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ISSN 1492-8132
Issue 125, © 2005
No reprints without permission
Sponsor's Space
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Due to the great response received Bird & Cage has extended their BIG Summer Blow-Out Sale on many wrought-iron
cages, BUT it's only on until July 31st! So be sure to drop by for big savings on many of
their beautiful cages, made to last a lifetime for you and your
birds!
The folks at Bird & Cage have made it their goal to provide birdkeepers with a great selection of good quality cages and cage accessories for great prices, along with some of the best customer service you will find anywhere.. Check out some of their cages that Robirda recommends!
It's time for the annual moult, and that means this is a great time to be sure you have all the accessories you need on hand. See some useful cage accessories.
A recent customer says,"I recently bought the Wrought Iron Playtop Cage 360 and I wanted to say, Thank You! for such a quality cage! It was so simple to put together (I did it myself) and the design was fabulous - such smart touches. I'm sure my birds will love it!"
For a full selection of cages and cage accessories, visit BirdandCage.com.
Bird Food Fact
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Contents
All birds moult, sooner or later. Many birds do it a little at a time, over a longer period - but some birds do it all at once. For these kinds of birds, it's important that there be plenty of easily available energy in their diet, along with the nutrients needed to produce healthy new feathers.
One easy way to keep energy up is to include oats in the diet. Most canaries will eat pinhead oats, and many consider raw slow-cooking rolled oats to be a special treat. Oats are a great way to provide extra energy without upsetting the dietary balance too much, because with one exception, the same components go into making up oatmeal as are found in canary seed, a staple seed in the diet of most birds who moult all at once, such as gouldian finches and canaries.
The exception is carbohydrates. Oatmeal contains approximately 30% more carbohydrates than canary grass seed. Carbohydrates are easily digested and provide quick energy on demand. However, any carbohydrates that are not used immediately may be stored against future demands as body fat. This means that oats fed year round to a caged canary, could well produce a little 'perch potato'. But as long as they are reserved for for those times when he needs that extra energy boost, oats can be a very useful dietary supplement for our moulting birds!
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For you
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With Love
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We rely on you to help keep this publication and its associated websites alive. If you find help you need in this ezine or on one of our websites, please consider joining our sponsors.
Read testimonials or find out more about becoming a sponsor. If you're looking for something different, check our home page for links to all our great products!
Our next issue is due July 31st. We hope you and your birds stay safe, well and happy in the meantime, and we look forward to seeing you all then!
Robirda
July 17, 2005
Kelowna, BC, Canada
Welcome to Robirda's Companion Bird
eZine
For breeder or pet bird owners who
care.
Website News
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Most of us have and use spam-ware products to try to minimize the amount of spam we get. But as spamware definitions try to keep up with spammers, sometimes they will accidentally prevent your receiving emails you'd requested - such as Flock Talk.
Our last issue of Flock Talk was not deliverable to many Hotmail and Web TV users, due to their upgraded filters. Repeated errors cause the listserver to remove that email address from our list, so settings must be corrected to remain on the Flock Talk list.
To ensure that your email subscription to Flock Talk isn't interrupted, make sure your email client is set to allow email from 'relay.netatlantic.com', as well as 'robirda.com'.
Robirda.com sends the message; but netatlantic hosts the
server that sends Flock Talk to our listmembers. Enable both, and you should have
no problems receiving each issue of Flock Talk.
Feature Article
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Tame canaries can be a lot of fun, as we've seen in several past issues of Flock Talk. But tame birds require a fair bit of time and attention, and you need to have the time to tame them in the first place. So what do those of us who have little free time, but want our birds to live a quality life, do? This article covers one of the more unusual solutions to this question; teaching your canary to safely fly freely in your home, under a little supervision...
Home Free
by R C McDonald
www.robirda.com
Copyright © July 2005
Handtaming a canary produces a wonderful pet, especially if you can get a younger canary, preferably one only recently weaned. A lot of people consider canaries untrainable, but that's just not so - it's just that it takes a slightly different approach than taming most creatures. If you're curious, there's an article on handtaming canaries posted at www.robirda.com/handtame.html
But if you won't have a lot of time for building and maintaining a close relationship, you might prefer just to train him for limited free flight every day or so. I know several people who don't have room for a larger cage, but who allow their canaries out to fly about in a limited area on a regular basis - in fact, I've done that myself, in the past, and it's been my experience that many canaries will thrive on such a routine, even if it's only for a short time every day or so.
Unlike many other species of small birds, most canaries are quite easy to train for supervised free flight within the home. They tend to be smarter and much more adaptable than budgies, finches, or 'tiels, being less apt to fly off in a blind panic when something surprises them.
Most of us who have trained a canary or canaries for limited free flight will choose an area that can be fairly easily bird-safed, such as a small room with no furniture to hide under or get trapped behind. Many washrooms are excellent candidates for such training - just make sure all plugs are in and windows shut, then lightly mist any mirrors or exposed glass windows, so there is a visual clue that there is something solid there that can't be flown through..
Then just put the cage in the brightest area of the room, prop the cage door open, and place a perch in the middle of it. This serves as a visual cue that they may come out, and also assists in finding the way back home again.
Sit down nearby (but not too close) perhaps sip at a drink, what-have-you - and watch what he does, without staring too closely. Allow him to find his own way out of the cage - if he is younger, or is used to flying, this won't take long.
With older or cage-bound birds, it may never happen; but cage-bound birds prefer small cages to flight cages, anyways - they have never learned to fly, and find the whole idea threatening. Flying, for birds, is rather like talking is for us. True, it is largely instinctive - but it's also true that if we don't learn how to do it properly when young, we may never get it right.
Never, ever remove a bird from a cage by hand and then turn him loose. This is asking for trouble, and in the case of a cage-bound bird, is equivalent to tossing a person who can't swim, off a boat in the middle of the ocean. In short, a terrifying experience!
Once he has found his own way out of the cage, he will know exactly how to get home again - all he will have to do is retrace his route. As long as the whole area is bright enough that he can see well, and his cage is obvious, there should be no problem.
With most canaries, even if they are not tame, it is rarely a problem to get them to go back into their cage in a reasonable time, after a little exercise. The secret is actually quite simple. These are small birds, with a high metabolic rate, and they tend to be quite active. This means that they require food frequently during the day. All that must be done, then, is to see that they do not have access to any edible items when out of their cage.
Be warned if you try this - canaries will sample anything green! Most are unashamed and utter pigs about greenery, so you must be sure before the bird is let out that all house-plants are removed from the room he will be flying in.
They will generally fly for about a half an hour or so before needing more 'fuel'. You can help speed the process along, when you need to, by making a big production of cleaning out the seed cup and then adding a visible treat of some sort when you want him to return to the cage. Those sharp little eyes miss very little, and seldom will they waste time before investigating.
A comment here - put the treat entirely inside the cage, don't just peg it to the bars - because if you do, he will be able to hang off the outside of the cage to eat. Which does NOT produce the effect you want!
The second, and most important part of the secret to owning a well-trained, free-flying canary, is getting him to stay inside his cage while you close the cage door. This is actually easier than it sounds, once you know a simple trick.
Due to their fast metabolism, canaries see at a faster rate than humans. This is a major factor in why small birds can be so difficult to catch - to them, you seem to be moving rather slowly. This gives them plenty of time to avoid your hand.
This can be frustrating, but it has a hidden bonus - because if you are moving slowly enough, they don't tend to notice that you are moving at all!
So the trick is quite simple. Once the bird is in the cage and busy eating, all that's necessary is to amble slowly over, looking elsewhere so your gaze does not provoke the bird's attention, and s-l-o-w-l-y ease the door of the cage shut.
If you move too fast he will notice what you are doing, and you may find that he is quite capable of leaping in, grabbing a beakful, and soaring back out again before you can get near.
So what do you do if this happens? There's various solutions; some simply make room for a flight cage, and then the question never arises. One of the funnier methods I've heard comes from a pet owner who has five canaries, three hens and two males.
"I think they got tired of performing 'The Great Canary Roundup' every night," she says. "Now I just go out there and wave my arms at them, and they each head straight in to their own cage and wait for me to close the doors! Even my kids aren't always that smart!", she says, and laughs.
Personally, I usually just close the cage door anyways, and wait until they have figured out that they have been (horrors!) locked away from their treat. (This works best if it's a treat they really like, of course.)
Once they have realized that they need to get into that cage if they want to get some of that tempting treat, (often this takes only 5 to 10 minutes or so, maybe less), I'll open the cage door again, wait nearby til they are in, and close it.
This tells him clearly that the cage door is going to be shut irregardless of whether he is inside or not. It never seems to take them long to figure out that if they want more than a nibble of that treat, they have to be in the cage when the door shuts.
It is seldom that I have to repeat this sequence more than once, and never have I had to repeat it more than twice - it seems canaries can be quite clever when it comes to accessing a favoured treat!
So if you'd like to provide your canary more room to fly, but can't afford (or don't have the room for) a larger cage, why not give free-flying a try? You and your canary just may wind up having more fun than either of you ever suspected was possible!
by R C McDonald
www.robirda.com
Copyright © June 2005
Recently Robirda's book "Brats in Feathers" was reviewed by Mr. G.B.R. Walker, one of the most respected canary authors and judges on the planet. His comments make it clear why this book has been getting such a great response from its readers.
Mr Walker said, "...it is an excellent introduction to a first time canary owner, and a useful reminder to those that have owned a pet for a time... The chapter on training was particularly well received. I have never seen anything like this in written form before, and frankly had never considered it.
"The basics always remain the same, and you have covered them well. A new breeder following your guidelines should be successful... I loved the photos from the cam, and was most impressed by Jim's chapter."
A recent customer tells us, "My father bought 'Brats in Feathers' from you, since he received your book, he has read it from front to back. My dad is 85. Five weeks ago he got his first (canary) babies, he was so thrilled... out of 4 eggs the hen laid, 3 survived. They are SO beautiful! Any day now, there should be 4 more. Without the book to follow, we don't think we would have been this lucky. There is so much detail! Also his male birds are singing nicely, your CD came in handy too."
Brats in Feathers is available as a book, or two (non-printable) ebooks. You can find more details, including a link to download sample chapters, at www.robirda.com/books.html
"Everyone always asks me why my birds are such beautiful singers and breed such magnificent babies...I tell them that I learned from Robirda! While they give their birds all kinds of 'magical' formulas, I just follow your guide to 'keep it simple.' My birds are now very healthy, and there has been no recurrence of the infection. Thank Goodness!" R.C., Florida
"Even after I made all sorts of changes, my canary still hardly sang. But after I ordered your CD, he sings and sings - I guess he just needed someone to show him how he was supposed to be spending his time! Thanks for such a nice CD."
Song
CD
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Summer
Sale! Until July 31st SAVE over 20% ! Our CD of Robirda's canaries singing consists of 12 16-bit true-stereo
tracks, for a total of almost 59 minutes of canary songs. There's no
distracting background, and because the birds were recorded in true stereo, you
will be able to hear the different positions of each bird!
Hear a 10 second sample in mp3 format, Note too that the CD quality is much better than this sample.
A recent customer told us, "Just a quick message to thank you for your prompt delivery of my CD. Your CD has done wonders for my canary, he hasn't sang for months and now he tries to out sing the CD, very fulfilling for me to watch! Thank you for a great product!"
Many canaries are moulting their feathers just now, which makes this the best time to teach your birds new songs. The songs of other birds will receive the most attention from a moulting pet, so you can use our sale to help to improve and expand your bird's reperatoire of songs at the same time he is renewing his feathers!
Find our more details on our Canary Song CD sale now!
Here's a website for the collector in all of us; it features classic antique bird prints, most of them made and coloured by hand. These prints were taken from old, falling-apart books, some published in the 1800's. We've all seen copies of some of these prints, but these are the originals!
Most are quite sizeable, and are hand-coloured lithographs. Considering the quality, the prices are very reasonable. These items won't last long, so if you have a collector of fine bird items hidden under your skin, you just might want to zip over and pick up some copies of your favourite antique bird prints while you still can!
Help
Needed
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Do you know of a great bird site which deserves a review? Maybe you have a favourite tip or trick that you like to use, or know of a product that has made your bird's life better or easier to manage in some way? Why not share them with other Flock readers? Just send an email here.
Stories
Wanted
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Send us your stories of how your birds confuse and puzzle, interest and amuse you, and we will share them with the rest of our readers in a future issue. Just send an email here.
"You have the most informative and helpful small bird site on the Web. I have found your information priceless and inspiring."
"Robirda's website, bird board and e-zine are invaluable tools for any birdlover."
"Thank you so much for the book on canaries. That is a really nice book. I needed one, because I bought my Mom two canaries, a male and a female, we don't know anything about them. I'm so glad to have this book, I couldn't believe how much was in there. Thank you so much!"
"Just a short note to tell you how great your ezine is... As a long time bird lover I thank you for your wonderful mag. Keep up the great work!"
"I ordered 'Canary Tales' by Linda Hogan last year...Although I fully recommend buying the book, I find Robirda's book much more complete, easier to read with less difficulty finding information."
"I love your website, your information has made me a very well-informed canary friend/owner. Thank you."
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