Mar 17
8
Loretta’s Canaries and Finches – How It All Started
Welcome to Loretta’s Canaries and Finches
I’m Loretta!
It all began in 1996 when I purchased a pair of Zebra Finches and in just a couple weeks, looked at their cage and saw eggs! We quickly got them a finch nest and nesting material and were so surprised to see little babies hatch in just 2 weeks! That’s when everything changed! I fell in love with birds!
In just a few short weeks, I had a spare bedroom filled with cages on all 4 walls, from the floor to the ceiling! My husband knew that when I wanted to do something, just stand back and watch it happen!
So I started with finches, Zebras, Societies, and even Australian Lady Gouldians in every color. We even put a Yellow back with a Blue back and got SILVER gouldians.
Then I wanted American Singer Canaries because they sing SO beautifully and a quickly fell in love with the color bred ones also! We met some awesome long-time breeders and asked so many questions. They love the ‘hobby’ and enjoy talking about birds so much that it was a real pleasure to help us learn all about it. We also ran into breeders who were, for various reasons, having to sell out and we got some show quality canaries.
We actually won 8th place in the Nationals one year.
Well, that was 20 years ago, in 1996. So fast forward 20 years to January 2017 as I write this introduction… and here’s what happened. May 23, 2016 my husband of over 40 years passed away. Not long after that, I was sitting in the living room and it was just too quiet for me…
I remembered how much joy the sound of singing canaries brought me. Since I was diagnosed with diabetic neuropathy (nerve damage in my legs and feet) in March of 2014 I knew I had to push myself to be able to walk without holding onto things! It was important for me to keep moving.
Well, you can guess what happened next! I got online and immediately found an American Singer Canary breeder near Chicago. (About 1 1/2 hours from me) so I set up an appointment to buy some birds to breed. My son was kind enough to drive me there. Side note: I love watching my son’s face light up with delight when he pauses to watch them.
After I was bitten by the bird-breeding bug, from July to December 2016 I got online and started having birds shipped to me from Florida, Arizona, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and Montana!
I “attended” local Bird Shows by having my brother, who lives very close to the shows, go and use his I-phone to show me the birds, pick them out and bring them to me! That way, I was buying from breeders who know what they’re doing and have beautiful, healthy birds for me to start my new breeding season. Here are just SOME of my breeders for 2017:
Zebra Finches – Normal Grey
Zebra Finches – White
Australian Lady Gouldians – Normal Green Back, Red Head, Purple Breast
Australian Lady Gouldian – Yellow Back, Pumpkin (orange) Head, Female
Yellow American Singer Canary
Red Factor Canaries “Big Red” – One of my favorites!
Red Factor Male Canary (Color-Fed for more Intense Color)
4 Yellow American Singers – From N.J.
These are the first 3 Pairs of American Singer Canaries I purchased for my first breeding season, 2017:
2 Variegated, 2 White, 1 Yellow American Singers and
1 Timbrado Canary (From Mexico – They are LOUD beautiful singers)
I hope you enjoy the photos. I will try to put up photos of the actual birds that are for sale when they are ready. I’ll also show you the parents!
If you want to contact me, just email me!
Loretta Helson
LorettasBirds@gmail.com
