Vitamin A requirements of alipochromatic ('recessive-white') and coloured canaries (Serinus canaria) during the breeding season.

Abstract

Six pairs of alipochromatic ('recessive-white') canaries (Serinus canaria) and six pairs of coloured canaries were kept through a complete breeding cycle while being fed a diet providing 12,000 iu vitamin A/kg. The eggs of three pairs (one recessive-white and two coloured) were all unfertilised and there were only 23 hatchlings (14 recessive-white and nine coloured), of which 14 (10 recessive-white and four coloured) were alive after the first moult. However, there was no clinical, biochemical or pathological evidence that the recessive-white canaries were suffering from vitamin A deficiency or that the coloured canaries were suffering from vitamin A toxicity, suggesting that the diet met the vitamin A requirements of both groups.