Brian's Yorkshire Canary Page

Yorkies moult from July to September, with later bred birds taking into October or November to complete their moult. Adults will moult as soon as they finish breeding, finishing in October or November.

Feeding follows the same routine as throughout the year, plus a little colour food, which is a preparation of the breeding season softfood, to which a small amount of Carophyl Orange has been added.

This is fed fresh each day throughout the entire moulting period. The new feathers will start to appear on the bird?s chest, and will be much darker than the nest feathering, which can be almost white. Those birds developing into a bright orange colour are termed yellow birds, whilst those developing a salmon pink colouration, through various stages of beige, are termed to be buffs and will generally appear more bulkier than the yellows, due to the breadth of their feathers.

Young Yorkshire canaries do not moult their wing flight feathers, nor their tail feathers during their first moult. This means that their nest feathering colouration is retained in their flight feathers, resulting in an attractive contrast between almost white wing and tail flights and an orange or salmon pink body colour.

Many canaries carry markings of some sort, somewhere on their body, which is known as variegation and is most attractive when colour fed, developing into a deep greenish bronze or cinnamon-brown.

Should the newcomer choose not to colour feed their stock, this will result in the nest feather colouring being retained, naturally slightly darker, developing into a lemon colour (buff birds) to a weak buttercup yellow colour (yellow birds). It is much more difficult to determine whether birds are yellows or buffs if they are not colour fed, and for this reason, colour feeding is recommended, although either colour fed or non colour fed birds are perfectly acceptable on the show bench.

By following a daily routine, colour feeding is easy, and the fancier can derive a great deal of satisfaction from the results, after completion of the moult. It is another reason why Yorkshires are a cut above the rest of the canary kingdom.