FINCHforum

I have become intrigued by web photos of white canaries but have found little concrete info. on them beyond the fact that they exist in 2 kinds of genetics.
Aside from dominant/recessive genetics what would lead me to want one or the other?
Do the whites have to be on a diet that avoids any greens or anything that has carotene or coloring agents?
Are the songs any better or worse than others?
Presumably they are OK to house with Gouldians.

anyway, I'm picking the collective brains of the folks here for general information before I start shopping for them.

thanks

White canaries differ in no way care-wise from yellow-based canaries, they remain white no matter what they eat and should be fed greens and vegetables daily, as should all canaries. The only canaries that are affected by carotene are those with the red gene inherited from siskens. Even when completely un-colorfed though these never become truly white, retaining a faint orange tint (and when colorfed they can become brilliantly red). If they're yellow-ground canaries, they will be more orange-based, from gold to scarlet. If they're white-ground birds, they will be light coral to pink to very deep rosy in color.

Dominant white canaries are what you see 99% of the time nowadays, they can be told apart from rarer recessive whites by the yellow streaks in their wings, that recessives lack. The only concern with dominant whites is that you are not recommended to breed two together as two copies of the white gene is fatal and kills the embryo before hatching. A dominant white must be bred to a yellow-based canary. 50% of resulting young will then be white.
Recessive whites are reverse, you need two whites or two yellow birds carrying white genes to get any white young. A recessive white paired to a non-split yellow (as in a yellow with no white ancestors in its background) will get you all yellow babies split to recessive white.

And they do get along with gouldians. All my canaries got on well with finches.

Thanks Dylan.

I found a guy nearby who breeds Belgian Waterslagers and just bought a pair. Nice singers.
The hen is white and has the tiny yellow streaks on the wings and about two dark feathers on her head. So she must be a dominant white. I don't know what the dark feathers mean genetically.
The cock is yellow.
He always crosses white to yellow and also advised not DWxDW. Presumably if/when I breed them it should be a mix of yellow and white. The whites intrigue me more than the yellows.

Now we see how everybody settles in and starts singing.

The dark means she is pied, is all. Pied yellow canaries are green streaked with yellow, pied white canaries are brown or grey streaked with white. She's still a dominant white, just not a pure white.