FINCHforum

hi guys,

i have a few things i need help with.

1- my baby canaries are now 7 weeks old, when should i start colour feeding them, knowing that they will start molting at about 10 weeks of age.

2- i only found colour feeding eggfood where i live. so should it be the only thing i feed them. or do i keep the same routine i am doing ( i give them eggfood daily and then two choices of either boiled carrots, broccoli, boiled sweet potato or apples sprinkled with spirulina. they also have niger seed, sprouted hemp)

3- what happens if they dont have the red gene. i mean if you colour feed a yellow bird what will happen will he turn orange?. because im not sure if they have the red gene as the mother has some red mostly orange and the father is yellow.

4- i know it is hard to sex canaries but i read somewhere that using a needle and thread technique works. or is that just hocus pocus, i wanted to try it but felt stupid  :lol!: 

thanks

1. If you want baby red factor canaries to be red, you should have began feeding the parents red color food as soon as the babies hatched. They in turn, would feed the red food to the babies. You offer it again at every moult throughout their lives.

2. You can order special color food online. The best results come with those that contain the ingredient canthaxanthin. I prefer the natural color enhancer, beta carotene found in red and orange veggies. Offer only sweet potato, carrots, beets, red cabbage, radicchio, red kale and red berries as the birds' veggies when the feathwrs are coming in.

3. If they don't have the red factor gene, no amount of color food is going to turn them red. They don't have to look red to carry the gene.

4. Needle and thread - complete hocus pocus IMO. Male canaries are usually more daring and leave the nest first. The middle toe will be a bit longer than the hen's. They will also attemt to sing at a young age, begining at around two months. Hope this helps. Bob