paulm

Hello liam and welcome to the forum.

Dave heres a photo of a bf Hen its not a great photo but you can see the darker underside and barring near the tail of the bird.Paul.

I think we might need another photo that cage bars running right in the wrong place,i see what your saying Mark the tear looks like it runs to the cheek like a split bc.Paul.

Hi Dave I can see what your saying in photo one but if i were you i would have a good look at her underside,if she is a Blackface she should be darker than a normal hen on her underside with barring on the uder side of the tale a bit like the bars on a cock birds chest,but this can all be of varying degrees but is usually there,im not sure how the pied mutation could affect this.Paul.

Hello again Ebrahim and welcome to the forum.Paul.

Hi TrevI know what your saying but it seems with zebras that some mutations are very much so lagging behind because of the difficulty in breeding these mutations and improving their type and size,i have heard it said that some mutations and combinations have a tendancy to throw smaller type birds making it difficult to improve them,i was told and i dont know how true it is that the penguin mutation had a tendancy to lose size and it took good none pengiun birds bred in to keep the size up in them,but i have never kept penguins so i dont know if this is the case. The thing is it depends on the judge and the quality of birds involved as they are judged against the same model for type no matter the colour and the closer to the standard the better the birds chances,you may well win your class but then you may be up against say some fantastic fawns for best in show,this is one reason you dont see many multi combo birds on the show bench even though it would be nice.But this doesn't mean you shouldn't try and improve the mutations you like as you may well be the person who manages it.All the bestPaul

Hi When breeding exhibition zebra finches it doesn't matter what colour we are talking about it must be judged to the uk standard for type and colour,if it is a rare colour mutation but like a match stick i dont believe it will do well on the show bench against better type birds.Also as rule of thumb you so never double up on dominate mutations,i have never heard any good come from doing this.Paul.

Hello Wayne And welcome to the forum.Paul.

Hi DaveThis site is more active and has a good bunch of people visiting it.Paul.

Welcome to the forum Dave.Paul.

Hi Trev Cfw is sexlinked just like Fawn so a split or visual cock to a Cfw hen will produce Cfw cocks and Crested is dominat so it may or may not happen,luck of the draw im afraid.Paul.

Hello Chris And welcome to the forum.Paul.

Hi MarkWhen the birds are in the flight they have the option to move away from you if even a little,they have more freedom something which is taken away from them when placed into a smaller cage,this is something we have to work on by getting the more flighty birds use to our closer proximity over time,Most will settle when they get use to your close presence and dissociate you with danger to a certain level.Paul.

Hi Mark If i have a bird which is to flighty i place it into a smaller breeder in the shed this seems to calm most of them after a while,i also place them into a show cage with seed and water and take them into the house for a few hours so they get use to people walking past them,most times this helps to settle them also.Paul.

Thats a valuble comment Mark about placing them in the a show cage and the reson why is,if you want to show birds you find they change so much when you put them into a show cage,some change for the better leaving you thinking "it didn't look that good in the stock cage" and others go to pieces leaving you thinking it looked better in the flight.So if you want to full assess your birds pop them into a show cage as a pair and see how they look.Paul.

Hi Mark A nice useful hen you have there.Paul.

Hello and welcome to the forum.Paul.

Hi AdrianNice birds hard to tell size from a photo but they look useful birds.Mark its hard to tell about the hen in the photo she's puffed up and down on her legs in the picture is she ok,she could be in need of a breather either that or she was just roosting.Paul.

Hello Dean and welcome.Paul.

Yes a lot of the time you find a squashed chick and think it has died as a result of being squashed,but it may well be,as i have found that the chick has not been fed by its parents and starved to death then been squashed after this.One thing i do if im unsure of a pair is check the nest afew times on the second day and sometime 3rd day to see if i can notice any food in the chicks crop "neck",in the first 24hrs the chick still feeds from its yolk sack and is fed beyond his time by its parents,so this is the time to check if you do check a couple of time through the second day and its crop is empty you may wish to consider moving the chick or hand feeding the chicks if your brave enough but be warned this is time consuming.Paul.

Hi MarkLook at it this way you will won't be short on Fawns to show,even if you couldn't bench many Creams you may well of bred a fair few Fawns.I had the same headaches with the Silvers,none in a nest,all cocks in another,some with dark cheeks some with white cheek,but what beautiful coloured birds they were well worth the effort.Paul.

Hi Mark Its sound like you've done well this year with your birds,so full credit to you and i for one am looking forward to seeing your birds up on the show bench as it's always a pleasure to see dilutes.Paul.

The best way to breed Dilutes is the dilute bird back to its base colour i.e Cream x Fawn or Silver x Normal,you Pair it back to is base colour because you want to breed more birds of that colour,by this i mean if you want to breed a fawn dilute (Cream)your best bet is to pair a cream which is just a dilute fawn to a fawn this way all the chicks will be fawn and hopefully you might get the dilute mutation which is present in one of the parents kicking in to produce Fawn dilutes (Creams) dont forget the dilute mutation is a dominate mutation so you have to have it visually displayed in one of the birds in your breeding pair.The only reason to pair out side your base colour is to produce dilutes of a different base colour i.e silver which can be done from cream to normal pairings if your very very lucky.Paul.

Hi Marc And Jo Sometimes Zebra finches that have not reared chicks before dont seem to know what to do with them when they hatch,either that or the instinct to feed the chick has not yet kicked in,but 9 times out of 10 the Parents will start too feed you may lose a few chicks and it may be on their next round of chicks but usually they will come good,just make sure they have soft food availble to them prior to the chicks hatching.If you are unlucky and you do get a hen which will not feed after she has been given fair chance to i would either not breed her in the future or replace her for another hen who might breed better for you.Hope all comes goodPaul.

Hi MarkIts sound like you have done well with the amount of creams you have bred and are well on your way to establishing your own stud of cream birds,so it would be a shame to complicate it to much by chasing to many variations of the dilutes before you are well established with the creams,having to many colours can make things a lot harder especially if you want to show your birds.Paul.