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 ISSN 1492-8132 Issue 113, © 2005 No reprints without permission 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! One customer told us, "Received the CD! Man can they sing! Hope our American Singer will sound half as good! Thank you." Learn more here! Robirda's customers find her answers to be detailed, reliable, caring and supportive. When you need help with housing, feeding, care or behavioral questions, Robirda can help you learn to understand your birds better! Learn more here.
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Canary Song CD; For a full list of all our products and services, visit our Products Page. - Products - Flock Talk - Birds Board - Articles - Basic Care - Breeding - Photographs - Canary Cam - Canary Book - Birdsong CD - Bird Cages - Accessories - Canary FAQs - Questions - Ask Robirda - Bird Links - Privacy Policy - Sponsorships - Site Map
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 For breeder or pet bird owners who care. Hello! Welcome to Flock Talk's 113th issue. Subscribe and unsubscribe information for the email version of this ezine is at the bottom of this webpage.
Table of Contents Our email version of Flock Talk has been having trouble being delivered to some of our readers due to its size, so we've changed the format to require less space in your inbox, and to allow everybody to read their choice of articles online. Our email version will now include only a brief description of each feature, along with a link to its place on this page. You can use those links to read the articles you're interested in, or you can use the navigation links in the Table of Contents (just below), to hop to the article you want to read, or you can simply scroll down the page to view all the articles. Below each article's title, you will find a small link that will bring you back to the Table of Contents. Table of Contents From now until the end of Feb, save 20% on all single standard cages! The folks at Bird & Cage aim to provide birdkeepers with a great selection of good quality cages and cage accessories for great prices and top-quality customer service. See for yourself, by visiting the new Best Sellers webpage! Breeding season is here, and you will want to see the new stackable large-size breeding cages, and order yours while they last! Then check out our list of some of the cage accessories Robirda uses and recommends. A recent customer comments, "Cage and feeders received, thanks. My Bourke parakeet, Ralph, loves the cage with its clean look and lots more room for him to move around in. And I love the simple but efficient cage design, especially with the big door in front. Thanks very much!" For a full selection of cages and cage accessories, visit BirdandCage.com. Table of Contents
You're probably wondering why on earth we'd be reviewing a chicken store in a pet bird ezine, yes? Well, this is no ordinary chicken store, by a l-o-n-g shot! This is the home site for a store run by the Florida Key West Rooster Rescue team, organized to gain support for the wild Key West Gypsy chickens. The website is run by the group's team captain, Katha Sheehan, whose caring touch can be seen in every detail. Find out more about this unique group and the unusual chickens they aim to protect, while enjoying every minute of your visit to the Chicken Store of Key West! Table of Contents Long-time Flock Talk readers may remember Rich, whose website was reviewed in Flock Talk's 49th issue, and who wrote the feature article on the Green Singing Finch in Flock Talk's 84th issue. Rich spends a great deal of time raising and showing his roller canaries, and his efforts have been winning him more recognition each year. We are pleased to say that he's back, this time with an article on just how he goes about song-training his lovely little feathered charmers, the roller canaries...
by Rich May For those of us who breed and show song canaries, song training the birds is the final step before having our birds evaluated by the judge. I raise and show German Roller canaries, and this is my method of song training. It seems like there are as many song training methods as there are breeders, everyone does what works best for them. Song training for me begins as soon as the birds are weaned. Once removed from the breeding cages the young birds are placed into flight cages according to family lines. Closely related birds such as brothers and half brothers are most likely to carry the same song pattern. Once you are able to discern the males from the females, the young hens are removed to another room away from the males. At this point I darken down the room where the young males are located so that the birds can still find the food and water containers. The purpose of dimming the lights is to keep the young males from fighting and bickering, they spend the days trying out their voices. They remain housed in this manner until late fall when the serious training begins. Any young males uttering faulty or high pitched notes need to be immediately removed from hearing range of the young males so they don't start copying those notes. One month before the show I place the birds in song cages and place them in the cabinets. Since I only have three cabinets, I also place the birds in the song cages in a bookcase with a curtain over the front. For the first three days the doors of the cabinets remain open and the curtain on the bookcase remains up so that the birds get used to the cages and where the food and water is located. After three days, the lighting is dimmed, and the doors to the cabinets are closed, and the curtain on the bookcase is dropped down. I open the doors and lift the curtain for an hour each morning which gives the birds time to eat and drink. Each evening when I get home from work I turn up the lights, remove one team at a time, remove the food and water, clean the trays, and stack the birds for twenty minutes like they will be in competition. The birds quickly learn that being brought into the light is the time to sing. The two dominant singing birds are placed in the top and bottom positions, the two middle birds learn to quickly follow their lead. During the training process I feed the birds a seed mix of 80% rape and 20% canary seed. Each day after the training session they receive a finger treat cup of a mix of petamine, bee pollen granules, and sunflower seed chips. Once a week I give them a slice of apple. If the birds start forcing the song the treat cup mix is cut out. I've heard it said to feed straight rape seed to birds in training to enhance the song, in fact it actually retards the development of the song. Although a seed mix of 80% rape and 20% canary seems like you are feeding too much fat, it also presumes that the birds are eating every seed in the seed cup. I fill the glass seed cups to the brim each day, and the birds only seem to eat about a third of the cup. The birds themselves seem to balance out the amount of each seed they eat, they aren't eating all rape seed, and they do seem to pick out most of the canary seed. Eating too much canary seed causes the birds to push the song hard and fast. The rape seed slows this process down. What are the long term effects of feeding this diet to the show birds during training? I don't keep all my show birds - I usually keep three or four to breed, and sell the rest once the show season is finished. I am happy to say I still have and breed each of the original males, and the following offspring I showed the next seasons. If this diet was fed year around there might be nutrition problems that develop, but for the short term that the birds are in the show cages I haven't noticed any problems. by Rich May
See pictures of Rich's rollers in their training cabinets and show cages! Table of Contents
This 124 page novel is a wonderful experience for any bird-lover! It's a fictional tale of a real rooster, known as Red Rover, a Key West Gypsy chicken. This tale of lust, rivalry, and the coming of Chicken Age is variously warm, funny, sad, inspiring, and heart-warming, and is an unusual book that is definitely not to be missed by anybody who loves birds. ***Do you know of a great bird product? Why not review it for Flock Talk readers? We will be reviewing foods, cages & cage accessories, toys, and other bird items, in upcoming issues. To arrange for a review, send us your inquiry and a brief description of the product(s) here, with the subject line 'Product Reviews'
Table of Contents 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. Read testimonials or find more details on sponsorships. If you're looking for something different, check our home page for links to all our great products and services!
Our next issue is due Feb 13th. We hope you and your birds stay safe, well and happy in the meantime, and we look forward to seeing you all then!
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