Another excellent article of the master of Yorkshire canaries, Brian Keenan. Breeders are confused while colour feeding, they tried alot of products with the aim to find the most suitable. It costs money and it can costs failures in shows.My choice the last years and most successful till now, is a great product from Standard Laboratory. A new company that founded by my good friend George Weeks . specialized in colour feeding. Many champion breeders around the world are using these products with the best results!!!
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| contact : george@standardlab.co.uk |
Learn how to colour feed from the master, Brian Keenan....
Yorkshire Canaries are one of several canary varieties where it is
permitted to enhance their natural plumage, a process know as colour
feeding. There are several other canary varieties which are also
colour-fed, including Norwich, Coloured canaries, Lizards and Stafford
canaries.
Colour feeding is easily accomplished today, and has never been simpler.
To most people's minds good colour greatly enhances the birds
appearance, although it remains of limited value according to the
exhibition standard, where a maximum of 10 points are awarded for colour so the difference between a moderately coloured specimen and one
brimming with strong, evenly distributed colour is only slight, but it
can be enough to tip the scales, if the birds are otherwise evenly
matched.
How to colour feed
To successfully colour a canary's plumage, the colouring agent needs to
be in the blood-stream at the same time as the bird moults. It is common
practice to remove first round young birds from their parents when they
are three or four weeks old, housing them in small groups for the next
two or three weeks of their lives, until the better birds are caged
separately to begin their training as potential exhibition stock.
The fancier should begin colour feeding between the time the stock is
weaned from their parents and when the young birds are caged
individually. Because the birds are not actually moulting at this stage,
their nest feathers will not show the new colour until they are moulted
out, but any odd feathers which do appear, replaced because they have
been plucked in the nest perhaps, will carry colour, as the colouring
agent will already be in the bird's blood stream. This is important,
because colouring should always be even, carried throughout the entire
body, and not patchy, which will detract from the end result. A similar
pattern is followed for later hatched birds, and finally, once parent
stock has finished breeding, they are colour fed as soon as they are
removed into their flight cages for mouting out.
Colour-feeding parent stock whilst they are rearing young birds in the
nest, will not cause the young birds any harm whatsoever. It will
however, partially colour the plumage, including the juvinile bird's
flight feathers. Unflighted birds displaying colour-fed wing flights,
could potentially disqualify themselves from the unflighted classes if
viewed by an inexperienced judge, as he or she may consider the bird to
have undergone a second-year moult, to have achieved coloured flights.
For this reason, colour feeding is best left until the birds have
feathered-up and left the nest, rather than risk disqualification.
Carophyl
Today, almost without exception, breeders use a branded product named
carophyl* (Trade mark of Roche Products). Only minute quantities are
required to colour-feed canaries, and when used as such, the product is
completely harmless.
There are three derivatives: Carophyl Yellow, Orange and Red. Yorkshire
Canary breeders use the Carophyl Orange product, although some continue
to use it's predecessor, Carophyl Red. Carophyl Yellow provides no
benefit to Yorkshires, whilst Carophyl Red is too intense for use by all
but the most experienced, having been developed for use with red-ground
rather than yellow-ground coloured birds. Carophyl Orange however, is a
blend of both Red and Yellow, and is designed to deliver exactly the
right amount of colouring agent that can be absorbed by the bird. Even
potentially overfeeding the colouring agent will not distract from the
end result, although it may of course unnecessarily damage the fanciers
wallet!
Various ways to feed
Most experienced fanciers have developed their own methods of feeding
carophyl, and all achieve effective results. Minute quantities are
required, and a rule of thumb is one gram of carophyl per bird, fed
throughout the entire moulting season. The effect is immediate, and as
soon as the bird consumes the carophyl, the digested results will show
in the new feathering. As the bird moults, the new colouring is
displayed in the wing butts, down the breast, often showing vividly,
until the newly emerging feathering opens fully. The new feathers
continue throughout the body, then finally the head and neck areas, with
the small areas around he eyes being the last to be moulted out.
Fanciers may choose to place a few grains of carophyl into boiling water
(which breaks down the oil-base of the product), and use the cooled
water to mix their soft food. Alternatively, others allow the boiled
water to cool, then mix with further cold water, and feed through the
drinking water supply, although this often results in a badly stained
bird room floor. Others mix the dry grains of carophyl with boiled egg
yolk, and stir this into their soft food mixture, in the knowledge that
their birds will pick out the yolk first, and so pick up the colouring
quickly, whilst others place carophyl into a salt or pepper-pot, and
apply a small amount to the standard soft-food, on a daily basis.
My method is a combination of the above, initially sprinkling a few
grains using a pepper pot onto my standard soft food mix, because it
saves me making up two different batches of soft food when only a few
birds need to be coloured. Once my second round gets underway however, I
make up a separate colour food mix, adding carophyl into a carrot base,
allowing this to absorb the colouring before mixing it into the
softfood base and refrigerating overnight. In the morning, the softfood
is a rich orange, and eaten with relish by the chicks. Clear, variegated
(including cinnamons) and dark birds are all colour fed, although white
ground birds and self or foul green birds are not colour fed. Carophyl
will enhance the wing bars of a dominant white canary, resulting in pink wings tails and wing butts, which looks attractive, but debars
the exhibit from competing on the showbench.
Enhancing the colour of non-fed greens is simplicity itself, and needs
no magic potions or special skills. Just hang the bird in a training
cage in the sunshine for a few minutes on warm, sunny days. The effect
of the sun's rays will deepen the green body colour, and make the
striations blacken and stand out to the best effect. Now everyone enjoys
a little sunbathe, from time to time, don't they!
The source of this great article is the official page of YCC : http://www.yccuk.com/briankeenan/
