Never a dull moment

[nixity]

Well - we paired up two pairs of the Society Finches that we recently purchased from Helen and Su in Texas.

The first pair is the Pearl Male with a Chocolate Hen.
Barring splits, they should all be Pearl Hens and Chocolate/Pearl Males.
Well... I noticed on the charts for the birds that the Pearl male shares the same family band color as one of the Fawn Grey males - meaning he could possibly be split both for Fawn and for Grey.

So - the first two babies from their clutch of four have hatched and there's definitely some splits happening here. Ivan Montes, a society finch breeder that recently published an NFSS article and who I've been consulting with, is suspecting these are most likely Fawns - which confirms the Pearl male is split for Fawn and also that this Chocolate hen is split for Fawn, which, I knew nothing of the genetics of any of the hens and am only guessing at the genetics of the males based on what appear to be matching family colored bands.

If they are Fawn the outer mouth marking should darken up slightly in the coming days along with the birds themselves; otherwise, it's possible he is split for Creamino or potentially that these are Albino, although to me the mouth markings don't seem pale enough to match an Albino.

If they're Creamino, that means they're Pearl Creamino Hens? How odd... sometimes I dislike surprises

Single baby, hatched 8/18


Both babies, second (bottom) hatched 8/19:

[Tiffany]

I'm still trying to learn genetics but they are very cute. You've got some good pictures.

[wellingtoncdm]

Congrats! They look great.

[debbie276]

Adorable!

[Martie]

Interesting, Tiffany. I'm going to have to sit down and think this through for my own understanding.

From the look of the babies, I would guess fawns, too. I have not had creaminos in some years, but do remember the babies had slight reddish eyes - more than these - even at birth. Albinos for sure show very red eyes right from the start. I'd be very, very surprised if they were albinos.

So if they are fawns, they could also be grey - and hens will be pearl. If they are creaminos, they are hens and could also be grey. (thinking out loud).

Can't wait for the other two to be born and to watch them all grow up.

Thanks for sharing!

[DanteD716]

Congrats Tiffany! I do not know anything really about creamino or pearl, or grey, but I do know your female cannot be split to fawn because it is sex linked, so if dad is split all fawns will be female

[kheather]

yay!!! babies!! mine hatched today from a dark eyed white, and pearl hen. He looks like your baby, red eyes! keep us updated with pictures!

[Martie]

Dante, I think you're thinking about owls - where the fawn mutation is sex linked. In Societies, it isn't, so Tiffany's hen can be split to fawn and the pair could produce both male and female fawns.

[DanteD716]

What!?? This entire time I thought fawn was sex linked in societies!!! I had all ym society breeding plans wrong! Ugh, thank you for correcting me. Os I pm'd you Martie

[Martie]

A lot of people are under the impression that fawn is sex-linked I think because there's a lot of talk about owls. Fawn in Societies is a plain old recessive mutation. Chocolate is dominant to Chestnut which is dominant to Fawn.

Got the pm and answered!

[DanteD716]

Ok, thank you, I think what confused me the most was working with sex linked fawn zebras, and fawn societies at the same time. ALso fawn firetails, but fawn owls are increasily becoming popular.

[nixity]

The only thing (as far as I know) that is sex-linked in Societies is Ino and Pearl.

They look far too light to be Fawns. I have compared photos with Su Yin's birds and her Fawns she remembers being born with darker eyes than this.
Now, perhaps if they are Pearl Fawn this is the kicker..
Third baby hatched today and it definitely has darker eyes than these two.

Will try to see if I can get my brother to send me a shoddy cell phone picture.

[DanteD716]

should be interesting Tiffany!

[nixity]

Third hatchling - astronomical difference in eye color and mouth marking color.
Hoping this one is at least a Pearl or Chocolate/Pearl.

[Martie]

The third baby is what my pearls look like when they're born - just had one the other day. Maybe your photos show darker on my monitor, but I still feel the other two are fawns. Sure wish we could fast-forward a few weeks!