FINCHforum

We picked up a Spanish Timbrado on Aug 14 and it has not sung yet. It only does a few short notes, but not a nice song. Anything we can do to get it singing.

Was it a young bird? You can coax it to sing by playing clips of other male canaries singing. If it is a young bird, it can also learn from the song of other males. YouTube has wonderful clips of Timbrados and American Singers. There is a extensive amount of song clips for the Timbrados from Spain on Youtube - the Spanish are very passionate about their work with the Timbrados and it shows. I have American Singers but they sing non-stop. Good luck!

Maybe he just needs a little more time to settle in? my green singer didn't start to truly sing until i had him almost four weeks.

I've recorded some of the songs from the web and played it back to him. He reacted but with just those short few notes. Maybe I jus need to keep doing it each day.

Hello Gary,
Are you sure it's not a hen?
lou

I hope not, or I will be real pissed at the vendor. Not that I can do anything at this point. But the guy did say it was a singer.
What noises will the hen make, that would help me to determine if it is a hen or a male?

Both male and female Timbrado's sing, but the male's song is longer and more involved. Many females do not sing until they are at least six months old, whereas males will sing around one month of age. So, the question is...How old is the Timbrado?? That may help to decide if you have a male or female. Keep us posted.

It has a 2011 band, but the breeder did not say how old it was. The band discussion revolved around the color, dark blue so I thought it was a 2007 bird based on the NFSS color scheme. He got the bird out to show me 11 printed on the band.

I saw something in a canary site that talked about telling the dif between M and F.
- Middle toe on males stick out longer
- Middle toe on females are usually same length as the outer toes.
Is this correct???
My bird has a longer middle toe.

I had this funny feeling that we should have gotten an American Singer from a different breeder. Oh well...too late.

ac12 wrote: I saw something in a canary site that talked about telling the dif between M and F.
- Middle toe on males stick out longer
- Middle toe on females are usually same length as the outer toes.
Is this correct???
My bird has a longer middle toe.

I had this funny feeling that we should have gotten an American Singer from a different breeder. Oh well...too late.

I don't know if that method of sexing is fool-proof. I mean, if the breeder was legitimate, I'm sure he should have been able to accurately sex his own birds. I would give your bird a few weeks -- I have an American Singer male that took 4 months after I got him before I heard him actually sing. I think playing music helps -- oddly enough, my canaries prefer loud music -- like rock & roll - heavy drums - electric guitar. They like to compete with the loud music and try to sing over it. Too bad I prefer to listen to opera and classical.....

Gary, check the vent area , the males pseudo-penis sticks up from the vent looks like a brand new eraser on a pencil, hens are smaller

Lou
It does not look like a new pencil eraser, it is smaller.
And it looks like there are a few feathers growing out of it.

Gary, to much rubbing, he wore it out it's hard to describe unless you had a hen to compare it to. get it d.n.a if you don't want to wait, i'll get you the address . They are by the s.j airport and the cost is only 11.95
lou