| Title: | Captive Breeding for Conservation--and FUN! |
| Notice: | INTROS 6.X / FOR SALE 13.X / Buying a Bird 900.* |
| Moderator: | VIDEO::PULSIFER |
| Created: | Mon Oct 10 1988 |
| Last Modified: | Tue Jun 03 1997 |
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Number of topics: | 942 |
| Total number of notes: | 6016 |
I have a few VERY basic questions about canaries. (I've had
parakeets in the past, but never had a canary.)
I saw a really pretty female canary last weekend in a local pet
shop. She was a typical canary color, but her primary feathers
were black. The effect was quite stunning.
The pet shop owner said that female canaries don't sing. Is this
true? Do they chirp? What noise, if any, do they make?
The shop was asking $50 for her. Is that a reasonable price,
especially if females don't sing? (Guess I'm used to parakeet
prices.)
My main concern in getting her is finding a spot where she can live
without being bothered by our 3 cats. After we got the cats, we
had to keep the keets in a room by themselves, which was a real
bother. If I got the canary, she'd be in a smaller cage, so I might
consider keeping her in our bedroom but keep the cats out. Thus,
5 a.m. singing might not be very welcome.
Any suggestions are welcome. (I've read the note on cats and birds.
2 of our cats are fine with birds; we trained them from kittenhood
that the birds are off-limits. The third cat was abandoned and
adopted us. Her diet was birds and mice for quite a while, so
training her to leave a canary alone is a fairly hopeless task.)
| T.R | Title | User | Personal Name | Date | Lines |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 180.1 | Go for it! | DELNI::G_KNIGHTING | Thinkingspeakingthinkingspeaking. | Thu May 25 1989 16:03 | 17 |
Female canaries don't sing, but they do chirp and twitter when
they're happy, and are quite pleasant to have around. Shouldn't
be a problem to keep her in the bedroom.
$50 for a female with unusual colors is about average for a
pet store. You might be able to do a little better at a breeder's
but if it's this particular bird you're after, then a few dollars may
not make that much difference.
You can, with patience, finger tame a canary, but beyond that
they're not much like keets. They don't chew things up like a keet
will, either. Also, FWIW, canaries are almost as messy as parakeets.
Good luck.
GK
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| 180.2 | Thanks. | PHOOKA::DARROW | Thu May 25 1989 16:42 | 10 | |
Thanks for the info. I'm not really interested in finger taming
her; with 3 indoor cats and 1 dog, that's just asking for disaster.
I mostly wanted to get her because she was so pretty and I really
miss having a bird around. Chirping and twittering is certainly
acceptable. Do they squawk like keets do? I found that to be the
keets' most obnoxious trait.
The fact that she might be as messy as a keet is discouraging.
But then, there would be one of her, and we had 3 keets!
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| 180.3 | Compared to parakeets, canaries are quiet! | DELNI::G_KNIGHTING | Thinkingspeakingthinkingspeaking. | Tue May 30 1989 13:21 | 14 |
Nope, they don't squawk. The most you'll hear out of a female
is a fairly long tweeeet, which seems to be either territorial or
an alarm sound -- they make it when a cat gets too close, for example.
One canary won't make nearly the mess that three parakeets make.
They do tend to waste their seed, but, again, not as much as a keet.
You can minimize the waste and mess by feeding her just a few
tablespoons of seed at a time and putting the seed in a fairly deep
container. Canaries drink more water than parakeets, so keep fresh
water on hand all the time. And be sure to give her the opportunity
to take a bath at least once a week. You can buy enclosed birdbaths
that attach to the side of the cage, or just put 1/2 inch of water
in a dish that fits through the cage door and set the dish on the floor
of the cage.
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