ISSN 1492-8132
Issue 86, © 2004
No reprints without permission

Bird & Cage Co has made it their goal to provide bird keepers with great quality cages and accessories for great prices. The newest cage might just be one of the best pet canary cages you will ever see!

There are some great cage deals, from small and large pet cages, to breeding cages, stands, and some of the best flight cages you will find anywhere! There's even free shipping, if you live in the continental US! See Robirda's cage reviews for more.

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

This site is in the midst of being reformatted, but they have arranged to keep all the information and articles available in the old format, until the new version is done. This means that you can still read to your heart's content! There is a wealth of good information and ideas here, covering many of the common and uncommon species of finches kept as pets - enough to satisfy any bird-keeping addict's taste for yet more data on those sweet and fascinating little birds belonging to the families of finches.

Our tip this issue comes from Flock Talk reader Wendy D, who writes, "I have found sugar water to be a really great life saver when I have a bird that is droopy or sick. I begin treatment with 2 drops every 4 hours and continue until he regains his normal behavior. You will marvel at what this does."

RECIPE: Mix 1 tablespoon white kayro syrup to 1 cup water, mix well and put in a bottle with a dropper. Give 2 drops by beak every 4 hours.

Robirda comments:

"Birds tend to get sick more easily when they are low on energy, and this is a good way to give a weak or stressed bird instant and easily-digestible energy. Many times this and a little heat can be all the help you need offer in order to help the bird to recover. Just so you realize that this is not a cure of any sort, but a good way to give your bird a quick pick-me-up.

"There's one caveat to beware of: too much sugar can kill a young or severely stressed or ill finch or canary, so be very careful to limit the amount offered, as specified."

You wouldn't think that finch and canary owners would find a use for ladders in their bird cages - but the fact is, some of the larger ladders make very useful cage accessories for these small birds, especially in flight cages.

Although these birds won't use a ladder as it was originally meant, one of the all-time favourite perches in my aviary is a large ladder hung vertically from the roof of the cage by one of its long sides. The rest of the ladder hangs straight down, leaving the lower side of the ladder to act as a series of individual perches, while the now-upright rungs act as 'perch separators'. This not only offers the birds a fun place to perch, but helps to minimize stress and agression.

Welcome to Robirda's Companion Birds eZine

For breeder or pet bird owners who care.

Hello, happy 2004, everybody! Welcome to Flock Talk's 86th issue. Subscribe and unsubscribe information for the email version of this ezine is at the bottom of this webpage.

Website News

We've been busy making more of the changes you asked for to our site, over the past weeks, but first, thanks to everybody who commented on our new Products page.

One frequently received comment was that it was difficult to find specific information on-site. Some time spent futzing with our old search engine convinced us that it was time to update, and so we've installed a new search tool powered by Google.

Canary Breeding Fact

It's very early in the season to be having birds breeding, but, as happens every year, we are beginning to hear stories from new owners whose canaries have taken advantage of good food, a warm environment, and lights that stay on in the evening, to build a nest and hatch out some babies.

Their owners are usually thrilled with this, not realizing that allowing their birds to raise youngsters too early in the season can lead to troubles later in the year. This is often one of the most difficult and heart-breaking problems a new birdkeeper must learn to cope with.

The problem lies in the fact that it is necessary to see that the birds will not have too many nests before the beginning of their annual moult, in the summer - but they will show no apparent signs of any stress until it is too late.

Raising more than two nestfuls of babies is VERY hard on a parent bird feeding young, whether male or female. The female's system is also required to produce eggs, adding to the potential for problems, even if she has a good mate to help her. Both will continue to look healthy, and act eager to breed, even if you allow them to proceed to third, fourth, or fifth nests.

The real wear and tear on their systems will not show until they begin moulting... and by then, it will be too late to make things any easier on them. At that point, the more exhausted their system resources are, the harder it will be for each individual to make it through the moult properly.

But as long as the hormones that tell them it is the time of year to breed are circulating through their systems, their bodies will put all their energy and resources towards the goal of hatching and rearing babies, holding nothing in reserve. It's a survival-of-the-species instinct, apparently - they will exhaust themselves trying to breed and raise babies until they die, if we are not careful to be sure that they don't!

This may be one of the biggest reasons why most wild birds live such short lives... it seems that Mom Nature doesn't mind if the parents die after only one year or so of life, as long as they leave plenty of babies behind them!

Limiting egg-laying and baby rearing can be difficult, but IS possible, once you get to know your birds. Many breeders keep plenty of fake eggs around to use, particularly later in the season. They are used to replace the real eggs, then the hen is allowed to sett on them as long as she likes. Not only will fake eggs never hatch, they will not lose weight as a real-but-infertile egg will, making the hen think that they are fertile, in turn meaning she will be less willing to abandon setting on them to lay more eggs, as otherwise tends to happen.

It often seems odd to new breeders, to hear that their biggest problem may well be trying to ensure that their birds will lay less eggs and raise less young in a year - but making sure that each hen will only raise a maximxum of two nests of youngsters annually will give her a much longer and more productive life, in the long run... up to 5 or 6 good years per hen, rather than just one.

In turn, the breeder will receive less stress and worry, and far more satisfaction in his or her achievements.

Feature Story

Two canaries from one egg? Impossible! Yet what else could it be?

by R C McDonald
Copyright © 1994 - 2004

My only excuse, I suppose, is that I didn't know any better. Nobody'd told me that it was even possible! But there they were...

It was March, 1989. I had taken an interest in breeding canaries in the previous few years, but this was the first time I'd had more than two or three pairs, and they were repaying my interest by keeping me so busy that I barely noticed the days go by. Almost before I knew it, it was time to band babies from the first nests, and that's when I found them.

Each egg, as laid, had been carefully removed and replaced with a pot (fake) egg until the whole clutch had been laid. The whole thing was then returned to the parents for incubation. I knew that there had only been four eggs in that nest, yet there they were, and my eyes were practically bugging out of my skull as I counted them yet again. Yes, in that nest there was, not three, nor four, but five healthy baby canaries.

As I looked a little more carefully I admitted to myself that the largest egg of the four eggs I'd set had to have been a double-yolker. If that wasn't enough, there was another clue. Three of the babies were noticably bigger than the other two, and of those two, one was a tad bit larger than the other.

My chickens used to occasionally produce two chicks from one egg, and when they did, one of the chicks was always a little bit bigger. Often the smallest would die, and so I steeled myself for (as I told myself) the inevitable. Surely these two had stiff competition from their 'single-egg sibs', and I couldn't afford to take time off work to stay home and handfeed them, either.

But the days went by, and all five babies thrived. They were the first babies from my favourite pet canary, who was extremely proud of himself (it took him several years to figure out how to get them!) and took great pride in teaching them all of the tricks of the trade. Since they didn't get the single-minded attention I'd given their father when taming him, you could not really call them tame; yet they accepted and enjoyed interacting with us on their own terms (mostly, no grabbing!) and we enjoyed them tremendously.

As they grew I began to notice something curious. Of all the babies I'd gotten that year, the five from my pet were the smartest. When I put them in with the flock they quickly established their position at the top - mostly through sheer brass, as they were smaller than most of the other canaries.

This same outgoing personality was a trademark of their father's, but never having had a pet canary before, I had not considered it unusual. Now I remembered that he, too, had exhibited this calm, curious, outgoing personality, even as a youngster. It had made him remarkably easy to tame; in fact, I'd got the notion during our sessions that he'd been training me.

Now, comparing these youngsters to the babies from the other birds, I began to wonder just what I had here. Their father had gone back to nest with his hen, in fact had been so impatient to have more of these wonderful things called babies that he actually did most of the nest building!

As breeding season got into full swing I got busier and spent less time playing with my favourites, but I still tried to keep an eye on the flights. My pet's babies had quickly established themselves as 'leaders of the flock', but I noticed to my amusement that this 'gang' was run a bit differently.

Remo, Singer, and Determined were allowed to 'direct traffic' as they pleased, with one exception. If they dared to chase any of the others off the food dishes, Reepicheep and Peepicheep, the twins, swung into action. They would fly over, bracket the offender, stand tall, and scold. If the unwary bully didn't choose to back down, they jumped at him, one from each side, knocking him off the dish then spiralling down to land beside him, scolding all the way. Once the problem was dealt with, they would retreat to their 'office' ( a high corner perch ) to keep an eye out for the next offender.

Spring wore on and my flights filled with a busy, noisy crowd of youngsters. I had begun to sell a few for pets but most were still happily playing with anything they could lay their little beaks on. Outstanding as they were, personality-wise, I suppose I shouldn't have been so surprised to find that almost everybody who chose a bird wanted one of those 'wonderfully friendly little dark things' (My pet was a 3/4 dark bronze, and most of his babies were fairly dark too). So by mid-summer I had only four babies left of the ten he'd given me, and I'd had to do some fast talking to keep those four.

*** Watch for the continuing adventures of Reepicheep and Peepicheep, coming soon!

by R C McDonald
Copyright © Dec 2003

Help Needed

Behaviors & Personalities

This issue we have another interesting tale of goofy bird behaviour for you. As our readers send in new bird-tales, we will share them with you in this new section of Flock Talk.

Flock Talk reader LJ writes of her small african parrot, "I have a couple of funny 'personalities' stories about Loki - first of all, she 'brushes her teeth'. Every time my husband or I (or anyone for that matter) goes into the bathroom and starts brushing their teeth, she mimicks the sound EXACTLY by moving her beak back and forth. She even slows down and speeds up to match your pace. It is the most hilarious thing you have ever seen.

"Loki loves being in the bathroom - she has a high top shelf in there that we call her 'apartment' and she sits up there for hours happily whistling, 'nesting' in an old shower curtain. However, we occasionally forget she's up there and close the bathroom door (she can't keep tabs on all the goings-on outside the bathroom, after all) - and when that happens, she will flap down, walk across the floor, and KNOCK ON THE DOOR with her beak until someone lets her out

"She knocks like a person, too - four or five raps, and then she waits for an answer. If no one answers right away, the knocking gets progressively louder.

"I have many, many more tales about this nutty bird - she is really quite a character! I have never in my life met a more eccentric creature."

Thanks for sharing a story of your aptly-named little trickster, LJ! We hope to hear more stories of Loki in the future.

*** 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 them here.

For You & Your Birds, With Love

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.

Sponsor us for $50 or more and you'll get a free lifetime Nest membership! For all those who continue to help out in so many ways, thank you for your warmth and caring.

If you're looking for something different, don't forget to check our home page at robirda.com for links to all our great products!

Our next issue is due Jan 18th. We hope you and your birds stay safe, well and happy in the meantime, and we will look forward to seeing you all then!  

Robirda
Jan 4, 2004