ISSN 1492-8132
Issue 84, © 2003
No reprints without permission

The folks at Bird & Cage Co have made it their goal to provide birdkeepers with a wide selection of good quality cages and birdcage accessories for great prices.

Breeding season is coming up, and now is the time to make sure that you have all the proper cages and cage accessories that you will need to have on hand. Check out our new list of some of the more useful cage accessories Robirda recommends for canary and finch owners.

There are some great cage deals available to bird owners too, from small and large pet cages, to breeding cages, stands, and some of the best flight cages you will find anywhere! There's an even nicer bonus if you live in the continental US - shipping is free!

Read Robirda's cage reviews here, and cage accessories here.

For a full selection of cages and cage accessories, visit BirdandCage.com.

It's been over a year now since we first offered our CD of Robirda's canaries singing for sale, and it is proving to be a popular choice for many, both for themselves or as a gift. Here's just one of the comments we've received:

"Even after I had 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 so much for such a nice CD."

Learn more about our Canary Song CD here.

Our new book on keeping canaries has been getting a great response from readers. This special edition is packed with all the information and photos from the ebooks and reformatted especially for print, resulting in a 7 by 8.5 inch book printed with special long-lasting colour-fast inks.

Each volume is hand-numbered and personally signed by Robirda. Don't miss your chance to get one of these unique books!

Here's just one of the many positive comments we've heard:

"I ordered 'Canary Tales' by Linda Hogan last year... Although I fully recommend buying her book, I find Robirda's book much more complete, easier to read with less difficulty finding information."

Learn more here!

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.

Our next issue is due Dec 21st. We hope you and your birds stay safe, well and happy in the meantime, and we look forward to seeing you all then!  

Robirda
Dec 8, 2003

Welcome to Robirda's Companion Birds eZine

For breeder or pet bird owners who care.

Hello! Welcome to Flock Talk's 84th issue! Subscribe and unsubscribe information for the email version of this ezine is at the bottom of this webpage.

We are proud to announce that we have added a new area to our website; Bird and Cage has made a selection of their most useful and commonly needed bird-cage accessories such as cups, nests, etc, available through our website. Many of these accessories are the same as those Robirda relys on and uses daily; you can see them at www.robirda.com/access.html

Unfortunately, we've managed to break another record. For the first time ever, an issue of Flock Talk is a day late. We hoped never to see such a thing, but it was not to be. We have been running on two aging computers for some time; as some of you may know, one of them 'died' an untimely death a few short weeks back. The remaining computer was then required to carry the entire load, and last week it decided that it was not going to take anymore.

Needless to say, it took us some time and rather a lot of expense before we could manage to get a replacement in and get everything up and running again. In the meantime we lost a couple of weeks worth of emails and data - including this issue of Flock Talk, which we have been working like mad to cobble back together. So if you find any mistakes, you will know they are not intentional - and how they got there. If you sent an email and we did not answer you, it was probably lost; please send it again, and we will do our best to get back to you.

Along with everything else, it's that time of year again; time to get out the Christmas tree and decorations, and keep a close eye on our pet birds when they are out, that they don't swallow or chew something poisonous. After all, we want the midwinter season to be a time of happiness, with no traumatic happenings!

So please have a wonderful time over the holidays, and take a little extra time with your birds when you can. Especially, be VERY careful to make sure they can't get near your Christmas tree or any of your decorations, and that they can't lay their little beaks on a pointsettia or your chocolates, any of which could poison them before you could holler "stop!"

How often have you spoke to somebody who's confused about why their pet canary doesn't sing, and been told that they were assured by the pet shop or breeder who sold them their bird, that the youngster they bought was certainly a male? If you are a canary-keeper, probably many more times than you can count!

In actuality, many people have been misinformed about just what it takes to tell gender in canaries, and most don't realize it. Sadly, there is always a few vendors who do know better, but are deliberately misleading, in the hopes of making a sale.

In fact, outside of having your canaries DNA tested, the only real proof that any canary is a male, is if you know for sure that it has helped a hen to produce fertile eggs.

Outside of breeding season, there is NO visible physical differences between the male and hen canary. This is true of young and immature canaries as well as of adult canaries who do not happen to be in breeding condition.

Add in the fact that a good percentage of canary hens sometimes will sing, particularly when young, and you can see how canary gender confusion can easily arise!

Besides this rather common (and mistaken) belief that it is possible to interpret various canary behaviours to discern gender, do please note that here are many other reasons why a canary might not want (or be able to) sing. So before worrying about your non-singing canary's gender, you should first make sure that all possible reasons have been addressed.

You will find details in the article we've posted on our website, called "Why Won't My Canary Sing?!?" You'll find it at www.robirda.com/cansing.html

This webpage belongs to the author of our feature article this issue, and shows how his roller canaries are raised and trained. Rich is a widely known and respected breeder of these lovely canaries, as well as his green singing finches; and the photos featured on this webpage go a long ways towards showing why!

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? Send your ideas here.

Feature Article

Once as commonly found as hamsters or budgies, these little green birds with the sweet voices have been slowly and steadily disappearing from our homes and aviaries. Find out from a man who keeps and raises them how to avoid having this happen to you, if you are one of those people interested in the...

by Rich May
Oregon, USA
Copyright © 2003

Green singing finches are a small green and yellow bird from Africa, and are members of the Carduelan family. They are about half the size of a small canary, with the males being bright green and yellow, while the hens are a little duller in color and have a necklace of spots across the breast.

They were placed on the CITES list many years ago, so they are no longer allowed to imported from Africa. They are not endangered in their native lands, but have become very hard to find in this country since Africa placed almost all of it's wildlife on the CITES List to prevent them from being exported in huge numbers for the pet trade.

People here didn't bother to take breeding these 'common' little birds seriously since they were very cheap, which is why they are so scarce now. I've been breeding them seriously for about 10 or 11 years now, and only trade them to obtain unrelated birds.

They have a loud unstructured song. Many think only the males sing, but all of my hens sing as well. If you seperate the pairs you will find they sing back and forth to each other in no time. They are quite easy to get to breed, but it is another story getting them to hatch and feed the young.

I have been breeding green singing finches for the last seven years with a decent amount of success, and have had many requests for info on getting them to breed. I will tell you what works for me, but please note that it is only what works for me; others do things differently, and also have good results.

I house my green singers in large cages, at least four feet in length. I find that they settle down fast and aren't nervous if they can fly to the other end when I am servicing the cage. In the highest corner away from the door, I put both a canary nest and a covered wicker finch nest with some artificial foliage over both.

The reason I give both types of nests is that I have one male who will go over to the nest as soon as the hen gets off to stretch and eat, and breaks the eggs. This hen likes the covered wicker finch nests, but the trick is that the male won't enter the nest; he goes to the opening and feeds the hen and chicks, but doesn't enter all the way.

The rest of my green singers are fine with a regular canary nest. I give my green singers about 14 to 15 hours of artificial light daily.

As far as food goes, I offer them a good finch mixture I get from Herman Brothers Pet Products, called KG Finch. I add canary song food (not regular canary mix), sunflower seed pieces (small pieces), and steel cut oats to the KG Finch.

In addition to the seed mixture they receive a vegetable mixture of whole kernel corn, carrots and broccoli that I run through a food processor until fine, plus sprouted seed, dandelions greens (I substitute kale if there are no dandelions), and eggfood. I feed mini meal worms (they have to be minis, or my birds won't eat them), that I ration until there is eggs due to hatch in a couple of days - then they get unlimited amounts.

I find that my birds will feed only the mini meal worms for the first 5 days or so, then they feed a good variety of foods.

One thing I should mention here is that my green singers don't seem to use cuttlebones much. I give them a mixture of mineral grit, baked crushed egg shell, chick size oyster shell, and some grated cuttlebone. My birds love this mix.

That pretty much covers my housing and feeding methods, and I have had some pretty good luck with it. With the large cages I find I don't have to move the chicks as soon as they are weaned, which is nice because they get to see firsthand the breeding process.

I have had some older chicks that actually help in the feeding of new ones. I haven't had any males attack the weaned chicks, even when the young males decide to try out those scratchy voices for the first few times. I'm not sure that would work for everyone's green singers, you have to watch for signs of aggression.

This is how I do it, and it works for me. I hope that, in the interests of seeing that they do not disappear from our homes and aviaries, you have learned some ideas that will allow you to enjoy keeping these wonderful little birds as much as I do.

by Rich May
Oregon, USA
Copyright © 2003

When it becomes necessary to travel longer distances with your canaries or finches, consider taking the following steps in order to reduce the stress of long hours of travelling.

- Remove any water, bathtubs, or drinkers before loading the cage and bird into the car. Provide some fruit or greens to supply enough moisture to make up for the missing drinker.

- If you are travelling during the daytime, use a light-coloured, closely-woven cover such as a sheet, so that the bird(s) can see inside their cage, but not see out of the car.

- Try to arrange it so that most of the travelling is done at night. If possible, allow the birds to fall asleep in their travelling cages. Instead of the light cover used during daytime travel, as described above, use a heavy dark cover.

- Secure the cage with one or more seatbelts so that it can't tip or sway.

- If you have to travel for more than an hour or so during the day, stop occasionally to allow your bird some time to eat; it is not easy to eat much of anything in a swaying, jolting, car!

- Go easy on the gas and the brakes. Every time you accelerate or slow down suddenly, you are jolting your bird about.

Keep these tips in mind when you have to go anywhere with your bird, and help to make the stress any kind of travelling - on you AND your birds - as little as possible!

Our birds love their food. They also love their toys, and this wonderful little item allows bird owners to make their bird's veggies as much fun to eat as playing with a toy! In effect, this handy accessory allows you to easily arrange your bird's portion of vegetables, greens, or fruit for the day as if on a skewer, and serve it to him safely. It attaches easily to the cage, and even seems to make the food more appealing. Or maybe it's just that our birds love to chew at their veggies when we serve them this way? I have several, and wouldn't be without them - why not try one out for your bird(s)?

• Do you have or sell a great bird product? Why not send us a sample, and have it reviewed for Flock Talk readers? We will be reviewing foods, cages & cage accessories, toys, and other bird items we have direct experience with in upcoming issues. To arrange for a review, send us your inquiry and a brief description of your product(s) in an email here with the subject line 'Product Reviews'