"A favorite treat of my birds is when I take fresh leafy veggies, especially brocolli leaves, mustard, dandelion, flowering rapini, ect. I cut the ends off at an angle and then place into a small jar with about 3 inch opening. The jar is filled with filtered water, and I put in as much greens as the jar opening will allow. Then the fresh 'bouquet' goes in the cage for the birds to browse. They love this amd will jump on and eat, tug at and especially enjoy the little yellow flowers.

"I do the same thing with my veggies but use a quart mason jar, cut the ends, and place in the jar with its plastic grocery bag over it and place in the frig. It helps the veggies to last longer and stay fresher. It is the only way to keep dandelion from wilting right away.

"The opening of the jar needs to be filled pretty tightly so nobody can fall into the water, so I use a small clean peanut butter jar. Change the water regularly and it will help make the veggies last longer. If you have a small cage (which I hope you don't) you can also use a baby food jar and just the tops of the leaves. Make sure not to put the bouquet under perches as it will get, well, dirty.

"I am interested in purchasing a canary for my house pet. What would be the best way for me to go about finding a reliable breeder in my area?"

My answer;

"Hello! I would suggest you start by looking for a bird club near you. - a good place to start is at the A.F.A. website's 'affiliated clubs' listings. You will find a link to them and far more in the 'Clubs and Organizations' area of my 'Links' web pages, which starts here.

"You will find many other bird clubs listed at www.upatsix.com.

"Do note that no matter which species the clubs tend to focus on, they may be able to help you - bird breeders tend to know other breeders near them, no matter what species they keep.

"Once you've found a club, ask its members about who they think the best local canary breeders are, and why. You might even be able to arrange to visit them, and have a look at their set-up, learn something about which breeds they keep and how they care for their birds.

"Once you find a breeder you like who seems reliable, you will probably have to reserve a bird until the he is ready to sell his stock - most canaries are moulting right now, and a moulting canary does not adapt well to changes.

"In the meantime, you can learn about the basic care required for a canary by reading the articles linked to the Basics webpage on my site.

"Good luck, eh? Hope this helps!"  

Welcome to the Companion Birds eZine

For breeder or pet bird owners who care.

Hello! Welcome to the twenty-fifth issue of Flock Talk!

Most of you already know that Flock Talk's email version has been temporarily suspended due to a targeted attack on the mailing list. We hope to have the list moved to another, more secure service soon - in the meantime, you can still read Flock Talk here. I hope you enjoy this issue!

If this ezine is helpful to you, please consider becoming one of our sponsors, and help keep Flock Talk going. Send any comments, ideas, tips, tricks, stories or feedback here. Thanks for reading Flock Talk!

Robirda

Bird Site Report

The time to find the best avian (bird) vet is not when you discover you have a sick bird - by then, it is highly likely that you will be short on time and convenience.

No, the proper time to find a vet is when you don't need one, and can take all the time you need to be sure that you have located a reliable and knowledgable vet - and this site is a good place to start, featuring, among other useful references, a comprehensive listing of registered avian vets, across the U.S. and Canada.

Once you have found your vet, get your bird a 'wellness check'. Even if he is perfectly healthy, this will not be a waste of your time and money, far from it! Rather, it will provide your vet with an important baseline of references, in case your bird ever does get sick. Having a comprehensive set of such references available can mean a faster, more accurate diagnosis, which many times will amount to the difference between life and death.

Be good to yourself, as well as your bird, and bookmark this site - you never know when it will come in handy!

Feature Article

This issue I would like to share with you a few of the wonderful stories Flock Talk readers have sent in about their birds. These stories reach deep into the heart of a bird-lover, for they speak to the root of just why it seems so right that the presence of these little feathered personalities in our lives is so often responsible, in one way or another, for an ongoing series of

by Flock Talk readers
Copyright © August 2001

Jennifer from California, writes;

"I have a cockatiel, by the name of Alfred... yes, as in Hitchcock. I was given the privilege of providing him with a safe place to spend his life. He is a nervous little one but nonetheless he is loved. He sings, real songs, not screeching, several times a day.

"Alfred came to me by way of a Red Tailed Hawk who missed out on a snack. I had gone to my chiropractor one day and found he had rescued this little bird. The hawk actually carried Alfie up into the air in his talons, and my doctor had seen him wriggle free and fall to the ground.

"He ran out into the parking lot and snatched up the 'tiel just as the hawk stooped again. My chiropractor knew that I knew about several kinds of birds.

"Yes, you have guessed what comes next - badly beaten, bleeding and with broken feathers, Alfie came home with me.

"He now lives in a large cage next to the window, where he can see out into the trees. There is often a lot for him to see, as here in southern California, we have all kinds of non-native birds flying free, let loose by people who either didn't know any better, or who simply don't care.

"I do not know how long he had been a pet, or how long he'd been free. I do know there is one hungry Red-Tailed Hawk flying around somewhere!

"And I am happy to share my life with Alfie, the survivor."

Benito Ponce de Leon writes;

"Hi! I'm from Argentina but I live in Puerto Rico. I love birds, specially canaries. When I was a child I kept a small flock of 15 in a big cage. Since then I have had three other canaries - the first two I loved, but it is about the third I wish to tell you.

"In 1995 we visited Miami, and a friend of our family made us a gift of this little bird. I named him Johnny because he came from the US. I carried him home in a little cage on the plane with my family, in a big DC-10.

"Once home I bought Johnny his own cage and we began to make friends. He was very quick to recognize me, and when I left his cage, he would call after me. One day I was standing in front of him, and put my hand into the cage.

"Johnny started to give a little bites all over my fingers and soon would stand up on my hand and sing, at any time I would give him my hand.

"A year a half ago, Johnny got a strange illness that affected his legs, so he could not move about. I took him to a veterinary, a specialist in small birds, but he suggested that there was no remedy, and to put Johnny to sleep, so he would not suffer before dying. He did it with all my pain, and I took him home and put him in my house's garden between flowers.

"He was almost 5 years in my house and at the present I remain missing him. I have a picture of him in front of my desk, and a video when he was playing with my hand.

"This is our story, thanks for listening.

Christine from Kodak TN, writes;

"I would like to tell you about my mom's canary. His name was Bobby (short for Robert or Roberta) because we didn't know if he was male or female when my mom brought him home. He was a very young, yellow and brown canary. He looked almost like a sparrow.

"You see, my mom happened to be at the pet store when this little guy got his foot caught in the cage somehow and broke his leg. It was just dangling by a thread of skin and the owner was going to put him down because he couldn't be bothered with a 'sick bird'.

"Mom bought him and rushed him straight to the vet. (This was decades ago when no one had ever heard of an avian vet.) He finished amputating the leg and told my mom he didn't have much hope because by this point Bobby seemed to be in shock and was very listless.

"My mom didn't care. She gathered the things she needed to make him comfortable, including a nice little padded box as a nest and an eyedropper to help him eat and drink. This was the first bird my mom ever owned and she was going by instinct alone.

"She treated Bobby like one of us when we were sick, very gently talking to him and getting him to swallow water and bits of soaked bread and mushy fruits and veggies that she mashed and put on the end of a toothpick. (We got ours in a bowl though - not on the end of a toothpick.)

"She fed and watered him every couple of hours the first few days, and soon Bobby came out of the little box on his own, hopping around on one leg. I think he looked forward to my mom picking him up and holding him because he would hop right into her hand.

"As his leg continued to heal, he became more active. His periods outside his cage increased and he rode my mom's shoulder, helping her do her chores. When we came home from school, he would welcome us with a song and excited chirps. We have a picture of Bobby sitting on my mom's shoulder singing his little heart out into her ear.

"We had the honor and privilege of having Bobby with us for a little over 18 years. Never during that time did he give any indication that his missing leg was a handicap. He greeted every new day with a song. He always chirped his little "hello" to us when we came home and to this day I picture him on my mom's shoulder - right where he should be.

"I have canaries and finches now, but I haven't yet tried to hand tame any of them, although I may one day. Whether I do or not, though, it will not change the fact that I think what my mom had with Bobby was something special, and that it was meant to be that way.

"Thank you for listening to my story."

Christine

These stories Copyright © by their authors, Aug 2001
edited by Robirda

Help Needed

This issue's 'Fact' comes from one of the best canary judges and breeders of them all, Geoff Walker, who writes;

"It is often forgotten that the 'Normal' Canary is in fact a Green canary, i.e., a bird which has a yellow lipochrome ground colour, along with varying amounts of Eumelanin Black and Brown, and the Phaeomelanin Brown pigment.

"This gives an optical illusion of green plumage. Clear birds, that is, a canary without any melanin markings at all, are therefore 'abnormal' in that whilst they do not display any pigmentation, they are still genetically Green canaries with the corresponding genes for the three melanin forming factors.

An over abundance of phaeomelanin brown will cause the lipochrome colouring to be very dull, conversely an over abundance of eumelanin black will give a very bright lipochrome colour. This is highlighted in melaninic birds with no brown pigment being evident between the black or brown eumelanin striations.

This effect is known as the 'Optical Blue' factor. Birds with the optical blue factor are those sought for exhibition specimens.

The optical blue factor is however very difficult to 'fix' in a breed, as the pairing of two birds showing the factor is no guarantee that the offspring will also display the same factor (although the chances are improved). Also, a negative effect of this pairing, particularly if progressed over a number of years, is that the resultant young will become smaller,and less fertile.

The pairing of a bird displaying the feature with one showing minimal amounts of phaeomelanin brown is therefore recommended for best results. Enjoy making your plans for next year's breeding, I hope this helps.

(editor's note; If you are serious about breeding and don't yet have a copy of Geoff's book, 'Colour, Type, and Song Canaries', then get yours now - while they last - from www.seacoastpub.com Please note that I do not recommend their magazine! But I am glad they have re-issued this too-long out of print book - it's the best there is! To learn a little about the different colours of the canary, visit the [still-growing] Canary Colours web pages.)

Our next issue is due out August 19th - until then, may you and your birds enjoy all the best of everything!

Robirda
August 5, 2001
Vancouver, BC