FINCHforum

I have a canary baby, and I'm unsure what it'll look like once the feathers come in. Its mom is a fawn, and its dad is a red/black cobalt, and the baby is black with white fluff. And unfortunately it's the only one that hatched out of four eggs. I'm assuming because it's dark, it can't be a white dominant, but I expected to see some red by now if it was going to be red.

You will only see red if the baby is fed red color food as it grows, and the red won't be apparent until the feathers begin to open. It will probably be brown with some reddish suffusion.

Ok thanks. I don't want to feed red unless it'll be red. I'd be happy with brown though.

I think red birds always have offspring with red genes but the chick will be patchy and less well colored than the father as you're crossing breeds.

Yeah, that's how I understood it too. If the dominate white gene presented, would there still be red?

Ultimately what I'm after is a cobalt isabel. The mom is split to isabel satinette (her parents were a blue, isabel satinette carrier, male and an isabel satinette hen). Would this baby still have the isabel satinette gene? I will have some other isabel satinettes (hopefully white based) to pair with it next year.

Hi Rob
Both birds you have are dominant whites already!

This is why 3/4 of the chicks didn't hatch. Breeding two dominant whites together results in roughly 50% dead in shell chicks.

Dominant white canaries aren't necessarily solid white. Dominant white birds simply lack the yellow pigment, turning them from green to gray or brown (technically, it's called blue). They're only going to be solid white if they also have the variegated gene that removes melanin from the body either in patches or over the whole bird. Neither dominant white, or variegation, remove the red, and so your male is still a dominant white canary. Clear red factors are usually completely variegated dominant whites, as this gene combo makes a totally red bird with no other color present - but red factors can also be yellow-based, which makes a vibrant orange canary.

Your pairing is not really ideal, it will continue to result in dead eggs. White-based birds should always be bred to yellow-based ones - this means even your fawn hen and reddish male are still both white, and both should be mated to yellow-based birds.

I don't know how the isabel genes works, sorry!

Sheather

So you're saying the red/black cobalt male is a dominant white? Interesting.

I need to rethink some of my pairings now. I have another cobalt male, who looks more brown than red (I think I can see some plain yellow in there), who sounds safe to pair with a white dominate female. This fawn was supposed to be a male, but turned out to be female, and I ended up with less pairing options than planned.

Thanks!

I'm still confused. Don't people breed red canaries with red canaries? The cobalt pair I got, I was told I could breed with each other. If they're both dominant white, wouldn't that be an issue?

You know, now I'm not sure. I know that dominant white x dominant white produces a lethal factor. I don't know if people strategically breed this way with red factors though because most red factors I see are white-ground. It's possible that the typical clear red factor lines are recessive white ground, not dominant.

I'm certain red is not itself a ground color, as I have seen it show in combination with either white or yellow.

Small update: Seems very healthy so far.

Very cute little baby

Zebrafincher Thanks!

Sheather you may be able to help me figure this out. According to this site http://www.birds2u.info/cobalt_canary.htm cobalt is autosomal recessive. Which, again according to that site, would mean this canary would be at most single factor cobalt. However, the almost black coloring seems to suggest that the cobalt gene is visible. (I was pretty convinced it was cobalt, after seeing some pictures of cobalt babies, until I read about autosomal recessive)

I'm learning a lot from this little canary

Another update:

Rob wrote: Another update:

20180503_183234.jpg

Cute!! Are it’s feet okay?

Flight Feathers Yeah, not sure what they're doing in the picture, but they're fine.