Not sure what Zebra she is... Or what her kids are...

[hailee]

Ok, so I feel like such an idiot. I always thought that she was a normal gray female... But obviously she is not since she has white under her wings. I should have noticed this a long, long time ago. I had just seen the post on split pied, and saw that they have white under their wings. Now I know why I thought the gray female zebras at petsmart looked so different from mine!

Does anyone know what kind she is? And what that would make her offspring? All of her 4 daughters are white, but two of them have a little black feather on their chest. She also has a boy who looks like a normal gray as far as I can tell, and does not have the white feathers underneath his wings. The dad is CFW, although I always thought his colors were a bit more faded than most.

Thanks!

[Dayna]

She's very cute. CFW I believe is sex linked so that would explain why all the CFW babies are girls. Cindy or Dante can tell you everything you need to know.

[cindy]

Dad is CFW
Mom is Normal Gray (NG) split to pied. If the whites with the black on their chest color out to be males then Mom must also be split to CFW since you will then have male offspring visual CFW males.

All very pretty!!!!

Mom is NG/pied (Split to pied (white wing edges)). If it turns out the offspring CFW are males then mom would be a NG/pied, CFW

Watch and see what happens to the ones showing the black smudges, time will tell.

[finchmix22]

I love the genetics with zebras! They have so many possibilities! Let us know how they color out after their molt.

[lstyles]

I agree with Cindy but mom can't be split to CFW or she would look CFW not grey right? I think those white offspring are all females that got CFW from dad. In fact as dad is CFW, all his female progeny MUST be CFW.
Lori

[cindy]

Lori..that is right!!!! what was I thinking!!!!!! Sex linked!!!! I know this stuff!!!!

Ok...the CFW's are most likely females, the smudges may disappear with a molt. Sorry for the misinformation..... (how long have I been doing this, ugh!!!!)

[lstyles]

I make that mistake all the time...especially since its the females that only have one sex chromosome and in humans its the males. I am posting on a separate post about a chick I have that I can't figure out. Check it out and weigh in on what she is!
Lori

[cindy]

Love to see her!!

[DanteD716]

Dad is CFW
Mom is Normal Gray (NG) split to pied. .

I agree!

[finchmix22]

I have a question about the chromosome. Females finches, or just zebras, have only one sex chromosome? I did not know this.

[lstyles]

That is a good question and I wasn't certain if it was just zebras, just finches or all birds. I looked it up and it turns out it seems that ALL birds have the same system. Of course not all genes are sex linked just some mutations.
Here is a link to an article about it and compared with humans:
http://www.euronet.nl/users/hnl/barr.htm

I learned something,
Lori

[hailee]

Such fascinating information! My two hens that have the one single black feather on their chest have already completed their first molt, and they each grew in one black feather there afterwards. Any idea on why this may be?

[cindy]

Sometimes with BC and BC mixes you will get a black smudging of a breast bar in hens.

[love4finches]

I just learned something myself but that brings up a question.

If females have one sex chromosome, then how do you know which one it is. Does it matter. Does it depend on the male you pair her up with?

[finchmix22]

Here is how we would chart the bird genetics for a recessive gene, let's say sex-linked like the CFW and a normal hen.

c=CFW
X=sex chromosome
Y=other (not related to inherited traits for mutations)

CFW Male=XcXc
NG Female= XY

I know it's confusing, but if we have a visual CFW hen, she has the following,
XcY.

Then, the diagram would be:
Xc Xc
____________________
X XcX Xc X

Going across, XcX is a NG male, split to CFW
____________________
Y XcY XcY

XcY is a visual CFW hen, so all hens will be CFW and
all males would be split to CFW.


Xcfw Xcfw
X
Xcfw X Xcfw X

Y
Xcfw Y Xcfw Y

All hens are visual CFW’s because only one sex chromosome
All males are split to CFW b/c hen is normal


Xcfw Xcfw
X
Xcfw X Xcfw X

Y
Xcfw Y Xcfw Y

All hens are visual CFW’s because only one sex chromosome
All males are split to CFW b/c hen is normal