Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Tips On Canary Breeding For Beginners

By Liliana Mills


Canary breeding is a wonderful pastime and can be a great hobby for those interested in birds. Breeding can provide an additional income too. If you are interested in breeding it is important that you provide a good living environment for the birds and take careful steps to ensure successful breeding.

You will need to have a lot of room if you are interested in breeding. Canaries do not like to socialize outside of the breeding season. You will need to give them all their own cages, whether in the same room or not. If they are kept together they may kill each other therefore you will have to have enough space to house lots of cages.

When you buy a bird from a breeder make sure they have the skills to sex them. It is almost impossible to tell males and females apart when it is not the breeding season. When in season males sing and females make the nest but for the rest of the year they are too similar for everyone to tell apart.

The canary breeding season can be controlled by the amount of daylight the birds are exposed to. The female hen will make it clear when she is ready to mate. She will begin to shred the paper in the cage or any plant materials. This is her nesting, so provide her with a plastic nest and a nest liner to ensure the nest is up to scratch before the eggs are laid. Avoid using wicker nests as they cannot be sterilized like the plastic or metal ones can.

When you are preparing to breed the birds use a cage designed for the two birds. This will be separated with a solid and a mesh divider. When the female nests be ready to remove the solid divider so the male and female can get to know each other in a safe environment. Once you see them kissing remove the mesh cage separator but watch the birds in case the male fights with the female. He could kill her so if fighting takes place put the cage divider back in.

There are normally no more than eight eggs in each batch. After the female lays her eggs and begins sitting on them you will need to wait for two days. Then you should pick up each egg and look at it against a lamp.

Put the eggs back and look at them in front of the light in another five days time. If you cannot see the embryo, remove the eggs and let the birds try again. Remember that when the birds are old enough they will each need their own cage so prepare these to be ready in time.

In fourteen days starting from when the female sat on her eggs the chicks will hatch which is what canary breeding is all about. From there on the parents instinctively do everything they need to when it comes to raising and caring for the chicks so you can simply watch and enjoy.




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