Information regarding canaries

[vinay]

Hi everyone

I am planning to get myself a canary/canaries in near future and would really appreciate any info on them. I'm okay with the diet/space requirements bit but am woefully unclear on their housing(compatibility with each other/other species ) .
Questions
-Would it be okay to house canaries (both male and female) with diamond doves and Gouldians in a large flight cage ?
-Or should I only house a female with the other birds while keeping the male in a separate cage ?
I am not breeding any of the birds in the common cage at the moment .
-Are canary males really that aggressive to other males or females ?
-If I do decide to breed in the future , would I need to separate the breeding pair or will they coexist with the other birds ?

I'm also quite interested in their mutations and would like a link to site online where I can educate myself in detail . I have not been able to find a single site with picture illustrations containing all the info(colours, mode of inheritance, ) .

-Regarding mutations , there is little info on what to/not to breed to each other apart from avoiding breeding 2 cresteds. Or if combining song to colour types is advisable etc. as well as breeding outcomes.


I'm sorry for the long post as well as the many questions to follow .

[kristofer]

sooo let's start slowly shall we haha! :

1. I advise against housing them with goulds and diamonds since these tend to thrive on millet/panicum mixes while canaries tend to live on the canary/rape/linseed type mix etc....

2. I would keep them separate from the birds you have but i have successfully kept them long term with green finches and goldfinches in small breeder cage.

3. Males will leave peacefully with other males but there are always exception to the rule but most just tend to live in peace. Keeping a pair together might be asking for trouble, especially if one of the birds isn't in the mood for some lovin which could start up a war in the cage.

4. Breeding them with other birds in the cage is again dependent on the pair, i have had birds that stayed on eggs and raised young while green finches where in the flight with them. But my current male isn't the best when tolerating other birds in his territory.

5. Mutations... ok I admit i suck at these hahaha i tend to focus my efforts on species that colours

I hope this helped.

[adoumski]

I beleive kristofer answered ur housing questions.

When it comes to breeding, in general
You need to breed intenssive to non intenssive to preserve feather quality.

Also dominant white birds should be bred with recessive whites, as two dominant have a lethal gene and 25% of chicks will not be viable.
Dominant white bird will have a yellow tinge on its flight feathers (if all white)
If its a Melanin (brown or green...) the last few flight feathers will be white.

It is always advisable to breed birds of the same type or posture or song to each other to preserve their specific trait.

Hope this was helpful

[Atbird]

I recently added diamond doves to my canary cage (4 ft x 4 ft x 2 ft) they also live with a pair of linnies with no problem. I used to have two pairs, but I kept having problems, first the females would fight, then the males, etc. I now have one pair and their daughter, hopefully they will be ok through the breeding season. I put them in a smaller cage when breeding because my linnies were playing with the nest.

As for breeding, you mentioned that you wanted to breed song to color types. Essentially they are the same species, but each breed (type) has been developed and breeding them together will create "mutts" (kitchen canaries).

[vinay]

Thank you for the info . I'm not particularly interested in breeding them as such . I just like obtaining knowledge regarding them.

I tend to become obsessed with any new species that catches my eye. I was never much of a finch/dove person but after being gifted my female Gouldians a couple of months ago , finches have become my new area of interest.

[Smurf]

If your looking for info on canary genetics this is a very good article

http://dunedinbirdclub.freehostia.com/a ... l#genetics

Only advice i'd give regarding what type/colour of canary to get is AVOID all varieties that require colour feeding such as red/orange mosaics until your more experienced.

[Atbird]

Smurf, why avoid color canaries? I love and own the red black (bronze) canaries and don't find them any more difficult to take care of. Other than providing red egg food, which I buy from the store and feed dry, they require the same care. The worst that can happen is that their feathers don't get enough color and you have to wait a year for the next molt...which happened to my hen this year, who I had to separate due to fighting and forgot to give her egg food for a few days so now some of her feathers are orange rather than red, but I don't think anyone would notice.

[Smurf]

Atbird, reason i say avoid colourfed canaries is because i thought you were totaly new to canaries, i'm only a novice myself to birds and purchased/bred from a pair of orange mosaics earlier this year, colour feeding the young took so long that i lost all interest in keeping canaries and even after 5-6 months of colour feeding i still wasn't happy with outcome. To be honest having to colour feed put me off canaries. You say your hen didn't colour up properly ? could you imagine a novice having bred 20-30 youngsters which didn't colour up properly and being unable to sell them on for same reason ?

[lovezebs]

vinay
Hello.
Please check out several pages on: ' First Time New Canaries' by Justino222 on this Forum under, All things Canary. I ('Lovezebs') did post some information on there, which may answer some of your questions. The thread was posted on Aug 05/2014.

~Elana~