Saturday, June 13, 2009

Becoming Beautiful After the Baby Molt

Stafford mosaic chick in its baby molt. Note the old colored feathers are coming in white!

Colored feathers are coming in white on the back too!

The crest is developing nicely. Although the red color is disappearing the melanin will stay. So this bird will likely have a grizzled crest. Note the nice small beak! Small beaks give the head a very nice look where large beaks give the bird a coarse or mean look.

Feathering needs to come in white around the beak in a hen but colored in a cock.

Mosaic color patterns. Type 1 is the hen pattern, type 2 the cock pattern.


Bottom three pictures from DKB /AZ Farben- und Positurkanarienstandard. Germany

Featuring a Stafford Mosaic Chick in the Baby Molt


What fun it is to watch mosaic chicks develop their beautiful patterns after their baby molt. It requires some patience, however, as it will take considerable time to develop their full potential, just in time for show season!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

SO WHEN I WANT TO SEX RED MOSAICS THIS HOW I DETERMINE MALE AND FEMALE?

HOW DO YOU COLOR FEED MOSAICS?

BRIAN IN SAVANNAH

Linda Hogan said...

The red mosaics pictured are the very best specimens out there! The patterns are helpful in determining the sex of mosaics especially on colorbred but in the Stafford canaries the patterns may not be as well defined. Last year a number of my hens did not have the pencil eye mark and rather had color all over their face...

I myself color feed them like the rest but some use 1/2 strength to try and keep the color from bleeding through the white. The depth of the red color of the mask is important though.

Linda Hogan said...

Some people like to limit the coloring of the flight feathers by not starting mosaic canaries on color food till the baby molt.