FINCHforum

Keep in mind I'm new to canaries so I apologize in advance if I'm asking dumb or obvious questions.

I have a pair of Russian canaries and today I picked up 2 yellow factor hens from my local bird club. I would like to try to get a couple of males eventually for the new hens but I'm wondering if I can mate them with different types/colors of canaries - specifically red factor, mosaic, or white - or is this a bad idea as it can be in the finch world?

Any song, color or type canaries can be mixed together if they are willing to breed. They are all of the species serinus. The only things you need to be careful of are "lethal traits" in corona, dominant white and hard feathered birds. Google it. I would also be careful in pairing a male that is a lot bigger than the hen. (different varieties of canaries can vary greatly in size) The eggs may be too big to pass. I love the "line" I produced by crossing timbrados with red factor staffords. Bob