Bird breeding

How to Improve Canary Breeding

Max. D Gray
By Max. D Gray. Updated: February 6, 2017
How to Improve Canary Breeding

Canaries are domestic birds that sing beautifully. The males sing during the breeding season, which lasts throughout the spring and early summer, to win over females and copulate with them. There are many varieties of canaries and normally these are yellow, but they also exist in brown, red, orange and white. If you have a group of canaries together in a large cage, both males and females, there are a few things that we suggest and you can try out so to breed them more successfully.

You'll need:
  • Nests
  • Food for chicks
  • Nesting fibres
  • Block of calcium
  • Identification Rings
  • Container for bathing
  • Stick or spoon to feed
You may also be interested in: How to care for a canary
Steps to follow:
1

During time the canaries breed males become more active and sing, it is normal to see them chase each other and fight to get the females. The females will choose the male who sings best and will then nest with them.

2

For females to nest you have to put enough nests inside the cage, so that all females have a place to lay eggs. These nests can be purchased at any pet store, to improve the nest you have to add fibre materials sold in these shops so that the females can alter the nest to their own taste, you will see them collect this fur like material and they place it carefully in the nest before laying the eggs. Males sometimes help females to make the nest.

How to Improve Canary Breeding - Step 2
3

Females usually lay between 3 and 5 eggs, but usually three chicks survive. The females incubate the eggs for about 13 days and then the chicks are born.

4

Once the chicks are born you have to put special food for their young out so that they grow better. Females normally feed the chicks, but the males can also help until the chicks are grown. If we see that the male is annoying the female or that other males want to mate with her we have to separate the males causing the disturbance, otherwise the females will abandon the chicks.

How to Improve Canary Breeding - Step 4
5

Once the chicks have grown they will jump from the nest, if you have the nest very high they can become injured when falling to the ground. It can happen that chicks jump from the nest prematurely and then the mother stops feeding them, in this case you will have to feed them for a few days yourself for the chick to fully develop and fly. To do this you have to use special food of chicks, add a little water and make a paste. With one hand hold the chick and with the other, using a stick or something to act like a small spoon, feed it. You will have to do this 5 to 6 times a day.

6

Once the chicks have grown, put rings on them to know exactly their year of birth and who their parents are. This way you can control the set and prevent parents crossing with their children in the future.

If you want to read similar articles to How to Improve Canary Breeding, we recommend you visit our Pets category.

Tips
  • If you have many canaries together in a large cage containing both males and females, we recommend you choose the male that you see most active and that you like best and put it in a separate cage with two females. This will prevent the other males from disturbing the females during nesting and so avoiding females leaving their chicks early.
  • It is good that during this time you put a block of calcium of the kind sold in pet stores in the cage so that the eggs come out better and are not soft.
  • Put water in a container large enough for canaries can bathe in.

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What did you think of this article?
3 comments
Rating:
Linda
I had two chicks that were doing well. Then I found one on the floor dead. She may have kicked it out. I was feeding the remaining chick and it seemed to be doing well. I gave it hard boiled egg mashed and a small amount of nestling food moistened. It was doing well then about 1 1/2 weeks it seemed to be having trouble breathing. It seemed to get better then went downhill and died. I can see the food used is more liquid in the videos. I'm not sure what else I could have done. I have hand raised budgies with success.
Rating:
Rena
I have a pair of canaries in same cage for a month now no sign of breeding,WHY????
OneHowTo Editor
Hi Rena,

Are you sure they are of the opposite sex to each other? It can sometimes be difficult even for breeders to tell males from females.
Rating:
Rena Adams
I have a male and female canary in same cage, They have been together a month or more and there is no sign of them mating. What's going on.
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How to Improve Canary Breeding