Should the “Standard” as written be changed in its wording? Or maybe sectionalised for local Society Shows?

If it was, it would allow more birds to be entered In the Pied classes at our shows. Upon reading the Standard for Pieds, one gets the impression that only a bird with fifty percent pied markings and colour is accepted. This is not so. Other Pieds can be shown! We should be encouraging breeders to show their birds regardless of how much Pied or White the bird carries.

The Standard Says – “To conform to the appropriate colour, but to be broken with white approximately fifty percent of each colour in a symmetrical pattern. The bird should retain all markings in a broken form.”

Over the years, I have never found a pied breeder who has locked in the fifty percent of pied colour in his/her birds. Why is this? Well, it’s the nature of the Pied gene in that the white selection is purely random. There are some beautiful birds with only white flights, and there are others where there is only the smallest amount of colour generally in the there backs, and of course, a lot in between including the magical “fifty percent”. Maybe its time to go back to some of the old ways in that there were classes for:

1. Light Pieds (ten to forty percent white)
2. Pieds (fifty percent white)
3. Heavy Pieds (sixty to ninety percent white)
4. Saddlebacks (obvious)
5. White Pieds (fleck of colour)

Because many people start in zebras by buying their first birds from pet shops (mostly Pieds), this range of classes may encourage them to proceed further with their interest in Pieds and maybe try to breed a “fifty percent” Pied for a Federation Show.

The words “symmetrical pattern” – what does that mean? According to the dictionary it means – to divide in two of more parts exactly similar in size, shape or relative position, balance or harmony. To a breeder, this means that the white patches of Pied should be of the same size, shape and position on both the left and the right sides of the bird. In concept of the fifty percent birds, all markings must be broken into white equally.

There are some breeders who have been trying and are still breeding in an attempt to create “Clear wings”, where only the Pied colour shows on the wings. Will they ever succeed? Why not? A Pied breeder in Holland can produce 100% Saddlebacks, it took him ten years!

Do you have the will and the time to lock in the Pied gene from its random fashion of reproduction? Why not give it a go!!

By Ellis Thornley – article courtesy of SEQZFS “Zebra Times”