ISSN 1492-8132
Issue 98, © 2004
No reprints without permission

Bird and Cage Co is having their Big Summer Blow-Out Sale, but watch you don't miss out - it's only on until June 30th! Prices have been slashed, so drop by for big savings on wrought iron cages, while they're there!

Take a moment to tour the new, updated, easy-to- get-around website for the Bird & Cage Co, while you're at it. The folks at Bird & Cage aim to provide birdkeepers with a wide selection of good quality cages and cage accessories for great prices, and their new website shows it.

These kinds of joins can too easily catch feet or wing-tips, especially with an active species like canaries, possibly causing injury or even death.

Tall narrow cages can be recycled and made into useful wire-bottomed cages, with ease. Just tip them on their side! Stand them sideways on a table or shelf, and prop each end so that there is at least two or three inches between the cage wire and the shelf.

Use clothspins to clip any doors or hatches shut, if necessary, then lay paper on the shelf to catch anything that falls through the wires. Hey presto! - suddenly you have turned a not very useful tall and skinny cage, into a nice wide habitat for a pet canary!

This issue, Flock reader Nina writes; "I have a Pacific Parrotlet, Cricket. She is smaller than any other of her kind, but she rules. Honey the cockatiel spreads his wings to impress her, she just picks at his tail and he runs the other way.

"She sits faithfully on the towel bar in the bathroom, doing her pedicure until I come out of the shower, then she flies onto my wet hair and starts to dry my hair while taking a 'sponge' bath.

"I leave her cage door open at night. First thing in the morning she flies straight to my bed and wants to cuddle, catching another snooze under the covers...

"How about this: she likes to be underfoot, while I tap my toe. She puts her head under it and gets a nice caressing massage over her neck and head..."

*** 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.

Remember, 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 our websites, please consider joining our sponsors. For all those who continue to help out in so many ways, thank you for your warmth and caring.

Our next issue is due July 4th. We hope you and your birds stay safe, well and happy, and we look forward to seeing you all then! 

Robirda
June 20, 2004

Welcome to Robirda's Companion Birds eZine

For breeder or pet bird owners who care.

Hello! Welcome to Flock Talk's 98th issue. Subscribe and unsubscribe information for the email version of this ezine is at the bottom of this webpage.

Table of Contents

Website News

We've finally managed to find a little time and re-do our links area (it's needed the work for some time now). We have changed the page formats, and added all sorts of new links. We think you will find the new design far easier to use, and hope that you will alert us if you know of a good bird site that isn't listed. www.robirda.com/links/html

We're hoping to to give away some rather nice prize packages beginning with the 100th issue of Flock Talk. We have prize packages ranging in value from $65 to $140.00 to give away, but we need your help to do it.

We are looking for your stories of living with and keeping your birds; beginning with the 100th issue, each issue will feature a winning story, and the author will be awarded one of our prize packages. Another being awarded with each following issue until all prize packages have been won. Check them out, then send in your stories and share in the fun!

Send your stories here.

For more details, see www.robirda.com/contest.html

Canary Song CD

Our CD of Robirda's canaries singing consists of 12 16-bit true-stereo tracks, each averaging almost 5 minutes long, for a total of 58 minutes and 48 seconds of canary songs. You can hear a 10 second mp3 sample here. Listen carefully, and you will be able to hear the different positions of each bird!

We are now offering New Songs From The Birdroom for only $12.00, plus $2.99 shipping and handling. Order yours today!

Feature Article

One of the most basic facts in bird-keeping, is that the size, layout, and design of the cage a bird lives in, will establish a baseline for the quality of life that bird lives. Yet as obvious as this fact may seem, it often misses being properly considered by new canary owners.

by R C McDonald
www.robirda.com
Copyright © 2004

It can be difficult to realize just how thoroughly these little creatures of the air can use their space in all its dimensions. Even experienced bird keepers sometimes allow their canaries to be kept in too-small or incorrectly set-up cages, whether for the sake of convenience or budget. While there may be short-term savings, such budgeting may have unforseen long-term effects, if left in place too long.

It's difficult to qualify exactly how much limiting a canary's ability to fly and exercise will affect his longer-term life, but a look at data from studies on humans and other species tells us that inability to exercise properly is liable to have a rather strong impact on overall health and eventual lifespan.

Most retailers will tell you to get as large a cage as possible for your avian companion(s). While this is generally true, larger may not always be better. For example, a smaller but properly set-up rectangular cage will almost always offer more useable space to a canary, than a larger and incorrectly set-up round cage.

Why? It's simle, actually. How useable the cage will actually be to the canary depends on three factors; the volume of space the cage encloses, the shape of the cage, and how the perches are arranged within it.

Because of the way canaries prefer to move (back and forth), it's nice to have something as wide as possible, that allows for a little room to fly. Less than thirty inches in width will not do, because most canaries can easily hop that far without once needing to spread their wings.

Ideally, perches should be placed across the narrow ends of each side of the cage, roughly parallel to each other, allowing the bird to travel back and forth between them easily. If the cage is tall enough, you can hang a swing in the center, making sure that the middle of the swing's perch hangs at about the same point you would find if you drew an equilateral triangle between the middles of the two lower opposing perches and the bottom of the swing.

The perches should be far enough away from the ends of the cage that the bird's tail won't touch the bars when he turns around. Unfortunately that perch arrangement may put the perches right over the food and water dishes, which are so often centered in the lower right and left hand sides of the cage front.

If that's the case with your cage, I recommend throwing the food dishes away, and if necessary, wiring over the holes they leave behind. Get a few easily cleaned feed cups that can be hung anywhere in the cage, and go ahead and arrange your bird's cage to suit him, rather than requiring him to adapt to suit a poor cage design.

It's nice if you can also have a little height to a cage, without having a cage so tall that it requires a bird to enter "helicopter mode" to reach the top perches. This kind of flight requires a lot of effort, and is very tiring, so make sure your bird is healthy and strong, before you try him in a tall cage.

On the other hand, lots of upward flight will help to strengthen a healthy bird's wings and overall physique, and can be very useful exercise to be able to offer, especially for a group of hens during the winter season.

During breeding season, canaries don't share well, and because of this most people won't try to house a flock in an aviary through the spring and early summer. But the rest of the year, many canaries can and do share larger aviaries and flight cages. Attempting this can receive widely varying results, depending on - you guessed it - cage set-up.

No matter how large the cage, all the canaries will want to sit at the top level, and that means that you will need a minimum of six inches of perch at that level, for every bird in the flight. That figure is just an average, too - some will require quite a lot more, a few may require less. You need to have plenty of food dishes and drinkers in a shared flight, too. They are best spaced around the area, rather than near each other where one bird can dominate many dishes or drinkers.

Care and judgement always needs to be exercised when providing canaries with larger-sized flying areas, because the energy required to use such a space can be make a critical difference in a big hurry, should a bird become even the slightest bit ill. Keep a close eye on canaries kept in larger aviaries or flights, and be prepared to pull any bird who looks even the slightest bit off.

I always worry on hearing someone say they are looking for a cage 'with some style' - because often this means they have something highly ornamental in mind. While most of these kinds of cages are quite lovely, unfortunately very few are actually suitable for canaries to live in.

When you house your bird in a fancy cage, you will find that it can be very difficult to see your bird clearly through all the fanciness - with these cages, the eye is drawn to look at the cage, rather than the bird inside it.

Worse - most ornamental cages are much more difficult to keep clean than a simply designed cage.

Yet another factor is that many of these cages are finished in pale, pastel colours. These look pretty, but in actual fact, lighter-coloured bars tend to 'grab' the eye, and so will wind up detracting some of your attention from the bird itself - unless you happen to own a dark-coloured canary.

In order to be able to see a lighter coloured canary easily, the best colour for the cage bars is black. This may sound dark and dismal - but in actual fact, the eye tends to ignore the black bars, and look through them to the bird.

So spend a little time considering all these factors before you get your next cage, and plan to re-arrange it as necessary, in order to make it as suitable as possible for your canary. You never know, you just might find yourself reaping the rewards of your thoughtfulness for longer than you'd ever expected!

by R C McDonald
www.robirda.com
Copyright © 2004

See some birdcages reviewed by Robirda at www.robirda.com/birdcage.html

Ask Robirda

This issue's question:

"I have a 1 wk old chick that the parents aren't feeding. Should I handfeed it? If so, how do I learn what to do?"

Robirda's answer:

"Your chick and/or one or the other (maybe both) of the parents may be ill - or perhaps something recently changed that is upsetting the parents, causing them to neglect feeding. Or perhaps the food you are offering them has gone bad, or doesn't have enough variety, or is too high (or too low) in needed nutrients... those are just a few of the possibilities that could be causing your problem.

"Rather than jumping to the conclusion that you need to handfeed, you will be better off if you can find the source of the problem, and correct it. For starters, remove the male, or limit him to one side of the cage with a wire divider. You can replace him in a few days, but only let him stay if he helps to care for the chicks.

"Then make sure that the cage and dishes are clean, and allow for good air circulation, to slow the speed the food sours at. I like to use wide flat plates, rather than small deep ones. Paper plates can help to soak up excess moisture, but be careful to use ones with no dyes or finishes. Offer a variety of nutritious foods, to tempt the hen to eat; if she eats well, chances are good that she will feed her chicks well too.

"I prefer to avoid handfeeding canary chicks, if at all possible. Successfully handfeeding a tiny passerine chick involves an incredible amount of work; you will be far better off if you can figure out a way to allow the youngster's parent(s) to continue feeding, and avoid having to do it yourself.

"For specific handfeeding info, please refer to our Care Sheet on handfeeding, available at www.robirda.com/care.html

"For more ideas on dealing with non-feeding issues, see the feature article in issue 93, at www.robirda.com/flock93.html" Robirda's customers find her answers to be detailed and reliable, caring and supportive. Robirda can help you to understand your birds better! Learn more here.

Canary Book

Our special autographed edition of Robirda's book Brats in Feathers, Keeping Canaries has been getting a great response from readers. Don't miss your chance to get one of these unique books! Here's just a few of the comments we've received;

"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."

"You have a way of making things easy to understand, and I love the look and feel of your book - not to mention that it is so easy to find the information I am looking for. THANK YOU!!!"

"It's SO beautiful, and the photos and illustrations are wonderful, I love it!!!!!! Thanks so much!!!"

"Received your book today, and was surprised how great it is! It's well worth the cost and then some, thank you!"

Learn more about Robirda's book here.