Monday, September 1, 2014

Labor of Love

Today is Labor Day, a US holiday and a time to reflect on our labors. I have several labors of love which are very important to me but the one where I send my most leisure time is my Canaries! I love trying to breed, raise and show my birds! I love tweaking their diet and environment to see them reach their full potential.



Recently, I selected a special border for the ugliest bird award. What that really meant was that I was accepting the challenge to see if he could become a swan.

He is coming along and pictured on the left giving me the eye.


Typically in confirmation development, his rounded head and neck break are still to come. Just need to finish the molt and come into prime condition. Lower protein and more vitamins will do the trick.


He now has a nice rounded back and full underline.

Just a little more time and the chicks will come flocking! Maybe he will never be a swan but he could be a real looker!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Linda, you are amazing. Thank you for your labors in helping us learn to care for our birds. We appreciate you.

R. Kristiawan said...

Hi Linda, I am canary breeder from Indonesia. I have problem with hens having dark abdomen/muscles. I guess it causes infertility of the hens. Do you have any solutions for this? I read some posts of you on this dark abdomen but I want to have more clarity.

Many thanks,
Kris

Linda Hogan said...

A dark abdomen is a bad sign as it indicates liver or liver/spleen problems that can be from toxins such as moldy seed or from a number of infectious agents such as Mycoplasma or bacteria or viruses or parasites or even fatty liver disease etc. Treatment depends on the cause.

In young birds it is often infectious and called Black spot. Adults usually are carriers. Have you had any newborn etc cases?

Any bird with a problem needs to be isolated and not bred. If you can get Dr. Rob Marshall's KD powder I would start with that and stop any sprouted seeds and careful check seed source.