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Cage have made it their goal to provide birdkeepers with a wide selection of
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service. Check out some of their cages that Robirda
recommends!
It's almost time for the annual moult, and that means this is a
great time to be sure you have all the accessories you need on hand. See some cage accessories Robirda recommends.
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Our next issue is due June 5th. We hope you and your birds
stay safe, well and happy in the meantime, and we look forward to seeing you all
then!
Robirda
May 22, 2005
Kelowna, BC, Canada
"Just a short note to tell you how great your ezine is... As a long
time bird lover I thank you for your wonderful mag. Keep up the great
work!"
"I ordered 'Canary Tales' by Linda Hogan last year...Although I fully
recommend buying the book, I find Robirda's book much more complete, easier to read
with less difficulty finding information."
"You have the most informative and helpful small bird site on the
Web. I have found your information priceless and inspiring."
"Thank you so much for the book on canaries. That is a really nice
book. I needed one, because I bought my Mom two canaries, a male and a female, we
don't know anything about them. I'm so glad to have this book, I couldn't believe
how much was in there. Thank you so much!"
"Hi Robirda! Thanks for your thoughts (via email consultation). My
little one is singing as loudly and pecking at my hand as hard as ever. He looks
much better today. Your advice was most welcome; I'm particularly grateful about
the recipes! I sent you the same amount the vet charged me; you have done no less
than he did for my bird. You are a real blessing to all of us canary lovers the
world over."
Welcome to Robirda's Companion Bird
eZine For breeder or pet bird owners who
care.
The original CLASSIC or OLD-TYPE MOSAICS were one of the natural
developments of the hybridization experiments with the Red Siskin. They initially
appeared in 1929/1930 in the form of the occasionally bred, heavily frosted and
very pale whitish-colored bird, invariably a hen, displaying some orangy-colored
areas - primarily on the wing butts and rump, sometimes around the eyes and with a
flush on upper breast - in a pattern that can best be described as a blend between
the female Red Siskin and the female Wild Canary. Some of this color almost always
extended down into the wings, around the face and head, and occasionally down to
the belly as well.
His curiosity piqued by them, German breeder Mr. Bruno Matern
set up some breeding experiments, by 1933 producing a strain of far more strongly
red-pigmented birds than had since been achieved that were referred to as
RASTENBURG REDS and CARMINES. The hens of this strain displayed a partial dimorphic
patterning, being primarily red but very heavily frosted around the neck, upper
breast and mantle, and around the vent area.
Rigorous selective breeding over the years eventually resulted
in some beautiful mosaic hens, both lipochrome and melanin. These females lacked
even a trace of frosting, having very short plumage with a superb silky delicacy of
feather. They were pure white in color with very well contrasted color points of a
bright and intensively luminous red, including fine and well-distinct ocular
lines.
For several decades it was generally assumed that the dimorphic
color characters existed only in hens, but by 1951 additional breeding experiments
conducted by a Mr. Edwin H. Kerrison, Jr in the United States had produced some red
males that were so excessively frosted throughout they were an obvious apricot
color. This frosting tended to be especially heavy around the neck, mantle and
back, and they additionally had extensive clear white areas on most of their
underparts, including the sides of the breast, flanks, lower belly, vent and
undertail coverts.
Their red pigment was deepest on the face, wing butts, breast
and rump and covered a wider area than the same color points of the hens, even
allowing for a distinctive goldfinch-like facial mask. When these males were then
experimentally paired to the traditional dimorphic hens the resultant hen offspring
came even closer to the ideals that breeders at the time were working towards,
although color usually extended well into the wings and, by today's criteria, was
often too spread around the face - and in both genders was entirely too diffuse
overall.
Nowadays these Classic Mosaics are rarely seen anymore, having
been supplanted by a new form, the NEW TYPE MOSAICS. These were first developed in
Italy sometime during the mid to late 1960s from unusually buff-feathered
English-bred Glosters that displayed what is undeniably the Wild Canary/general
Serinus dimorphic pattern in their distribution of yellow lipochrome color.
At the Reggio Em'lia Show of 1969 the world-renowned French
Colorbred expert, Mr. Mario Aschri, marveled at these mosaics for he realized that
they were not only spectacular examples of Canary dimorphism, they were a new and
different form of it altogether. These hens were pure snowy white throughout with
their red color points so clear and distinct they were all but stencilled on.
The males were plumaged in pale pink-suffused white with bold
white areas displayed on their underparts in lower breast, belly, flanks, and vent
areas. They had vividly red goldfinch-like facial masks and some pink suffusion on
their backs, while breast, shoulders and rump were much as the hen, but even pinker
in tone and the red was more extensive on the breast.
The New Type differed from the Old in two other important ways.
First, the overall Type had become more that of a typical Serinus and less that of
a Carduelis: the birds were heavier-bodied, the head stronger, the legs shorter,
the eyes slightly almond-shaped, the plumage longer, thicker and fuller. Second,
the ancestral Serinus pattern of dimorphism had come to the fore, seemingly
blending with and/or entirely replacing that of the Red Siskin.
In modern-day breeding of these New Type Mosaics the color
points may also be had in yellow and orange, although the latter isn't considered
an exhibition form. Their distribution is precisely delimited by sex and each color
point should be complete, intensely colored and very sharply contrasted against the
rest of the plumage without a trace of frosting, the design perfectly symmetrical
in size, shape and tone in both the clear lipochrome and self-melanin varieties,
without any contiguous areas or overlaps.
In hens (known as Type 1), a short (±.2"), narrow and
evenly balanced horizontal streak of intense lipochrome color must extend only as
an eyebrow or a small, clean, triangular eyeflash no further back than just behind
each eye with the tip well delimited and pointing towards the nape.
Under no circumstances should it extend down to the cheeks, or
around the eyes, or up to the frontal, or back to the nape. The wing butts
(shoulders) should each display an intensely-colored patch of short and close
colored feather without a hint of frosting and without the color bleeding down into
the wings.
The rump should also be colored, the color never extending up
onto the back or creeping down under the body or into the tail feathers. And if
coloring appears on the breast at all, it shouldn't extend beyond a small area of
light suffusion at the very center.
In males (known as Type 2), a small, complete and rounded
color-saturated goldfinch-like 'mask' should cover the face up to the forehead,
entirely surrounding the beak, chin, frontal and eyebrows and continuing back in
neat and clear symmetrical points to just behind the eyes without the fault of
bleeding down onto the cheeks or throat, or up to the top of the head, or extending
around to the back of the head.
It should be very even in color and be well contrasted with the
mantle. Shoulders and rump should be intensely colored with as little frosted
feather in evidence as possible, the shoulder patches larger than those of the hen
without bleeding down into the flight feathers or over the wing shields.
The colored patch in the middle of the breast should be
obviously more extensive and richly colored than that of any hen, contrasting well
with the mantle without reaching up towards the throat or running over to the
flanks or down to the belly, and ideally be in the shape of an inverted
triangle.
The remainder of the plumage should be as clear of lipochrome as
possible but, because males always exhibit more color than females, it's rare for a
male with a complete mosaic pattern to have a back as clear as that of a female.
They almost always display more colored feather on mantle or flanks, and a slight
lipochrome color suffusion in the plumage will almost always be present, all in all
making them less purely white overall than the hens.
As the natural dimorphic pattern of lipochrome of the Wild
Canary, particularly in the male, is usually more extensive than the mosaic
standard for either sex proscribes, the most common fault seen in them is for the
color point areas to be larger than desired.
The mosaics are unpredictable in their inheritance patterns and
it's impossible to visually determine if a bird may be a carrier for the factor.
Inheritance appears to be dependent on the interactions of several genes for it is
to some degree both gender-linked and recessive, yet also dominant as well.
Because of this, even when show-quality mosaic is bred to
show-quality mosaic, exceptional pattern and color contrast is never a guarantee in
the offspring. Moreover, one may find cocks which have almost as little visual
lipochrome as hens, as well as hens which display almost as much lipochrome as
cocks, including near full facial masks.
While such birds are useless for exhibition purposes they can be
highly-valued breeders, over-marked hens producing well-marked sons and
under-marked cocks breeding quality daughters.
The CLEAR or LIPOCHROME MOSAICS are the most popular and the
most visually striking of the mosaic's color forms. Exhibition-quality birds are an
overall bright and luminous opaque chalky-white, the hens more so than cocks, with
pure, clear and distinct color points of yellow, orange or red. The beak, legs,
feet and claws must be clear pinkish-horn.
Traces of melanin in the plumage, beak, legs, feet or claws are
faults, as is too much lipochrome on the back or in the wing flights and
tail.
Exhibition-quality MELANIN MOSAICS or PIGMENTED DIMORPHICS are
generally an overall chalky-beige to silvery-whitish, again with an intense
suffusion of lipochrome yellow, orange or red only in the proscribed areas. They
display the standard Black, Brown, Agate or Isabel Series markings as in any of the
Classic or mutated New Melanin forms but, because the dimorphic feather is so much
broader and softer than that of the frosted, so the markings and striations in
these pigmented forms are correspondingly broader and more diffuse.
Additionally, they may appear to have less lipochrome but this
is only because some of it is hidden by the overlaying melanin. Moreover, since the
lipochrome is restricted to certain points and is lacking in the body plumage, the
melanin markings displayed there appear to be of a different color tone than those
on the color points or those on the self versions of the same melanin
variety.
In both lipochrome and melanin forms the reds are by far the
richest in contrast and very striking, but the yellows, although not as boldly
marked, tend to mask many otherwise obvious color faults simply by their
comparative subtlety.
The addition of the ivory factor to the color points lessens the
intensity of contrast of the mosaic pattern with the ground color and these birds
usually can't compete on the bench with mosaics which lack the ivory factor unless
they are exceptionally well-marked.
The definative oranges usually aren't considered exhibition
forms. As with all the red-factored mosaic varieties, color-feeding is manditory if
these birds are to acquire their full tonalities.
- 'Living With a Parrot', by Wilhelm Kiesselbach.
Top-notch parrot-keeping ideas from life-long experience!! www.robirda.com/aboutparrots.html
PlaySwings;
All birds need to play, and an interest-filled swing
is one of the best ways to encourage healthy, fun playtime.
- Our Activity Center PlaySwing is a multi-perch
high-interest swing, offering plenty of exercise and space for several toys and
treats. www.robirda.com/playswing.html
- Our Tug 'N Swing PlaySwing is great for those 'picky'
birds who always want to be pulling at something. Check out this durable toy and
swing combo! www.robirda.com/swing.html
Canary
Screensavers;
We offer canary screensavers in a variety of resolutions, free to try for a
month; www.robirda.com/ss.html
Care
Sheets;
Use our illustrated printable Care Sheets to teach other bird club members,
your customers or your friends how to care for their pet birds. We offer Care
Sheets on Canaries, Cockatiels, Small
Parrots, Handfeeding, Soak Seed & Nestling
Food, and Genetics & Lineage Charts. www.robirda.com/care.html
"Everyone always asks
me why my birds are such beautiful singers and breed such magnificent babies...I
tell them that I learned from Robirda! While they give their birds all kinds of
'magical' formulas, I just follow your guide to 'keep it simple.' My birds are now
very healthy, and there has been no recurrence of the infection. Thank Goodness!"
R.C., Florida
"Even after I made all
sorts of changes, my canary still hardly sang. But after I ordered your CD, he sings and sings - I guess he just needed someone
to show him how he was supposed to be spending his time! Thanks for such a nice
CD."
Our canary song CD offers great
quality for one of the lowest prices you can find on the market - and unlike some
vendors of canary song CDs, we don't lie about what kind of recordings you'll get,
or its intended use. Our CD of Robirda's canaries singing
has no distracting background music, and includes 12 16-bit true-stereo tracks,
each averaging 4.9 minutes long, for a total of 58 minutes and 48 seconds of pure
canary songs.
Listen carefully to our 10 second sample
in mp3 format, and you will be able to hear the different positions of each
bird! Note too that the CD quality is much better than this sample mp3.
A recent customer told us, "Wow! Our old canary is
singing new songs, learned from your CD! He listens intently until the CD ends,
then starts trying out everything he's been hearing!"
Our tip this issue comes from Flock reader Caroline, who
writes,
"I sprinkle spray Millet on my canary's veggies. It makes the
millet less messy and he loves it.
"I have had my canary Precious for 6 months. He was given to me
by a woman who wanted to get rid of him because he never stopped singing and she
found it 'annoying'.
"When I took Precious home he was in a 13 inch round cage I now
refer to as the 'torture Chamber'. I don't believe in caging a canary in small
quarters. He now resides in the canary cage you recommend, a large flight for $135.
(ed's note; the '480' cage)
"My 3 yr. old son recently asked where Precious was and who this
new orange bird was. Precious never had cuttlebone or fresh fruits and vegies
before, which he LOVES!! He is in a moult and changing color from pale yellow and
white to orange and white.
"The woman who gave him to me said he was orange, yellow and
white when she got him, and he then turned to yellow and white. I believe this was
due to a poor diet.
"I am thankful he was given to me, and feel sad that some people
are unaware of what their pets' requirements are."
"Robirda's website, bird board and e-zine are invaluable tools for
any birdlover."
"Thanks for the great information you provide. I have learned so much
from reading your work."
"This is a wonderful resource, invaluable to a novice like myself.
Keep up the great work!"
"Thank you so much! You are providing a great service and are
obviously a caring person."
"Thank you for the outstanding information and services you provide
for us"
"I am so grateful for this site and all the excellent advice and
education I have received."
"I love your website, your information has made me a very
well-informed canary friend/owner. Thank you."
Bird & Cage
is having their BIG Summer Blow-Out
Sale - prices have been slashed, so drop by for big savings on many wrought
iron cages!
