New chicks 2015. some Wagerslagers, mostly yellow, a few greens. They are enjoying being in the big flight cage..Ready for sale late Sept. I like to let my new chicks go thru their first molt before leaving...:)

How to Purchase a Canary by GingerWolnik

http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww34eii.htm

Here is the link (copy and paste) to a good article by Ginger W if you are purchasing a canary..

The Dominate White Canary

Dominant White Ground

The Dominant white is the most common white in canaries. The Dominant white can be easily identified by the slight yellow tinge on the Shoulder or Butt of the wing.  This yellow is not present in the recessive white.
All birds born yellow do not carry any gene for white.
When breeding the Dominant White you should not bred White to White as on average 25% of the young will die by inheriting a lethal gene. You should breed White with Yellow or Buff. This on average would give 2 White chicks and 2 Yellow/Buff chicks.

"The Dominant White appeared on the showbench in he 1920's. This version of white canary is a dominant heterozygous version and therefore, in single dose is dominate to all other forms of lipochrome (fat based)  coloring. Consequently, a bird is either a dominant white or not; it cannot carry the factor. The pairing of dominant white to dominant white is NOT recommended. When the mutation is present in double dose the chicks becomes nonviable and cannot grow to maturity.
The dominant white bird should only be paired to a non-intense (buff/soft feather) bird." Walker
It is sometimes difficult to determine if the bird is D (dominate) or R (recessive). If you are going to breed the bird you need to know to avoid non viable chicks that die.To determine; Examine the fat of the bird, normally visible above and below the rib cage. In Recessive White the fat is White and remains so regardless of the diet. The recessive white bird will always remain clear white.  
In dominant white the fat is yellow. Yellow fat will change according to the diet.
You also need to determine the bird's feather type..soft feather is buff or hard feather.. for breeding purposes.

This beautiful Yellow Variegated Suburban Song Canary went to a new home today. He was still in full song and feathers.

He went home with 3 beautiful children and their mom along with his Canary Care Flyer and some extra food..

Nest # 18

An Important Goal nest of White Waterslagers.

Today July 9 they up and left this nest and went to the far side of the cage to another nest. One that hen is putting nesting material in. WS cock is an excellent feeder and takes very good care of the chicks..Hen so so..

nest # 17

Suburban canaries. two chicks..robust and healthy as are all my Suburban birds..Today July8, they fledged the nest..

Interested in breeding canaries?  Here is a link to a very good article by Connie Soto.

http://birdpoet.com/articles/Canary_breeding_FAQ.html

you may need to copy and paste...

Nest # 15

This is hen #2 in the brown flight cage with her two chicks in the red decorative nest. She is a good feeder and the chicks are growing well. They are yellow.

Pin markers for this nest.

"In the Canary Nest" article by Marion Chester on

Egg Management Practices for the Canary Breeders.

Here is the link to this very well written an informative article from an experienced canary breeder.

http://www.canaryculture.com/volume2/march_2015_003.htm

You will need to copy and paste into your browser.

For sale. White Dominate Suburban Canary. Waterslager/Roller. Beautiful Song, active enthusiastic singer.

My four year old orchid cactus is today in full buds and ready to bloom..A first for this plant.

Setting up a Stress Relief Cage for New Canaries

Introducing new birds into your aviary or home can be very stressful for the new birds. It is important to set up their new cage with items that will occupy the transitioning canary into a new environment. Information from the original breeder is extremely important as it will help you provide items and food the canary is used to.

Here are pictures of the cage I set up for new birds. 

This is a white 36 x 24 x  24 cage. A good size for new birds.  The perches are arranged high, medium, and low height for the canary to jump/fly back and forth. They are different diameters to give the feet exercise. The perch you see in front is place so that the bird can fly to the perch you see in the back and then up to the high one in the middle. Seed cups are open for the bird to see its seeds, one has water as many birds do not know how to drink from the blue ball drinkers and must learn how.

I provided three items that are cottony in nature for them to pick. The nesting ball with tissues, the cotton squares/blue pins and a toy with shells hanging from the top. There is also artificial greenery on top of the cage.

Your new bird may not know to eat from the bottom of the cage. I have provided several food items for them. In the clear glass containers there is water and dry nestling food mix that I make from a recipe from the Border Canary 

Club. In the brown dish is soft nestling food with frozen green peas. (recipe in later post) If you have a breeding pair they need to familiarize themselves with soft food so as to feed new babies later on. The green veggie is kale. Romaine lettuce is a good green I use. No head lettuce.

The three hole feeder on the left has a variety of food. Petamine vitamins, song seed and song treat veggies. A variety of selected foods to keep their attention and avoid band and feather picking. I like a busy canary..

 close up of toy and nesting ball with tissue

   

Front view of set up. Newspaper is in the bottom tray so the dropping go thru the bottom of cage.

view of top high perch and treat cup on right

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Top of cage with greenery, protection from the florescent lighting above them when it is on.

Getting the right information from the breeder of your new canary is important to the health of your bird. The brand of food they used, the size of cage, type of water feeder, vitamin's used, disease control used

You will NOT get this information from a Pet Store. !!!!!

Your new bird will be imprinted from it original care giver and the care it was given. Success is knowing this information. Be observant.

Information I was given when I started raising canaries was, "They need water and 1 tsp of seed a day and once a week some broccoli" Yes, this will keep your bird alive, but I don't know how happy?"  This is how I do it.....contact me if you have questions..

This is how ladies catch fishin worms........ With Tweezers...  :0

Long Tweezers.

For baby Robin.