FINCHforum

If I ever decided to breed my society finches,

I would like baby Females that look like my 2 males:

Crested fawn and white
And
Mostly white with chocolate in center of back
(Looking for as much full white as possible - black eyes not red)

Females that I have:

Chocolate and white
Dark fawn and white

How to mate for - Female:

Crested fawn
Most white or fawn

Please keep terms simple and explain any new terms introduced.
I am a beginner with society finches.

What is the likely number of females per batch?
For a female 1st batch is the number more likely 3-4 , not higher?

Pic below of 4 of my society.
New crested fawn and white no pic yet.

zebsoc
It's hard to tell you without knowing the geneology of the parents; however, fawn pied hens can sometimes produce a mixture if bred to a chocolate pied male. I had a pair with the father chocolate pied and the mother fawn pied and I got two fawn pied and two chocolate pied in a clutch of four eggs typically. Sometimes, that pair produced marked white pied, which is more white than fawn or chocolate. I'll post a pic of some of their offspring. It usually takes a few generations breeding them to get all white, but many breeders have done that successfully, gradually going from fawn pied to marked white fawn pied, to light or dilute and then eventually to white with black eyes. God Luck!

In my previous post, you can see from left to right, the first one is a chocolate marked white pied, then fawn pied , then chocolate pied and finally, a fawn marked white pied.

zebsoc

I am not very genetically knowledgeable.....

When it comes to Societies.....
Unless you really know the genetic background of your birds, I am thinking it would be very difficult to predict an outcome.

I think that if you want chicks that are guaranteed to be fawn and white crested, then you would have to get some females that are white and fawn as well.

Once you get the chocolate Pied in there, I think you'll probably end up with chocolate Pied babies with possibly some fawn.

Good luck.

finchmix22 and lovezebs -
thank you for the helpful information.

Finchmix22 - thank you for the picture and explanation.
The 2 fawns is definitely what I'm after.
Do you know yet which ones of the 4 are female / male?
Is 4 pretty normal for a 1st batch?

Yes, four is a typical clutch size. Those juveniles were a boy on left, then the rest were girls, but there was another male that is not in this pic. I used a black light to even out my ration of males to females in my clutches, which worked very well on ten clutches, from ten different pairs, at the time.

Finchmix22 - thank you
I'll check into using the black light to sex, since I prefer to have females. They are in the Livingroom and the males song isn't something I care for, not terrible but not relaxing.
I like the trill of the society females and the chirping of the female zebra (tho not when she's squawking)

Here's an article about using black lights and lights in general
http://www.naturallighting.com/cart/sto ... sc_page=56

Breeding Pied to Pied with unknown genetic background, you will get potluck....... You have to know what the genetic background of your birds is. Did you get them from a breeder who can tell you what the parents were? If not, then it's just luck of the draw on what kind of babies and what sex you get.

I just bred a Black Gray Self to a Dilute gray, first clutch I got the same color babies as the parents. Second Clutch - Surprise, I got albinos........ Breeder told me they might be split to INO or Albino, and he was right.

Debbie276 - thank you for the article link. Very interesting and helpful article.
It didn't give any specific light to buy.
The light I have been using for my indoors birds has been
Full Spectrum Light Bulbs - Alzo 27 Watt Compact Fluorescent Cfl

Could someone provide an Amazon link for the ultraviolet black lighting that helps with producing females in indoor breeding?

Any links on best lights in general for indoor birds?

wilkifam-thank you for the info. I bought from brand name pet store. It is frustrating that they don't provide any information at all, not of the age of the birds, breeder, nothing.
Will be interesting if breed to see what colors end up with.

You could always not breed, and buy stock from a breeder. Then you know what you are starting out with.

zebsoc wrote: Debbie276 - thank you for the article link. Very interesting and helpful article.
It didn't give any specific light to buy.
The light I have been using for my indoors birds has been
Full Spectrum Light Bulbs - Alzo 27 Watt Compact Fluorescent Cfl

Could someone provide an Amazon link for the ultraviolet black lighting that helps with producing females in indoor breeding?

Any links on best lights in general for indoor birds?

Here is one of the best articles on avian lighting and the importance of the proper bulb.
https://mickaboo.org/confluence/downloa ... ummary.pdf

As for the black light, I think any black light would be fine.
Here's one I found on Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/American-Black-Li ... B0002F5544

I used zoo-meds 5.0 reptile however I for my sun conure I going to buy a bird light bulb on line. petsmart or is petco?? or maybe foster and smith I can't remember ...- tam p.s. beautiful society babies.

Debbie276 - thank you for the article, very interesting and helpful,
and thank you for the link for the black light on Amazon

Tam - I came across the zoo meds but some people in their reviews said reptile ones were not the best for birds.
I had always thought that it was only necessary for them to get some light from windows, so I'm just learning about lighting.
I had bought some full spectrum lighting because it helped with reading due to poor eyesight, so I was curious as to whether it would also be good for the birds. I put a 45 watt bulb near their cage this evening for a short time and they did seem to perk up. I plan to leave it on tomorrow and see if their activity level seems to increase, they are not the most activity birds.


wilkifam - the birds I have I really like. I don't have my heart set on any other bird in particular but would prefer they look like their fathers who are really pretty.