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Canary Tips- - Home-Made Canary Treats
September 22, 2004
Canary Tips!
Your Guide to Canary Care Success...

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Wednesday, Sept 22, 2004

Canary Tips! delivers VALUABLE information about the hobby of keeping
a canary as a pet and tips for successful canary breeding.

Filled with timely tips, it’s designed to be your UP-TO-DATE canary care
guide that helps you provide the BEST living conditions for your flying friend. :-)

Presented by CanaryAdvisor.com.

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Table of Contents
1) Canary Treats--Home-Made.
2) Why Is My Canary Favoring One Leg?
3) Breeding: Incubation and Hatching.

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 Coming SOON to CanaryAdvisor.com...

1) Downloadable Canary Songs.

2) **Work Progressing** An extensive listing of canary types...Gloster, American Singer, Red Factor, etc. This list will come complete with type history, photos, and bird clubs to contact for more info.

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Canary Treats:  Home-Made

If you're anything like me you LOVE a tasty treat once in a while...sometimes more often then "once in a while". :-) I'm a real sucker for fresh baked chocolate brownies with
walnuts-->scoop on some whipped cream and fresh strawberries and... MmmmMM...I'm in HEAVEN!

Well, just like you and me...

Your CANARY likes a treat now and then too...

Since I started keeping canaries I've collected a few recipes you might want to try. 

The difference between my brownies and these home-made canary treats is that the canary treats are MUCH healthier for your canary than the brownies are for me and you. ;-)  Still, you don't want to feed too much of these treats to your canary. 

 Remember, these are TREATS...not staples...

Give him about a teaspoon full of treat each day or two and let him enjoy himself.  After a couple of hours remove any treat that is left so your canary doesn't end up over-eating or eating spoiled food.

Below are 3 recipes that canaries LOVE-->and are filled with tasty and healthy ingredients for your pet bird.

I didn't come up with these myself...I gathered them from different places over time.  Unfortunately, I don't remember exactly where I got them...hopefully the original chefs won't mind me sharing their recipes with you. ;-)

Canary Corn Bread
1 box Corn Muffin Mix
   (Use a mix that uses water rather than milk)
1/2 cup water
1 hard-boiled egg mashed w/shell
1 small jar baby food - mixed veggie or sweet potato (or use ½ cup fresh grated veggies)
3 Tablespoons whole kernel corn
1-1/2 Tablespoons ground pellets or nestling food (optional)

Mix all ingredients thoroughly and pour into an 8x8 greased pan.

Cook according to directions on box.

Canary Almond Butter
1/4 cup almonds
2 Tablespoons butter, softened
1/4 cup cornmeal
2 Tablespoons honey

Put the almonds in a food processor or blender and process them until fine.

Add the cornmeal and process for another minute or so.

Cream the butter and honey together in a bowl until combined, and then...

stir the dry ingredients in until you have a paste.

Pack a small amount into a feeding tray and serve.

Super Healthy Eggfood
2T grated broccoli
1T grated carrot
1 large or jumbo egg - hardboiled plus shell
1 Tablespoon nestling food (we use either Petamine or Cede)
1t. soy protein w/spirulina (from the health food store)
1/2 teaspoon calcium supplement for birds

Stir carrot and broccoli together.

Mash egg with fork and add to veggie.

Add other ingredients and serve.

Time to eat...

These treats will be DEVOURED by your canary and are good for him too...as long as he doesn't get to much.  A teaspoon every couple of days is plenty.

All these foods can be frozen and thawed out when time to use. 

The Almond Butter and Eggfood can be scooped out by the teaspoon, placed on wax paper or in Dixie cups, then placed in a Ziploc and frozen for individual servings.

When ready to serve just pull out one frozen serving, thaw in microwave for a few seconds, let cool, and serve.:-)

Next time we'll talk about the best treats to BUY-->Just open and serve.  Aahhh, low maintenance...I love it. ;-)

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"Why Is My Canary Favoring One Leg?"

A canary favoring one leg is not necessarily a problem. Your healthy canary will often stand on one leg while resting. However, you should be concerned if your canary is favoring one leg AND...

Showing other symptoms...

There are a few reasons why a canary could have leg or foot problems. Keep an eye out for common canary symptoms...

These symptoms will help you decide what might be bothering your little friend.

The most obvious thing to look for are...

Injuries.

- - - - -SIDE-NOTE- - - - -
The best thing when dealing with a sick or
injured bird is to see a vet but, of course, the
price may be prohibitive.

Below are offered a few problems along with
their home-treatments.
- - - - -SIDE-NOTE- - - - -

OK, what was I about to say?...Oh, yeah...

"Injuries"...

It's possible your canary has gotten his foot or nail hung up on something and hurt himself.  Look for bleeding, scrapes, broken bones, and missing nails.

For open wounds apply an antibiotic/pain reliever cream to aid healing and stave off infection.

Broken bones can be splinted. The following is an excerpt from Mathew M. Vriends book "The Canary Handbook" available at Amazon.com: Canaries.

"First disinfect the area of the fracture, then wrap a stiff bandage around it or make a splint using the insulation from a small segment of electrical wire. Straighten out the leg by carefully pulling a piece of thread tied to the foot. If the lower part of the leg is fractured, it is best to use a piece of electrical wire insulation or a quill splint about 1/2 inch long clasped to the fracture.  The splint is fastened with a small piece of plaster or wrapped with a cotton or wool yarn. Make sure that the fastening is not too tight or the circulation will be impaired.  A thigh fracture is treated in a similar manner."

Not everyone can stomach such an intricate operation but it must be done.  :-(

I once had a hen get her foot caught in the wiring of a breeding cage. 

By the time I found her she had broken the bone and ripped the skin away from the upper leg. Yikes! It was not a pretty site.  I had to amputate the leg at the point where the skin was still attached. 

She healed well and became a happy and health canary. :-)

Too Much Protein...

A diet rich in protein or fat will cause a canary to favor one foot.  The foot may appear red and warm. Cut out all high protein (eggs, egg food, fish meal) and high fat foods (flax or millet seed) for a week and see if the condition improves. Feed plenty of greens and high carbohydrate foods like dry oatmeal, and cooked brown rice.

See https://www.canaryadvisor.com/canary-food.html

There are some other things that are more difficult to diagnose or cure like...

Gout...

Gout is the build up urates in different parts of the body and can cause swelling and tenderness in the foot. Caused by too much or too little protein and lack of exercise.

Make sure your canary has plenty of room in his cage to flutter back and forth!

See https://www.canaryadvisor.com/canary-cage.html

Adjust the amount of high protein foods accordingly.

See https://www.canaryadvisor.com/canary-food.html

and Ornithosis...

Ornithosis is a terrible disease that is caused by the Chlamydia organism.  Pops up in unclean conditions and spreads to other birds rapidly.  Look for...

  • difficulty breathing

  • runny nose

  • diarrhea

  • listlessness

  • lameness

Keep your canary warm, treat with CanaryAdvisor.com's Big 3,
https://www.canaryadvisor.com/canary-illness.html , and hope for the best.

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Breeding:  Incubation and Hatching

Such a beautiful site...3 or 4 speckled blue eggs in a warm nest. :-)

Although your hen may sit on the nest quite a bit after laying her first egg, SERIOUS incubation won't start until she lays her final one.  This prevents the eggs from hatching on different days...sometimes an older sibling can cause problems.  I know it was true when I was a kid.  My older brothers used to torment me until...Oh wait a minute...this is about canaries not ME...;-)

Incubation typically lasts 13 or 14 days at which time all eggs should hatch.  If not...don't panic. :-o

It may take one or two more days for all eggs to hatch. 

Some serious breeders like to remove each egg as it is laid and set it in a warm safe place replacing it with a plastic egg.  When the last egg is laid all plastic eggs are removed and the real eggs are put back in the nest to begin incubation.  This helps to insure that all eggs hatch on the same day.

I've found this to be unnecessary.

Even if the eggs hatch a couple of days apart there will be little risk harm created by the older chicks.

Provide your hen with warm bathing water during incubation.  Extra dry conditions have been known to reduce hatch rates.

A bath every other day is about right.

Your male will feed the hen during incubation. Make sure to provide plenty of soft seed and healthy treats but no egg until...

The Twelfth Day.

Start providing egg on the twelfth day...the chicks are born HUNGRY!

See https://www.canaryadvisor.com/baby-canaries.html

and

https://www.canaryadvisor.com/breeding-canaries.html

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In the Next Issue of Canary Tips!...
1) Canary Treats: Store-bought. Low Maintenance...Yeah!
2) "It's a Beautiful Fall Day...Why Isn't My Canary Singing?"
3) Breeding:  Rearing Young.

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Written by Darren Walker
CanaryAdvisor.com
(c) copyright 2004
CanaryAdvisor.com
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