FINCHforum

Does anyone here breed society finches and know what colour combinations make what babies.

I've bred several, but am only familiar with chocolate, chestnut, fawn, pied, American self, Euro self and crested mutations.

Chocolate is dominant to chestnut and fawn, while chestnut is only dominant to fawn.

Pied is co-dominant with self; a single-factor pied bird will usually have a few patches of white, while a double-factor pied bird will have more white.

Euro selfs and American selfs seem to have incomplete dominance; a Euro x American self is a mix of its parents (mid-sized, moderate chest scaling, breast with some white, intermediate temperament).

Crested is dominant to non-crested; however, double-factor crested birds often have the same or worse-quality feathers than single-factor crested.

I do not know much about dilutes, clearwings, pearls, inos, or whites (I think dark-eyed is a recessive double-factor pied, but don't quote me on that).

Some possible pairings:

Fawn X fawn
100% fawn

Chestnut X fawn
100% chestnut
or
50% chestnut
50% fawn

Chocolate X fawn
100% chocolate
or
50% chocolate
50% chestnut
or
50% chocolate
50% fawn

Chestnut X chestnut
100% chestnut
or
75% chestnut
25% fawn

Chocolate X chestnut
100% chocolate
or
50% chocolate
50% chestnut
or
50% chocolate
25% chestnut
25% fawn

Chocolate X chocolate
100% chocolate
or
75% chocolate
25% chestnut
or
75% chocolate
25% fawn


Self X self
100% self

Pied X pied
100% pied (100% DF)
or
100% pied (50% DF, 50% SF)
or
75% pied (25% DF, 50% SF)
25% self

Pied X self
100% pied
or
50% pied
50% self


Crested X crested (not ideal)
100% crested (100% DF)
or
100% crested (50% DF, 50% SF)
or
75% crested (25% DF, 25% SF)
25% normal

Crested X non-crested
100% crested (100% SF)
or
50% crested (50% SF)
50% non-crested

Non-crested X non-crested
100% non-crested

For incomplete dominance and co-dominance:
DF= Double-factor/homozygous
SF= Single-factor/heterozygous

Fraza

Try asking Lori at wilkifam.

Hopefully she will be able to answer some of your questions.

Thanks Elana

And I have a grey mutated and a ginger one I have picture below but the 'ginge' never leaves the chicks

And this is the ginge

And this is the ginge

Fraza

Pretty birds.
Is the grey the father?

Yes it is the father and it's my favourite one interacts a lot with people they have just had chicks 13 days old now

Fraza
The female looks like a single-factor fawn pied. As for the male, he might be a pearl..? I'd guess that most of the babies will have his greyish base coloring, with about half having minor pie marks/ white patches.

Some good reading here:
http://www.zebrafinch.com/SocietyFinch/Society.html

Yours looks like what he calls a black brown society. I've also seen these called chocolate self and Euro.

What colors do you have to work with? It will be easier answering if I know what you've got.

Your one pic looks like a Black Gray, or Chocolate Gray Euro. The one you are calling Ginge, looks pied to me. One white feather = pied.

I would look for a nice Black Brown Euro to cross your male with. He is a pretty nice looking bird. I would not breed pieds to selfs.

Yeh well the babies have came put in there colours now and they are a mixture of brown black and specs of white

and I didn't know you could separate a pair to breed with another bird.

Fraza

Sounds like you have a nest full of Pied Socie babies.

Yes, you can seperate bonded pairs, but might have to house them in a different room from one another for a while, where they can't see or hear each other .
After a while, they will accept a new mate.