smallest three babies. but unfortunately parents only fed the biggest baby out of those three all the time and the other two were crushed under the big one died because they were very tiny. since these little guys opened their eyes i didn't worry too much about them and stopped feeding and now they don't recognise me at all. they don't even open their mouths like they used to be. Anyway I'm so happy because I managed to help the whole family.

Funny thing is I have one white looking baby and I don't know how this happened.
Would anyone be kind enough to tell me what are these babies IDs Please and how can this happen. Thank you !

Here is the white chick I have. Is this a male or a female ? why is this one white ?


Here is the white chick with the second born gray chick


Here is the third born gray chick

[lnlovesorange]

They looik like mine!!! (your males) which look like they are Light backs split to CFW. Here's mine. They could also just be lightbacks... but usally the cheeks are darker on LB's... The girl looks like a fawn... or also a lightback check out www.efinch.com but again Cindy will know better than me, but Mine have a NG father who must have been split to LB, and the mother is CFW. Now you can only have white chicks (CFW) if the mother and father BOTH carry the CFW (which if the mother had it she would visually show it because it is sex linked)... but fawn babies usually have lighter feathers, and horn beaks (my boys feathers looked white when they first got feathers (a week old) then they darkened to a light shade of brown, (looked like fawn) Anyway, I'm no expert, but they sure do look a lot like my guys!!! Which is exciting because I NEVER saw Zebras like mine before.... So the pics from in the nest aren't great, but you can see the pin feathers (wing feathers) started coming in white, but they darkened to a light khaki color, but they always looked different than the 2 NG's i had.

[lnlovesorange]

This is before their moult when they didn't have thier male markings yet (but they HAD to be boys b/c of the genetics, but I knew anyway! lol they started trying to sing while still in the nest, before they even fledged!!! The pics below you can see the color difference in the nest, the white though eventually darkened up so just the tips were white (see Leroy fledged) But this is what your guys looked like before they got those black bars, and brown dots!!! LOL Again, I may be COMPLETELY wrong... but they sure do look alot alike!! BTW enjoy your new birds, they are a lot of fun!

[lnlovesorange]

Rowan BTW, welcome to the forum!!!!

[xz_zebs]

Rowan - I have some questions since pics can make colors look different than they actually are.

Your male does look lightback or lightback/CFW to me. It depends how much the lighting is washing the color out in the photos.

Are the markings on your hen's tail and teardrop black, dark brown or dark grey?

• If they are black (the pic makes them look non-black) then she is likely a lightback.

• If they are dark brown she is fawn, possibly fawn lightback.

• If they are grey she is likely a very dark silver or possibly a very dark Isabel.

When I blow up the pics she looks fawn lightback to me (i.e. the tail markings and teardrop look to be dark brown and the body color a light tan).

Here is information about lightback (with a pic of the difference between lightback and lightback/CFW):
http://www.efinch.com/species/lbzeb.htm

Here is information about fawn:
http://www.efinch.com/species/fawnzeb.htm

Here is information about the 2 types of silver:
http://www.efinch.com/species/dszeb.htm
http://www.efinch.com/species/rszeb.htm

[xz_zebs]

Rowan - I missed the part about the white baby. What color is the white chick's beak and skin? That will tell you more about the genetic possibilities as well.

[lnlovesorange]

xz_zebs So glad you agree!!! Nice to find someone that has seen LB/CFW's I couldn't find an anwer til I messaged the efinch guy... and the LB, and LB CFW pics just show the back NOT the cheeks... Anyhow... I'm no Zebra expert, I just know this lighter mutation because I have 2 males. I don't even know the female, I was just assuming.... Good call on the tear marks though.... It is tough to see in the pic.

[Rowan]

lovezebs

Thank you very much for tagging Cindy and congratulating me. I'm so glad to have this little family in a room of my house and enjoying watching the cuteness of this finch family.

@

lnlovesorange

Thank you very much for your detailed reply. I love your zebras they look lovely. The male in your last picture look 90% similar to my male. but your male has more black on his chest. That's missing on my one. Your male looks very calm, nice ! I went to many places to see if theres any zebra finch male look like mine but unfortunately I couldn't find any. Is this a rare version ?

xz_zebs

Thank you so much for your information.
My female's tear drop and tail markings are dark brown and her back looks tan. her belly looks more whiter.she does not have any dark black or gray markings on her body. I went through your links and identified my male as a Lightback male split for CFW. I think my female is a fawn but don't know whether shes light back or normal fawn.
About the white baby, its beak look dark gray to me. Its skin was light close to pink. feathers are growing now and they are white and pretty close to pure white but head is a bit gray. All the other three babies are showing a gray to brown colour feathers.

[lnlovesorange]

Rowan Does the Baby look llike the picture I sent? Cuz I thought mine were going to be CFW (my female is CFW) but the white quickly turned to that light brown... I think the barring on the chest (the black) can be different for different birds... I would say that yours are the same as mine LB split to CFW.... even though the black markings are smaller. I don't know that it's rare, but I've never seen them before I had them. So I don't know that they are popular... because more peope prefer all CFW (looks just like our kids but instead of that light brown back they are an all white bird and the markings are diluted (like ours) So i think because people like Light back and like CFW, they keep them separate if possible, and don't mix the 2... again it took me a LONG time to find out what mine were (as my male is split for LB, he shows NO signs of it except (i think( he has spots of brown in his black barring on his chest you can see spots of brown... which may be a marker, but that's not "official" or anything... just my 2 cents!

[xz_zebs]

I think you have provided some great missing information. It sounds like your hen is definitely fawn lightback (the white belly is part of lightback - if she were just fawn she would have a buff belly).

As for the chick - that's confusing. Look at the CFW fledglings here:

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

Did your chick look like either one? The confusing part is the beak color/skin color combination. If your male is lightback/CFW (as lnlovesorange and I both suspect) then the chick is likely a CFW hen. CFW chicks have white feathers but tend to have darker feathers on their head until they get their full adult coloring.