Canary Seed.
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Seed as Canary Food
Your pet is easy to feed. What kind of canary food does he
like?...Canaries eat seed from the Canary Grass plant but...
They eat other kinds of bird seed too...seed specially mixed for their natural diet. Some of the seed that is used for a good mixture of canary food are...
--Rape--Flax
--Linseed
--Hemp
--Maw
--Thistle
--Millet
and yes, seed from the Canary Grass plant...
--Canary SeedThe mixtures are done in different ways. Mankind has discovered ways to get your canary as many nutrients as possible while cutting down on the amount of work involved...We humans are good at that.
As a result you end up with 3 basic catagories of mixtures...
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Standard mixture
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A vitamin enriched mixture, and
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Mixtures that have dried fruits and vegetables plus pellets mixed in with the seed...my favorite.-->Oh...and my canary's favorite too.
First let's talk about...
Standard Canary Seed Mixture
A good standard mixture is easy to find at any good pet store. Even your local Walmart will have a basic mixture that will be fine for your canary.
This species-specific daily feeding
formula may be fed as-is or manually mixed with fresh fruits, nuts, and
greens for variety. SIDE NOTE: However, even the best "standard" seed mixes for
canaries may be short on vitamins A, B, C, and D. Supplement your
canary's diet with vitamins and plenty of healthy treats for a happy
healthy pet. Or...you have another choice...
Even though "canary seed" is a specific variety of plant seed I will be
referring to any mixture of seed intended for canaries as "canary seed".
Vitamin Enriched Seed
If you use a mixture with the vitamin coated canary
seed I still suggest you add vitamin supplements to your canary's
water a at least once a week. This will help insure that he is
getting all the vitamins he needs from his "caged" diet. I prefer to use a water soluble vitamin like
Vita Flight. It has 13 essential vitamins in fruit flavored
powder. Just add to drinking water once or twice a week to insure optimal
canary health. Regular use of vitamins can contribute to a
healthy energetic bird that is more resistant to disease.
With bird seed as a staple for your bird you will need
to offer supplemental foods on a regular basis...most importantly
greens (such as broccoli and sprouts) and egg biscuits for
protein. Discover canary treats that are good for your pet bird
and what foods can kill him
...CLICK HERE.
Providing vitamin coated canary seed plus a
vitamin supplement in his water or canary food, and treats on
the side is a great way to go... ...you know you're providing a good nutritional
foundation with the vitamin coated seed and supplements,
and the "snack" foods will be a welcome change in his diet.
Give him plenty of variety in his foods to keep him healthy and
in good spirits. ***Low Maintenance Tip*** ...Pellets--The Low Maintenance Canary Food.
If you are really interested in keeping this as low maintenance
as possible try...
Pellets are a manufactured canary food similar to the
manufactured Dog Chow or Cat Chow. You can consider pellets "Canary
Chow".
...variety is the spice of a canary's life. Give him a healthy snack now and then in addition to his normal canary food so he doesn't get too bored.
If you want to use pellets and your canary has been eating seed up until now you'll want to gradually change over. Give his digestive system time to get used to the new diet.
Start with a small amount of pellets mixed in with his canary seed and gradually give a little more each day over about a week. Watch your canary closely to see if he is partaking of the pellets. He may not recognize them as canary food right away and if you stop giving seed he could starve himself to death.
If your pet bird shows no interest in the pellets try splashing a small amount lightly with some apple juice to coax them into trying a taste. Discard these "apple juice pellets" after about 12 hours. Who knows what kind of nasties grow on warm moist apple juice!
Once you have him switched over you can continue mixing the pellets with his seed or...
As long as you've got all that canary seed left over plant it in a container for growing canary grass...Keep it moist and warm, with plenty of light and in a couple weeks whack off the top inch or so and feed that to your bird. He'll love it and he'll love you for it!
Soaking or boiling your seed is a pleasurable treat that canaries love. See Soft Seed.
More helpful tips on canary seed and other foods are at your finger tips with Canary Tips! E-zine.
Canary Tips! is full of usable value-packed information that will keep your canary SINGING!
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The Canary Seed DishFor your pet birds seed you can use the standard seed dish. You'll want to place it near the bottom of the cage so spilled seed lands on his floor rather than yours...the higher up the dish the more seed will exit the cage. Don’t put it under a perch though...guess what ends up underneath the perches...
...that's right, a pile of bird crap!
Your canary doesn't want crap in his canary seed or water but unfortunately he's not smart enough to go in the corner. Instinct tells him to crap wherever and whenever he likes...
...Must be nice.
The best seed dish is wide and shallow.
For best results it should be filled every day with one day’s ration of seed. This is the high maintenance method.
You can put several days’ worth of seed in a deep dish but what happens is...
As your canary eats he hulls his seeds, the hulls fall back into the dish and cover up the seed. Now your pet bird is wondering where all the seed went...its covered in hulls!
You'll either want to use a wide shallow dish and put a days ration or two of canary seed in it every day or...if you use a deep dish you'll want to carry the dish outside and gently blow the hulls off the top of the canary seed every day. You won't have to add any seed for several days but you'll want to keep those hulls off the top.
If your canary can't see the seed for the hulls he'll scratch around inside the dish scattering seed and hulls everywhere...Now you've got a mess to clean up! OK, OK its not as bad as it sounds but he can get pretty messy.
One way to cut way down on scattering of canary seed and other foods is to use an enclosed feeder . It helps prevent your canary from scattering canary food to the outside of the cage.
Another way to prevent canary seed from escaping the cage is to use a seed guard. A canary seed guard wraps around the bottom of the cage and creates a curtain of sorts. Very useful.
Between the enclosed feeder and the canary seed guard
things should stay pretty clean.
***Low Maintenance Tip***
Use enclosed feeders. I love these. They really cut down on
cleaning and feeding time. The bigger the better as far as I'm
concerned. Try to find one with a large mouth or bowl at the bottom.
You can even use a standard glass watering tube
if you want. Just put canary seed in it instead of water. Presto...an
automatic feeder! Just make sure you blow the empty hulls off the
top of the canary seed often.Also make sure the extra seed is feeding through the outlet.
***Low Maintenance Tip***
Another great alternatives to the plain old plastic seed dish is stainless steel. Stainless steel is easy to clean and will not absorb bacteria like plastic might.
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