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Canaries need only a few things
to keep them both healthy and happy:
- A clean, roomy, secure
cage out of direct sunlight (too hot in the afternoon) or drafts (too
cold)—a single bird requires a cage of about 12’’ x 12’’
x 10’’ at a minimum, and bigger is better! The cage needs
to have at least 2 perches as well as food and water containers that
the bird understands. Avoid the tall and narrow cages designed for budgies.
- Clean, fresh food and water—canaries
are usually very open to new foods, but to start with find out what
the breeder has been feeding and stick to that. Later on, you may decide
to change. For now, however, getting used to a new home will be as much
change as the bird will want. If you do change foods, do so gradually,
following the manufacturer’s directions. Also provide fresh fruit
(apple, orange, banana, berry, grape half) or vegetable (corn, spinach,
dark leaf lettuce, broccoli, carrot, zucchini), each carefully washed
and only dime-sized pieces about 3 times a week, and organic produce
should be preferred. A little boiled egg or egg food should be given
about once a week. Water should be clean and changed often. It sometimes
takes more time than one would think for birds to find the food and
water vessels in their new homes, so it is wise to sprinkle a little
seed and offer a bit of moist fruit on the floor of the cage at the
start, just in case! If the bird looks droopy like it is half asleep,
with lower eye lids half raised, and puffed up, a day or so after moving
into its new home, it could mean it is dehydrated. Give it a small jar
lid, etc. of water on the floor of the cage in plain view immediately!
Once the bird finds its permanent source of water, this can be removed.
Birds can also be given calcium blocks, cuttlebone, grit, or oyster
shell, and one of these is a must for breeding hens before and during
nesting time. Breeding canaries can prove difficult, and you should
read up on it before you start.
-
A clean,
fairly stable environment—rooms like small kitchens and bathrooms
are not usually good locations to keep birds. Temperatures can vary
greatly due to hot showers or baking, strong chemicals are often present,
and fumes from these or from non-stick cookware can be deadly! Rooms
such as well-lit bedrooms, family rooms, or living rooms are ideal.
Especially for the first week or so, the bird should be in a calm
location; if the bird must be housed in a noisy, high traffic area,
get it used to it gradually (cover it when it seems to be stressed
or over stimulated). You will notice that lots of activity, as long
as the bird cage doesn’t get bumped, will bother the bird less
and less as time goes buy, and a male will actually enjoy singing
along with a radio, a loud conversation, or a vacuum once he is really
settled in.
Health issues:
- Any kind of bird can become
ill very quickly. They live at a much faster rate than people do, and
things which could take years to hurt us could hurt them in days or
even hours! In addition to the things mentioned above, the following
can hurt your bird: cigarette smoke in an enclosed area, inconsistent
diet or care, prolonged teasing by people or other pets, any stressful
events, too much artificial light. Most of the items seem pretty obvious,
but the item about light may not be. Birds’ lives are virtually
run by light; when day length is around 9 or 10 hours a day in late
fall and winter, canary song is at its mellow best, and the birds are
sort of on standby (they have finished their late-summer molt, but aren’t
ready for breeding—this is when song contests are held). When day
length reaches about 11 or 12 hours, the song starts to sound a bit
more strident, and hens may start carrying bits of string or even paper
around. When days are about 13 hours long the song can sound downright
harsh or desperate, and hens will lay eggs. At about 14 hours, canaries
will begin to molt again. Birds kept at about 14 hours or more of light
a day over a prolonged period may get stuck in molt; they will be constantly
replacing a few feathers at a time until this wears them down and uses
up all their energy. In rooms that get a lot of artificial light each
day, be sure to cover the cage with a dark colored cloth once the bird
has received more than about 12 hours of total light (or even better,
follow the natural day length according to the seasons). You can allow
a naturally longer light period on the longest summer days to allow
for a natural molt. Males will sing much less or not at all during the
molt; this is natural. Right after the molt, however, every male canary
sets his voice for the year. First he goes through a plastic voice period
when he experiments and forms his song (this is especially true for
birds going through their first molt). It is said that canaries are
excellent mimics, and it is at this stage that your bird could pick
up stray sounds or wild bird calls. Some people play recordings of good
canary singers at this time to help make their birds’ songs the
best they can be. However, unless a male canary has what is called song
intelligence which he inherits from his parents, he will never be able
to sing a complete typical song for his particular breed or variety.
Each breed or variety (and sometimes even strain) will have its own
proper song, and it will have an effect to expose a roller to a waterslager
song or a waterslager to a timbrado song, etc. at the formative period.
Later his song pattern will solidify into the notes and tours he will
use for the next year. One should never attempt to train show birds
or birds which will act as tutors with a recording as the song will
never sound as good as one learned from a real bird which is related
to the student.
- You should be on the lookout
for the following signs of illness: puffy feathers, wheezing, sneezing,
loose stool over a long period, and change of appetite. Illness can
move very quickly, so consult a veterinarian, a knowledgeable bird professional
or good bird care book immediately. When in doubt, provide extra warmth
for a sick bird.
- If given proper care, a
canary may live for 10 to 15 years and continue to sing into old age.
More than one bird?
- Even 2 males which have
been raised together should not be housed in the same cage. Peace may
reign for a while but eventually territorial instinct will come back
and fighting will occur. The best way to enjoy 2 male canaries is to
house them apart in such a way that they can hear, but not see, each
other. This method will take full advantage of a canary’s natural
instinct to let competing male neighbors know that he is defending a
territory. In the wild, songbirds sit within their territories calling
to their rivals all day long, and by this method you can get much more
singing from your birds.
- Some, but not all, male/female
pairs can be housed together all year once they have been properly acclimated
to each other. Remember, gentle introductions will be necessary when
putting birds together. Start by housing the birds next to each other
in separate cages until they are used to each other. This can be quick
or take days and days to accomplish. It should be noted that one of
the reasons a bird sings is the need to find a mate; in this housing
method that need is met, so the male may sing somewhat less than if
housed alone. The pair will eventually nest, so the male and female
should be of the same breed or variety to ensure that any young are
of good quality.
- Group housing will work
with canaries as long as they are not crowded into too small a space.
Any squabbles will usually be fairly minor and temporary. The social
interaction of 3 or more birds will usually prevent any one bird picking
on any other individual for long. In this situation only one dominant
bird will sing most often (not necessarily your best singer either)
unless song perches or other ways of blocking the birds’ view are
used. A song perch has many cardboard, plywood, or fiberboard dividers
of about 4 or 5 inches square, through the centers of which a piece
of doweling is run; the dividers are then set at about 3 or 4 inches
apart. This will allow a number of birds to sit on the same perch and
not be seen by each other. Be sure that the cage is large enough for
the number of birds you are planning to keep in it.
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THE BELGIAN WATERSLAGER OR
MALINOIS
As early as 1713 the area around
the city of Malines or Mechelen in Belgium was known for its special canaries.
These birds sang with a watery voice. Over time the birds were selected
for their wet voices and the type was probably refined by the inclusion
of the blood of the Great Yellow canary, sometimes called the Old Dutch
canary, found in that part of Europe. Many generations of these birds
were trained to sing by the nightingales that the Flemish and Dutch breeders
used for this purpose. The classically voiced waterslager has strong elements
of water in his song which he sings with a distinctive nightingale accent.
It has been said that the very first associations for the competitive
showing of canaries were founded in Belgium in the 1800’s and that
waterslager breeders hotly debated the merits of their singing birds over
clay pipes and glasses of local beer in the back rooms of the nearest
pub. Eventually, such shows were formalized, and panels of three judges
gave each bird marks for how well he sang the various standard tours or
phrases.
The word waterslag literally means “water beat” and describes
the unique musical quality of this breed’s song. The musical beats
of many of the bird’s tours have a definite watery echo to them,
while other tours can directly imitate the sounds of water drops, bubbling
water, rolling water, and sometimes even splashes and gurgles. At the
other end of the wide-ranging voice of this bird can be found the steel
notes which sound like one hollow pipe being struck with another. Between
these two extremes, one can hear the various flutes, bells, and nightingale
tours. Each tour of the waterslager has a Flemish name which is often
a direct copy of the sound the bird makes.
The names and their relative point values in competition are given below:
Klokkende or Klok (water drops) 12 points
Bollende or Bol (boiling water) 9 points
Rollende or Rol (rolling water) 6 points
Chor/Knorr (clacking rolls) 6 points
Staaltone (steel notes) 9 points
Fluiten (flutes) 9 points
Woeten (wuts-probably a lost tour) 6 points
Bellen (bells) 6 points
Belrol (bell roll) 6 points
Fluitrol (flute roll) 6 points
Tjokken (choke or toc) 6 points
Schokkle (chuckle-a rare tour) 3 points
Modern waterslagers are marked by one judge, but the scores are multiplied
by three to arrive at the same value of the old three-judge panels.
The benefits of membership
in a waterslager club include: sharing in the expert knowledge of
experienced breeders and pet keepers in a quarterly newsletter, contact
with other waterslager lovers, band orders and information, and more!
To
download a Word document to keep for your records.
Click here:
Basic Canary Care Sheet
by Sebastian Vallelunga
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