Breeding Canaries
- Canary Information: General Care & Housing
- Canary Breeding
- Sexing Canaries
- Canary Species
- Guidelines for Buying Your Canary
- Canary Foods
- Canary Diseases
- Canary Books
Canaries have been raised in Germany for centuries and those coming from colder climate areas have grown to tolerate the cold. Even in rooms without heating, breeding is no problem today provided that the breeder keeps the rhythm of the birds' nature.
When acquiring canaries, it is very important to find out the environmental conditions they were kept in. They should be acclimatized to lower - or higher temperatures - progressively, over a period of time.
One should also keep in mind that newly acquired birds are going through the stress of moving to a new home. Their immune system will be compromised for some time and special care needs to be taken to protect them from draft and cold.
They should be quarantined from the existing birds for at least a month to protect both the existing breeding stock from an introduced disease, and to give the new canary time to recover and build up its immune system.
Aviary Breeding:
If kept in an aviary environment, they should be protected from draft and rain, of course. Covered aviaries are preferable - as they protect your canaries from the droppings of any wild birds perching on your aviary. Bird droppings can be infected with parasites, or bacteria and viruses.. Additionally, wild birds often carry mites. You really don't want to introduce any of that in your aviary.
Cage Breeding:
If you prefer to breed your canaries indoors, choose a bright area. Sufficient daylight is important for their health and well-being, as well as to bring them into breeding condition when it's that time.
The cage should be a minimum of about 24 x 16 x 16 inches (or even bigger for the larger canary breeds, such as the Yorkshire Canary). In addition to the normal cage accessories, such as perches, seed and water dishes, and sand or newspaper to cover the cage floor, there should be a device for making it easy to the canaries to build the nest, and a crib that contains hemp or burlap. Canary nest cups are available at the pet store and readily accepted by the canaries. However, do try to stay away from the "flimsy" ones that fall down easily. There is nothing sadder than broken fertile eggs at the bottom of the cage or the aviary due to that happening. The flimsy ones don't last long either. You may think you are saving money, but you really aren't - due to the loss of eggs or chicks and constant replacement cost of these cups. Of course, if you are a little handy and find ways to attach them securely - then why not.
Whenever you plan to breed, you should be sure to have enough room in your cages for the little birds even after they are grown to be independent.
Setting up Canaries for Breeding:
The male and female birds are placed in the breeding cage in the breeding season, which tends to begin in the second half of March. Soon the hen begins to build a nest. At that time the male starts courting the hen, the hen crouches down and they mate.
In a day, seldom two days interval, the hen lays four to five blue-green, brown speckled eggs. After 13 to 14 days of incubating, with the hen sitting on the nest, the tiny little canaries hatch out.
At this time, you need to provide egg-food to your birds, in addition to the normal seeds. You can mix your own nestling food using hard-boiled eggs, mashed - including its shell (for extra calcium) - mixing it with soaked whole wheat bread and maybe with grated carrots. Nesting food is available at the store, which can also be mixed with egg. To four cups of dry nestling food, add one pound grated carrots, and one dozen grated hard boiled eggs. Chop the eggs in a food processor shells and all. This is for about fifty feeding hens. Boil the eggs for twelve to fourteen minutes to ensure that no fowl diseases are transmitted to the canaries.
This mixture is given in an amount that the birds will eat in one hour. All birds get one treat cup per day of this egg mix. The supply for birds with feeding young is constantly renewed during the day. The nestling food with egg spoils very rapidly, particularly during the summer. It would be best to prepare the egg mix fresh every day. If this is not possible, refrigerate any excess immediately.
Canaries are usually good parents and both parents take care of the chicks, which they feed for about four weeks. At an age of about 21 days, the young canary birds leave the nest, start clumsily to move around in the cage, but proceed in coordinating their movements and start to feed themselves on egg food and seeds.
As soon as they are fully fledged, the young canaries should be separated from their parents.
Breeding Crested Canaries:
Crested Canaries should always be mated to Plainheads.
The gene that causes the crested mutation is dominant, but a double dose is lethal. When one gene is inherited, the bird is crested. If two genes are inherited, then the bird's skull is deformed and the chick usually dies in shell.
From the results below it can be seen that you will not get any more live crested chicks by breeding crested to crested, therefore this is not recommended.
Possible Pairings:
- Plainhead × Plainhead will produce 100% Plainhead young.
- Plainhead × Crested will produce 50% Plainhead and 50% Crested young.
- Crested × Crested will produce 25% Plainhead, 50% Crested, and 25% dead, NOT RECOMMENDED!
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