Self Bengalese

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Aussie_Bengo
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In Australia, the Pied or Variegated Bengo is a finch that is quite a common inhabitant of any Pet Shop, Bird Dealer or Finch breeder, however to come across a Self Bengalese Finch usually would be a rare event indeed and you would be safe to find that many of these proprietors have rarely or have never seen them. This is a shame since the natural colours and markings of the Bengo are quite striking and reflect the origins of this finch. It is clear that in Australia we have only had pied Bengalese from when they were first imported and it has been since then that Australia closed its borders to any new finch imports so the Euro Self has not been available to Australians. It has been only by a dedicated few that the pied Bengo has been selectively bred until all traces of the white pied markings have been removed to reveal the natural pure form of this lovely finch. This is a surprisingly difficult exercise because the pied gene is particularly dominant.

I have found that Finchos actively keeping the Self Bengalese are extremely scarce across Australia and I would like to call on any people to share with me that they keep or have an interest in the Self Bengalese Finch.
Dark Chestnut e.jpg
Thanks All.
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finchbreeder
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I have a mixed bag of Bengos. But am currently concentrating on increasing my quantity of Chestnut pieds by breeding of this colour. Do you know if this colour is sex linked? As I am using chestnut to cinnamon I know that they are on a leval, neither being dominant to the other.
LML
LML
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Aussie_Bengo
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Hi Finchbreeder,

I remember you mentioning that you like the Chestnuts, they are my favorite also. You mentioned cinnamon, do you mean the common Fawn colour?

Generally speaking with the main Bengalese colours, the general rule is that;
Chocolate is Dominant to Chestnut and Fawn
Chestnut is dominant to Fawn.

I believe that only the Pearl (overseas) and the Ino colours are Sex linked and should not apply to your situation.


In your case when pairing a Chestnut with a Fawn, all offspring should be Chestnut (but split for Fawn) because Chestnut is the dominant colour, however if your Chestnut is split for Fawn (its parents were a Chestnut and a Fawn) then the Fawn gene could be laying dormant and when pairing with a Fawn (as you are) will throw a Fawn offspring amongst other Chestnuts.
To gain the best results for breeding chestnuts, I would pair the same colour together.

I hope that helps.

Cheers
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finchbreeder
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Thanks Aussie. Appreciate your help. But I had no choice in mating my Chestnut boy. As he is the only Chestnut I have been able to find. :thumbdown: I knew Choc was dominant to everything else. So put him to a fawn (sorry when the colour looks more cinnamon than fawn I forget that officially it is fawn) Did not know how old he was as he was in a "job lot" that I got. Looks like he may be rather mature. As first round she laid 5 eggs and they hatched 2. 1 of each colour. Then 2nd round of 5 eggs only 1 hatched. It is Chestnut. This is why I asked. So looks like he is split fawn. They are now on round 3 then I will split and rest them. Then he gets a new mate.
LML
LML
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Aussie_Bengo
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Good Stuff!

All the best with your Bengos.
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Aussie_Bengo
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Recently I made a portable photo box out of a cardboard box and some battery powered LED lights. I reasonably happy with the result. Here's a pic of one of my Chocolates.
Choc.e.jpg

I have added some more lights since and you can see in this picture of my Pied that the light is a bit more even.
Pied.e.jpg

Cheers.
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MadOzzie
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Location: Gold Coast, Queensland

Aussie_Bengo wrote:Recently I made a portable photo box out of a cardboard box and some battery powered LED lights. I reasonably happy with the result. Here's a pic of one of my Chocolates.
I have added some more lights since and you can see in this picture of my Pied that the light is a bit more even.
Sorry to take your detour further but is it possible to get a photo of your photo box and more info about the lights you use? Your photos are far superior to mine and Most others I have seen.

MadOzzie
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Aussie_Bengo
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Sure thing!

I'll have to get the photos of the box tomorrow, but for now I can say that it is a Beer Carton that is sealed as a closed box, there are some air holes, at the back across the top there is a slit and I have inserted another piece of cardboard down into it that has a layer of white paper stuck to it, this then covers the whole surface of the back end for an even backdrop. Inside I made a perch into a T-piece and set it up so that a bird would be at the center height of the side of the box. At the end where the camera is I cut a small door for a hand and arm to fit and slightly above this I cut a 50mm Diameter hole (with a little door with a sticky tape hinge) for the SLR camera lens to sit. The lights are small battery powered LED's that I got from Coles and have an adhesive back (I'm sure you could get something more economical at a cheap shop) I positioned them slightly on the camera side of the perch on the walls, the floor and the ceiling all in line with each other.
There is not heaps of light but I use my SLR camera that you can change the exposure and shutter speed and because of the slower shutter speed I use a tripod so that the only blurring comes from the Finches activity. A good camera definitely helps for a nice photo and mine is surely not the latest wiz bang. I haven't tried it with my small camera but I know a lot of models have some manual settings these days.

To be honest the box looks rough as guts being a sticky taped Budweiser box but my main objective was to see the result I could get from something that does not require a power outlet.... at the end of the day I am quite happy with the result.

I hope that helps a bit and I will try and get some pics of things soon.

Cheers
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Aussie_Bengo
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For now, here's a wider angle of inside
Set Up.jpg

Cheers
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MadOzzie
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Thanks! That gives me a great idea of how it works. I have a DSLR so all I need is the empty beer carton and the lights.

MadOzzie.
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