Phoenix24

My hen sometimes gets a bit of egg-binding and sits fluffed up at the bottom, and struggles around for a bit until she passes the egg. Does sound more like a stoke if it's on one side. Did you check under the feathers to see if there was a break or something further up (the femur, inside the body)? Is she grasping ok with that leg? Are there any other signs eg head tilting, which can indicate some kind of infection?

when my birds had their first brood (only producing one chick) the hen started laying before the chick had even fledged. She got four eggs in it, which I took away because I wanted them to concentrate on their chick and not more eggs. Maybe I should have left them and I would have more by now like you do!

Oops didn't see your post here Trevor. My mother hen doesn't have any obvious markers for BB, but I have read that the tail usually often only shows in juveniles (something I have found on the chick hen - her juv coverts have the 'split' pattern, which i will photograph next time I get chance, or when they have moulted out). The cock I have discovered have the characteristic white flecks in the chestnut flanks being elongated rather than rounded. I am guessing now that the male must be 'split' for fawn (I only just read that males can carry the fawn gene and don't show it unless they carry two copies) for the hen chick to be fawn, because hens don't pass the fawn gene to their daughters. Now all I have to do is figure out how to get the black breasted 'out' in full in the next generation.

Haha, Kerry, strange! I wonder about your fringes, and my boy's. My chick doesn't have the edgings, but does have a halo of dark spots on the breast. No idea what these are...

Aww, I would like to expand too - been looking at various larger cages, indoor and outdoor aviaries (unlikely to be able to do outdoor one though) and stacks of breeding cages. There were two zebs in our local RSPCA branch this weekend, and I offered to take them but they are going to one of the inspectors who has an aviary. I will keep looking - I would like to find a suitable colour to breed my mystery cream/silver/fawn/OB/BB female to and see what comes out. I love the black cheeked/BB/BF types, would be nice to get some of those *sigh*

I read somewhere that... was it the orange breasted... have orange fringes on the primary feathers???? My male has these which I always thought was odd. Perhaps this would explain the chick?

Oooh I was wondering why I hadn't seen tear marks coming through. The cheek patches are in full moult - but not tears - and there are bits of black on the chick's chest. i can't wait to see what their next brood produces!

Not very good pics of the parents - will try again soon - and one of their only chick from their first brood.

I gave her a mirror for the first couple of months, as I knew that she wouldn't do well on her own. She used to sit on the perch by her reflection and talk to it, and then sometimes she would obviously be having some kind of argument because she would do those angry chirps and short whirring flights. It was hilarious, actually. But when I got her the male it was love at first sight. Now he is totally different - she is now quite quiet and settled, and only ever freaks out if I have to stick my hand in the cage (even then sometimes she just stares at me) - but he by contrast is a total maniac. He bounces around like a jack-in-the-box on steroids, and is totally obsessed with nest building. He looks at me seeing only my hair ('ooo I wonder how much of THAT I could get in the nest...') rips the newspaper to shreds and tried to carry whole sheets of it (I ended up getting one of those awful cages with bars at the bottom), and if I give them millet spray he tries to carry the whole thing to make a nest. Sigh. Poor mrs bird gets no peace. He tries pulling bits out the nest whilst she is sitting and then putting them back in again. No wonder she gets P-d off with him! I will get a photo up of them all. I guessed at recessive silver for him based on photos from another zeb website http://www.efinch.com/species/rszeb.htm (he looks like the cock in this pic, but my hen does not look like that hen). All of his black is washed out (not brown) but the cheeks and flanks are full strength (so not dominant silver). I'm not sure what colour their back is meant to be, his looks the same colour as the hen's.

Just wanted to introduce myself briefly - hi there hello to all us lovers of lovely zebras. I got my first one last year, but I had a friend a while back who kept them and they were great and I fell in love. My little girl, who I *think* is a fawn, was found exhausted on the floor in a car park in Wales, and the person who found her had her in a box and was asking the store assistant at a pet store what to do with her, as they didn't even know what she was. I was being nosey, and err yeah, I told the woman what the little bird was and she looked a bit hesitant so I offered to take her and find her a new home. A few months later I gave up and got her a boyfriend instead. A few months after that and they have their first nest. He is, again I *think*, a recessive silver, though I am still waiting for their only chick (first brood not a great success) to complete moult - I think it is going to be a female. But her belly is white like her dads not creamy yellow like her mother's, though otherwise she appears to be fawn - which I am not sure how that is possible because fawn is sex linked... and i'm sure he is not fawn as he is pale grey not brown. Anyway, that's me and my zebras, though I would love to expand to an aviary full of them