Canary Care

Ideally, before you buy any pet you need to have done your research and know exactly what you are taking on.?Canaries are no exception and you need to swot up on canary care as thoroughly as possible...

Ideally, before you buy any pet you need to have done your research and know exactly what you are taking on.?Canaries are no exception and you need to swot up on canary care as thoroughly as possible.

The most important thing with any bird is to make sure that you have the right sized cage.?Canaries should ideally be housed in a cage that is fifteen to twenty inches across and up to thirty inches tall. To help with their health it is advisable to encourage free flight in one room of your house as well as the cage as this will help with muscle development and general condition.?The cage bars should be no more than half an inch wide.?Perches need to vary in size to help keep their feet healthy.?If they are around half an inch wide this will be fine for the bird and makes them easy to install in the cage.?Use wood such as apple or willow and avoid trees like yew and cherry or any very oily woods like many of the pines.

Keep the cage clean, changing the paper on a daily basis and thoroughly washing the cage on a weekly basis.?Make sure that you thoroughly rinse the cage and avoid using any detergents air fresheners etc around the cage or in the same room as canaries are extremely sensitive to smells and chemicals.

Make sure that there is fresh water available on a daily basis as well as their seed diet.?Canary seed should ideally be made up of about 80% canary grass seed with the rest made up of rape seed and flax.?Make sure that the seeds are fresh.?If in doubt you can always check by trying to sprout some seeds.?Stale seeds will mostly fail to sprout. Keep your canary healthy with a daily helping of greens like broccoli and kale.?About half their body weight can be offered on a daily basis.?You can also add in things like grated carrot or beets but do try to steer clear of lettuce as it has little nutritional value and is mainly water.?Dandelions are one of their favourites

Canaries moult once a year usually at the hottest part of summer and it is essential to make sure that their diet contains everything they need especially at this time.?You can get vitamin supplements but be careful not to overdo it as this can be as dangerous as not giving them any supplements.?Birds kept inside need vitamin supplements to stay healthy.

You can offer treats such as sunflower seeds occasionally but do be careful of the larger seeds as they tend to have a high fat content and although the birds will love them, too much of a good thing can be bad for them, in extreme cases causing liver damage.

A lonely bird is more likely to get unhealthy so if you are going to be out at work a lot do consider getting a companion for your canary.?Make sure that they have toys to play with.?A mirror will keep them and you amused for hours.?With other toys change them every couple of weeks to make sure that they don抰 get bored.

Finally make sure that they get a little human attention every day and ten minutes or so of free flying is great for a canary but do make sure that everyone knows what is going on so that there are no accidents.?Probably not a good time to invite the cat in!

But most of all just enjoy your canary.