Silver/fawn female zebras

[cindy]

These two females are from a pair of Louisianna bred zebras...direct from john's aviary....they surprised me with the coloring. The tails are the lightest gray and they are buff on the belly and throuought their back with fawn. Surprisingly their beaks were a horn color las nestlings like a fawn's would be.

They appear to be part Dominant Silver, possibly. Pathes and Cleo have given me either light gray, normal gray or fawn females...not like these though...always a surprise with zebras that is for sure!!!

(pardon the black mesh but I had to divide part of a long cage until they got uses to the new guys.)

[lovemyfinch]

They are very pretty Cindy

[cindy]

John's birds are full of surprises, the young are always bigger than other zebra young.

[Teresa]

They're beautiful !

[Nagdabit]

Very stunning young ladies. But the lack of pronounced teardrop markings would cause me to lean more towards Single Factor Florida Fancies. (Florida Silvers)

[cindy]

These came from Patches and Cleo....normal hen and normal/split to fawn. The tear drop is ever so dilute you have to get right next to them to see it. It looks like someone took a #2 pencil and dragged it gently down their cheeks. Their beaks were horn colored in the nest. They do have light fawn though the silver lacing on their backs. These came from John's aviaries and he as far as I know does not have any Florida Fancy.

I am debating what to pair them with. They closely resemble this female on efinch....http://www.efinch.com/birdpix2/dclbf.jpg

I have Florida silver FF, if I pair them with that I am afraid the offspring will look muddy or to washed out, it is not recommended on efinch.

I have a lightback/more on the fawn side and a lightback with a charcoal colored head. I have been reading about dominant mutations and silvers. This might be my best bet.

Below is a picture, you can see white in front of the tear which is so faint.

[debbie276]

Sure are cute!

[MLaRue]

Do you have the Garrie Landry genetic book?

I've been reading that a lot lately trying to get a refresher on different colors and it seems that most of the time he suggests breeding colors like this back to Grey to determine the offspring and to correct any color errors in a breeding?

Not saying there is a problem but thought it interesting that it was suggested to breed to Greys - like he suggest breeding the CFW to a Grey....

[cindy]

I've been on efinch and http://www.zebrafinchsociety.co.uk/inde ... &Itemid=68

The are still young. I am going to read a bit more and see where to go from here. I have a light back and a darker headed light back I could pair them with.

I may send a picture to Roy and see what he suggests. I asked Garrie but have not heard back yet.

[Nagdabit]

Have you ever joined the Zebra Finch forum on Yahoo? Roy's the moderator and Garrie along with a slew of other experts are frequent contributors. (Even "seen" Chase over there a time or two )

http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/zebrafinch/

Guess the mutation is one of their favorites games and they should be able to give you some advice on how to take full advantage of the girls genetics.

[cindy]

Thank you so much....I will join tonight...I am really getting to love all my zebras. And it all started with one little pair...Patches and Cleo from John!

[Nagdabit]

We certainly know what you mean, Zebras definitely give you the most bang for your buck, personality wise. Constantly amazed at how these four inch little creatures can display such diverse and engaging personalities.

[RomeoFinch]

Those females look like DS F. I have got the same one.

[RomeoFinch]

Now when I look at my female and yours I can see the different colour of the back. Maybe those females are isabel. They are very simillar to DS F.

[cindy]

No...John does not have Florida fancy in his aviary...they came from his place. In the past all clutches the parents threw were fawns or normals or normalsplit to fawn.

I have FF and FS from a local breeder, the FF females are more lacey and lighter.