Pigeon Talk

[CCUK]

Makes sense No point fretting about it either until it gets seriously cold, we're only in the upper 30s so far. I'm planning on putting some plastic around the bottom edge to keep the snow out as well.
And x3 on the photos!

When I first put mine in the new loft, most slept outside now they have discovered the inside perches I now only have three that sleep outside.

 

[Serin]

I have some clear corrugated plastic roofing above the aviary already, but I think the layer of wire underneath threw the smarter/older hawk off and prevented it from crashing full speed like the young bird. It would be funny to watch them smack the glass though
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Here's my two youngest birds:View attachment 1911448
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Here's their slightly older brother, who had an identical sibling who unfortunately never returned from their maiden flight. This was the one that came back all oily a month or two ago.
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And finally, mom and dad. He is looking incredibly scruffy at the moment but as you can see in my avatar he does clean up nice.
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Great photos. It is interesting to me that Olive is at the same stage in her molt even though she lives indoors and does not follow a natural day/night length cycle.

 

[Qwerty3159]

I just watched one of my pigeons hack one of these up. There was no fluid or food that came up with it, just one of these odd seeds. On further inspection I found quite a few of them in the avairy that I hadn't noticed before. I guess all the flapping and pecking around they've been doing exposed them out of the dirt and grass. There's a sickly apple tree nearby that fruits irregularly but they don't look to be apple seeds. I really have no idea what they could be.
I'm thinking I should buy a bag or two of sand and dump it in the dusty areas where these seeds are coming from. I wanted to try to let some grass grow in but there was never much over there to begin with.
View attachment 1914741

 

[CCUK]

I just watched one of my pigeons hack one of these up. There was no fluid or food that came up with it, just one of these odd seeds. On further inspection I found quite a few of them in the avairy that I hadn't noticed before. I guess all the flapping and pecking around they've been doing exposed them out of the dirt and grass. There's a sickly apple tree nearby that fruits irregularly but they don't look to be apple seeds. I really have no idea what they could be.
I'm thinking I should buy a bag or two of sand and dump it in the dusty areas where these seeds are coming from. I wanted to try to let some grass grow in but there was never much over there to begin with.
View attachment 1914741

I have no idea what they are. They do kind of look like cloves. Crush one and see if they smell. I shouldn't have thought they would harm them but if they regurgited them obviously they don't want them!

 

[CCUK]

@Serin this is coming from my missus! She wants to get a couple of yellow canaries inside. I'm going to get a bit of a cage setup but wondering if you have any advice. Can they be let out inside? Are they noisy? Do they chew picture frames? Anything particular that we need to watch for?
I've told her it will be HER job to clean up feathers and seeds (which means it will be my job really!) Any advice appreciated!

 

[Serin]

@Serin this is coming from my missus! She wants to get a couple of yellow canaries inside. I'm going to get a bit of a cage setup but wondering if you have any advice. Can they be let out inside? Are they noisy? Do they chew picture frames? Anything particular that we need to watch for?
I've told her it will be HER job to clean up feathers and seeds (which means it will be my job really!) Any advice appreciated!

Yeah I have a lot of advise but let me get home to type it on my computer first! Moble is going to have typos

 

[Serin]

@Serin this is coming from my missus! She wants to get a couple of yellow canaries inside. I'm going to get a bit of a cage setup but wondering if you have any advice. Can they be let out inside? Are they noisy? Do they chew picture frames? Anything particular that we need to watch for?
I've told her it will be HER job to clean up feathers and seeds (which means it will be my job really!) Any advice appreciated!

For canaries, it has been my experience you are best keeping a single male. There are only certain situations, and certain individuals, that will get along in a cage. You can keep a lot of them in an aviary and they work out a pecking order, but just two or three together usually results in severe fighting and potentially dead canaries regardless of their sexes. Most are quite aggressive. It has been my experience females do not get along any better than males.

They only breed seasonally, in the spring, and you can introduce males and females around mid February and if they are both in condition they will usually start breeding. if the female isn't ready the male can kill her. They may or may not still get along after the breeding season. If my various canary pairs over the years, I've only had one couple that could live together the year round, the rest would fight after nesting season finished. The pair that did get along were red factors/crosses, which are said to be less aggressive. This male still sang with his mate, but most will sing much less or barely at all with a female in the cage with them. My current male stopped singing for nearly the entire duration of this past breeding season when paired with a hen. Most canaries don't form lasting pair bonds, so don't feel bad about keeping just one. They are not totally solitary, but are not very social either.

To keep a single male canary, which is all I have at the moment, you can get by with a small cage at least 14 x 18 inches but bigger is much better, and 30 x 18 is an ideal minimum to go with as it lets them fly a little bit. You want two or three different sized perches toward the long ends of the cage, about 3 - 4 inches from the sides and at slightly different heights plus a swing in the top middle of the cage. The best perches are varied size sticks from outdoor bushes or trees with the leaves stripped off (they also like to strip the leaves themselves from safe trees like apple, mulberry, willow). Larger cages can fit more perches. They sometimes play with very simple toys, like strips of tissue paper tied with jute twin next to a perch or little strings of beads, but they aren't playful like parakeets. No mirrors or shiny objects in the cage or they fight/obsess with their reflection. Not the smartest birds!

A good canary seed mix is easy to find. You want the ingredients to be mostly canary seed, rape seed, maybe some oat groats and hemp but stay away from mixes made for parakeets or which advertise "for all birds" that are mostly white millet because canaries don't like that type of seed at all. Canaries also need fresh food in their diet and will love you if you can give them some greens every day; romaine, kale, spinach, broccoli are favored. They enjoy apple slices but keep it to small amounts or a weekly treat. Offer hard-boiled egg for protein every week or so, and daily during the late summer molt. Keep a cup of mineral grit/fine ground oystershell in the cage at all times.

An important point that distinguishes canary care from other finches is that canaries are the most day-length sensitive of all caged birds and they require a natural schedule with no electric lighting past sunset at any point during the year in order to maintain a healthy hormone cycle. The long days of spring bring on breeding condition and very loud singing; the shortening days of August initiate the annual molt, in which they change out all of their feathers over 6 weeks. Short winter days let them relax, they sing leisurely and are very mellow at this time. Spring brings about the more intense breeding song which mellows out by June and then they molt again after summer. If you keep a canary in the front room and he is exposed to light well into the night in the winter, he can either stay in the breeding condition until he exhausts himself and fails to molt, so that his feathers begin to break off, or he can repeatedly molt out of season and if they do this too much it really weakens them and causes an early death. I've sadly seen both happen to canaries I've taken in as rehab birds. The solution though is very simple. Keep them near a window, and cover them down on the top and three sides facing the room inside with a dark sheet at sunset. They will then sleep, and wake normally with the sun. Or, so as I do, and keep the canary in a room that you dont light after sunset. Mine is on the sun porch.

They love to bathe, and you can either keep a big dish in the cage to let them do so at will (but it will need twice daily changing), or keep their drinking water in a small tube drinker and offer a bath a few times a week for just half an hour or so.

 

[Serin]

And yes, let them out in the house, they love that. They will have to figure it out, but once they know how to use the door they are very good at going back home to eat or drink. Their droppings are like sesami seeds. They don't stain anything. They don't chew at all, except on some house plants, so if she is a big gardener inside watch the canary doesn't destroy them. And the males are loud but it's not an unpleasant loud to me, it's really pretty.

 

[backyard pigeons]

I just watched one of my pigeons hack one of these up. There was no fluid or food that came up with it, just one of these odd seeds. On further inspection I found quite a few of them in the avairy that I hadn't noticed before. I guess all the flapping and pecking around they've been doing exposed them out of the dirt and grass. There's a sickly apple tree nearby that fruits irregularly but they don't look to be apple seeds. I really have no idea what they could be.
I'm thinking I should buy a bag or two of sand and dump it in the dusty areas where these seeds are coming from. I wanted to try to let some grass grow in but there was never much over there to begin with.
View attachment 1914741

I I have those too. I can't remember what type of tree they come from but I'll post a pic shortly. My birds eat them to. Haven't seen them come back up though.

 

[Qwerty3159]

I've been considering a canary as well, I miss having a house bird.

Maybe this winter when I get sick of not hearing bird song outside