Red Siskins ? ?

[superfinch]

I finally got a pair of red siskins which I adore and to me they look healthy, active and feeding well. They are a little skittish though I'm not sure if it's because they are in a new environment, they are currently in my quarantine cage at the moment on their own.

However before I had bought them I had never seen them other then in books or the internet and I was surprised by how small they actually were. I thought they would of have been bigger but from what I have read and what the breeder said is that small size ensures purity of stock and that they haven't been fostered by canaries - (which I've read is common for these birds).

At the melb bird sale I saw a lot of red siskins and thought to myself why is it that when you've already got something you see them everywhere but when your looking for something you can't seem to find them anywhere. (I say this because I had trouble sourcing the ones I got in vic).

Anyway all the red siskins at the sale seemed to be just as smallish as mine but when you compare them to the size of yellow sskins they are much bigger. I thought yellows were just a mutation of the red or vice versa so I was curious to why they would be so different in size.

I also spoke with a friend who I know that owns a bird shop and seems to have a world of knowledge on birds but he said it was better for red siskins to be bigger and that the ones at the sale were no good.

I'm just wondering if anyone has any experiences with red siskins and any tips on how to look after them and keep them happy.

Thanks,
Soph

[E Orix]

A good Red Siskin should be quite a bit smaller than a Yellow Siskin.They are two seperate species.
As for a comparison to Canaries,the small Border was used to foster and cross originally and the Siskin is quite a bit smaller.
A first canary/siskin cross is called an F1 The males are fertile the females sterile.This was one of the original starts for the Red Factor canary line breeding did the rest.
The males should be a rich deep red/orange and the females should have a pink wash across their chests. I would say Melbourne breeders would produce a large percentage of Siskins going on the market each year and alot are now parent raised.
Craig maybe able to add more as he seems to be doing well with regard parent raised chicks on the perch. He is from Sydney

[bettaman]

I also spoke with a friend who I know that owns a bird shop and seems to have a world of knowledge on birds but he said it was better for red siskins to be bigger and that the ones at the sale were no good.

I always heard smaller ones with rich colour were better as they resembled the wilds one better

[Keven S]

Regardless to size and colour the thing i would be looking at if i was to buy any more (as i have bought from three different breeders and all have sold as parent raised only to find out after that this was not the case) that i picked them up from the breeder personally and to make sure that there were no canaries on the premises and if so I would be very WARY !! that they were parent reared . If you are guaranteed that they are parent reared and trust it to be true they are a bird that will readily go to nest , but what i have found that if they are breed and reared under canaries they will toss there young after a couple of days. They are easily kept on a normal finch mix along with a supply of niger seed and when breeding a supply of seeding grasses ,broad leaf greens and milk thistle.

[craigvdl]

Just spotted E Orix's reference to me at the tail end of his post. Sorry for not responding earlier.

I have been lucky to have had quite a bit of success with red siskins these last couple of seasons. I breed them in outdoor planted viaries just north of Sydney and only produce parent reared birds. I have never bad a problem with chick tossing and find the hens in a compatible pair sit very tight. I have multiple pairs in the same aviary and my sense is that the inevitable combat between cohabiting cockbirds (sometimes resembling the red baron in a dogfight!) is important for them to achieve breeding condition. For me having multiple pairs in an aviary at the start of the season is also a way of letting them sort out which pairs are compatible. I then sometimes split them up for breeding but it's not critical from my perspective. When they find a nest site they like, they produce continuously. I make sure during breeding season that they get lots of chicory and broccoli, and for seed they absolutely love shelled sunflower seeds. They also take some black seed mix (Niger, black lettuce etc) but not in great quantities. The sunflower seed really gets them going.

As for size and colour, they are definitely a smaller bird than the yellow, and quite sleek by comparison. It they get enough plant material to chew on (and they will demolish some plants like bamboo), the colour is definitely more intense. I do not give mine any artificial colour.

Hope that's of some help.

Regards

Craig

[superfinch]

Hi Craig,

Your info has been great, I wish I knew about the bamboo bit before I put some in there lol.... they haven't destroyed it just yet so hopefully it will live. I only have one pair of red siskins in my aviary at the moment plus a pair of red cheeked cordons. So far they seem to be getting along well.

How do you feed them the shelled sunflower seed.. do you give it to them whole or grinded?

Does shelled mean the seed has been removed from the shell or that the shell is still on? Sorry I'm not 100% on the terminology.

So far I have been giving them sunflower seeds that have already been taken out of the shell and they seem to love it.

Next I will try chickory and broccolli... I've been giving them buk choy and they eat little bits of it.

Hopefully they will breed for me fingers crossed

Cheers,
Sophie