FINCHforum

I was at my local petsore the other day and they had their canaries on sale for 75% off. I thought about those canaries all night long so the next Thursday I went down and purchased one. He is in a cage 18"x30"x18" in a different room from my other canaries. He seems to be healthy eating and pooping fine, taking baths and drinking. The pet store sold him as a red factor. I found a list of food for coloring Beets, carrots, cherries, paprika and cayenne pepper. My question is how to feed these foods. Right now I am offering red egg food that I purchased from the store as that was what they were feeding him. My question is how do I prepare the fresh food. Right now I am grating carrots almost to a puree and he does not seem interested. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

He is very pretty may-be you could mix it with the food he likes,maybe even with regular egg or soaked seed if he likes that ,just grate a little at a time and see if he likes it,then add a little more each time.Might work hasn't worked for my english keet yet he will not touch a thing when I mix anything in something he eats which is only egg,seed he won'the go near it.I keep trying Maybe it will work for you canaries are quite curious my keet is not the least bit interested in anything new I put in his cage.don't know how tru it is but heard that the cayenne pepper makes them sing louder ????

Thank-you Barbara, I will try that. I went to the grocery store this morning and picked up , paprika, cayenne pepper, beets canned with no salt, and fresh and cherries (which I will eat if he doesn't .

Hi there,

To be onest I'd personally not bother with any of the stuff mentioned except for the carrot which can be mixed and added to a proprietary egg food,

I've never heard of giving cherries to canaries, there probably be ok but not really achieving anything,

If you actually intend to put colour into your bird, the best and proper way to do this would be to use caraphyll red, this is bought as a powder in small tubs unless bought in bulk as like I do

This is mixed in with the birds water, best to read instructions before making any of this up because there are various strengths that can be given depending on how much water is used, IE pint, litre, gallon etc and also what type and how many birds are being colour fed,

Normally anything between 5-10 grams of colour - 1 ltr of water Is what we use,
I used to use around 5-6 grams on various British finches IE redpolls, chaffinches, bullfinches etc and upto 10 grams for exhibition mules,

To actually mix this up you add the caraphyll red to hot water ( not boiling) mix throughly and then top up with cold water to say 1 ltr, this now needs to be left to go completely cold,
You can use this bottle mix for a few days until you need to make up some more.

At first it is a little trial and error until you get the right mix for yer birds,

This is fed everyday in the birds water when the birds are moulting

Betty I think those things wold be worth the try to see what results they would have.I think ,not that I have the experience like some ,but with all my birds ,dogs, or any animals I have had I would try natural things first.Or I would let them just grow out there color and be what they would be.good luck with everything you try we are always learning new things here maybe just maybe you'll come up with something that works.

Color feeding will not do much for the feathers that are already there.
It is done when molting so that the color can be incorporated into new feathers as they grow in.
Be accurate in the dose of artificial coloring agent suppliments. Too much can be toxic. Its the old story of 'the difference between a cure and a poison is the dose'.

Absolutely agree Paul, getting the right dosage is quite critical

Thank-you Barbara, Stuart and Paul, I will start with the fresh food that I have on hand and look into the coloring food. I live in in USA, we are midsummer here and I thought that was when birds went into Molt......my other 2 canaries are loosing feathers and my male is not singing as loud, so I thought perhaps they were starting their molt, which is why I thought I should start the red factor on a diet that will help his new feathers come in with color. They do not get light when the sun goes down, so that they follow the loss of daylight. I hope I am right......thanks again everyone for being so helpful.

Yes Betty, your absolutely right, it sound like yer birds are going into a moult,

When the hrs of day light start to shorten slightly this is a natural reaction for them at around this sought of time of year to go into the moult, your summer is exactly the same as ours here in the uk, yer only about 4 hrs behind us

All of our birds are now starting to moult , funnily enough I was on the phone earlier this evening to me mate down the rd and was quizzing me on young canaries that are now moulting

Hi Betty,
You received a lot of good information regarding the color feeding of your red factor canary.
I would like to say that when Stuart mentions caraphyll red, he is using the European terminology for what we Americans refer to as canthaxanthin. (It's the same thing just different names) Check the ingredient list of the red-eggfood you bought to make sure you are feeding cantaxathin during the moult as some red eggfoods don't contain canthaxanthin and it is the best ingredient for colorfeeding because it turns the feathers red.
In the old days before canthaxanthin, paprika was used to colorfeed canaries. It will help to color your canary because it contains the natural carotenoids beta carotene and B-cryptoxanthin. Carrots are also good for colorfeeding because they are high in beta carotene and contain some B-cryotoxanthin, they can be grated and mixed into the red eggfood with a pinch of paprika for maximum intensity color feeding without hurting your canary.
Cherries and beets are red because of anthocyanins. Canaries don't use these in their feathers. Hope this helps!
John

Absolutely 100 % right jonvill, well said mate

Thank-you John, I have two red egg food but only one has canthaxanthin on the list of ingredients so I will use that one. Yes I have received a lot of information about feeding and now I have a general idea as to what to do . Thank-you all so much !!!

Betty what one had canthaxanthin in it ? Was it the one we bought in NH?

Hi Betty,

Yer most welcome

No Barbara, it was the quiko , I bought it at petco when I rescued the canary but you can get it in NH. I like that one and so does my birds much less ingredients that I cannot pronounce.