canary birds:
The domestic canary, often simply known as the canary , is a domesticated form of the wild canary, a small song bird in the finch family originating from the Macaronesian Islands
They are active, cheerful, beautiful, and have a delightfully lovely song! With such a busy world today, pet canaries can make an ideal companion for many people. Canary pet birds are colorful and have pleasing personalities. There is nothing like a peaceful, pretty canary song to unravel nerves at the end of the day
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Description:
The canary is generally between 4 3/4" to 8" (12-20 cm) in length. Their plumage is very bright starting in the yellows, yellow-greens, greens, shades of orange to shades of red. The canary life span varies somewhat from bird to bird. The average life span of a bred female canary is 5 - 6 years and for a male canary, up to 10 years, though there have been canaries that have lived up to 20 years.
Care and feeding:
The bird food in a canary diet consisting of a good seed mixture (vitamin coated) supplemented with sprouted seed, various fruits, green foods, and commercial pellets are generally regarded suitable.
Social Behaviors:
Canaries are very social with good personalities. They will not harm children, visitors, or other pets. They are, however, timid birds and should not be housed with parakeets, lovebirds, or other hookbills that tend to be more aggressive birds by nature. Pairing up with two male canaries in a cage can cause fights, but canaries can easily be housed in a spacious cage with other canaries, finches, and other hardbills.
Handling/Training:
Most of the time, canaries are simply enjoyed for their beauty and singing. However, some canaries are allowed out of their cage to perch or are show canaries and therefore require taming or training.
Canaries can some simple tricks such as playing with a toy, but they are quite timid and it takes a lot of patience. If they are exposed to sounds when they are young, male canaries can also learn to mimic sounds such as a telephone ring or a door bell.
If you wish to tame or train your canary, it is best to buy a single bird, and it is easier to tame a young bird. Wing clipping will make it much easier as it inhibits their ability to fly. When you need to hold your canary, place your palm on it's back and wrap your fingers around the bird with your thumb and forefinger on either side of it's head. Canaries rarely bite, and even if they do, they do not have a harmful or dangerous bite.
Taming or training a canary requires a lot of patience and persistent effort.
Activities:
Canaries prefer to be able to move around and it is important to their health and well being that they be able to fly from perch to perch. Keep the cage accessories to a minimum to allow free movement. A single toy, mirror, or branch will be plenty and you can change them around periodically to provide variety.
In the wild, canaries love to roll in dew dampened grasses for a bath. You can give your pet a treat by occasionally putting in damp dandelion leaves or grasses in the bottom of the cage for a few hours. An enclosed bird bath put in the cage a couple of times a week will also provide a fun bath for your pet. Just do not let your pet get cold!
canaries photos:
