Big Surprise in Zebra Clutch

[slwatson]

I have a pair of black cheeked english zebras raising their second clutch. Imagine my surprise when I discovered the white one mixed with it's siblings! I'm still not sure what it will turn out to be...mom and dad are in a single flight by themselves, so I know it's not a surprise society!

[lovezebs]

slwatson


He is smaller than the others....
And to be honest wih you, he does look like a white Socie baby.....

Are you sure that you don't have a Society gigolo, sneaking from one flight to another?
Or did another family member find an orphan egg and just pop it into this nest?

[Nerine]

That's really interesting; you might have a new mutation there!

[marymac]

Ok, dumb question probably from a newbie...... is it possible that it's an albino?? Does that happen in the finch world?

[slwatson]

lovezebs

I do have a flight cage with societies and gouldians right next to the zebras, but they shouldn't be able to get out. We both know how sneaky societies can be though And I have a white crested male that's been singing like crazy to breed.

[slwatson]

marymac

There is such a thing as an albino, but from what I've read, they're extremely rare. I don't think it's albino though because it's eyes look darker.

[slwatson]

Nerine

I'm thinking I do too....waiting for the little guy to grow more so I can tell for sure.

[lovezebs]

slwatson Nerine marymac

Now we have a mystery, lol.

Somehow I don't think that even the most ambitious Socie could fertelize over long distance

What's interesting, is that this baby is not just the wrong colour, but if you look at the picture, the size is wrong too. The dark kids in this clutch, are older than this one too.

Maybe a throw back from one of the parents back ground, and possibly a later egg... but i still don't trust that Socie, lol.

marymac

There are no dumb questions.
Yes, there are albinos out there, but then the chick would have red , not dark eyes

[slwatson]

Nerine@lovezebs@marymac

Last night was quite an exhausting adventure! One of the black cheeks fledged, and after finally snapping a quick pic of him (mom and dad guarded him and would not move) I decided to pull the little white one out. Well, as I slowly guided him out of the nest, every other little black cheek came shooting out, causing me to loose hold of the white one, who surprisingly flew to the other side of the room. I sent my son to squeeze through two flight cages to catch him, when a second fledgling flew out of the cage. In the process of this, the white one flew away from his spot and we LOST HIM! We finally gathered up everyone else, and spent nearly 45 minutes looking for the white one, and finally found him hiding in some seed under a cage. We were all worn out! It's definitely a zebra finch....he was meep-meeping the whole time.

[lovezebs]

slwatson

He's gorgeous!

Sounds like some of my bird adventures, lol. Uhemmm... I've been known to have a few rather interesting ones, lol.

So the question now, where on earth did he come from???

I know I've had white Zebra babies, but that's when one parent was white or CFW, but never from such dark parents.

Was your female in with some light coloured males before going in with this male?

[slwatson]

lovezebs

I'm not sure about the history of the parents...I got them from a friend of mine, and she was as surprised as I was when I sent her the pics.

[GouldianGuy]

Keep those parents together you might be on to something!!!

[Barbara]

Very cute,I was in petsmart the other day and they have some zebras that were white and some with a little tan in them they were adorable and I was tempted to get two little females but not sure about picking out two females.I know the beak is darker on males and they are the only ones that sing but they are behind glass.So came home without them,but the white are adorable

[slwatson]

GouldianGuy

Will do!!!

[haroun]

Hi and congrated for this clutch. May be iy can help, i breed a cfw bc with a white shadow him self issued from a back cross with a fawn bc hen l got
a grey bc, a pied bc, cfw bc and an all white hen lol wich is genotypicaly a blackcheek