How to keep a canary at home. Canary bird. The lifestyle and habitat of the canary. How to breed canaries at home

The great geographical discoveries introduced Europeans not only to tobacco, but also gave something for the soul. Miniature canaries came to the homes of Europeans from across the ocean and became universal favorites thanks to the melodic.

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.

W 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.

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.

Canaries are one of the most musical and unpretentious poultry.

For more than one century, canaries have delighted their owners with pleasant melodic singing, a variety of colors and unusual shapes.

The body length of the indoor canary is 12?14 cm. The wild species is slightly smaller than the domestic form (12-13 cm long) and differs greatly from it in color. The male is green on top with black longitudinal lines, the upper part of the head, throat and rump are yellow-green, the color of the chest turns yellow posteriorly, the belly is white. The color of the female is paler due to the grayish edges of the feathers, her back is brown-gray with black lines. Captivity has greatly changed the canary, and its color has become a solid yellow. A mixture of a wild canary with a domestic one is very beautiful, it is colored with a mixture of green and yellow.

And it is not surprising that all over the world canaries enjoy great and, undoubtedly, completely deserved popularity, which is constantly growing.

According to information that has come down to us, already in the 14th century, Spanish and Portuguese sailors began to gradually bring the singers who had so fascinated them to their homeland. Most likely, these were canaries already accustomed to captivity, bought from local residents, who were happy to keep little singers at home, in cages woven from twigs. Thus began the proud "march" through the world of discreet, but so generously endowed by Nature island birds.

The canary is easily tamed, quite trusting, amenable to "education" and successfully breeds at home. Canaries can live at home for 15-18 years, they are kept in cages and aviaries.

The size of the cage is 30-35 cm long, 20-22 cm wide, height 27-29 cm. The distance between the twigs is no more than 1.2-1.4 cm. The door in the cage should be located on the side. The bottom must be double, preferably made of thin stainless steel (inner bottom) and always retractable, so that it is easier to clean the cage, change the sand in it and disinfect.

Feeders can be placed at the bottom of the cage, but this most often leads to an unsanitary condition of the food and the cage. It is desirable, however, that the feeders in the cages be retractable. In this position, it is easy to get them when feeding and the birds will have less anxiety.

The cage should have a perch for a bird, which is a round perch with a thickness of not more than 1.5 cm. The surface of the perch is left rough, not cleaned. The distance between the perches should be such that, jumping from one to the other, the bird can freely flap its wings.

Canaries love to swim. Bathing cleanses the skin and strengthens the plumage. Bathing water should be at room temperature. The bathing suit is attached to the outside of the door so that water does not get into the cage. After each bath, the bathing suit is cleaned and the doors are closed. Bathing suits should be washed daily. Canaries should be taught to bathe from an early age, that is, from the moment they are jigged from the female - after 30-35 days of age.

Cages should be cleaned at least twice a week. At this time, the bird needs to be transplanted - overtaken to another cage, placing the cages with open doors to each other. The entire inventory of the cage - a pallet, feeders, drinkers, perches - must be taken out and rinsed well with hot water.

Drinking water should be at room temperature. It is poured into small glass or porcelain dishes (3-4 cm high) and placed on the bottom of the cage in a place convenient for drinking birds. Between the twigs of the cage, you can insert small feeders in the form of a thimble or a plastic cork for periodic feeding with honey, grated carrots, yolk in addition to the main food.

The cage is placed in a well-lit place, but not in the sun, not on a window and not in a draft. If the room closes, you can and should let the bird fly. Initially 5-10 minutes, and then up to 40-45 minutes. You can teach a bird to sit on your hand, on your shoulder, but this requires a lot of patience. Cages with canaries should be approached so that the birds can see you: talking to them in an even, gentle voice will win the bird's trust.

Feeding canaries

Feeding canaries is not difficult. The main feed is grain mixture.

In order for canaries to eat all the food offered to them, and not choose especially favorite components and at the same time not get fat, you must strictly observe its daily rate.

On average, one bird relies daily on 1-1.5 teaspoons with a hill of grain mixture. This norm may vary somewhat depending on the breed and the physiological state of the birds.

So, during the molting period, the norm should be increased, since the phenomenon of hyperphagia occurs in birds, that is, a large consumption of food necessary for the formation of new plumage. At this time, obesity cannot occur.

It should also be remembered that the bioenergy metabolism of small birds is very high, so they should not be left without food in the daytime, even for 1-2 hours.

In addition to grain, canaries need soft and green food.

Soft food for one serving is prepared from half a boiled egg yolk, grated, with the addition of one teaspoon of ground crackers, semolina or better baby food (such as porridge "baby") and a pinch of poppy seeds.

A good source of vitamins and carotene are various vegetables and fruits. They are cut into slices and strengthened between the bars of the cage near the perch.

From green food, canaries should be given: carrots, bell peppers - a wig, cabbage, lettuce, spinach, celery and dandelion leaves, parsley, apples, pears and strawberries. Like other birds, canaries need mineral feed. They should always be in a separate feeder. These include crushed eggshells, chalk, charcoal, coarse sand or shell rock.

Non-carbonated mineral water can serve as an addition to mineral dressing.

Birds need to be accustomed to new feeds gradually. An abrupt change can cause intestinal upset in birds, forced untimely molting and other diseases, so when buying birds, ask what the previous owners fed them.

Crushed nuts and sunflower seeds should also be added to the bird menu.

Canary breeding

In their homeland, in natural conditions, in wild canaries, the breeding season begins in the 2nd half of March. The best time for mating and breeding chicks in our conditions is spring (March, April, May). During this period, there is a longer daylight hours, and the female can feed the chicks longer. To obtain good offspring, it is necessary to carefully select the male and female. The male should be large, with an interesting song, beautiful plumage, active. Age - not less than 1 year. The female must also have the appropriate qualities. It is advisable to pair males from one and a half to two years and even up to five years, and females - from 11 months to three to four years. The coloration of the offspring is influenced by both producers, and the male influences the vocal qualities, susceptibility to the song and hearing. This should also be taken into account when choosing a pair.

Some hobbyists practice breeding one male with two or three females and still get normal broods, but this requires a lot of experience. A more accessible way is to bring one male to one female. Before mating, a cage with a male and a cage with a female are placed side by side so that the birds can see each other and begin to show mutual interest. The male during this period daily, for 5-6 days, is given soft food in addition to grain. Increase the diet and females. Ready for mating birds are planted in one cage. The male is planted first, and after a day or two, the female is planted next to him. The female released to the male quickly mates with him and proceeds to build a nest. From the start of mating and nest building to the laying of the first egg, it takes from three to ten days.

The mating cage can be regular or slightly larger. The nest can be hung in the corner of the cage from the inside or outside, in a quiet place.

So that the female can safely build a nest, she needs to put pieces of chopped cotton or linen threads 2-3 cm in size, small pieces of linen or cotton fabric and even well-dried small hay collected in a ball into a cage. Within 6-7 days, the female builds a nest, after which she begins to lay eggs. After the female lays 3-4 eggs, the male is removed from the cage, as the female herself can feed the chicks. But you can leave the male, and he will actively help the female in hatching and feeding the chicks.

The female canary incubates the chicks for 13 days. Males also take part in incubation of eggs. At the moment when the female leaves for feeding, he replaces her. On the 14th day, the chicks hatch from the eggs. 3-4 hours after the appearance of the chicks, the female begins to feed them. Both parents also feed the chicks from the beak.

Quite often, people choose small birds as a pet. In a small apartment, they do not take up too much space, they do not require daily walks, they do not spoil furniture, and there is much more communication from them than from fish or turtles. Among all feathered living creatures, budgerigars are in the first place in popularity, and the domestic canary is in second place. We will talk about representatives of the latter species.

Types of canaries

Most people mistakenly believe that this bird is only yellow. Most often, indeed, they are given as pets. However, in fact, the canary bird is found in three varieties.

Whatever canaries are chosen, their maintenance and care are the same. And although taking care of them is not difficult, every future owner of these birds must know the basics and details.

Right house

First of all, you will need, of course, a cage for canaries. It is better to choose it in a simple form, without decorative excesses, domes and other details. The birds themselves are beautiful and do not need additional accessories, and it will be more difficult to clean the house. What size cage to buy depends on your goals. To keep a single canary-singer, a rectangular cage measuring 45/30/25 cm will be enough. If breeding canaries is supposed, three cages will be needed:

described above - a kenar will live in it during non-breeding time;
a cage 70/30/40 cm, in which the birds will breed;
a cage up to a meter long, where females and the younger generation will be after nesting.

The ideal choice would be cages of the "box" type. On the one hand, they should be lattice (or mesh), and on the rest - plywood, plastic or made of plexiglass. Any should have two doors: one will hang a nest or a bath (it's easier to clean and change them), and the other - to care for the cage.

Cell equipment

There must be several perches in the house - canaries love to fly from place to place. Well, if they are made of natural wood - willow, hazel or bird cherry. The perches should be at different heights and have a thickness of 8 to 15 mm, otherwise the birds will be uncomfortable on them. A cage for canaries should include at least three feeders: for mineral feeding, grain and soft food. A bath is obligatory, preferably a hanging one - these birds love to “splash in the water”. No hanging - put at least a ground bath in the cage, not too light or attached so that the canaries do not turn it over. Drinkers should be placed with spouts inward, and fasteners outward. This will make it easier to fill them up. That, in principle, is all that canaries need. Maintenance and care for them will consist in cleaning and feeding - as you can see, there is nothing complicated about this. The main thing is that everything is done regularly and accurately.

Place for a cell

It is very important for the canary, the maintenance and care of which you have undertaken, to properly place its house. Drafts are dangerous for birds with a cold, so you should not place them near air conditioners and balcony doors, and the window on the selected window sill should be closed. The kitchen is also banned: humidity and temperature are constantly changing there. And the smells from cooking and cleaning surfaces will not benefit the canaries. Other pets, if you have them, should not be able to drop the cage or even get to it. In addition, it is desirable that the sun's rays fall on the house - at least for a short time: they are useful for birds. In summer, you can put the cage on the balcony, be sure to shade part of the dwelling so that the canaries have somewhere to hide from the sun.

Cleaning question

Since a canary is not a dog that can be taken outside to "do its job" there, the future owners of this bird should think in advance about how they will perform regular cleaning in the cage. To make your task as easy as possible, you should line the pallet of your feathered pet's dwelling with something. For this purpose, you can use sand, which will absorb excrement. It can also be easily replaced if necessary. However, keep in mind that canaries are very active birds and will most likely scatter sand around the cage. Therefore, it is best to line the bottom with absorbent paper - it is not difficult to change it, and there will be less debris.

Release or not?

There remains the last question that concerns your canary. Maintenance and care includes concern for her health and safety. So if you take your pet for walks around the apartment (especially if you have a cat or a dog at home), then you can lose your feathered friend. Open windows are a risk that the bird will fly away. Hot surfaces like irons and hotplates are also a hazard to canaries. Moreover, even a curtain in which a bird can get entangled, or a narrow gap from which it cannot get out, threatens it with injuries. So most canine breeders advise not to let the birds out of the cage.

What to feed a canary?

In the wild, the bird makes its own food, paying attention to grains, greens and insects in the right doses. In captivity, she is deprived of the ability to control her diet, so the owners will have to buy special food for canaries. Moreover, it is impossible to replace it with, for example, food for parrots - the composition is not the same. You should choose the average for the price of feed. During molting or nesting, ordinary food should be replaced with specialized food: this way the “difficult” periods will be easier for the birds to survive. Sunflower seeds and crushed buckwheat can be added to ready-made mixtures. Do not forget that the canary eats and soft food. A couple of times a week she will have to give a boiled egg.

Vitamins for health

Feeding birds only with grain and ready-made mixtures is like sitting on oatmeal and pasta all the time. Remember that the canary eats greens willingly and with pleasure. In summer, it is sometimes easy to pick the leaves of dandelion, lettuce, sorrel or young plantain. Out of season, bell peppers, apples and grated carrots are suitable. In the end, in the same pet store you can buy greens for sprouting. Just don’t be zealous with the amount of vitamins, since the bird’s stomach can react negatively to such “care”.

Minerals are a must!

The food for canaries must certainly include some, at first glance, inedible things. First of all, it is coarse river sand, which is necessary for birds for digestion. It can be bought at a pet store. If you can't find it, collect it on the beach and scald it several times to disinfect it. To provide birds with calcium, ground egg shells or chalk are given (can be hung on a hook). Charcoal is also needed - they canaries are treated in case of malaise. Pharmacy is perfect. All these top dressings are placed in a dedicated feeder. Do not forget to change them weekly - the birds pollute the contents of the bowls.

Beware of obesity!

Oddly enough, for such mobile birds, the problem of excess weight is also relevant. Therefore, you need to limit them in grain nutrition. One canary is enough for a couple of spoons of the main food per day, so try and stick to this norm.

Canary breeding

If you are interested in getting offspring from your pets, decide how you will proceed. There are three possibilities:

Create a permanent couple. In this case, the canaries will always live in the same cage. This option is especially suitable for those who have a small "poultry farm".
If there are several females, the male can be placed next to them in turn. In this case, you will need a cage for each canary. Maintenance and care will therefore become more troublesome and time consuming.
Equip a spacious aviary in which the birds will be kept together - 3-4 "girls" for each "guy". In such conditions, the canaries themselves will deal with their "matchmaking", and only one room will have to be cleaned. Just remember to put the males in their cages when the nesting is over.

In nature, all mating games begin in the spring - with warming and the appearance of a sufficient amount of food. At home, canary breeding can occur at any time.

We have already talked about the houses necessary for successful breeding. Now let's talk about the material for building nests. Pieces of thick thread no longer than two centimeters are quite suitable so that the canaries do not get tangled in them with their paws. Next to the nest, you need to equip an additional perch, on which the female will move before taking off. Otherwise, she may crush the egg or chick.

mating season

The signal of readiness for mating will be a short, sharp, invocative song of the kenar, and the female answers it (if she agrees) with a squeak. At the same time, she begins to collect, in her opinion, suitable building materials (twigs, feathers, etc.) and tries to make a nest in some secluded corner. Having noticed these signs, canaries need to lengthen daylight hours: later throw fabric over the cage. At the same time, the share of vitamin feed in the diet of birds should be increased: greens, sprouted grains, vegetables, fruits. If the courtship process is successful in canaries, the first egg will appear in a week, after which the female will rush for another 2-3 days.

For two weeks, the new mother will incubate the eggs. The male does not take part in this process. Chicks that are one month old are already quite independent. They are moved to a meter-long enclosure where they can fly. As soon as it becomes possible to determine the sex of the young, all males are seated in their own apartments, as they are aggressive towards members of their own sex and can fight to the point of injury. Female canaries get along quite well in a common cage.

How to transport canaries

Sometimes it becomes necessary to transport your birds. If transportation is expected over short distances (within the hometown, maximum to the country house), this can be done by seating the canaries in small transport cages measuring 15/7/7 cm. Please note that the road should not last more than three hours: lack of space is bad affect the birds. To make them feel calmer, you can cover them with a thick rag - “make the night”. Food and an incomplete drinker must be in every cell.

Health control

The owner of the canary must carefully monitor his pet in order to determine in time whether he has lost weight or, on the contrary, whether he has recovered, whether the molting time has come. Other health problems can only be determined by a veterinarian. Find out how to independently examine the bird. So, the canary is carefully taken in the palm of your hand, its head is fixed with the index and middle fingers, and the body is turned upside down. Very quietly, the owner blows lightly on a place not covered with feathers. It is called apteria. If panicles of new feathers or hemp are visible, then this means that the bird is shedding. She may need to be fed special food. If the aptery is completely covered with fat, then your canary needs a diet and a transplant into a larger cage - a kind of gym.

A well-groomed, grown in appropriate conditions and normally fed canary (the photo convincingly proves this) is extraordinarily beautiful. And you will be happy to sing!

In the article I will consider the features of character, how many canaries live at home and floods. I will describe how to care for a bird. I will tell you about the features of breeding kenar, possible diseases in these birds and methods for their prevention.

The life span of canaries is 8-15 years. These indicators depend on genetics, living conditions, nutrition and care.

Description of the domestic canary

Canaries are domesticated birds with unique singing. They belong to the subspecies of the canary finch, which is native to the Canary Islands.

The body length of an adult individual reaches an average of 12–14 cm.

They have a regular rounded head, a short pin-shaped beak, harmonious proportions and shapes.

Most birds have yellow plumage. This is the classic version. However, breeders have already bred a wide variety of canaries with different colors (red, green-yellow, white, chocolate and light brown) and feather patterns (with a tuft and distinctive curls).

The presence of red feathers in a canary is the result of its crossing with a fiery siskin.

According to the classification, domestic canaries come in three breeds:

Singers.
Colored.
Decorative.

singing canary

colored

Decorative

In turn, decorative are divided into types:

Curly.
Crested.
Curly.
Painted.
Humpbacked.

The nature and habits of the bird

Every bird, like people, has a different character. In general, canaries are trusting, easy to train, and love to socialize. They will use every opportunity to talk to you, family members and other animals. If you decide to have such a pet, then be prepared to forget about silence.

The song of the female, as a rule, is simpler and more primitive than that of the male. The right decision would be to listen to the birds singing during the acquisition.

Specialists based on the Canarian canary finch have bred about 120 breeds of domestic canary

First of all, you need to purchase and prepare a cage. Its value per bird is ideally: height - 25-30 cm, length - 30-35 cm and width - 20-25 cm. The distance between two twigs should be less than 1.25 cm. The door should be placed on the side.

If in future plans there is a breeding of canaries, then it is better to immediately purchase a cage with two doors.

The bottom should be double and retractable (or easily separated from the main part of the cage) for ease of cleaning. It is better to put sand, a special bulk mixture or a piece of paper on it. If the choice fell on a piece of paper for the equipment of the bottom of the cage, then use materials from glossy magazines.
It will not stick to the bottom, and cleaning will take a minimum of time.

It is important to equip the house with a pressed shell stone for grinding the beak and perches: plastic and wooden.

You need at least two feeders: for feed from grains and cereals and for a mineral mixture (charcoal must be included in it). Both can be purchased ready-made at the pet store. You also need an additional feeder or clothespin for green food (carrots, apples, lettuce, cucumber and dandelion leaves). In addition, you should regularly treat the kenar with pieces of boiled chicken eggs. The bird also needs a drinking bowl, the water in which should be changed daily.

Do not give the bird boiled water.

It is better to give preference to filtered (or settled) raw water.

Domestic canaries love to feast on home flowers: tradescantia, ragwort and others. They can be specially placed near the cage. However, some house plants can be poisonous to them (for example, dieffenbachia), so it is better to remove them from the room where the birds live.

Starting from the age of one month, the chick should be taught to water procedures. To do this, every day you need to place shallow dishes inside the cage (bowl, plate, caviar jar) or install a special bathing suit from the outside of the door with water at room temperature. It is necessary to clean and wash everything after the bird bathes.

Some indoor and garden plants may be poisonous to birds.

The water level in the bath is no more than 3 cm.

Place the cage preferably in a sunny room with a door (but not in direct sunlight). You should choose a place where the bird will not be threatened by drafts, high humidity and temperature changes.

It is very important to let the bird out of the cage at least once a week (preferably every day). For starters, it can be 5-10 minutes. Gradually, the time of walking around the room should be increased to one hour. At this time, it is important to monitor the safety of the pet. With patience, you can teach this pet to sit on your hand.

The cage should be cleaned at least 2 times a week and disinfected at least once a month. To do this, you should take out and rinse and pour boiling water over all the drinkers, feeders, baths and accessories, replace the paper (sand or a special mixture) at the bottom of the cage, after washing it.

How and where to buy

You can buy a homemade canary at a pet store, from your hands or from official breeders.

The best option would be the latter, since, firstly, such a person is fully responsible for the bird that he sold. Secondly, he treats his pets with full love and responsibility, and, accordingly, provides them with proper care. Thirdly, you can choose a bird in a calm home environment, after listening to his vocal abilities.

Songbirds maximize their abilities with a comfortable content.

Of course, it is cheaper to purchase birds from the hands, but there is no guarantee that the bird will be healthy. In the pet store, they often do not provide full care and do not pay much attention to them. As a result, often under the guise of a beautifully singing male, they sell an ordinary female.

The average cost of a female is 1-1.5 thousand rubles, and a male - 4-6.5 thousand.

Reproduction features

In the natural environment, the breeding of canaries begins towards the end of March. Accordingly, at home, spring is a favorable period for mating.

The choice of a couple is important. The age of the male should be from 1 to 5 years, and the female - from 11 months to 3-4 years. It is important to take into account that genetically voice qualities, hearing and susceptibility to the song come from the father, and both parents influence the coloring.

After mating, the birds immediately begin preparing the nest. To do this, you need to purchase (or make it yourself) a house, which must be installed outside the cage in the gap of one of the doors. It is also necessary to put a box with material for the future nest in the corner of the cage: strings cut into 2 cm, fine hay, small pieces of cloth.

Sometimes 2-3 females are planted to the male

Less than 2 weeks after the nest is ready, the female will lay her eggs. Chicks will be born on the 14th day. A few hours after the offspring hatch, both parents begin to bring them food in their beaks. And by the end of the fourth week, the babies are already independently looking for food and eating.

The male canary often takes part in incubation and rearing of offspring.

Possible diseases and their prevention

Among domestic canaries, diseases such as constipation, diarrhea, colds, beriberi, diphtheria, injuries, loss of voice, and so on are common.

A sick bird should immediately be placed in a separate quarantine cage.

For prevention, it is important to observe the regime of maintenance, the correct location of the cage, maintaining its cleanliness and good nutrition.
Watch your pet!

If the behavior of the canary has changed dramatically (appetite loss, apathy, stool disturbance), then contact your veterinarian as soon as possible.

A pet bird will become a true friend for all family members and will create a special atmosphere in the house with its singing.

How nice it is to wake up in the morning to the cheerful singing of birds. Then, it seems that everything around blooms, and life is filled with energy. And, most importantly, for this it is not at all necessary to go to the forest and spend the night in a tent. After all, you can have a little feathered friend at home, the most famous singer of wonderful trills - a canary. In exchange for love and affection, this bird is ready to give you serenades all year round.

The homeland of canaries is the Canary Islands, it was from there that they were first brought to Europe. Then people became interested in these completely unsightly birds solely due to their wonderful singing. And much later, through selection and numerous crossings, colored and decorative breeds of birds were bred. One of the features of canaries is the ability to imitate the singing and voices of other birds. The combination of own and "borrowed" sounds make the canary's song even more attractive to our ears. Canaries are smart and very active birds; unlike parrots, they are almost always in a good mood. Therefore, they are ready to sing almost the whole day. But, before you bring a little songbird into your home, you should think carefully about whether you can devote enough time to the bird, are you ready to listen to its trills?

For a long time living in close union with a person, canaries at home are unpretentious. They get along well in the company of relatives even in a small cage, they perceive any food well, breed well and are always ready to sing. But, despite this, it should be remembered that, like all birds, canaries also need good care and proper maintenance. Observing all the necessary rules, at home you can always see a cheerful, cheerful, healthy and beautiful bird.

Choice of a feathered songbird

The choice of canaries is very rich. Poultry breeders have not been sitting idle! But for those who first get acquainted with a canary, this is not at all important, because the main criterion is your personal sympathy. Almost all canaries sing beautifully, but you should choose the voice that is most pleasant. Don't buy the first bird you see. Arriving at a pet store or a bird market, look around, stand a little time near the cages, observe the behavior of birds, listen to their songs. It doesn't matter if the canary is yellow or another color, the main thing is how she sings. Here you should pay attention to the sex of the bird, because the females are not very vociferous and their song is less melodic. If you dream of listening to new serenades every day, then buy a kenar. Considering other features of birds, it does not matter if you get a female or a male. As for canaries of different breeds, the singing is different for everyone. Many breeders, paying attention to appearance, did not always try to breed a vocal bird. Therefore, if your eyes were captivated by a bright, unusually colored bird, ask the seller how she sings. Many "beauties" have a screaming and terribly unpleasant voice. And you may not be happy with such a purchase. Although singing is a natural gift of canaries, they must learn to make enchanting sounds from their parents or special “teacher birds”. Based on this, a young chick should be bought between November and December from a litter of the same year. Many who wish to purchase a canary ask - how many birds do you need to have - one or two? The answer is simple. If you spend a lot of time at home and are ready to communicate with your pet, then even one bird will not feel lonely. But, if you work a lot and are away from home for a long time, it is better to have a couple of canaries. These birds are very active and playful, so loneliness is the worst option for their existence.

Canary care

In order for your feathered friend to sing beautifully, he needs good care, affection and care. Believe me, only a happy bird can make lovely sounds. And making a canary happy is not so difficult. The first thing to take care of is a home for the bird, because this is where it will spend most of its life. A cage for canaries is better to purchase a rectangular one, without a high dome and various outbuildings. It can be a familiar cage made of rods or a box where only one side is closed with a net. The required size should be chosen based on the purpose for which the bird is purchased. So, for example, for keeping one male songwriter, you can choose a small cage, about 45 x 30 x 25 centimeters. If you are going to breed these birds, then you need to purchase several cells of different sizes for the further maintenance of the female and her offspring. The cage for breeding canaries should already be larger - 70 x 30 x 40 centimeters. And the last option is a small aviary for young birds and a female. Also, one medium-sized cage can contain two or even three or four females.

At night, the cage usually needs to be covered with a screen or thick cloth so that the bird is not disturbed by extraneous noise. Thus, it is possible to regulate the daylight hours for birds. It is better to make at least two perches, of different thicknesses and placed at different levels. Canaries need a special bath for bathing, you can buy a hanging one. A suspended closed drinking bowl is also installed separately. As for the feeder, there should be three of them: for grain, soft food and mineral supplements. Let's not forget the perches. There should be at least two of them with a thickness of about 0.8 - 1.5 centimeters. It is best if it is a tree of hazel, willow or bird cherry. It is better to buy all the inventory of a bird house in pet stores.

Feeding canaries

Canaries, like other domestic birds, are granivorous, so their diet should mostly consist of dry grains. It can be various types of cereals, sunflower seeds, oatmeal, as well as flax and wild grass seeds. In order for the nutrition of a feathered friend to be balanced and complete, experts advise preparing the following grain mixture: most of all (40%) - rapeseed or colza, 20% - canary seed, 10% each of millet, oatmeal and lettuce, as well as 5% sunflower seeds and seeds flax, poppy, wild herbs. Attentive to feeding you need to be in relation to hemp and poppy seeds. They are very rich in valuable fats and elements, but in large quantities they can cause constipation. In general, it is advisable to pour hemp with boiling water or boil it a little before eating it with birds.

In order for the bird to be healthy and look good, the daily rate of the grain mixture should be 1 or 1.5 teaspoons. During the molting period, this rate can be increased to 2 teaspoons. It is worth feeding according to the regime, but, since they have an increased metabolism, a canary cannot be left without grain for more than two hours. From time to time, poultry farmers recommend giving canaries boiled cereals, for example, rice or millet. It is good to mix porridges with soft food: grated carrots, mashed chicken eggs, bread crumbs. To do this, rub the carrots on a fine grater, add the same amount of mashed eggs, add crumbs of white cracker. Here you can also add chopped lettuce, dandelion, wood lice or plantain to the mixture. In winter or during the molting period, it is necessary to include sprouted grains in the diet, in summer - green fodder and fruits. So, for example, fruits are cut into small slices and inserted into the openings between the twigs of the cage.

As mineral top dressings, canaries should be sprinkled with regularly crushed eggshells, chalk, calcium gluconate, and charcoal into the feeder. For good digestion, you can bring washed river sand and small pebbles. They should be poured into a separate container.

Water and food should be changed regularly, preferably in the morning every day. Remove soft food immediately if the birds have not eaten it. All these cleaning actions should be carried out calmly and without unnecessary sudden movements. Canaries are rather shy birds, so it is important, especially during the nesting period, not to disturb the birds once again.

Place of residence

Canaries are light-loving birds. They wake up with the rays of the sun and go to bed with its sunset. Therefore, it is important that the birds are in a well-lit area. It should be warm enough here, there should be no drafts, light and sunny. In the warm season, it is desirable that the cells are located near an open window or on a balcony. Direct sunlight should enter the cage, but there should also be one shaded place so that the birds can hide from the light if desired.

Daylight hours

As we have said, light and day length are very important for canaries. In their natural biological clock, everything is related to the length of the daylight hours. Living in those latitudes where the length of the day is almost the same in summer and winter, birds have developed their instincts in this regard. So, for example, the length of the day determines the breeding season and the onset of nesting canaries, the beginning of molting. This should be taken into account if you keep a bird at home. In winter, from January to February, daylight hours should be artificially increased with a lamp to 13-14 hours. In March - until 15 - 16 hours. After breeding, the day can be shortened. When the birds begin to molt, their day should be no longer than 9 - 10 hours. The molting period lasts up to three months and is a difficult period in the bird's life, requiring additional resources from the body.

With proper bird care, canaries should only shed once a year.

Canary inspection

Like every pet, birds also need to be carefully examined. Feathers need to be picked up, inspect all parts of the body, plumage, the condition of the mucous membranes. To check the physiological state of the canary, you need to carefully pick it up, fix the head between the index and middle fingers, and turn it upside down. Thus, the process of molting a bird, as well as its fatness, is watched. In obese birds, the apteria must be completely covered with fat. In this case, you need to change the diet and regimen of birds.

Every day, the bird needs to be released to “walk” around the house, while tightly closing the windows and front doors. Also, you can not leave the canary unattended, during its aerobatics, it can catch on something or hit. Clean the cage, change the bedding 2-3 times a week. And also, do not forget to change the water in the drinking bowl and “bathing” in time. After all, the hygiene and cleanliness of your pet's home is the key to his health.

And finally, canaries are easily tamed, they are smart and trusting birds, amenable to education and even training. The bird can be trained to sit on the arm or shoulder. The main thing in this is patience, and in return you will get a real feathered friend.