ISSN 1492-8132
Issue 42, Copyright © 2002
All rights reserved, no reprints without permission

Even if they are not tame, it is not usually a problem to get them back into their cage within a reasonable time. The secret is actually quite simple. These are small birds, very active, with a high metabolic rate. 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! They are unashamed and utter pigs about greenery in most cases, so you must be sure before the bird is let out that all houseplants are removed from the room he will be flying in.

They will usually fly for a half an hour or so before needing more 'fuel'. You can speed this process by making a big production of cleaning their seed and adding a treat of some sort to the cage when you want them to return to it. Their sharp little eyes miss very little, and it will be seldom that they waste any time before investigating.

The second, and most important part of the secret to owning a well-trained, free-flying canary in your home, is getting him to stay there while you close the door.

Due to their fast metabolism, canaries see at a faster rate than humans. This is a major factor in why small birds are so hard to catch - to them, you seem to be moving quite slowly, and because of this they have more time to avoid your hand. On the other hand, if you are moving slowly enough, they don't notice that you are moving at all!

Once the bird is in its cage and busy eating, just amble slowly over, looking elsewhere so your gaze does not provoke the bird's attention. S-l-o-w-l-y ease the door of the cage shut, and there you are!

If you move too fast the bird will notice what you are doing, and you will probably find that he is quite capable of leaping in, grabbing a beakful, and soaring back out again before you can ever get near the cage!

So what do you do if this happens? Well, I've heard various solutions; some simply build or buy themselves 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 head straight in to their cages 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. Then I open the cage door again, wait til they are in, and close it.

It is very seldom that I have to do this more than once, and never have I had to repeat this lesson more than two times - canaries are very smart little birds, especially when it comes to accessing a favourite treat!

Feeding calcium to our birds is easy. Getting it to cross the gut wall into the bloodstream is quite difficult. As calcium deficiency is the biggest nutritional problem in bird keeping a solution to this dilemma is important.

CalciBoost provides pre-dissolved calcium in a highly bio-available form, ensuring maximum absorption. Added magnesium and D3 insure your birds are able to easily utilize the calcium absorbed. Give three times per week in the water or softfood during breeding to insure strong bone and feather growth and to prevent egg binding.

For more info visit www.birds2grow.com

Our next issue is due out April 14th - until then, may you and your birds enjoy all the best of everything!

Robirda
March 31, 2002

Welcome to Robirda's Companion Birds eZine

For bird people who care.

Hello! Welcome to Flock Talk's 42nd issue, thanks for reading!  

Send your ideas, tips, tricks, stories, or comments here, to Robirda.

We are proud to announce our first-ever contest, with a very special prize; a brand-new copy of Geoff Walker's famous book, Color, Type, and Song Canaries, donated by Seacoast Publishing.

Entries are simple; just buy at least one of Robirda's new Bird eBooks in March or April, and your email will automatically be entered into the draw. Each purchase will give you one chance in the draw, until the contest closes April 30th. The winning email will be drawn at random, and the winner will be announced in the May 12th issue of Flock Talk.

Here's what readers have said about Robirda's Bird eBooks:

"I have your ebook on breeding canaries and just wanted to let you know... I think it's full of really helpful information, and I've been scribbling notes madly as I read."

"WOW! I love your e-book for new canary owners, thanks, this is exactly what I needed!"

"I read it straight through, I couldn't put it down, then started all over again at the beginning! I know I will be studying it over and over. Thanks so much!"

Perhaps one of the most commonly heard questions heard from people new to keeping canaries, is, "How can I tell what gender my bird is?"

For centuries, seperating youngsters by gender has relied on suble cues such as the amount of song. With some birds, this works quite well - and with others, not at all. But now there is a way to remove almost all doubt, and you don't even have to wait for the chicks to fledge, if you don't want to!

DNA Solutions' results show, on average, 99.99% accuracy. A few years back, similar services cost up to $40 US per bird or more, and so were seldom if ever used by small-bird owners. However, dropping prices (currently less than $17 US), and rapid expansion of the quality of offerings and kinds of tests available, makes this technology one for small-bird people to watch closely, and begin to use.

Do you know of a great bird site which deserves a review? Let us know!

Feature Story

This heartwarming letter from a Flock Talk reader shows what a difference a pet canary can make in a life. Although they live shorter lives than ours, and die much sooner, they often manage to leave an impression that will last til life's end, as did this family's pets, the

by Maureen Eob
copyright © Mar 2002

Dear Robirda, I have wanted to write you about canaries and their ability to be social with people since you first promptly helped me with a question about my first canary.

Tigger was a dainty yellow-and-black striped canary. He was supposed to be a red-factor, although I never saw more than a hint of orange in his feathers. (*see editor's note 1, at the end of this article)

I inherited Tigger from my daughter when she moved out. Several birds had helped her through a long illness. I believe Tigger was not quite a year old at that point. We returned a pair of lovebirds to the pet store and gave their very large cage to Tigger.

He immediately took to it, thrilled with the larger cage. He stopped singing in the late fall and I wrote you about a mirror in his cage. At your suggestion, I removed it and he began to sing again.

I had pet parakeets as a child and knew you had to be very careful when letting them out to fly. We soon decided to close doors, cover windows, and open the cage door and see what Tigger would do. He was quick to take advantage of more room to fly, and immediately we could tell he did not have a problem with flying into things, as budgies will.

Soon, it became a daily routine to put a treat on top of his cage when we were with him. He would come out and go back in at will, flying when he felt the mood. On three or four occasions he followed us into another room when we had guests and had moved out of the room where he was located.

Life was good, for awhile. And then Tigger again stopped singing. After several trips to the avian vet, it became evident he had an enlarged liver. I was told to keep him as comfortable as possible, and that nothing could be done. As he became weaker and weaker, I would sit him on my chest at night and stroke him until he fell asleep. (see note 2)

Tigger died in September and I called a canary breeder that very day. I was told that canaries are normally born in spring - his were already sold but there should be plenty in the stores. With that news, I headed to the pet store and purchased Beaker, a red-factor canary who looked quite different from Tigger.

The bird doctor identified Beaker as a heavily variegated, buff Consort Gloster.(see note 3) He did have a lot of red coloring which was lost with his first moult.(see note 4)

Beaker went into Tigger's cage and has been given the same free-flight opportunities that Tigger had. He is very curious and often flys in other rooms in the house.(see note 5)

Beaker occasionally will hop on my arm to come out of the cage. At Thanksgiving, my daughter brought over her conure who rode around very nicely on my ten year old niece's shoulder.

Like most conures, Sam can be rather loud. What with all his squawking in the same room where Beaker lived, I am quite sure that Beaker noticed all the attention Sam was getting. Later, that same niece could put her arm into Beaker's cage and he would come out of his cage, riding on her arm. He did this repeatedly, and I wonder if he didn't learn this 'trick' while watching Sam.

On occasion when I am working in the same room as Beaker, particularly if I am ignoring him, he will swoop in like a miniature kamikazi pilot, and sit on the table, close to me. All this has led me to believe what you suggested in an article earlier this year, that many canaries do enjoy interacting with their human families.

Perhaps, since tradition has said that canaries are just to listen to, few owners have given them the chance and freedom to socialize with us. My fond hope is that Beaker remains a healthy bird and will eventually will be one of those canaries who will consent to ride on their owner's shoulder.

by Maureen Eob
Copyright © Mar 2002.
All rights reserved.

*Editor's Notes;

1. Red canaries require a special diet to show their true potential for colour. (See Flock Talk 23's feature article for more.)
   
   
2. Liver problems can often be controlled and eventually eliminated if caught early enough, usually through the diet. Such a diet includes limiting or even eliminating your canary's access to fatty conditioning or song food mixes, and offering plenty of greens, fresh clean water, and fresh clean air. Prevention is also dietary, along similar lines but a little less strict.
   
   
3. Glosters do not show the red factor, so this must have been a Stafford canary. This breed looks quite similar to a Gloster, but does show red.
   
   
4. As noted above, this loss of colour would have been due to the diet offered during the moult.
   
   
5. This is quite typical - canaries seem to feel a need to know everything that's going on near them. I call my canaries my 'snooper-visors' due to this trait.

Do you like to tell stories about your birds, or have an odd bird-related fact or experience to share? Why not write us a story about your bird(s) for Flock Talk? Send it here.

Now when you need Robirda's advice on housing, feeding, care or behavioral questions, you can get a personal answer for only $15. To learn more go to robirda.com/ask.html

This issue's question is;

"How old should canaries be before they can be sucessfully bred?"

Robirda's answer is;

"Hello! A canary should be within shouting distance of a year or so before being allowed to breed. Since most canaries are born in the spring, this means waiting until the next spring before attempting to breed them.

"I do hope you know there's more to breeding canaries than their age? They have to be gradually brought into breeding condition, and that, (unless you live in the southern hemisphere) could mean waiting almost a full year, if the birds are not coming into condition now.

"Have you read the articles about breeding in the Flock Talk Archives and posted on the site? They will tell you how canaries go about getting ready to breed, and how to help keep the hens healthy enough to allow them to come into proper breeding condition at the right time. The same info is in my ebook on breeding canaries, but in more detail.

"To read the on-site articles and Flock Talk archives, just use the navigation links at the top of my most pages on the site."

Do you have a great tip or trick you use all the time? Are you always telling others true stories of your bird's antics? Share them with the rest of us by sending an email here, to Robirda.

Also known as the 'Chinese Nightingale', or the 'Pekin Nightingale', this vivacious, active little bird was probably the species featured in Hans Christian Anderson's lovely little tale "The Emperor & the Nightingale".

The Pekin is a softbill, and as such is more difficult to keep than many pet bird species, requiring a higher-protein insect-based food, along with pellets similar in composition to the diets fed mynahs or jays, (but sized smaller). It is far hardier than most softbills as well as being highly adaptable and quite intelligent, making it one of the more popular softbill species to keep.

Unfortunately, the focus on keeping these birds as pets rather than attempting to raise them in captivity has seen numbers dwindle, and these days a Pekin can be hard to find.

Pekins require a lot of work of anyone wishing to breed them. Far more failures than successes accompany such attempts, usually because the breeder simply did not understand the birds' needs. Successful breeding of almost all softbills requires large amounts of live foods, and in the case of the Pekin, many parent birds show a distinct preference for large grasshoppers. Crickets or mealworms are an acceptable substitute, but tend to be ignored until all the grasshoppers are gone.

Luckily, grasshoppers are fairly simple to raise; all that's needed to raise them in quantity is a large garbage pail, some empty paper egg crates, some bran, a heat lamp, and a little water and edibles on a regular basis.

To get the general idea, use a similar approach to the one you'll find outlined in the Grasshopper Care Sheet. Do remember that you will need a much larger set-up, though. Young robins can each eat their weight or more in hoppers every day, while in the nest. That can really add up!

Pekins are highly active, and require adequate room to fly. One of the most frequent mistakes new keepers make with this species is to try to limit them to a too-small cage. Anything smaller than 2 feet by three feet by five or six feet should not even be considered - and even that is rather small for this strong, active little flyer.

Pekins tend to be sweet-natured, and are fairly easy to tame. Combine these winning, confident ways with their joyful, bubbly songs, and you have an almost ideal pet bird. Wild-caught imports are steadily dwindling, however, and while their native habitat is not as threatened as some, still, it is rapidly diminishing.

Given the difficulty of successfully raising Pekins in captivity, I would like to see more attention being paid to this stunning little bird, before it quietly slips out of our aviaries and minds forever.

Robirda