I would never pay someone to care for my birds as its my hobby and if I dont have time to breed then id sooner sell them and last time i trusted a family member with my birds 7/12 died from starvation. So now if im away for a weekend i over feed them with a chick feeder last at least 3 days. As for the colors ive had that happen with spangled opalines i gave up on those as they all kept dying but the normals lived. Right now I have way to many so i will be taking a year off of breeding.