FINCHforum

I will be getting a female canary this weekend to satisfy my desperate male Roller. However, because I am a pet owner and not a breeder specifically.. I am interested in an unusually coloured female of some kind as my male is just plain yellow.
As far as I know, most rollers are not bred for colour, so you mostly get plain yellow or patches (correct me if I am wrong and then I will just buy a female roller).

The thing is I am wondering whether or not it would be a bad idea to cross rollers with generic colour canaries. There is a chance they I will allow them to raise chicks in the future, but I would not be able to keep all the chicks so I'd probably sell some or give them away..

Here are my main questions:

- Would anyone actually buy half roller males?
- Would the male chicks retain the "closed beak" gene or would they be spoiled and sing with their beaks open?
- Are there any other issues which may occur that I haven't thought of?

I'd appreciate any advice on this topic, thanks.

Articuno rollers do come in main colours and variations so breeding to get colours is fine. Take the American singer its part boarder and part roller. Cross breeding different types of canaries has been done for many years and will be done foe many more. People do outcross to get particluar traits such as colour or song ECT and them use these young to cross back with full blooded type and then they use those young again ECT ECT. This is a slow process to keep that trait and to keep the bird looking like the type your breeding. Will people by half breeds well the breeders may not like a petshop Canary but people wanting a bird that has a nice song or looks nice will. I have been doing this for years xbreeding to get that nice big bird that sings great, now I have scrapped it because I have lost what I was after so now im going down another path with canaries. As for the singing it is hard to say as there are so many different styles and ways in which a Canary can sing. I've seen utbe bids oj many fqnaries from around the world American singers, Spanish, Russianajd even a new breed that's just started all have great songs and all sing differently.

I've paired a purebred yellow Spanish Timbrado cock with a red factor Stafford hen for two seasons and got some BEAUTIFUL babies. They were varying intensities of red, yellow and orange without colorfeeding. My goal was to achieve colorful birds that sang well and it worked! They pretty much sang year round even throughout the moult. Never had any trouble re-homing my babies - eberybody always loved them. Here are a couple of pics of some of last year's babies if I can get them to post. Bob

Beautiful birds!

You have very pretty birds. Articuno I think that if you find the perfect female you should get her regardless about her background. If you look for a particular singer I vote waterslager. Mine definitely has some in him and I love hearing the bubbly sounds mixed in with the whistles and trills, but that's just me

bob they are very beautiful!

Wow - stunning birds Bob and without colour feeding!! Congrats !

Wow - stunning birds Bob and without colour feeding!! Congrats !

Actually, not 100% true. I don't use "color food" or any un-natural chemicals to color my birds as I feel it is bad for their livers. I do offer plenty of carrots, partially cooked sweet potato, dandelion (leaves and flowers), cherries and fresh marigold flowers to the parents while feeding the young and during the moult. Thanks everyone for the compliments and I'll soon post more pictures of some of my canaries (past and present) in a new topic. Bob

Bob... colorfed means diferent things to different people. The only way to get a canary red is to feed it foods high in carotenoids so anything that has that on it (also betacarotene) is colorfeeding. I also use natural products ie; flowers, vegetables, fruits...
Do try red sweet (bell) peppers, the canaries love them and they give great color and are full of vitamins. I like to take these items and dry them and then ground them up onto a concentrated form. This come in handy when it is winter and growing season has passed for fresh picking.
Your birds are indeed coloring up nicely

I have a bunch of youngsters in this stage of coloring . Here is Dad with one of his chicks


and a group in many shades. I love them at this stage, they look like creamsicles or icecream push-ups

CandoAviary wrote:Bob... colorfed means diferent things to different people. I also use natural products ie; flowers, vegetables, fruits...
do try red sweet peppers, the canaries love them and they give great color and are full of vitamins.
Your birds are indeed coloring up nicely

I have a bunch of youngsters in this stage of coloring . Here is Dad with one of his chicks
[ http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu184/CandoAviary/Canary%20New/Augsnew12529.jpg ]

and a group in many shades. I love them at this stage, they look like creamsicles or icecream push-ups
[ http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu184/CandoAviary/Canary%20New/Augsnew12050.jpg ]

Very pretty!!

Bob... colorfed means diferent things to different people. The only way to get a canary red is to feed it foods high in carotenoids so anything that has that on it (also betacarotene) is colorfeeding.

I know this. That's why I later corrected myself and said that my statement about not colorfeeding wasn't 100% true. I meant that I wasn't giving them the artificial canthaxanthin or betacarotene powder. The birds in these pictures were the final product. They did not color up any further. Two other clutchmates remained solid yellow, like the dad. Bob

30 Seconds to Bob wrote:

Wow - stunning birds Bob and without colour feeding!! Congrats !

Actually, not 100% true. I don't use "color food" or any un-natural chemicals to color my birds as I feel it is bad for their livers. I do offer plenty of carrots, partially cooked sweet potato, dandelion (leaves and flowers), cherries and fresh marigold flowers to the parents while feeding the young and during the moult. Thanks everyone for the compliments and I'll soon post more pictures of some of my canaries (past and present) in a new topic. Bob

This (to me) is BETTER than colour feeding!!! It's all natural - what Canaries could eat in the wild. Thank you for clarifying, Bob Your natural methods are appreciated. Can't wait to see more pics and I wish I was closer to you - I wouldn't be getting out of birds.

Can't wait to see more pics and I wish I was closer to you - I wouldn't be getting out of birds

I'm sure you've explained plenty, but I'm new here. Why are you getting out of birds? Bob

30 Seconds to Bob wrote:

Can't wait to see more pics and I wish I was closer to you - I wouldn't be getting out of birds

I'm sure you've explained plenty, but I'm new here. Why are you getting out of birds? Bob

It's too difficult for me to go through again (and I don't want to hijack this thread too far) Bob, but I will direct you to my 2 major reasons explained at the bottom of page 1 and at the top of page 3 in my thread here -
http://finchforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=19668