Canaries: maintenance and care. Canaries at home

Quite often as a pet, people choose small birds. In a small apartment they take not too much space, do not require daily walks, furniture does not spoil, and communication from them is much more than from fish or turtles. Among all feathered animals, the first popular place is wavy parrots, and on the second - home canary. We will talk about the representatives of the latter kind.

Types of canaries

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

1. Color canaries. There are also monophonic, and variegated, and simply white. If you liked the whites, be careful when buying: the German line in color is not too clean, and in the offspring can give yellow chicks. Look for the English variety. Also interesting are the gray canaries. They come from mixing green and yellow varieties and in shades can range from silvery to matte black. It looks like a red canary (a photo of a bird with such color is given a little above) - this color is not often found in the color of birds. The variegated variety can include any tones, it is usually called harlequin.
2. Decorative canaries. They are characterized by non-standard plumage or outlines of the body. To decorative canaries are the following varieties: fayfi fancy, curly, lizard, hunchbacked.
3. Songs. In principle, the definition is not entirely true, because all the canaries sing. Speech can go, rather, about the beauty of their singing. By the Kenarovods it is precisely established that the soft birds, white, yellow, green (the green ones are still considered to be the best virtuosos) are best. Red canaries are very effective, but it's difficult to call their voice pleasant. Motley are good in performance, if there are no scarlet tones in the plumage. It should be taken into account that only the male canary sings. And he does it all year round (except the time of molting). But he has the best songs for the period February-March, when he "seduces" his girlfriend. The canary-female, we can say, sings: rarely, much shorter and much less musical. However, there are cases when they taught singing.

Whatever canaries are chosen, the maintenance and care of them is the same. And let the complexities of care for them is not, the basics and details must necessarily be known to every future owner of these birds.

The right house

First of all, you need, of course, a cage for canaries. Choose it is better than a simple form, without decorative excesses, domes and other details. Birds are beautiful in themselves and do not need additional accessories, and cleaning the house will be more difficult. What size to buy a cage, depends on your goals. For the content of a single kenar singer, there will be enough rectangular cells measuring 45/30/25 cm. If the canaries are supposed to be diluted, three whole cells will be needed:

1. Described above - it will live in the kenar during off-season time;
2. Cell 70/30/40 cm, in which the birds will multiply;
3. A cage up to a meter in length, where the females and the younger generation will be after nesting.

Ideal choice will be cells like "box". On the one hand, they should be latticed (or netted), and on the other hand - plywood, plastic or made of plexiglass. Any cage for canaries should have two doors: one will have a nest or a bath (so it's easier to clean and change), and the other - to care for the cage.

Cell equipment

In the house must be a few perches - canaries like to flirt from place to place. Well, if they are made of natural wood - willow, hazel or bird cherry. The perches must be at different heights and have a thickness of 8 to 15 mm, otherwise the birds will be uncomfortable on them. Cage for canaries should include at least three feeders: for mineral fertilizing, grain and soft food. Mandatory bathing, better hanging - these birds like to "swish in the water." No pendant - put in the cage at least a ground bath, not too light or attached, so that the canaries do not turn it. Drinkers should have spouts inside, and attachments outwards. So they will be more convenient to fill. Here, in principle, and everything that canaries need. The maintenance and care of them will consist in cleaning and feeding - as we see, in it there is nothing difficult. The main thing is that everything should be done regularly and accurately.

Place for the cage

It is very important for the canary, the content and care for which you took on, put her house right. Drafts are dangerous for birds of the common cold, so it is not worthwhile to place them near air conditioners and balcony doors, and the window on the chosen window sill should be closed. Under the ban and the kitchen: there is constantly changing the humidity and temperature. And smells from cooking and cleaning surfaces for the benefit of canaries will not go. 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 house hit the sun - at least for a short while: they are useful for birds. In the summer, you can put a cage on the balcony, necessarily priteniv part of the home, so that the canaries had much to hide from the sun.

Cleaning Question

Since the canary is not a dog that can be taken to the street so that it "does its work" there, the future owners of this bird should first think about the question of how they will perform regular cleaning in the cage. To make your task as easy as possible, it is necessary to lining the pallet of your feathered pet's body with something. For this purpose, you can use sand, which will absorb the excrement. Also it can be easily replaced if necessary. However, keep in mind that canaries are very active birds, which will surely scatter the sand around the cage. Therefore, it is best to forgive the bottom hygroscopic paper - it and change is easy, and there will be less debris.

To issue or not?

There remains the last question that concerns your canary. The maintenance and care includes also care of its health and safety. So if you arrange a pet walk through the apartment (especially if you have a cat or dog at home), you can lose your feathered friend. Open pane windows are a risk that the bird will fly away. Hot surfaces like irons and burners also pose a danger to the canary. Moreover, even the curtain, in which the bird can get confused, or a narrow slit, from where it can not get out, threatens her with injuries. So most of the cadavers advise not to let the birds out of the cage.

What to feed the canary?

In the wild nature, the bird extracts its own food, in necessary doses paying attention to grains, greens and insects. In captivity, she is deprived of the opportunity to control her diet, so that the owners will have to buy special food for canaries. And replace it with, for example, food for parakeets can not - the composition is not the same. Choose the average for the price of feed. During moulting or nesting, the usual food should be replaced with a specialized one: the "difficult" periods by birds will be more easily experienced. In ready-made mixtures you can add sunflower seeds and crushed buckwheat. Do not forget that eating canary and soft food. A couple of times a week she will have to give a boiled egg.

Vitamins for health

Only with grain and ready-mixed food to feed the birds - it's like sitting on oatmeal and pasta all the time. Remember that the canary eats willingly and with pleasure the greens. Summer is sometimes easy to pick up foliage of dandelion, salad, sorrel or young plantain spike. Not in season the Bulgarian pepper, apples and grated carrots will approach. In the end, in the same pet store you can buy greens for germination. Only zealous with the amount of vitamins is not worth it, since the bird's stomach can react negatively to such "care."

Minerals are a must!

In the food for canaries must certainly include some, at first glance, inedible things. First of all, it is a large river sand, necessary for birds to digest. It can be bought at a pet store. If you do not find, then collect on the beach and several times scald for disinfection. To provide birds, calcium is given a ground egg shell or chalk (you can hang it on a hook). Charcoal is also needed - canaries can be cured in case of a malaise. Perfectly suitable chemist charcoal. All these top dressings are placed in a dedicated feeder. Do not forget to change them weekly - the birds pollute the contents of the pots.

Caution: obesity!

Strangely enough, for such moving birds, the problem of excess weight is also actual. Therefore, it is necessary 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 rule.

Canary breeding

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

1. Create a permanent pair. In this case, the canaries will always live in one cage. This option is especially suitable for those who have a small "bird economy".
2. If there are several females, the male can be attached to them in turn. In this case, you will need a cage for each canary. The maintenance and care, therefore, become more troublesome and will take more time.
3. Equip a spacious aviary, which will contain birds together - for 3-4 "girls" for each "guy." Under such conditions canaries themselves will sort out their "matchmaking", and only one room will have to be removed. Just do not forget to put the males in their cages when the nesting is over.

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

We already told you about the houses needed for successful breeding. Now let's talk about the material for building nests. Quite fit segments of thick threads are not longer than two centimeters, so that the canaries do not become entangled in them with paws. Next to the nest, you need to equip an additional perch on which the female will move before take-off. Otherwise, it can crush an egg or a chick.

Marriage period

The signal of readiness for pairing will be a short, sharp, invocatory song of the Kenar, and the female responds to it (if she agrees) with a squeak. At the same time, she begins to collect suitable, in her opinion, building materials (twigs, feathers, etc.) and tries to nest the nest in some secluded corner. Noticing these signs, the canaries need to lengthen the light day: later throw a cloth on the cage. At the same time in the diet of birds should increase the proportion of vitamin foods: greens, sprouted grains, vegetables, fruits. If the canaries have been successful in courtship, the first testicle will appear in a week, after which the female will be borne for another 2-3 days.

Two weeks a newly born mother will sit eggs. The male participates in this process. Nestlings, which turn month, are already completely independent. They are moved to a meter aviary where they can fly. As soon as it becomes possible to determine the gender of young people, all males settle down on their own apartments, as they are aggressive towards members of their gender and can fight to mutilation. Canaries-samochki fully get along in the common cell.

How to transport canaries

Sometimes there is a need to transport your birds. If transportation is supposed to be for minor distances (within the hometown, maximum at the dacha), you can do this by planting canaries on small transport cells measuring 15/7/7 cm. Note that the road should not last more than three hours: lack of space is bad Will affect the birds. In order for them to feel calmer, they can cover them with a dense rag - "make the night." Food and a partial drinker should be in every cell necessarily.

Control of health

The owner of the canary must definitely watch his pet carefully, in order to determine in time whether he has lost weight or, conversely, whether he has recovered, whether the molting time has come. Other health problems can only be determined by a vet. Let's find out how to independently inspect the bird. So, the canary is gently taken into the palm of your hand, the index and middle fingers fixate its head, and the body is turned upside down by a pussy. Very quietly, easily the master blows to a place not covered with feathers. It is called an apteria. If you see the panicles of new feathers or hemp, it means that the bird is shedding. Perhaps, it will have to be fed with special food. If the apteria is completely closed with fat, then your canary needs a diet and a check in the cage is more spacious - a kind of gym.

Well-groomed, grown in appropriate conditions and a normally-fed canary (photo convincingly proves this) is unusually beautiful. And you will sing with pleasure!