Canary pairing question

[Zebra]

If I want to find a male for a white canary hen what is the best option?

[Sheather]

A yellow canary.

[Zebra]

I just bought a yellow male canary, can you tell what species are these canaries?

[Sheather]

All canaries are the domestic variety of Serinus canaria, the Atlantic canary.

[Zebra]

Thank you Sheathed, I am sorry I asked the wrong question, I meant what type Canary are these? Roller, Fife, American Singer...etc? The guy I bought them from didn't know what type are they.

[Sheather]

They have an American singer shape, but if they aren't banded by the American Singer society, then they're probably just basic kitchen canaries, meaning birds that have not been selectively bred into any one breed. They can still make great pets.

[Zebra]

After listening to some canary songs on youtube I decided my next canary pair is going to be Waterslager.

[Dave]

Does your white canary have a very slight yellow tinge on the shoulder and/or in the wings? If so, then it is a dominant white canary. If both parents are dominant white birds, about 25% of the young will not survive--due to a genetic factor.

Dominant white x yellow should average half yellow birds and half dominant white birds.

There is also a white called 'recessive white'. I don't know the rules for that one.

Dave

[Zebra]

There is slight yellow on the wings so I think it's dominant.

[Mexicancanary]

I think the white canaries are so beautiful and can be bred with most other colors except another white ! I have 4 whites and a typical breeding would be with a yellow but if you want to be adventurous, try breeding your girl to another color and you will receive an assortment of beautiful colors plus you will also receive some whites in the clutch.

Good luck!

[Dave]

Mexicancanary, do you know how recessive white works? As opposed to Dominant White. I think that two recessive whites could be bred together, but I just don't know.

[paul-inAZ]

There are several sites with canary genetics. Many are confusing to me.
Here is the best writeup I've found so far:
Scroll down for the whites.
http://www.fifecanary.co.uk/cinnamons_and_whites.htm

[Christiaan]

Hi all
Most "white" canaries out there are dominant whites (like yours, Zebra), recessive whites being quite rare.

The mutation causing the dominant white coloration also messes with the birds' ability to assimilate and process vit. A, and if the bird does have a double factor of that mutation, it would die. That is why one would ideally pair up a dominant white with another color (eg. yellow), the offspring then would be 50% yellow and 50% white. (statistically speaking, real life results could be quite different. Birds does not understand statistics very well....) If one would pair up two dominant whites, the offspring would be 25% yellow (no factor dominant white), 50% white (single factor dominant white, and 25% dead (double factor dominant white.
For dominant mutations only one parent need to carry the gene for some of the offspring to show it, but for recessive mutations both parents need to carry the gene to have a visible mutation effect in the offspring.

The recessive white mutation does not affect the vit. A metabolism, and therefor you can pair up two recessive whites, like you said, Dave.

To reduce the amount of typing, the following abbreviations are used:
rw = recessive white
n = normal, a non white bird, could be yellow, green, etc.
/ = indicates that the bird splits for a recessive factor. It means the bird carry a single factor and is not normally visually distinguishable from birds not carrying a recessive factor (thus a normal bird would look the same as a normal/rw bird)
some pairing examples:
rw x rw = 100% rw offspring (visually white)
rw x n = 100% n/rw offspring (visually not white)
rw x n/rw = 50% rw and 50% n/rw (half visually white)
n/rw x n/rw = 25% n (not white), 50% n/rw (not white) and 25% rw (white). This is a poor combination, because you would not be able to distinguish between the n and the n/rw offspring without test breeding.

Hope this helps.....

[Mexicancanary]

Dave, the explanation that Christian provided was spot on, let that be your guide with whites. As he mentioned recessive whites are pretty rare and I myself have never seen one. That being said I live in Mexico so my variety of canaries is limited , that is the reason I like to try thinking outside the box when breeding and create different color combinations. I am still trying to produce an Isabel Plata and a Mosaic with my whites but so far no luck. Maybe this year! I still have a couple of whites and yellows/ and or orange that I breed together as some people want the "usual" pure white, yellow, and oranges. If you get adventurous you can always breed your male to 2 females using your yellow and try an unusual color female and see what you produce. Always remember to provide great homes for the chicks or keep them yourself.....Good Luck.

[Mexicancanary]

Zebra, your canaries are lovely and I would say american singers from their appearance. Good luck with them.