How to breed and keep canaries. The bird brain podcast.

In this episode @thejayviary and @birdnerd talk about keeping and breeding canaries. Some of the tricks of the trade and how breed them successfully.

Check out the @thejayviary and subscribe to his channel for more content on finches and canaries.

Also our new bird brains podcast logo is available for purchase through my website

www.littlebirdnerd.com
for more bird products and merchandise.

Hey everybody and welcome back I’m J and I’m Chris the bird nerd and we are we are the bird brains the bird brains yeah we’re getting better at this yeah we’re getting better at this we’ll just practice like a thousand more times we’ll have it still better not quit our

Daytime jobs but it’s a little bit better all right well today we’re going to talk about canaries um good old canaries yeah the the maybe I would say maybe the most famous bird uh pound-for-pound I mean how many old cartoons and everything else have you seen of canaries I I would

Say probably them alongside with the the budge gear parakeets they’re they are like right there any anybody who doesn’t know Birds knows or at least has heard the name Canary so and that they sing right so that’s it so uh yeah they do sing saying but there’s a lot more going

On to canaries than that uh we did want to talk a little bit about the history of canaries I’m a history nerd so canaries come from the Canary Islands a very original name uh and in the Victorian era so like the 1800s in England they’re imported to England as

Pet birds they were pretty they sing people said oh this is cool let’s bring them up here uh and then that I would guess probably you could call that like early aviculture so that’s some of the first like in home aviculture in the Western World now we could talk about

Society finches and everything I’m sure we’ll do a society Finch episode um in the in the East but in the west canaries are probably the first commonly kept pet bird and then there’s famous the Royals too you know a lot of royalty kept them right and then the famous Canary in the

Coal mine so it’s actually I’m sure you can find this on like a Wikipedia page for canaries I didn’t do my homework and check this but I’ve seen pictures so um for those of you who’ve heard that expression you know Canary in the coal mine is in like the first sign that

Something’s going wrong uh in the old days before they had like now I’m sure in minds they have like you know oxygen sensors and alarms and things they used to not have all that so they literally would have a canary in a cage and birds are much more

Sensitive to fumes and drafts and lack of oxygen than humans so they would all watch the canary in the cage and if the canary passed out they knew they had scadaddle out of there and I used to think they were just killing a lot of canaries but it turns out they weren’t

They had Like Oxygen bottles and things so they would see the canary pass out and then they would oh no we got to get out of here but they would crank the oxygen on for the canary and revive them so the canary was just like basically a

Coworker that like oh Steve passed out we got to get out of here except they probably never came back to life after he passed out let’s be honest I mean yeah I don’t know I mean yeah how many times can you knock out a canary like like smother a canary before it comes

Back but they were at least trying um which makes me feel a little bit better about it but yeah so um modern canaries I forgot about that my my dad he was a coal miner um back way before I was born I’m going to have to ask him if

They uh if they used they had canaries canaries down in the mind so maybe he’ll watch the podcast and he can chime in on a comment Dad I’m talking to you all right all right sorry I’ll say hi hi Chris’s dad there you go he was a burer

Too he’s the one who got me into it so it’s his fault that I’m here yeah right well in a lot of ways yeah but but uh okay so types of canaries oh boy I mean we’ve got a lot of canaries and I’ve read canaries quite

A bit in the last few years probably same amount of time with the gulan finches we had canaries a few times as a kid um I think here at least in the United States the American singer is probably your your most popular uh fin or Canary and they come in whole bunch

Of different colors yellows Browns now you got the Red Factor tied into into a lot of those breeding lines um all the um I can’t think of what they call it but the the ones that are marbled looking um I forget the actual correct name for it but they are like the black

And brown and tan all mixed in oh yeah what are VAR variated variegated yeah yeah so they’ve got those and and their their songs a lot choppier than like your roller canaries and some of your European canaries that have a little bit more of a soft like rolling song The

American singer is kind of a harder choppier song youve got your Gloucester canaries you know you’ve got like your body types of canaries so your your fancies and your glossers that are short and fat with the crest and then it’s like like yeah they have the the frier

Tuck your frill canaries and things like that and then you’ve got your color canaries the red factors or yellows your whites um the variegated and then you got your singer canaries right all canaries sing all male canaries sing but they’ve got specific breeds um for the singing piece like the roller canaries

Or the five canaries that are a smaller Canary but sing really beautiful so a lot of different types of canaries out there lizard there’s the lizard canary yeah lizard those cool I want some yeah I want some and then um I saw we don’t have them in the states I’m pretty sure

It’s an animal Ware thing but have you ever seen them I know they have them in like France Spain and Italy um I think they call them a a fian canary but they’re crazy looking they have like a a neck as long as their body and their

Head hangs over they can’t even lift their head up yeah so I mean crazy Canary variation right so like we said I mean we’re we’re in you know year 200 100 plus of people keeping canaries so people people have gotten real weird with it yeah and and they’re usually

Pretty common right I mean most of your pet stores will have them many of your local breeders I mean they’re they’re incredibly popular like you said Jay worldwide I mean along with like the parakeet right the budge gear parakeet those are probably the two most common birds from the beginnings of times that

That people kept and and started breeding and and all the way to now and that’s why we have so many different variations and color forms and body types but yeah super common bird tons of different types of canaries out there um so if you’re looking for something more color-wise they’re a great option

Singing wise they’re a great option um so there there’s a lot of benefits that come from the canaries and the different breeds yeah I um I mean yeah I think I’m trying to think I think I’ve seen him in PetSmart right so PetSmart doesn’t carry that many variations don’t don’t buy

PetSmart birds for so many reasons but yeah I mean they’ve got to be I know budgies are number three in the United States for a pet so it’s it’s dogs cats then budgies but canaries have got to be the number two bird yeah I was going to

Say probably easily top three of the most popular birds that are that are kept within the United States for sure right um and okay so if there are that many canaries then somebody’s breeding them right yeah and you know um Can the the the funny thing is is canaries can be

Tricky when they breed they’re they’re not hard to breed uh but you’ve kind of got to follow some uh pretty consistent steps to keep them breeding well many times people will find when they first buy the canaries and if they’re you know a year old usually that second year is

When they’re your best breeder uh for many reasons but um and then after that there’s kind of a certain schedule that that they have to follow for them to become a good breeder the following year and for canaries they’re dependent on a couple things so for example your zebra

Finches they don’t really need a whole lot of circumstances or conditions to breed and and they if you let them they’ll breed year round whereas your canaries they’re triggered by light on on breeding and also by diet and so uh when your your canaries breed usually it’s early Springtime so when the days

Are starting to extend and and you get more light in the day that’s their trigger so if you have them in an outdoor Avary Every Spring your birds are your canaries are going to come into breathing condition if you have them enclosed like in a house an apartment

Room in a shed like mine um and you got to artificially provide light you have to extend the lighting period that brings them into breeding condition and then it’s the opposite right to get them out of breeding condition you shorten the the period of light right and then

That that triggers them to Mt and to rest and and you’ll find that your males don’t sing as much during that time your Fe your females don’t sing at all right uh and so they are very light sensitive and so if you give them the same amount

Of light every day usually they become worse breeders for you as the years go on because they’re not synchronized in their annual cycle of breeding molting resting breeding right and so um food or light is really important for the canaries and then your your diets you

Know your seeds when when they come into breeding condition in the springtime it’s usually when you increase their egg food right give them more vegetables and they don’t they like um insects my canaries will eat millor worms if I put them out there they’re not dependent on

Insect food but they they are incred incredibly curious Birds they are always the first ones to go to any food that I put out in my Avary 100% they even beat the society fines and my Society fines will eat anything yeah I’d say like um I call them teacher bird so canaries shaft

Tales and societies are really if you have a new food and you want all the birds to be eating it your canary will help you they will eat they would try to eat anything which which sometimes I would say can be can be tricky because if you provide live plants for your bird

Like in your aviaries things like that you got you got to make sure that they’re they’re not poisonous because your canaries will be the first one to try them and and eat them doesn’t matter what kind of plant you put in there so just sure they don’t eat those but yeah so

Food and diet or sorry um diet and lighting really are very important and and that molting cycle of of the birds to to get them into breeding but on if you can get that synchronized up uh they they are good breeders and they produce solid clutches usually year to year you

You’ve got good egg production usually fertility rates are are very high with most of the breeds that that I found some of your size canaries like your glossers um you got to make sure they don’t get too fat because they are a bigger bodied bird and and if they do

Then then your fertility rates are going to go down that’s some things that I issues that I ran into when I bred my my glossers is keeping them to a you know a healthy size so that the fertility rate stay high but for the most part pretty easy breeders and um really

Enjoy breeding them and and keeping them so yeah and for those of you who don’t know and are just listening and trying to Picture This clusters are the ones that have the funny haircut like the bowl cut yes I think I might oh no I

Don’t have it I do have a book right back there but they’re um you know I’ll just say it this way they’re already funnyl looking enough folks they don’t need to be fat too so keep keep your glossers Trimm but yeah I um I think that’s all really good advice um I I

Would also you know I like breeding them because as far as a chick response that you know so you know what actually defines a finch is a short Stout beak interrupted flight which means like if you watch a finch or a canary or any when we talk about

Finches we really talking about like ornamental finches we’re not necessarily talking about actual canaries which are tend to be bigger do some things differently but they are by the scientific definition of Finch but they do things differently than a lot of the ornamental finches we breed so they

Breed in an open top Nest so not a box or a dome Nest but an open top you know like a bird nest and then the chicks don’t have like the feeding response I’m G try to do with my hand for like a zebra finch they just kind of sit there

And twist their head well a baby canary will come way up you know like a robin begging for food so really cool to see so you can watch the nest and even if you can’t see the babies when Mom or Dad shows up all of a sudden whoop it’s like

Whack-a-mole and all the heads come up so I really I love seeing that um and they grow so fast it’s so cool to see um but so you breed them you have more canaries then you might run into a compatibility issue yeah yeah and um I will say first

Of all you know be beginner bird Keepers canaries I would say what sets them aside from the finch World canaries can be really happy solitary they are more of a solitary bird meaning your male if you have him alone he’s going to sing louder and harder because he is trying to attract a

Mate uh but they they do well individually your female canaries you can usually can put like two females together if you want if you’re not wanting to breed them but typically your canaries uh they will fight with each other outside of breeding so your males will fight um and when they’re in

Breeding condition they’ll fight pretty aggressively so they’ll hurt they’ll hurt or kill each other yeah that’s something to take note I do have currently my males are together but I have them in my big Aviary so they have space to get out but even when I go

Outside and I see them I see my males chasing each other they’re because it’s we’re coming into Springtime they’re coming into breeding condition so I’m going to have to separate them here pretty quick so that they don’t hurt each other so compatibility wise making

Sure that if you have a smaller cage I I wouldn’t have more than one Canary if you are breeding canaries and you get babies make sure you have another cage to put those babies in because when they become adults the the males will become more aggressive with them uh and and

Will bully them around the babies will kind of uh that they’re kind of funny they bicker a lot so when I put their egg food in like fresh egg food they love right they’re the first ones there and they’ll always they’ll just have their mouths open just jawn at each

Other it’s like they’re screaming at each other’s face bases and then they get over it and then they eat it you know but um but yeah they they they do better individually unless you are breeding them during the breeding syst season and even sometimes pairs breeding

Pairs don’t get along um so that that is one thing with the canaries and is okay to have them in an individual cage outside of breeding and things like that male and female they do okay where’s your finches your zebra finches yeah get a pair for them at least right because

They are social they like that social interaction with each other Aries like I said I have them all together I rarely see my canaries sitting together males or females they they don’t interact with each other they’re not a social bird and and so something to take note there especially the compatibility yeah I

Agree with that and they um the other thing I’ll add to is the females so another difference between them and the ornamental finches the females do the nest building and they’re very competitive Nest Builders too so yes like right now and one of them’s going

To come to you I have too many canaries right now for for my liking but right now I have two females in with one of my males in the big Avary and the females I had one female that laid and the the eggs didn’t end up hatching and it

Wasn’t because she did anything wrong it was because the other female kept stealing Nest material from her nest while she was sitting in it and they would fight you know every time and by the end of it she she had like half a nest and the eggs fell out yeah so the

You know when you’re doing any kind of breeding I think definitely my recommendation would be just that pair and you can have other species around that don’t mess with them that’s fine but you know one male one female Canary for breeding and you’ve you know if you if you want more Canary information

Chris is much more of a canary expert than I am go to his channel he has several really good videos about breeding canaries yeah and you know with it coming into Springtime here in the next couple months that’ll be a good portion of the videos I’ll be putting

Out is putting my setting up my canary pairs breeding them the process of the chicks growing things like that and you know and probably the last thing I’ll say Jay compatibility wise they are solitary Birds by Nature when they are in breeding condition one way to tell

And people always ask me how do I know if my canaries are ready to breed there’s two three ways your female will build a nest when she builds a nest that’s telling you and the male that she’s ready to breed your males will sing Non-Stop and usually your males

Will sing year round and I said they don’t sing as much when they’re molting usually they don’t but come springtime I mean they’re almost obnoxiously loud in their songs and the m is like uncontrollably singing especially if he’s in front of a female so that’s usually a good sign and then the third

Thing I will say if you know you’ve got a good pair is when you see them feeding each other that’s that’s about as as social as your canaries will get when they’re are breeding and they’ve paired up your males will will feed the females and once they’ve accepted that then you

Know that they’re ready to breed and and that’s usually when I throw them together so just a few tips on on the breeding and and seeing when they’re ready or not and if you’re wondering what that looks like it looks like they’re making out looks like they’re

Kissing so if you see your if you see your canaries that normally don’t hang out kissing maybe it’s time to breed canaries if you see them fighting and chasing each other away one of them’s not ready so right all right well that’s canaries um you know you can find Chris on Instagram

YouTube threads Berard I think you’re Berard 4 on Instagram yes B Berard on everything we’ll link that all below and where can they find me J curveball I know you got throw me a fast one yeah jvier on Instagram and YouTube and threads right you got the

Same and Facebook yeah it’s all it’s either theore JV are or just the JV uh again we’ll link it all below and um you know you can find if you can find one of our socials you can find them all right yeah it’s 2024 if you need help shoot me a

DM if you know how that hopefully yeah that’s true yeah otherwise I’m sorry yeah all right well thanks folks and we’ll catch you in the next one see you guys