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SarahR

Penguins!

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Over the winter, me and my dad lost 2 finches.

 

they were kept inside over the winter and no breeding as we separated them

 

My dad was a bit upset that we lost one of his favorite ones

 

So i was sat on my laptop, going through facebook and i saw an ad for zebra finches £4 each, so i looked at it........they turned out to be penguin zebra finches!!

 

so i bought 4 (1 male 3 females as we needed the hens) and hid them in my room.....

 

 

that night i was out in the aviary with my dad and i asked him "how much do you think penguin finches are worth?" his reply of "bout £30 -£40, why?" made me laugh, so i said i saw some for sale at £4 each.....he just laughed and replied "where? " so when i said blackpool and i quickly said "i may have got you 4".....he didn't believe me!

so we finished in the aviary for the night (as there are only quail in there) and he went and saw them for himself ( i am kind of wishing i got the chocolate bar "penguins" and put them in the cage just for a joke, but i'm not that mean)

his face was a picture..........they all just sat there and looked at him......my dad couldn't believe his eyes (he even had to look at a picture on google to make sure) haha :)

he loves them.

 

 

Anyway, i was wondering, they are in the aviary with my other finches now (fawns, pieds, CFW, BB, BC and normal grey's) 

what would need to breed to carry on producing penguin visuals?

 

attached is a picture of the 4 

 

My dad loves them, makes sure all 4 are in the aviary still every day and is trying to get them to eat out of his hand :) not bad for £15 for the 4 :)

post-3353-0-19984100-1426670417_thumb.jp

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That's one lucky dad to have a daughter like you Sarah.. very thoughtful.  :good:

 

I believe Penguin is recessive so you would need two visuals to breed 100% penguin chicks. If you use splits you would reduce the amount.

 

 

Well done.

 

Cheers

 

Andy

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Thank you, because they are out in the aviary we won't know the pairings and we don't know if they are related.

Can you get pied penguins?

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Sarah,

 

I'm not sure about that. It would be two recessive to achieve that.

 

Anyone else know please????

 

Andy

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It is certainly possible. If both parents carry the pied and the penguin mutation then chicks can be pied penguins. It's not regarded as a particularly desirable mutation because the pied can take away from the penguin markings. In reality though, desirable mutations are whatever you want, not what anyone else wants.

 

Andy

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Thank you :) me and my dad been mainly for the looks and the variety you can get with pieds and other mutations.

They are not the biggest if birds but they have fitted in perfectly with our finches in the aviary :)

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Agree with Andrew. Many mutations are possible with penguins, but I feel the the beauty of the penguin is often spoiled by mixing it with other colours. This is not to say that I would not put them in a mixed aviary...I simply mean that the mutation is best visually pure in my opinion and probably why its one of your dads favourites, 

 

As mentioned earlier, penguin is recessive......if all your penguins did pair off with other mutations then the young would carry the gene...... and if these young carrying the gene eventually paired up then  there would be a small percentage that could turn out full penguin.

 

Very nice birds.

Scott

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thank you :)

 

i really like them too haha, but as i dont know if they are related or not i dont want to risk cage breeding them.

would be nice to have a few surprises in the aviary :)

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Congratulations. I only have one penguin cock, who is paired with a black breasted fawnhen  in a small aviary setting (6 birds, big space).

The penguin is the last to breed... he is a terrible nest builder, and territorial. lol

 

Waiting for my favorite mutation babies.... and of course it is the last!

 

Your father is a lucky man.

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our aviary is huge haha, we only started last may (when they first 2 finches were put in), they looked lost in there haha 

 

i am wanting to somehow breed a fawn penguin but without cage breeding haha

my dad currently has a normal grey (possibly split BB) with a fawn hen who are on 7 eggs and due to hatch today i think haha 

 

can't wait to see what we get this year, i wont be as much hands on as last year as i have to keep up with my budgies laying lol

 

out have started to build nests (they have only been out in the aviary a week after all of them being in for the winter) and we already have eggs :) 

 

hope your male figures out the art of nest building soon.

 

What kind of nesting boxes do you use?

 

Thank you 

Sarah

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In this aviary space, I kept low density of birds... Im trying to determine the ideal space considerations for the finches.

And then I can also keep a close eye on my penguin ;)

He built a nest- but his lady friend doesnt approve. So he keeps going, and she keeps taking it apart.

 

So I have many enclosures with different setups. I have found that my finches, respond better to nest baskets- woven (parakeet size), in comparison to the boxes. Although I have one pesky ****** who decided that an external seed dish was a good idea:

Needless to say- looks like that pair would prefer a next box, and that this type of exterior feeder is a waste of money. HAHA

 

post-3791-0-52103100-1427012647_thumb.pn

 

 

Then I offer a range of things (10 different kinds of things) for nest building, and they all seem to have a preference. There is an interesting article on nest building:

http://cognitioninthewild.wptest.st-andrews.ac.uk/files/2013/05/Muth-2012-Zebra-Finches-build-nests-that-do-not-resemble-their-natal-nest.pdf

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ahhh, we use boxes and canary pans, all have straw, bark, quail feathers and sometimes old millet strands (stripped clean) for building.

just been to check and so far they prefer the boxes but only time will tell which they prefer haha :)

i have never had a hen that didn't like the nest (apart from my budgies) so she must be moody haha 

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@SarahR

 

Just an observation: I only seem to have a problem with my Blackbreasted hens with nesting, they seem more moody (more territorial, and picky). Im experimenting with preventing disease (vermin) in the nests, so I have been using a combination of different materials, and add a herbal compound (Pau D' Arco and otherwise) to make sure pests dont invade the nests. So far, results have been very positive.

 

As far as nesting material, I find the quail feathers interesting, do you gather them yourself, or do you order sterilized?

So far I have used: Sisal fiber, coconut fiber, cotton pod fiber, jute, grasses (spelt, oat, barley, etc), horse hair, fresh flowers and torn tissue paper and of course the birds will utilize anything they can carry (millet strands, veggies, anything).

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we have quail in the bottom of the aviary and with it becoming breeding season for them, there are a lot haha

 

I much prefer my budgies to the finches, every budgie i own has a name (i have about 25) and each have their own personalities, but i also see them in the finches too, i think that is what draws me to the birds.

 

We dont use anything to control vermin as so far we have had no trouble, our neighbor across the back has her own window into the aviary so we know that if any damage is done, one of us will spot it.

we know we have a field mouse near us but they never cause bother.

 

I actually had 2 cats fighting last night in the garden, my dog went mental as i watched from my window with him, they didn't go near the aviary or even bother with it, i keep an eye on it during the day's i am in but we rarely see cats around the aviary now (plus all the birds are inside over the night)

 

i have once had a finch use a leaf of lettuce on their nest, stayed there for about a week (as the hen was on eggs) until i just took it off, so far we have a nest made out of bark haha, i will try and get a hold of more nesting martial and see what they do, but it has to be quail friendly as they nibble on anything haha 

 

the finches also get dried meal-worm (usually daily as we feed them to the quail) and i have seen them inside nests before now, nasty surprise when i was on egg-candling duties lol

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