Very Basic Genetic Question

[Linford 4]

If you breed CFW to CFW do you always get CFW, what are the downsides if this is the case, do you loose colour?

[dave huntington 94]

yes all cfw produced with that pairingif already of good colour,no reason youngsters shouldnt be of good colourDave

[Linford 4]

Thanks Dave, just as i had hoped.If you wanted to darken the colours can you introduce normal colour, i beleive introducing fawn tends to make the white go fawnish.Sounds like i know what i am talking about!Mark

[dave huntington 94]

yeah stay well away from fawns but by all means introduce normal to improve colouri would use a normal hen initialy paired to a good coloured cfw cocksome of the young produced will be normal split cfw cocks and these are the birds to put back into your cfw linei have done this before and have managed to darken my cfw linehope this helpsdave

[Linford 4]

Thanks Dave, great advice.Mark

[Tam-M 13]

Dave, I've been trying to get normal hens for months now and thay seem to be (pardon the pun) like hens teeth I cant get any, the ones I can get are just to expensive for me. just wonderd if you new why this is mate?cheerstam..

[dave huntington 94]

in my opinion good quality normal hens are the most important birds you can have in your shedthey can improve virtually any studtherfore being of such importance are hard to get hold ofi have produced a few through my cfw this year and even found getting pure normals cocks difficulthowever picking a pair of normals up next weeki reckon a few are lost through all these bloody new colours and peaple trying to get as many colours on a zebra finch as they canif we are not carefull we could find normals a rareity if more newcomers dont take these birds upnothing looks better than a top pair of normalsdave

[Tam-M 13]

I hear you mate, I have a couple of real nice normal cocks to pair up with cfw hens but I'm trying to get hold of some normal hens to pair up with cfw cocks just to bloody hard to get at a realistic price. oh well I'll have to keep looking I will get some one day (I hope)cheers mate.tam..

[dave huntington 94]

if you cant get normal hens this year you could pair a normal cock to chestnut henyou could get some normal hens via that routedave

[paulm 119]

Cant agree with Dave more,also most Normal cock birds are split for everything under the sun the hens can come out as god knows what colours.Paul

[Tam-M 13]

never thought of that dave, paul, genetics puzzels me a bit lol lets hope I get some normal hens out my pairings, will let you both know in the new year.cheerstam..

[dave huntington 94]

really hopefull of breeding a few next year looking at some normal cocks next weekgot three nice hens here just need to get them through the winter and hopefully a couple of them do the buisness next yearfingers crossed

[Tam-M 13]

yes good luck to us all mate hope we all get what we'r trying for.cheerstam..

[finchdude 9]

Hi all I have to agree with Dave on the normal hens improving a stud I breed some tricky mutations and the best investment I ever had was introducing Normal hens in selected pairngs!!! The benifits are fantastic in the long term!

[Peter Finn 0]

Dave, I've been trying to get normal hens for months now and thay seem to be (pardon the pun) like hens teeth I cant get any, the ones I can get are just to expensive for me. just wonderd if you new why this is mate?cheerstam..

Hi,rare variety mutations aside,the simple use of the mainstream colours,Fawn and CFW,will reduce the number of Normal coloured hens produced by a Normal Grey cock...if he is split for both these sex-linked colours,only 1 in 3 of his daughters will be Normal....the colour of his sons will depend on the mothers colouring.It's almost a self perpetuating situation,as in the same way that using Normals to improve the colouring in CFWs will work well,it also results in more Normal cocks split for CFW....and so it goes on.Ricky Thomas,who recently suffered the tragedy of his stud catching fire,although I don't know him,I do know he was concentrating on breeding a line of as pure Normal as possible...and although I cannot speak for him,I wouldn't be at all surprised if these sex-linked colours were still cropping up,many generations later!I have experienced a recessive gene(not quite the same as a sex-linked one,but similar,in that it's not dominant)cropping-up,totally unexpected,after 14 generations,in cat breeding,when a nephew/niece mating was done!

[paulm 119]

Thats the thing with recessive mutations you just dont know if their there till they pop out in breedeing and are near impossible to get rid of because of the problem of identifying them in the first place.Paul.

[dave huntington 94]

i have never bred off a yellow beak but seem to produce one or two every couple of years you rarely see them at shows or when at other breeders birdrooms but the odd one keeps cropping upi have this nightmare where i breed 100 of them one year Dave

[paulm 119]