Aussie Finch Forum

wagga wrote:I am sorry about taking over your post"Denozo". I will transfer my posts off this post if you like.

All good Wagga, you're still on topic with the tear drop question and comparison pics.

Not a problem at all Wagga. My original post was just a general FYI but I have found it good reading. I really hope you do well with your girls and who knows maybe one day I might get a couple off you

OK.
I have now to make a decision on what to do with this zebra's mutation. At present there is 4 hens and 3 cock birds all of them are siblings. These 7 birds are bred from large ex-show stock zebra finches with unknown heritage (mutations??). At present they are held in a large aviary waiting to see if the hens retain their colours.

What to do with these birds.
Do I try and develop it from scratch by introducing new blood lines and breed them in cabinets, small individual cages or in aviaries. Or do I pass them on to someone with the resources, time and experience to develop a new mutation.

If they are 12-18months old I doubt they are going to transform in future. 12 - 18 months is fully mature for a zebra finch. Could be a variable feature (which could be enhanced with selective breeding) rather than a mutation as such.

Breed each of them to normals, then breed the cousins they produce back to each other. Then breed the children of the cousins to outcross normals again. As they will breed every 6/8 months without overtaxing them, this will take care of a period of 18/24 months.
LML

Is this the for sale add that you were referring to:
http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/coburg/b ... 1113003768

The seller said that someone had already bought that bird.

And you can do this by putting the girls in an avairy with normals, and the boys in another avairy with normals. As it will not matter which chicks come from who when you put them together, as long as they come from different avairys. Cause 2nd time round you just do the same girls from one avairy with boys from the other and vice versa.
LML

No the birds in the original add just had a wide tear mark similar to yours.
That bird is a definite black cheek and more than likely a picture from the internet.

tear drops vary from bird to bird so they can have wide tears or I have seen them with very skinny tear drops,
those birds with the blackish cheeks have been around a long time and always only hens, had a mate work with a few of them for a couple of years and never able to reproduce it in offspring, it is just an anomaly that pops up every now and then.

Hi Wagga

Just wondering how the black cheek is going. I've got a young hen,about 4-5 months, fledged with normal cheeks but now is developing the same black cheeks that are showing on your hens

Tass