Hey guys, I was wondering if the spots on the side of zebras take longer to come in? I decided to keep the male from my two zebras' first clutch, and I noticed that he really doesn't have the spots on his side like normal greys typically do. His sides are a brownish color, but not as impressive as his father's, and he has maybe one or two spots on each side. I am not concerned about it, just curious. As a side note, I made the mistake of putting him in the budgie room once he was weaned, because he refused to eat, and he started trying to imitate the budgie sounds. It has been a bit of a pain trying to get him to learn the proper song.

It could be taking him a while to finish feathering or it could be just that it isn't coming in, period. We have a couple of boys that have interruptions in thier flank markings. My guess would be that it's due to a Pied influence, but that's only a guess.

We have a male or two whose song has been influenced by surrounding noises. We think it adds a uniqueness to the chorus that is our bird room.

Yes if introduced to different songs/sound at the right time, they will pick it up. I wonder how some of my zebras got the song/sounds that they have.

I had a zebra that I left w my societies a bit too long, and he called and sang like a society. None of the zebras responded to his call, as it was not a zebra call.

I have a zebra juv that has somehow picked up a gouldian song. The 4 juvs are together in a molting up cage, so they can molt w/o the stress of adults and so I can determine their sex before I move them to the adult community cages. This is despite having adult male zebras closer to him than the gouldians. At least he has a zebra call.

I thought I would give a little update on the spotless zebra. All of his marking have shown up, spots and all. It took three months for this to happen, but better late than never. I should have suspected that a male's markings would take longer, since there are more and they are brighter. Hopefully I can get a picture of him and his sisters up soon!

Thanks for the update. Glad to hear the little fella got his markings. And yes, pics would be nice.

Here are some pictures of our birds in their full colors. The male's name is Pan, and we haven't named the girls because we would like to sell them, and naming them would make it too hard to do that.