Isabel Gloster Canary

Non colour canary, but one of the Isabel Gloster's I bred this year.  Coming on well just need to get some pictures when its settled, these are after chasing it round a flight to put them in single cages so hoping in a few weeks it'll carry itself a lot better.  Bred from an intensive Isabel cock x Brown hen, have got a fair few self birds so will be using this and its nestmate - a brown cock carrying isabel next year.  Any tips on breeding isabels would be appreciated ( not sure what happends in colour canary circles but I'll be looking to only use self birds against the isabels) so will see what next season brings

Good luck with your venture.

Do you have a standard for the isabel colour or is the gloster shape still the only criteria?
If as I suspect the latter then just following the sex linked inheritance pattern is all you need to know. With coloured canaries the striations need to be broken and fine, albeit well distributed across the whole bird. Foul feathers are not accepted on the show bench.
We would also avoid using brown when ever possible, as this tends to increase the width of striations.

Hi Geoff, thanks for the reply, the priority would be type but I'd definitely like to improve them from a colour perspective too. How would I find the standard for the colour? the only reason I'd used a brown this time round was it was my best hen with the best head (rise/width) and that's what the Isabel cock was lacking the most, would it be best to avoid browns then and use carrier x normal or visual x normal / normal x visual pairings?

What you call a normal we call a black. A brown is a mutated black and therefore has the same characteristics i.e long, wide striations. Neither colour is really suitable for your project. I am not sure of the current status of coloured glosters, but there used to be several agate glosters being shown ( as cinnamons). If you can find one of these it would be the best solution. You are then pairing dilute to dilute. Failing that you will need to concede that you have several years work to achieve good coloured canary markings on a quality gloster. This can be achieved by outcrossing to a yellow isabel coloured canary. There should be an immediate benefit in markings, but the gloster type would in all probability take a hit.

that's great thanks Geoff.  I've just sourced an agate (albeit a hen) I'll use this coming season to get some visuals for pairing agate to Isabel the year after.  Thankyou for your advice.  I'm getting a little collection together now, a pic of the agate and a phaeo gloster below, next year should also have satinette and maybe opal.

There is no reason why you do not pair your isabel cock with the agate hen. No need to wait a year. Obviously all young males will be agate split isabel and all hens will be isabel from this pairing.
For your opals, satinettes and phaeos. You need black for the opals ,brown for phaeos and isabel or brown for your satinettes.
Good luck

Thats brilliant thankyou. I should have said the only reason for waiting a year is because the agate hen and isabel cock are both coronas. Your time & help has really been appreciated Geoff thankyou

Have kept glosters in the past but i struggle to keep them away from the reds when colour feeding so don't bother now. The newer mutations of gloster colours have certainly caught my eye, they are very nice! All the best with them

thanks both.

I now know I shouldn't have put the isabel over brown so wont in future but I had two brown cocks that'd be carriers out of this pairing too, I had them in cages next to another two brown hens I bred this year from different pairings but both used a normal cock carrying brown x normal hen. With my mate (whos a 20+ years champ gloster breeder) we compared the four side by side and picked out what we thought were the two Isabel carriers as it looked like the colour in the edges of their feather differed from the other two birds and a couple of older browns I'd bred before, when we checked the ring numbers against my book it was right. Was this just pot luck at 50% chance or is this a way to spot the carriers? I'll get some pictures to try show what I mean

The only mutation where a carrier can be identified, to my knowledge is an agate carrying satinette. That of course does not mean that you have not found another. The only suggestion I can make is that the carriers were males and the non carriers females. Possibly sexual dimorphism is the reason for the difference. Have you copmpared the carriers with other brown males?

Hi Geoff, in all honesty it might just be my eyes but I'll post the images below and see what you think. I havent got any brown makes to compare with but in the pictures below the brown hens were off two different pairings but both normal cocks carrying brown x normal hens.  The other four were all off the same pairing - an Isabel cock x brown hen.  It might just be me but I was watching them in the cages and it made me wonder, other explanation is I've completely got the carrier cocks wrong and their Isabel's or I'm generally just miles out? in either case if so this is a stupid question and I apologise!

Brown Hens:


Brown Cocks carrying Isabel?:
 


Isabel Hens:

There is no such thing as a stupid question. You cannot imagine what a pain in the neck I was when I first came into the fancy.

If you look at the colour of the flight feathers on the brown cocks and hens you will see it is the same. The botton two are isabels--note the paler colour of the striations and the flight feathers.

The colour and width of the striations in male browns will vary once you start mixing in other mutations. we all also have this feature known as optical blue, its presence tends to make the brown phaeomelanin inbetween the striations paler which emphasises the striations.

Hens also carry more phaeomelanin than males. which helps in sexing, but I suggest is not an indicator that a male is a carrier.

thanks Geoff that's brilliant, always learning! thankyou for you help & time. J

GeoffW wrote:Failing that you will need to concede that you have several years work to achieve good coloured canary markings on a quality gloster. This can be achieved by outcrossing to a yellow isabel coloured canary. There should be an immediate benefit in markings, but the gloster type would in all probability take  a hit.

Geoff, sorry to bother you (again!!) would you happen to know anyone local to the worcester area who I could order a couple of yellow isabel cocks from for next year? Note sure how easy they are to get hold of or what a typical price range would be?