Breeding canaries at home. How to grow canaries at home? Relationship between male and female

When canary breeding is organized according to all the rules, there is every chance of getting healthy and strong chicks without compromising the health of the parents. You must be able to properly select birds for breeding. You will also have to create ideal nesting conditions for them: choose a suitable cage, set up a nest, make up a diet, and much more.

Which canaries should not be used for breeding

For breeding to be successful, you need to carefully select future parents. If the bird looks lethargic, weak, does not eat well, its feathers stick out in different directions, the look is extinct, then it either feels unwell or has recently experienced serious stress.

If a bird sits motionless in one place most of the time, or vice versa, it constantly flies around the cage, beats in hysterics, it has obvious mental disorders. You will not get healthy chicks from such a canary, if it can lay eggs at all.

Even if the bird is absolutely healthy, but has external defects, it cannot be used for breeding. There is always a risk that physical defects will be inherited by the chicks.

Healthy canaries are the key to success

Only healthy birds, without physical defects, can be allowed for breeding. A neat appearance, combined with an active lifestyle and a good appetite - these are the parameters that a healthy canary should have. It is very good if the bird likes to bathe and clean its feathers. If she knows how to take care of herself, then she can take care of the chicks.

The physical form of canaries is also important. Males should not have subcutaneous fat, which can be recognized by yellow bumps on the abdomen.

This opportunity will especially please the males who have sat in single cages. Females often live in spacious cages. Males will be able to warm up well and lose weight, if any.

If you do not have the opportunity to regularly release males into the room, transplant them into spacious nesting cages. If they fight, don't worry. Just remove the most cocky ones so that it doesn’t come to serious fights.

Suitable age for breeding

Canaries older than ten months are allowed for breeding. However, the breeding period of these birds is limited to four years. In old females and males, the reproductive function gradually fades away. In addition, the nesting period can exhaust the female until her death.

It is not recommended to mate young birds with old individuals. As a rule, a young female does not save the situation. From such a union, weak, with physical defects, chicks are often born. Some of them die while still in the egg.

Don't go to extremes

You should not mate chicks from the same offspring among themselves without special need. With closely related relationships, the risk of chick mortality or the birth of defective individuals increases.

If your goal is to secure one in canaries, it is better to cross the parent with his chick or offspring of cousins.

Keep in mind that crossing canaries of different breeds is used only to breed new ones. If you have no experience, it is not recommended to engage in such experiments. Cross between representatives of the same breed.

Choose the time for breeding

For breeding canaries, it is better to choose March or April. In spring, daylight hours are longer, and there are more natural vitamins. Young greenery appears, which is necessary for feeding the growing chicks.

Although it is possible to mate canaries in the autumn-winter period. You will need artificial lighting, which can be created using fluorescent lamps with a spectrum of sunlight. Lamps should be placed opposite the cage or suspended above it at a distance of half a meter. Extend the artificial light period gradually - by an hour and a half a week, until you reach fourteen to fifteen hours a day.

Also keep the nesting room at a temperature of at least eighteen degrees and a humidity of sixty to seventy percent. At the same time, it is worth improving air quality with the help of a purifier and an air ionizer. If this is not possible, periodically ventilate the room and spray it with a spray bottle.

In any case, you can not exhaust the female with frequent clutches. Otherwise, you will undermine her health by exhausting the body. During one nesting period, the female should lay two, maximum three clutches.

Expectant parents are entitled to a separate menu

Two to three weeks before the planned nesting of canaries, begin to strengthen their diet with nutrients and vitamin and mineral substances. The menu of future parents should include:

grain and seed feed;
fruits;
vegetables;
greenery;
germinated grains of millet, barley, wheat;
germinated seeds of rapeseed, sunflower;
cereals;
boiled eggs;
honey - two or three drops a day;
cottage cheese;
insects and their larvae - five to ten pieces per bird.

Also give canaries fish oil, especially if nesting is scheduled for the autumn-winter period. When buying fish oil, read the expiration date and instructions for use. An expired or missing drug will harm the health of the birds. In the cold season, you can use liquid vitamin complexes according to the instructions.

Take care of the female, because she will use her calcium supply to form eggs. She should always have access to mineral supplements containing calcium: eggshell, sepia, chalk. You can make special mineral tiles for her, the composition of which is described in the article.

We cook ourselves

In addition to grain and seed feed, you can prepare a healthy mixture for canaries, the approximate composition of which is indicated in the table:

Grind tablets and Hercules or dry sticks separately from each other. To the resulting powder, add a hard-boiled and chopped egg. Grate the carrots, squeeze the juice and mix with vitamin E solution. Mix everything together. If the mixture is dry, add the remaining carrot juice. Instead, honey or rosehip extract is suitable. If the mixture is liquid or sticky, dilute it with Hercules.

Give the mixture to each canary one teaspoon every other day. The rest of the time you can diversify the main food with white bread. It must be soaked either in tea with honey or in diluted dry milk. In addition to bread, give each bird a teaspoon of germinated grain.

Diet changes

When the first egg appears, exclude all protein foods from the parents' diet: eggs, cottage cheese, insects. Otherwise, the female will lay too many eggs, most of which will be unfertilized. In addition, a large clutch will deplete the body of the female. Protein products can be returned when the first chick arrives.

During hatching, feed the canaries with grain-seed and germinated food. This will encourage the birds to eat the extra food when the chicks are born. One or two days before the first chick hatches, start supplementing the grain and seed menu with the indicated products.

During mating, add poppy seeds to the mixture - a tenth of a gram per canary. Eliminate it from the diet when the female lays her second egg. Do not give the birds too much poppy. The opium it contains is harmful to bird health. Hemp, flax and canary seeds are also useful.

Preparing the nesting site

For each pair, prepare a nesting cage - a special nesting cage sixty centimeters long, thirty-five centimeters wide, forty centimeters high. The cage must have at least two doors: one on the side under the ceiling, the second below.

The bottom door should be wide enough for feeders, drinking bowls, and bathing places to pass through. A wire basket is hung on the side door in the shape of the future nesting base, in which the female will build a nest.

Before you start canaries in the nesting cage, treat it with boiling water or steam. You can use "Disinsectal", but it must be washed off well with warm water. Choose the brightest part of the room for the cage, but not in direct sunlight. After the male and female have settled, it is impossible to rearrange the nesting cage.

The nest base can be bought or ordered from a pet store. However, please note that if you place an order, this does not mean that it will arrive on time. Delivery may be delayed, and without a nest base, the female will not start building a nest and laying eggs. The base is easy to do with your own hands.

We make a nesting base ourselves

To make a nest base, prepare the tools:

rope;
food film;
flax fiber;
hot glue gun;
construction heat gun.

Be sure to select a round base that matches the parameters of the nest base: diameter - seven to eight centimeters, depth - four to five and a half centimeters. A light bulb or a large Christmas ball might work. Let's say you chose a light bulb.

Wrap the light bulb in cling film so that you can easily remove the nest base later. Squeeze a drop of glue from the gun into the center of the bulb and glue the end of the rope. The rope should be thick, so twine is perfect. Twine will make an excellent nesting base, because it retains heat well.

Start winding the twine around the light bulb in a spiral motion. Apply glue to the rope every one or two centimeters. Thanks to such retreats, the canary will be able to stick building material into the twine.

When you reach the desired depth, make two or three additional turns on top of each other to strengthen the nest base. Carefully remove the light bulb and remove the cling film from the base. Melt the remaining pieces of film with a hot air gun. Additionally, insulate the nest base with a small amount of flax fiber. You can do this on the outside as well, to decorate the nest as "natural". Ready.

When Canary Behavior Changes

You will notice that canaries are ready to breed by a change in their behavior. The song of the male becomes short, sharp and loud. The female squeaks him in response. Birds become nervous, cannot find a place for themselves, flap their wings and jump from perch to perch.

The female is especially restless. She is constantly busy looking for building material, stuffing her beak with everything that comes under it: feathers, threads, grass. A canary can tear paper to shreds. Her belly grows bald, the so-called "honey spot" appears.

The female begins to crouch while the male sings, tries to build a nest from improvised material anywhere: in the feeder, in the bathing suit, in the corner of the cage. As soon as you notice a special eagerness for nesting in a female, transplant her into a nesting cage and place a male next to her.

The female will continue to imitate the structure of the nest in the new cage. But before you make a nest, she will begin to collect building material, which you must provide in abundance.

The future nest for canaries may consist of blades of grass, pieces of paper, pieces of lint, a piece of cotton thread, small shreds. You can use an old washcloth by cutting it into eight-centimeter pieces. Lay the material at the bottom of the cage and slide it between the bars.

However, not everyone is suitable for building a nest. You can not give the female pieces of hemp. Chicks can get entangled in them and suffocate. It is not recommended to use hygroscopic cotton wool - it blocks the access of oxygen. You can give the canaries some gray cotton.

The male can help the female in building a nest, but does not do it rarely and reluctantly. But he feeds the hard worker and wonderful songs to her.

If the female is ready to breed, it takes her no more than a week to build. A canary, dissatisfied with its work, can tear up an almost finished nest and correct the shortcomings by rebuilding it.

Relationship between male and female

Friendship between a male and a female does not come immediately. Initially, the canaries pretend not to notice each other. They jump from perch to perch and study the cage. Over time, anxiety about the sudden relocation disappears, and the male begins to sing. However, the "nested" song, like the behavior, is not similar to the "single".

Kenar stretches out, begins to step from paw to paw, the feathers on his head stand on end. Swinging in different directions, the male gradually brings the song to the highest tones. After that, he rushes at the female, and she runs away from the boyfriend. So they run around the cage until they get tired. Such races speak of the sexual arousal of canaries.

On the day of acquaintance or a little later, the male begins to feed his partner. She flaps her wings and opens her beak like a baby bird. After some time, the female takes an unambiguous position, inviting the male to copulation, which occurs several times a day.

Mating games indicate that the pair has developed for the entire nesting period. However, this is not always the case. Sometimes there are very selective canaries that cannot converge with the proposed partner immediately or do not converge at all.

If the female and male constantly quarrel, seat them in different cages for two to three days. Then repopulate the canaries in one cage. If the quarrels continue, you will have to select other partners for them.

And now the female has testicles

Two days after the nest is built, the female begins to lay one egg per day or every other day. It most often occurs early in the morning and can last four to six days. As a result, four or five eggs are found in the canary clutch. In rare cases, the female is able to lay six to seven eggs.

Before laying an egg, the female's breathing quickens, and the tail rises slightly. If the female does not succeed, she leaves the nest and sits on the bottom of the cage. Keep a close eye on her - if the canary sits too long, fluffed up, she needs help.

Warm it up with a heating pad attached to the bottom of the cage from the outside. Put a few drops of sunflower oil into the bird's cloaca using a syringe without a needle. If after two hours the female does not lay an egg, contact your veterinarian immediately.

The last testicle differs from the others in a light blue color, while the others have a blue tint with a grayish sheen. There are dark specks on every egg.

Females sit down to incubate eggs after laying two or three pieces. Because of this, the chicks do not hatch together, but with a difference of two to three days. This leads to the fact that the last chicks are stunted. They can die from exhaustion, as they begin to ask for food late. And the female feeds those who actively ask for food.

To avoid the death of chicks, replace the first three or four eggs with labeled dummies. Put them back in place, removing the dummies, when the female lays the last egg. It is better to do this in the morning. Don't worry - canaries don't react in any way to changes in the number of eggs.

All this time, store the eggs in boxes, on the bottom of which put sand and cotton wool, and cover with cardboard on top. Do not forget to mark when the egg was laid, and if necessary, from which female.

Hatching time

The female spends most of her time on the clutch, only occasionally leaving it to eat. At such moments, it can be replaced by a male. A caring male also feeds a laying female. The female periodically changes the position of the eggs so that the embryo does not stick to the shell. These movements evenly distribute the heat between the eggs.

After a week, you can inspect the eggs to make sure they are fertile. Eggs with an embryo darken and acquire a bluish-gray tint, empty ones remain transparent. To be completely sure, take the egg and inspect it under the weak light of the lamp.

Do this carefully so as not to chill the embryos and damage the shell. In a fertilized egg, a dark spot of the embryo is visible. Check the eggs when the parents are not around - do not disturb them once again.

Sometimes the female laying eggs for the first time, the entire clutch is empty. Do not remove the eggs - give the canary the opportunity to sit out the allotted time. Otherwise, she will lose her rhythm or even stop sitting on her eggs.

If the female does not bathe during incubation, on the twelfth day, gently wipe the eggs with a piece of cotton soaked in warm water. Wet eggs are easier for the female to shift. Eggs stained with litter are washed in the same way. The litter needs to be soaked. In no case do not peel it off with your fingernail, otherwise you will damage the shell.

Do not take the eggs out of the nest for more than two hours. During this time, they will finally cool down and the embryos will die.

The Miracle of Chicks

Two weeks after the start of incubation, chicks appear, which are usually released on their own. While in the egg, the chick tries to straighten up and scratch the shell with a horny tubercle, which is called the egg tooth. It breaks through the shell and keeps moving. Gradually, the egg becomes covered with cracks. Soon, part of the shell falls off and frees the chick. The female eats or carries away the shell.

Chicks are born blind and deaf, completely dependent on their mother. She continues to heat the babies for two weeks until they have a constant body temperature. Follow the female. If she leaves the chicks ahead of time, they will die.

Sometimes females accidentally drop defenseless babies from the nest. They quickly cool down and show no signs of life. Try to warm the chick with your hands. But don't blow on it - the carbon dioxide produced when you exhale will kill it. If the baby moves, return it to the nest.

Feeding the chicks

For the first three or four days, the female feeds the chicks with goiter milk. Then he begins to regurgitate semi-digested seeds and grains, which the male feeds her. After eighteen days, the chicks begin to climb out of the nest.

After two or three days, the female proceeds to the next clutch, continuing to occasionally feed the chicks. But the main breadwinner is the male. Parents feed the babies for up to forty days, after which fully grown chicks can be placed in a flying cage.

When the chicks are a week old, you should start feeding them. The composition of the approximate menu is indicated in the table:

Is ringing necessary?

If you decide to start breeding canaries for sale, exhibitions or competitions, then be sure to ring the chicks when they are six to seven days old. You can’t put on a ring before - it will fall off, and later it won’t fit. This is necessary in order not to confuse the birds.

It is necessary to mark (engrave) on the rings the number of the canary - the number of the ring, the country of birth, the year of birth - the last two digits across the ring. The color of the ring can also indicate the bird's year of birth. Each ring is deaf, the material is duralumin. The sizes of rings for all birds are different. For canaries, this is G, with a height of five millimeters, with an inner diameter of three millimeters, with an outer diameter of four millimeters. Example: 147 EN 09 G.

Of course, you can ring the canary with split rings or colored tubes, which are sold in pet stores and bird markets. But such birds will not be able to participate in exhibitions or competitions.

Despite the unpretentiousness of the canary, keeping and caring for it at home must meet certain requirements. For the life of a bird in captivity, you will need a spacious cage, properly selected food and much more, which a beginner canary explorer should know about.

What does a canary look like

Their appearance was first described at the end of the 19th century by the German explorer Carl Bolle. These birds were brought to Russia from Tyrol. The first place for the sale of canaries of domestic selection was the Nizhny Novgorod Fair.

Homemade differs from the brothers living in the wild in its appearance and size. Its body length is slightly longer than that of wild songbirds. The body of a domestic canary grows in length up to 14–14.5 cm, while in those living in the wild it does not exceed 13 cm.

Some canary breeders manage to grow birds, the length of which, together with the tail, can reach 23 cm.

Appearance characteristics common to wild and domestic canaries:

elastic body;
strong beak, having a conical shape and a sharp end;
wide chest.

Birds have strong bones, well-developed muscles, thin but strong paws. The eyes are fixed, and the neck constantly rotates in different directions. Rounded feathers at the ends are slightly pointed, and the tail seems to be cut off. The normal temperature of a bird's body is 42°C.

Canaries living in the wild have predominantly green plumage, it may have a gray tint. On the belly of the bird, the feathers are cast in yellow. Throughout the body of canaries, dark stripes can be seen, which give the impression of excessive variegation of the overall color. Most domestic canaries have yellow feathers; red, white, orange, blue and other colors are less common.

Main breeds

More than 12 thousand species and breeds of domestic canaries have been bred in the world. All of them are divided into 3 large groups:

colored;
decorative;
choristers.

The least canaries are included in the group of songbirds - there are only 10 species of birds in it. Of particular value is their voice and ability to reproduce certain sounds and melodies.

Coloreds are bred at home to obtain new species with an interesting plumage color. The most expensive and valuable birds of this group are red canaries.

Ornamental species are used in the breeding of new bird species to obtain certain characteristics of the body structure.

The quirkiness of the body structure increases the value of the bird for canary breeders

The birds of this breed got their name because of the peculiar shape of the body - they have an almost vertical posture and a lowered tail, which makes them visually humpbacked. The bird stretches its neck almost at a right angle. They keep humpbacked canaries in cages with perches located at the very arch.

Japanese canary

It was obtained by crossing three types of birds: Scottish, Munich and Belgian and belongs to the group of ornamental birds. They have a large body and an upright posture, with their heads lowered to shoulder level.

Cages for keeping birds are chosen in a rectangular shape, without domes and decorations. It is recommended that the Japanese canary be periodically released to fly around the house.

The Russian canary is one of the most melodious bird species.

The breed is officially registered in Russia, the most common color of this species is yellow.

Their singing technique is not genetically fixed - each bird has its own manner. They are taught to sing with the help of pipes or recordings of trills of forest birds.

Birds are prone to obesity, so they should not be overfed.

Advantages and disadvantages

For all its beauty, constant singing can be very annoying

The singing of a canary has a therapeutic effect on a person. In Holland, the treatment of various ailments with the help of birdsong (ornithotherapy) is used in official medicine. It is used to treat various diseases of the heart and nervous system. Australians use birdsong to treat joints and spine. The British use ornithotherapy to fight depression.

In the course of numerous studies, scientists have come to the conclusion that listening to birdsong for 5 minutes has an effect on the human body equal in effect to a 30-minute walk.

The canary is the only bird that can combine the sounds of all other songbirds in its singing.

Her singing can get rid of the following ailments:

headache;
gastrointestinal problems;
high BP.

The disadvantages of keeping canaries include the following:

the need to let birds fly around the house;
bird-created debris from feed and feathers;
loud singing.

Canaries begin to sing at dawn, and their singing can even drown out the noise of the TV with its sound. Flying around the room, the birds climb into various cracks, from which it is difficult to get them out.

Canaries are very trusting birds, they learn everything quickly and easily. Their health and longevity depend on proper care.

What to feed

Balanced food can be purchased at any pet store or veterinary pharmacy.

The main rule for keeping a canary is to give the bird special food that can be bought at a pet store. For the period of nesting and molting, special food is provided.

add crushed buckwheat kernels and seeds to ready-made mixtures;
2 times a week to give a finely chopped boiled egg or low-fat cottage cheese;
In summer, include finely chopped leaves of plantain, sorrel, lettuce and dandelion in the diet, and in winter grated carrots, apples and bell peppers.

As a top dressing, it is useful for canaries to give coarse river sand. The lack of calcium in the body of birds is replenished with the help of ground eggshells or mashed chalk. Charcoal acts as a medicine for poultry. It is periodically given to canaries to prevent the occurrence of various diseases.

Separate feeders are installed in bird cages for feeding. The optimal amount of food for canaries is no more than 2 tablespoons per day. Exceeding this norm leads to obesity of birds.

It is very important for the health of birds to keep their feeders and drinkers clean - canaries cannot stand dirt.

Hygiene and bathing

Bathing is a mandatory procedure when keeping at home. The procedure must be carried out at least 2 times a week in winter, and in summer - every day. For these purposes, a special bath is used, into which warm water is added and briefly placed on the bottom of the cage or suspended from the frame. Teach the bird to swim gradually. The first water procedures begin at the age of one month. You can not bathe canaries during the period of incubation of eggs.

Canarykane is afraid of swimming and prepares for it with pleasure

It is necessary to pay attention to the condition of their claws. Too long claws prevent the bird from sitting on the floor. Periodically, they are cut with nail scissors or tweezers, but not too short, as this can cause pain.

Canaries are released daily to fly. Before releasing the bird from the cage, you must:

close windows and doors;
remove animals from the premises;
remove sharp and hot objects.

Birds are especially carefully looked after during their molting. It is very important to give the birds nutrient-rich food at this time.

Bird cages are cleaned at least 2 times a week, additional lighting is installed next to them.

Feeders, drinkers, perches and other cage equipment are treated with boiling water. As a disinfectant solution, only infusions of herbs or potassium permanganate are used. To prepare the infusion, it is better to use field chamomile. The processed items must be dried before installation, the bottom is covered with white paper. Change it at least 2 times a week. River sand can be used as bedding.

Diseases and treatment

Canary diseases can be caused by a variety of factors. Each type of disease requires an individual approach to treatment.

Symptoms of the most common canary diseases and their treatment

Problem	Symptoms	Treatment
eye inflammation	Constantly wet eyes	With a mild form of the disease, the eyelids of the bird are washed with a solution of boric acid or chamomile infusion. In severe cases, antibiotics are instilled into the eyes
Diarrhea	loose stool	The bird is given strong tea or antibiotics diluted in boiled water, and activated charcoal is given to it.
Cold	Cough, difficulty breathing, nasal discharge, sneezing, cloudy eyes	Treatment is carried out with infrared radiation. Antibiotics are added to the drink
Obesity	Low mobility, poor shedding	A canary is fed one week of millet and released to fly every day.
smallpox	Yellow nodules on the head, shortness of breath	There is no way to save the bird. She is separated from others, the cage is disinfected
Foot diseases	White bumps on paws	For treatment, streptocid or tar ointment is used.
Ticks	Birds get weak, constantly clean their feathers	Remove ticks with insecticides

Vaccination

To prevent smallpox, canaries are given intradermal vaccination in the area of the wing fold. It is carried out in early summer and repeated once a year.

Choice of cage, accessories and toys

length - 35 cm;
width - 22 cm;
height - 29 cm;
the distance between the bars is 1.5 cm.

The cage door should be located on the side, inside is placed:

Retractable tray with river sand. It greatly simplifies the cleaning process.
Porcelain drinkers 5 cm high and 10 cm in diameter.
3 feeders.
2-3 round perches with a thickness of at least 1.5 cm from fruit trees.
Flat tub for bathing.

Before installing the perches in the cage, they must be scalded with boiling water and dried.

How to breed canaries at home

Before mating, the male actively courts the female.

For breeding canaries at home, a pair is selected at the age of 1 to 4 years. Birds should be energetic and healthy.

During the mating period, canaries are given enhanced nutrition, which includes a large amount of greens, and a boiled egg is given 2-3 times a week.

The bottom of the cage is covered with straws or grass - birds make a nest from them, in which the female begins to lay eggs a week after mating.

How to determine the sex of birds

There are 3 ways to distinguish a kenar from a canary:

By external signs. The female's tail is 0.5 cm shorter than the male's. The cloaca of the canary is cylindrical, while that of the canary is flat.
By singing. Males make deeper and longer sounds. The singing of females is jerky, similar to whistling or cooing.
By behavior. If you put the bird on your palm with your back and run your finger along the abdomen, then the male will start kicking and try to escape from the hands, and the female will only tighten her paws.

knitting

The best time for mating is March or April. At this point, the birds begin to cook about a month in advance. They are intensively fed and every day they are allowed to fly freely. Daylight hours of birds are gradually brought up to 14-15 hours.

Cages intended for knitting should have a wooden cladding at the bottom, the temperature in the room should not be below 15 ° C. Relative air humidity - 60–70%.

Pregnancy

Canaries after mating begin to lay 1 egg per day. In total, they can bring from 3 to 5 eggs. The chicks begin to hatch on the 13th day from the start of incubation. In order for the female not to leave the nest during incubation, the cage is installed in a zone of constant lighting. If the female refuses to hatch the chicks, you can use a home incubator.

How to care for newborn chicks

The eyes of the chicks begin to open on the 10th day after they are born. On day 12, their wings straighten, and on day 18, the chicks leave the nest. From the moment of birth, the female feeds them with a mixture of crushed seeds and boiled eggs, which are poured out in a cage on paper.

Song canary chicks immediately after separation from the female are separated by sex and placed in jigging cages. This is necessary so that young females do not interfere with the chirping of males.

In colored canaries, chicks are separated, which have a pronounced dark and light color of plumage. If this is not done, then the dark chicks will pluck their light counterparts.

The chicks that have become stronger, fully fledged and have learned to hustle seeds on their own are placed in spacious flying cages. Regular flights of birds help to develop and strengthen their body.

How to tame

In order for the canary to stop being afraid, in addition to hands, it is important to accustom the canary to the sound of your voice,

A lonely canary is the easiest to train, and it is easier to establish contact with a male than with a female. The main thing in the process of taming is not to rush. Every day you need to approach the cage with the bird and talk to it in a quiet, calm voice. She needs to be given time to get used to and believe that she has nothing to fear.

The second stage of the taming process should be the landing of a bird on the palm. This needs to be stimulated by feeding. Having mastered and got used to a person, she will do it without fear.

How many live at home

With proper care and feeding, canaries can live up to 15 years in captivity. The average duration of a bird is determined at 9–12 years.

Reasons for shortened life span:

poor nutrition;
insufficient lighting;
illness;
predators.

Birds do not perceive drafts and low temperatures well.

How to name a bird

The name of a bird can be selected in accordance with its character, demeanor or color. The most common is Kesha.

If it is difficult to determine the sex of the canary, neutral names are chosen. For example, Acci, Bassi, etc. The choice also depends on the owner's imagination. A mobile bird can get the name Zhivchik or Shustrik.

For a bird with yellow plumage, the name Lemon or Dandelion is suitable. A cunning canary might be called a Rogue. Very often they use the changed names or surnames of their owners. For example, Ivanov - Ivanka or Vanechka, Alexander - Alex or Alex. The time of year or month in which the bird was born can be chosen as the name.

Around the end of March, when the natural lengthening of the day becomes more and more noticeable, it is necessary to slightly increase the vitamin nutrition of the canaries. For this purpose, egg food is often given (a carrot-rusk mixture with the addition of egg powder or chopped hard-boiled chicken eggs), germinated seeds of wheat, rapeseed or millet, and also make sure that there is always mineral food in the jar (crushed chalk or egg shells) . Fresh greens should be given in abundance and constantly, since an organism "saturated" with vitamins always produces more complete and viable offspring than an organism weakened by malnutrition. For the production of eggs, the female uses a huge amount of energy. To compensate for it, she must eat well and variedly. Under natural conditions, with excess nutrition, females lay more eggs than with a shortage of food. Under unfavorable conditions, birds sometimes may not start nesting at all.

Photoperiod, its influence on canaries and regulation. It is known that the duration of daylight determines the cyclicity of life processes, including the reproduction of canaries. The photoperiod is a key factor in stimulating the onset of breeding in birds. To stimulate reproduction, a gradual increase in daylight hours from 10-12 hours to 16-17 hours is necessary. The longest daylight hours are needed when feeding chicks by parents.

Room size and micro-landscape. The depressed state of canaries when kept in small cages and without a nesting microlandscape suppresses the instinct of reproduction or disrupts its normal course. So, for nesting canaries, it is necessary to hang an open-type nesting device (nesting basket woven from a rope) to the cage, which creates a nesting micro-landscape for the home canary. In addition, a very good measure of preparing canaries for nesting is to keep them in a spacious cage before mating or to give them the opportunity to fly a lot in the room. Females who lived before the nesting season in a fairly spacious room have the opportunity to strengthen their muscles well, their metabolism increases, their appetite and ability to reproduce improve. Males need such exercise even more, since they usually sit in small cages with naturally limited freedom and therefore with a deficit in movement. Therefore, before mating, canary breeders sometimes let males a week earlier into passage cages, where they fly a lot. In preparation for mating, you should not be afraid to let them into the room together. The main bullies, if they turn out to be, can be removed and released into the room only relatively peaceful birds. It is much more important to ensure that at the time of mating, both male and female are in particularly good physical condition and are equally capable of nesting.

Pair formation. In a cage, canaries often form homosexual pairs, therefore, before placing them together, males and females should be accurately identified. The exact difference between males and females is manifested in the song: the female does not sing at all, or her song is not as complex and beautiful as that of the male. If one of the birds (most often the female) behaves aggressively, they should again be seated in separate cages and placed side by side so that they get used to each other and the female becomes ready for nesting. With the aggressive behavior of the kenar, the female can lay unfertilized eggs.

Signs of readiness of canaries for nesting. Signs of canary readiness for nesting are clearly visible in mature individuals and during the nesting season. Such signs are found in both kenars and females. When males are ready for nesting, they begin to sing more at the sight of a female, become more lively, energetic, especially when they hear the calls of females. Males at this moment dance on a perch with spread wings.

The female, when ready for mating, begins to restlessly fly from one perch to another, making an inviting sound all the time, which causes the male to tremble. She often grabs a straw with her beak and jumps around the cage with it. The surest sign of readiness is the crouching of the female on the perch and bending of the body at the moment when she hears or sees the singing of the canary. In addition, during the period of readiness, the female begins to pluck out the feathers on her abdomen, which indicates her desire for a male.

If several females sit in a cage, then among them it is easy to identify a ready female in relation to her nesting material. Seeing a piece of cotton wool, a blade of grass or a straw in a cage, a female ready for nesting will greedily grab it even from your hands and will look for a place for a nest holding this piece of material in her beak. If the female is ready for nesting, and there is no nesting basket in the cage, then, for lack of it, she may try to “build” a nest in the feeder, throwing dry blades of grass or other material there. A female that behaves in this way should be immediately transferred from the cage to the cage and let the kenar go to her. It is better, of course, to do this a little earlier, when the female is just beginning to show the need for nesting.

Preparing the cage for the nesting season. Before the start of the nesting season, the cage is disinfected, then the nesting device is hung from the outside to special holes at the top and the birds are let in. In each cage, it is better to keep only a couple of canaries during the breeding season, and it is better to have two open-type nesting devices per female.

If canaries are kept in an aviary in several pairs, then nesting devices should be hung up by two or three pieces more than pairs and placed as far apart as possible. With this arrangement, quarrels between canaries will occur much less often and they will not be excessively cruel. Nesting devices should also be hung in the aviary as high as possible, but not closer. 20 cm from the top and side grilles.

In its simplest form, the nesting device is a nesting basket placed in one of the corners of the cage, or suspended from the outside of a special cage or box without a front wall. The bottom of such a device is made of thick plywood, in which there is a round hole the size of a rope basket with a diameter of 8-10 cm, and the walls (side, back and top) are made of plywood or wire mesh. With the open side, such a device is suspended from a hole in the top of the cage on hooks so that it can be removed when necessary. The dimensions of the nesting device are as follows: height - 12 cm, bottom area - 15 x 12 cm, diameter of the hole in the bottom for the nesting basket - 8-10 cm.

Nest device for canaries: a - a cage without a nest basket; b - a cell with a nesting basket; c - nesting basket made of rope; g - nesting basket made of wire

The best nesting baskets are woven from willow twigs or sewn from hemp rope 3-5 mm thick. The dimensions of the basket are as follows: the diameter of the upper part of the basket is 11-12 cm, the bottom is about 4 cm, the height is not more than 10 cm (the diameter of the basket should be 1-2 cm larger than the diameter of the hole in the bottom). Baskets made of twigs or hemp rope can be used for nesting canaries many times after disinfection. Wicker baskets are inserted into the hole in the bottom, in which the female will make a nest for laying and incubating eggs.

The cage should be set up in such a place that the canaries are disturbed as little as possible while incubating and feeding the chicks. This is especially important when incubating eggs and at the beginning of the period after hatching.

Pair selection. Canaries are monogamous, that is, during the breeding season, the male and female form a strong pair that incubates the eggs and feeds the chicks until they are completely independent.

Like other birds, canaries inherit not only physical data (that is, health, exterior, etc.), but also the ability to sing, easy and high-quality susceptibility to difficult, but valuable knees and the least tendency to defects in singing. It is difficult to determine the purebred male or female if their pedigree is unknown. A good exterior and plumage color do not yet mean that the chicks from this pair will inherit good singing or decorative data. Therefore, heredity is precisely the factor that should be the main factor in the selection of a male and a female by an amateur, if he seeks to obtain high-quality offspring with singing that caresses the ear or decorative coloring of plumage. To this end, the male and female must have pedigrees, that is, the amateur must have accurate information about what qualities their ancestors possessed, at least the great-grandparents and great-grandmothers of this pair of canaries.

The main role in obtaining high-quality offspring belongs to the female. She not only inherits her best maternal qualities as a good hen and nurse, but is also the side that transmits the ability to sing. Therefore, it is impossible to mate a female of dubious origin with purebred males or individuals from families with voices that are completely different in pitch. You should also not mate a male and a female with crests on their heads: in offspring, instead of crests, bald spots and bald patches may appear on their heads. With such mating, one of the birds must be without a crest. If the male has green or variegated plumage, and the female has lemon, yellow or other light and uniform plumage, then the offspring will be variegated. The symmetrical arrangement of the feather color makes these birds the most striking and beautiful. Finally, it is unacceptable to mate single-nesting birds, that is, from the same parents. From closely related mating (inbreeding), extremely frail, weak chicks, prone to various diseases, appear. However, sometimes inbreeding is used in selection and breeding work to obtain better offspring.

Pair formation in canaries is the most important step towards successful breeding. Not always two individuals of different sexes, planted in a separate cage, will show interest in each other, form a friendly pair and, under appropriate conditions, begin to reproduce. Aggressiveness towards the other sex can occur for various reasons, but most often due to the aggressiveness of the female, the lack of sexual activity of one of the partners, or due to unsuitable conditions for building a nest. Thus, in order to form a pair, canaries need certain conditions: a microclimate, a place for a nest, specific nesting material and a microlandscape, as well as an abundance of food.

In canaries, the male attracts the female with his song, and here it is more correct to say that the female chooses the canary, and not vice versa. However, in canary breeding, more often than not, the amateur himself selects males and females, while pursuing a specific goal. You can only mate healthy, mobile canaries with a clean and smooth plumage. Sick and weak individuals lay unfertilized eggs or produce defective offspring. Too old and immature birds are also unsuitable for offspring.

Story

The Canary Islands, where the wild ancestors of modern domestic canaries lived, were discovered by Spanish sailors in the 14th century. Birds began to be exported to Europe, where they were in demand because of their beautiful singing, and were named after the Canary archipelago. Later, Spanish monks learned to breed songbirds in captivity, which saved wild species from total capture and possible extinction.

Once in Russia in the XVIII century, canaries became very popular. Due to the high demand after the abolition of serfdom, the breeding of these songbirds, the manufacture of cages and accessories for their maintenance, has become a whole industry.

Z do you know?The able-bodied population of dozens of villages in the Tula, Bryansk, Smolensk and Kaluga provinces was engaged in canary fishing.

Due to the ability of these birds to imitate the sounds of musical instruments and the singing of other birds, the training of canaries has become a kind of art, and their songs are melodic and varied. Canary singing competitions in the 19th century gathered a lot of connoisseurs, and today many enthusiasts are also busy improving the breed and singing qualities of birds.

Appearance and description, photo

Domestic singing canaries are 13-14.5 cm long, the body shape is harmonious, the head is round, with a short beak. Decorative breeds reach a size of 23 cm. In addition to the initial yellow color, species with white, red-brown plumage, tufts and curly feathers appeared in the process of canary breeding.

Varieties

On the basis of the domesticated Canarian canary finch, specialists have bred about 120 breeds of domestic canary, while less than 10 song breeds.

Breeds of canaries are divided into 3 types:

colored- there are several variants of a variegated or monochromatic color;

decorative- there are giant, humpbacked, crested and curly, differ in non-standard shape of feathers or body contours;

choristers- they are appreciated for their beautiful voice, there are several versions of songs.

Songbirds maximize their abilities with a comfortable and safe content. How long canaries live at home depends on the quality and variety of food, on average this period is from 7 to 12 years.

The food and materials from which pet accessories are made must be of high quality, environmentally friendly and non-toxic, because the sensitivity of canaries to poisons has become legendary.

Did you know?According to legend, German miners of the 18th-19th centuries took a cage with a canary into the mine, since birds are able to sense poisonous underground gases, even at very low concentrations. This saved people from carbon monoxide poisoning and methane explosions.

Feeders and drinkers are washed daily, the contents are changed. The cage is cleaned once a week, disinfected 1-2 times a month. The maximum life span of a canary in captivity is 15 years, and perhaps your pet will become a record holder. To maintain the tone of the muscle mass and heart of the bird, it is released daily, before feeding, to fly around the room.

The front door must be closed, windows closed or covered with mosquito nets. There should be no other pets, working electrical appliances and fans, and other dangerous items in the room.
Remember that some indoor and garden plants can be poisonous to birds:

aglaonema;
adenium;
spurge;
asparagus;
azalea;
dieffenbachia;
crocus;
poinsentia;
codiaum and a number of others.

Cell

To create a safe habitat house, you will need a rectangular canary cage with a flat roof, at least 35-40 cm in length, 30 in height and 20-22 in width, with thin metal rods, clearance (1.2-1.4 cm) , with removable feeders and drinkers. When keeping a couple, you need a larger “house”.

Painted copper products are not suitable. Metal cages are ideal from the point of view of hygiene, but they absorb sounds poorly, wooden ones deteriorate from water and are difficult to disinfect.

To transport a bird or transplant it for the time of cleaning a living cage, you need one more, small one.

For the convenience of cleaning and disinfection, the bottom of the cage should be double, the tray should be easy to slide out.

Inside the cage, 2 perches made of unpolished wood are installed, not thicker than 1.5 cm, of circular cross section.
In the cage, in the corners, a drinking bowl and separate feeders for 3 types of food are placed:

grain;
soft;
mineral additives.

For canaries, a bathing place is equipped - a container 5 cm deep, 10-12 cm in diameter for water at room temperature. It is placed with the door open on the doorway outside the cage. After bathing, the container is removed and washed.

Clean paper without paint is laid at the bottom, a mixture of pure river sand and crushed shells from boiled eggs is poured. This bedding absorbs moisture and serves as an additional source of mineral nutrition. The bedding is changed every day.

Cell location

The cage is placed opposite the window, but not placed on the windowsill, in the kitchen or near heating appliances. Provide a shaded place in the cage where the bird can hide in hot weather.

Canaries do not tolerate:

drafts;
noise, sudden movements;
lack of light.

In fact, what canaries eat at home corresponds to the natural diet of their wild ancestors.

The basis of the canary diet is dry grain of cereals, cereals and oilseeds (up to 10% in total) crops in the amount of 1-1.5 teaspoons per day. During the molting period, you can increase the daily ration to 2 teaspoons.
Soft food - various cereals with the addition of grated carrots, chopped fresh plantain leaves, boiled eggs, sprouted grains of oats or wheat. Pieces of fruit are inserted between the twigs of the cage.

Mineral top dressings consist of chalk, eggshell, charcoal, calcium gluconate in a crushed state.

For breeding choose large healthy birds with a beautiful voice and appearance. Vocal ability is passed down through the male line.

Important! Sometimes 2-3 females are planted with the male, but with purebred breeding, each pair is placed separately.

Cages are equipped with special nests - miniature wicker baskets, and nest lining material - dry hay, linen or cotton threads about 10 cm long. The female makes the nest lining herself.

The interval between mating and the first laying is 10 days, in laying from 3 to 6 eggs. Incubation of eggs - 13-14 days.
During the breeding season, you can not rearrange the cage, the female may abandon the nest and chicks.

The female feeds the chicks more often, the male, as a rule, is indifferent to the offspring, he can, if desired, be transplanted after mating.

It is important to always maintain a sufficient amount of feed in the cage during the feeding period. In young canaries, the diet, maintenance and care are the same as in adults, but in the early days it is recommended to increase the proportion of soft food and the content of egg white.

Important! When the chicks are one month old, they are seated in separate cages, it is especially important to seat the males. The sex of the cub is determined by twitter: in females it is short, in males it is long, melodic and similar to singing.

How to teach a canary to sing

Singing training begins quite early, after 2-3 years the bird ceases to perceive new melodies.

The most beautiful way to teach a kenar to sing can be another kenar, experienced, with a beautiful voice, interesting sound, good range. To do this, the cells of the "teacher" and "student" are placed one on top of the other, alternately covering and opening them. You can also use audio recordings with your favorite singing of songbirds and forest birds.

Important! During the molt, the kenar does not sing; in order to preserve its formed song, it is recommended to make an audio recording so that the little singer will remember it later.

Canaries trust a person if he is calm, patient and affectionate with them. Even their simplest song gives a good mood and a feeling of closeness to nature.

Which canaries should not be used for breeding

Even if the bird is absolutely healthy, but has external defects, it cannot be used for breeding. There is always a risk that physical defects will be inherited by the chicks.

Healthy canaries are the key to success

The physical form of canaries is also important. Males should not have subcutaneous fat, which can be recognized by yellow bumps on the abdomen.

This is especially true of singing kenars, which are kept in solitary cages for a long time during training. An obese male may be unproductive due to a sedentary lifestyle.

Well-known canary breeders G. Smet, P. Poppe and others believe that females can have a thin layer of fat. They explain their opinion by the fact that due to a small supply of fat, the bird will more easily survive the nesting period.

An important aspect of preparing for breeding canaries

Two weeks before the canaries move in together, let them out of their cages and into the room daily. Free exercise increases metabolism in canaries, improves appetite, and strengthens muscles. This will favorably affect both the health of future parents and the condition of the chicks.

This opportunity will especially please the males who have sat in single cages. Females often live in spacious cages. Males will be able to warm up well and lose weight, if any.

Suitable age for breeding

Don't go to extremes

If your goal is to reinforce some genetic trait in canaries, it is better to cross the parent with its chick or cousin offspring.

Keep in mind that crossing canaries of different breeds is used only to breed new ones. If you have no experience, it is not recommended to engage in such experiments. Cross between representatives of the same breed.

Choose the time for breeding

Expectant parents are entitled to a separate menu

Two to three weeks before the planned nesting of canaries, begin to strengthen their diet with nutrients and vitamin and mineral substances. The menu of future parents should include:

grain and seed feed;
fruits;
vegetables;
greenery;
germinated grains of millet, barley, wheat;
germinated seeds of rapeseed, sunflower;
cereals;
boiled eggs;
honey - two or three drops a day;
cottage cheese;
insects and their larvae - five to ten pieces per bird.

We cook ourselves

In addition to grain and seed feed, you can prepare a healthy mixture for canaries, the approximate composition of which is indicated in the table:

Diet changes

Preparing the nesting site

We make a nesting base ourselves

To make a nest base, prepare the tools:

rope;
food film;
flax fiber;
hot glue gun;
construction heat gun.

When Canary Behavior Changes

Nest building

The female will continue to imitate the structure of the nest in the new cage. But before you make a nest, she will begin to collect building material, which you must provide in abundance.

The male can help the female in building a nest, but does not do it rarely and reluctantly. But he feeds the worker and sings wonderful songs to her.

If the female is ready to breed, it takes her no more than a week to build. A canary, dissatisfied with its work, can tear up an almost finished nest and correct the shortcomings by rebuilding it.

Relationship between male and female

And now the female has testicles

The last testicle differs from the others in a light blue color, while the others have a blue tint with a grayish sheen. There are dark specks on every egg.

Hatching time

Do not take the eggs out of the nest for more than two hours. During this time, they will finally cool down and the embryos will die.

The Miracle of Chicks

Feeding the chicks

When the chicks are a week old, you should start feeding them. The composition of the approximate menu is indicated in the table:

Is ringing necessary?

Of course, you can ring the canary with split rings or colored tubes, which are sold in pet stores and bird markets. But such birds will not be able to participate in exhibitions or competitions.

Tags: finches

One simple truth should be remembered - well-fed birds that receive the necessary vitamins in sufficient quantities will give healthier offspring than those that do not receive adequate nutrition.

Best age for breeding:

Females are selected for breeding at the age of 10 months to 4 years. Males may be slightly older.

Birds should be healthy and energetic, with a dense chest and smooth plumage. When the day begins to noticeably lengthen (end of February - beginning of March), the canaries' diet needs to be slightly diversified. Before that, it is necessary to introduce germinated grains into the diet. It can be sunflower, wheat, millet or rapeseed. They are a source of vitamin E, which is vital for reproduction.

Preparation period

By the beginning of breeding, canaries should be in good physical shape. Since the females spend the winter in a fairly spacious enclosure, their physical condition is normal. What can not be said about the males, who spent several months in small cages. Therefore, before launching into the breeding tank, the male must properly warm up and fly. In order for the male canary to warm up before breeding, there are two options.

The first option - the male is launched into the breeding tank earlier than the female, about a week before. The second option (and the most preferable one) is that males should live in a flying cage before breeding. It is not scary if there are several of them in one cell.

Signs that canaries are ready to breed

Canaries in anticipation of breeding begin to behave clearly differently than usual. Birds show all signs of excitement: they scream loudly, flap their wings, flutter from one perch to another, and generally become quite restless. Males begin to sing monotonously, loudly and briefly. Females from time to time start looking for building material and everything that looks like it - blades of grass, scraps of paper, feathers. All this they gain in their beak. If you give them a piece of cotton wool, they pick it up and run around the cage with it.

The easiest way to tell if a female canary is ready to breed is to look at her belly and tail. In a female not ready for breeding, the tail is similar to the tail of the male, and the abdomen is almost completely covered with feathers. The bird, which is already ready to lay eggs, has a thickened tail, and a patch of bare skin appears on the abdomen - the so-called brood spot.

Reproduction (breeding methods) of canaries

Today, breeding canaries can be done in one of two ways. The first method is close to natural conditions and is biologically correct. Its peculiarity is that the presence of a male is mandatory at all stages of reproduction. The second method is considered not very successful. With him, the male is removed from the cage immediately after the female makes a clutch. The disadvantage of this method is that only the female will take care of the chicks. This is contrary to the natural properties of canaries, since in nature both parents take care of the offspring.

About untimely breeding of canaries

Breeding canaries at home should take place in the spring and summer. Unfortunately, not all canary breeders take this into account and allow their birds to breed in winter. Winter brood birds are more frail than summer and spring birds, so their distribution is a disservice to the canary industry as a whole.

Formation of a pair of canaries

A pair of birds ready for breeding is launched into a small cage, in which a nesting base is pre-installed. Approximate dimensions of the cage in which the cage is installed: 50 cm - 40 cm - 40 cm (length - width - height). The cage should be installed in the most illuminated part of the room. The size of the cage is approximately 10 cm in diameter, 5-6 cm deep. After the birds nest, the cage can no longer be rearranged anywhere.

In most cases, the male begins to feed the female already on the first day, and she opens her beak in front of him.

The signal for mating for the male is the characteristic (inviting) posture of the female. The pursuit of the female by the male, her feeding, as well as numerous copulations - all this allows us to conclude that the birds formed a strong pair for the entire breeding period.

Nest building by canaries

The female begins to show interest in the nest a few days after she is placed in the cage. She sits in the nest base and spins in it. From now on, various materials that can be used for construction should be constantly present in the cage. These are feathers, shreds, cotton wool, threads, pieces of paper, dry grass.

These materials can be slipped between the bars of the cage or placed directly on the floor. The female spends about 3 days on nest building at home.

egg laying

Egg laying occurs approximately two days after the nest is built. Most often this happens early in the morning. Usually the clutch is 4 or 5 eggs, although there may be more or less.

After the 2nd or 3rd egg is laid, the canary begins to incubate them. For this reason, canaries hatch within 2 or even 3 days. This can lead to the death of younger chicks, as the female does not supplement them, because she feeds their brothers, who require food more vigorously. To avoid this, the chicks must hatch at the same time.

To do this, it is necessary, as the female lays the first three or four eggs, to take them out of the nest (and give them all together). Instead, dummies are left in the nest. Unfertilized eggs (which are called “talkers”) or special dummies are used as these linings.

In order not to confuse the eggs, talkers can be carefully marked.

The eggs that are taken from the female are kept in boxes with sand or cotton wool. From above they need to be covered with cardboard lids. There should also be a label from which it is clear when the first egg from this clutch appeared and who owns the eggs. You can’t store eggs for a long time, especially in hot weather. As soon as the female completes the entire laying, the eggs are returned to her immediately. The best time for this is in the morning. Then the chicks will be born in the morning. If you return the eggs in the evening, the chicks will be born in the evening, which is not always convenient.

Hatching period

Canaries have a well-developed brooding instinct. At home, the female flies extremely rarely from the nest, and then for a short time, only to eat and drink. At this time, it can be replaced by a male. He also periodically feeds the female sitting on the eggs. The development of the embryo in the egg lasts from 13 to 15 days.

Litter on the shell - not very good!

Eggs smeared with litter should be washed. This is done very carefully, using a piece of wet cotton wool. Dried litter only needs to be soaked. Because if you try to tear it off, there is a great risk of breaking the shell.

Talkers should not be thrown away, they will be needed for lining. Some canary breeders suggest leaving one talker in the nest. He will support the heads of very weak chicks at the beginning of their life.

Even if the entire clutch consists of empty eggs, you need to give the female the opportunity to sit on them for the entire prescribed period. If the male rages and sings, you should not replace him with another. The first masonry is not yet an indicator of its unsuitability.

All the time of incubation, especially immediately before hatching, the female should have the opportunity to swim. It will be much more difficult for a chick to break through a parched eggshell than a moistened one. If during the incubation period the female does not want to swim, then on the eve of hatching, the eggs should be moistened on their own (with the same wet cotton swab).

During incubation, canaries do not need to temporarily give egg food.

At home, canary chicks hatch from eggs absolutely on their own, and the female should not help them at all, as some mistakenly believe. The chicks hatch with their eyes tightly closed and their ear openings covered with skin. Their body is covered with sparse long down. Having dried a little after hatching, the chick is already asking for food, opening its beak wide.

Formation of chicks

The eyes of the chicks open on the 4th or 5th day. At first they are narrow slits. Rounded eyes on the 9th day. The ear holes open later. On the wings, rudiments of feathers begin to appear at the age of 4 days, and on the body - at 5-6 days. Immediately after birth, canaries cannot independently maintain their body temperature at the required level, so the female warms them herself for the first 7 days.

On the first day, immediately after birth, the chicks may not eat anything. They still have enough stock. However, the female starts feeding her offspring within a couple of hours after birth. Opening the mouth of a chick is an innate instinct. It manifests itself when the female touches them, to a loud sound or vibration of the nest. Canaries simultaneously raise their heads and open their beaks wide.

There are canaries among females and those who only warm their babies and almost do not give them food. In such a situation, the chicks need to be “thrown” into the nest to another canary (which regularly feeds its own). Birds usually accept such foundlings well. But only chicks of the same age can unite in one nest. The number of chicks in the nest should not exceed 5, even if the canary feeds them very well.

Very important!!!

You need to look into the nest to the chicks at least once a day. It is convenient to do this at the moment when the female flies off to drink or eat. It is very easy to check the degree of feeding of the chicks. The resulting food is retained in the esophagus and is clearly visible through the thin skin on the canary's neck (in the goiter).

The first 7 days the chicks are usually silent. Quietly squeaking when feeding, they usually begin on the 8th or 9th day. In the following time, the squeak will only intensify. But it happens that the chicks squeak immediately after hatching.

Canaries begin to leave the nest at the age of 18 days. An earlier exit from the nest is undesirable, since the legs of the chicks have not yet grown strong and in general they are still rather weak.

Second masonry

When the chicks are about 2 weeks old, the female begins the second nesting. You can determine readiness for it by the signs that we talked about above. At this time, the female should receive another nest base. Otherwise, she will lay her eggs to the chicks in the first nest. You also need to give her all the building materials in time, otherwise the female will pull out feathers from the chicks. The female begins to lay the second clutch approximately 3 weeks after the birth of the first brood. While a new nest is being built and eggs are laid, the female does not forget the chicks of the first brood and feeds them from time to time. But from now on, the main care for the offspring is taken by the male.

After leaving the nest.

After the first time the canaries left the nest, they need parental care for about 10 more days. Then they can already eat on their own.

It is worth noting that the role of the male is of great importance in the rearing of canaries. From the first days of the birth of the chicks, he already begins to feed the female. The feed received from the male is already transferred by the female to the babies. After the female sits on the second clutch, the male remains the only breadwinner for the chicks. The longer he continues to feed the chicks, the better for them.

Feeding nesting canary chicks

Chicks eat the same types of food as adult birds. These are egg feed, grain feed, greens, vegetables and fruits.

Canaries must receive egg food on the day the chicks hatch. From this point on, you need to constantly monitor the presence of the egg-rusk mixture in the cage in birds. There should also be a feeder with some tender and small seed. It can be dandelion or lettuce seeds. In their absence, rapeseed will do, only at first its seeds need to be soaked in water for 10-12 hours, and then dried on a towel.

Artificial feeding of canary chicks

Some female canaries may not feed their chicks often enough. In this case, they sometimes need to be fed to a person. In this case, care should be taken, since the chick in the first days of life does not produce the necessary amount of enzymes that are needed for digestion. For feeding, a special mixture for chicks, which can be bought at a pet store, is suitable. Or you can use a dairy-free formula for babies, adding a little pureed yolk to it.

The chicks are separated from their parents at the age of 28-30 days. The first two weeks after separation, they live in a small ordinary cage. During this time, they get used to all types of feed and become physically strong. After that, they can be transferred to a flying cage.

Maintenance of adult canaries after breeding is completed

During the year, canaries usually make 3-4 clutches. But it is better not to allow many clutches, since the birds simply do not have enough health and strength to raise all the chicks healthy.

In canaries, the breeding season ends by early August. Then the time of the annual molt comes for the birds. After the females have nested, they are launched into an aviary or into a flying cage. The male returns to his solitary cage. He becomes calm and stops singing. For the period of molting, males can be put into flying cages. They can also be left in nesting cages (several pieces in one).

Canaries have been kept as pets for a long time. These beautiful and bright birds do not require complex care, they can be kept even in a small apartment.

Canaries quickly get used to a person and are quite amenable to education. In addition, they can delight you with their beautiful singing.

CARE

In order for your canary to be healthy, competent care is necessary. It is desirable to keep them in spacious cages, wooden, plastic or metal.

It is important that the cage is large enough for the free movement of the bird in it. The cage needs space for perches on which it can sit. They should not be too smooth, it is better if their surface remains slightly rough. The distance between them is important so that when flying from one perch to another, the canary can freely spread its wings.

Minimum cell size for one bird - 36 * 16 * 24 cm and 50 * 25 * 30 cm for a pair. it is important that the distance between the bars does not exceed 1.2-1.4 cm, otherwise there is a possibility that the canary will get stuck or injured. The door should be on the side so that the bird can be easily removed from the cage. It is advisable to use cages with a double bottom, as they are easy to clean and wash.

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The canary feeder should not be placed on the floor, because the bird can turn it over and scatter it all over the cage. Retractable feeders are also extremely convenient. You can change food in such feeders without disturbing your pet.

In order to keep it clean, canaries need to bathe. To do this, you can use special plastic or glass bathing.

Canaries bathe in water at room temperature, the water level should be no higher than 2 cm. The bathing suit is installed on the outside of the cage so that water does not drain inside.

Canaries should bathe daily, starting from 30-35 days of life. However, if the bird does not want to swim, do not force it. This can be very stressful for her. Bathing suits should be washed daily.
the hatch must be kept clean. Wash it at least a couple of times a week. During cleaning, the canary should be transplanted into a spare cage. In order not to frighten the bird, it is advisable to put two cages side by side, opening the doors so that it can safely fly over.

A special filler for birds (sand, granules or sawdust) is poured into a clean cage. Some use paper for this. However, you need to change it more often - every two to three days.

CONTENT RULES

The location of the cell is extremely important. It is important that she stand in a place that protected from drafts. The place where the cage is located needs good lighting, but you should not put it in the sun.

It is not worth putting a cage in the kitchen, as there are too many extraneous odors and harmful fumes. For the same reason, you can not smoke in the room where the canaries are.

Occasionally, a canary can be released to fly around the room. It is better to do this in a confined space so that she cannot fly out the door or window. At first, you can let the bird fly for 10-15 minutes, gradually the time can be increased to 40-45 minutes. This can be done if there are no hard-to-reach places in the room where the canary can get stuck. Canaries often fly into the closet and are not able to get out.

In addition, there should be no other pets in the room that can frighten or even injure the bird. It is important to communicate with the canary in a calm and quiet voice. Do not grab the bird from behind - this can scare it. She needs to see who approaches her.

Stress is dangerous for canaries, it can lead to their death. Noise, careless attempts to pick it up, a sudden change of scenery can frighten a canary. Therefore, you need to be extremely careful that stress does not kill your pet.

BREEDING

Breeding canaries at home is best done in the spring. To get good offspring, you need to pick up healthy and active couple, the male must sing well. Canaries must be at least one year old. In order for the male and female to get used to a friend, you must first place the cages side by side.

For 5-6 days, the male is given both grain and soft food daily. The amount of food for the female should also be increased. For mating, birds are put in one cage, first a male, and after a couple of days, a female. At the end of mating, the female begins to make a nest. After 3-10 days, the female lays eggs.

To build a nest, the canary must be provided with pieces of linen or cotton fabric. You can also put small hay. When the female has laid her first egg, you cannot move the cage or move the nest. After the female canary has laid a few eggs, the male must be separated from her, because she herself is able to raise chicks.

Sometimes the male is left to help the female raise offspring, but it happened that the male destroyed the nest, and could also throw the chicks out of it. Canaries hatch chicks for 13 days. 3-4 hours after the birth of the chicks, the female begins to feed them from her beak.

It is important that both soft and grain food be available at this time, and the female can also be additionally fed with a mixture of boiled eggs and crushed crackers. After 24-28 days, the chicks begin to feed on their own, and on the 35-37th day they begin to chirp. Matured chicks need to be seated separately. Males need to be kept in separate cages, while females can live together.

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What to feed?

The basis of nutrition of canaries is hard food which you can buy at the pet store or make your own.

10% millet
20% canary seed
40% rapeseed
10% lettuce
10% oatmeal
5% hemp, boiled
5% sunflower seeds

Optionally, you can add burdock seeds or flaxseeds.

Failure to comply with proportions can cause metabolic disorders and various diseases. To avoid obesity, it is necessary to give the birds a certain amount of feed - 1-1.5 teaspoons daily.

At the same time, they need to be fed throughout the day in small portions; it is impossible to leave the bird without food for a long time. Once a week, canaries should be given soft food. It can be a mixture of half the yolk, hard-boiled egg, tsp. crackers, semolina or baby food.

You can give canaries small slices of chopped fruits or vegetables: apples, pears, carrots, cabbage, sweet peppers or celery. As a mineral supplement, you can give crushed egg shells, charcoal or chalk.

However, some fruits and vegetables may be dangerous for canaries. Among them:

Mango
Papaya
Parsley, herbs
Persimmon
Avocado
Fruit pits (cherry, apricot, etc.)

Drinking water should be at room temperature. In the cage at the bottom, you need to install a small dish from which the bird can drink.

HOW LONG DO THEY LIVE OUTSIDE THE WILL?

Average life span canaries with proper care - 7- 12 years. Some individuals can live up to 20-25 years.