Originally Posted by T S Kan

Hey Andrew!
Your first-time self-bred 'tai mong' is coming along very nicely.
Truth is when I first started, my initial success wasn't half as nice as what u have just produced ...... maybe I was using a lousy female bred by somebody who knew nothing about breeding shamas altho he was doing this for years without any decent result then. If I had known I would not have wasted 3 breeding seasons breeding with better birds so that I could get rid of the lousy genes inherent in my bred birds because of my big mistake using this lousy female in the first place ... I sh have used a wild-caught Langkawi female initially offered to me instead & then I would not have wasted those initial years!
By the looks of your 'tai mong' I can see it has the long tail genes. For a first generation young bird it definitely shows a lot of potential. With this generation of youngs u sh continue to breed the female young bird with new wild caught males with good characteristics and tail of at least 10.5 inch length & then continue to do same with the next generation young female and when the chicks arrive u will have succeeded by then with male chicks having at least 11.5 inch tail for the first moult and females with tail length of at least 7 to 8+ inches.