First Success As A Breeder, But Puzzled By The Colourings

Australia
June 28, 2009 8:45am CST
My partner and I have had zebra finches for about 5 months now. We had one find us in our back yard who was injured, and he became the start of our collection. Recently, our white pair had babies. They have raised 2 of the 3 hatchlings to the point they are feeding themselves now and almost ready to leave the nest completely. It was really neat watching them grow and exciting to see what colours they would have. Well, they are almost fully grown by now, and they seem to have gotten most of their colourings, though I understand it could be a while yet before we see any cheek blotches, if any of them are males. The problem is, one of them is grey. And I mean grey. Even its beak is a dark grey, while the other one is getting the red colour. How long do we have to wait before the beaks really colour up, or is the grey one going to continue to have the dark grey beak? I'm not worried, as they are happy and healthy, just curious as I have never had finches before and the only pictures I can find any where show the classic red beak. On to the other baby. While it has the red coming through on the beak, there are no other markings at all. It is completely white, no stripes and no face lines. The eyes are dark, like the grey one, but other than that, it is completely white. So, I need reassuarance from less novice breeders that my birds are in fact fine. I know that mutations occur, but would like to know what other breeders have come up with in their breedings. If you can, feel free to add pictures to your comments of the unusual colourings and markings your finches have come up with. I would love to see them.
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1 response
@AmbiePam (93883)
• United States
28 Jun 09
I don't think I've ever seen a zebra finch, but I'd like to.
1 person likes this
• Australia
29 Jun 09
I'm working on getting some photos of them, but they don't sit still and the bars of the cage keep getting in the way. I have a fish tank thing that I might have more luck getting good photos of them in, so will dig that out and see how we go.