Brian's Yorkshire Canary Page

UNDERSTANDING CINNAMONS

Article published May 2003

The mistique of breeding the cinnamon factor has left many a bird keeper confused. But it is not that difficult, as BRIAN KEENAN explains.

Cinnamon inheritance can confuse people, but to all type canary breeders, there are only six possible pairings you can make: only five, if you exclude the pairing that does not involve the cinnamon factor in any form. I'm told that even budgie men can count on their fingers, so nobody really has any excuse for not understanding cinnamon inheritance.

A cock bird can be a cinnamon, a cinnamon carrier, or a non-cinnamon -known as a normal. Hens are either cinnamons or normals, and cannot carry the cinnamon gene in hidden form.

Exploding the myths

Several myths surround the cinnamon factor, including it can overtake an entire stud, that blindness follows the use of too much cinnamon, and that the birds are smaller and constitutionally weaker than their normal counterparts. All these stories are completely untrue.

Cinnamon inheritance is sex linked, and cinnamon cock birds can only be produced from two possible pairings, and in both cases are bred from cinnamon hens.

1 Cinnamon cock x Cinnamon hen

provides 100% cinnamon young, both cocks and hens.

2 Carrier cock x Cinnamon hen

produces cinnamon cocks and cinnamon carrier cocks, as well as cinnamon hens and normal hens.

3 Pairing the Cinnamon cock with a normal hen

will result in cinnamon carrier cock birds and cinnamon hens, so this is a pairing to use to help you automatically sex all your young birds.

4 Pairing a Carrier cock with a normal hen

produces a mixture of carrier cocks, normal cocks, cinnamon hens and normal hens.

5 The final pairing involving cinnamon is by using a normal cock paired into a cinnamon hen.

This produces carrier cocks and normal hens.

From the above, it can be seen that when using a cinnamon cock, it is possible to pair it to a normal hen, and produce a carrier cock with normal coloured feathering. This bird can then be paired with a normal hen to produce normal cocks and hens, or to a cinnamon hen, which can produce normal hens amongst the young. Using these two simple pairings, the cinnamon gene can be entirely eliminated in only two years.

Use variegateds

As a rule of thumb, cinnamons, or birds with an unknown background, should be paired to variegated birds, because the plumage markings of the young produced, will quickly help to determine the cinnamon factors of the parent stock, which could be masked if paired to clear birds, only to appear in future generations, to the confusion of the owner.